Cave hideout in or near Avila Beach

[tapoutking]

Anyone have any more info on this? Or has anyone ever gone looking for it?

 

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[ghostdog]

Hey Tap, Frank Fish beat you to it by about 40 years.In his book he gives a fairly good description,location may be on protected state lands as I recall, means park rangers,etc,still maybe hidden caches in the area.

 

[desertfox]

Hey, Tap, if your talking about the one near San Luis Obispo CA. Its been hunted by so many locals you couldn't even begain to shake a stick at them. I know I was one of them for many years. The only thing one finds there now is a sun bather now and again as its now a Nude Beach and has been for the past 25 or more years. I did find someone's cashe once though. A six pack of beer buried in the sand that they forgot to take with them when they left! LOL If you go, Happy Hunting!

Desertfox

 

[tapoutking]

LOL! Awsome well, then the scenery shouldn;t be all that bad then... Although, I do alot of fishing in the area so maybe I can explore a little and see if I can at least find the cave.

 

[dannyg]

hey TOK i live literally down the street from avila bandits hideout or where it was, i actually spent roughly 3 years on and off heading to the south side of whats now known as pirates cove at the end of the beach there is an obvious small cave a strange Z shaped rock formation and the cliff walls jet out forming the next little cove to a private beach about 200 feet long. it wasnt until 2013 that i learned of the avila bandit and after spending so much time there here are my theories; first the cave has long since eroded and fallen into the ocean burying the horde either under a cliff that used to have a cave at the bottom, if this happened the horde would have most likely come loose of whatever it was held in and been spread by constant waves and erosion, if this is the case its in a pile buried in a cliff or spread out from a cliff wall in the path the tide would have taken the material, second is that the bandit didnt hide his stash in the pirates cove beach cave like most people think, that possibly there was in the past another cave on either side north or south of pirates cove where he hid his stash however avila beach is right around the cove to the north and the possibility remains much higher that this horde is hidden somewhere in the cliffs to the south of pirates cove, the current target area is just too heavily trafficked for something to go unnoticed for so long with all the college kids and locals and former treasure hunters there are always people metal detecting at these local hotspot hangout beaches the beach is probably 40 feet deep and 400-500 feet wide and its a nude beach so people really spread out into the nooks and crannys for privacy, i just cant see it being there without being found by now after 5 years of living so close and decades of it being hidden there, although this story got me started in all this treasure hunting ive been looking into more central coast lost treasure stories, cant find too much on the central coast though, any thoughts or opinions on where i can find more information on my area(san luis obispo county, Pismo Beach. thanks all and good hunting *Danny*

 

[dannyg]

Anyone have any more info on this? Or has anyone ever gone looking for it?

hey TOK i live literally down the street from avila bandits hideout or where it was, i actually spent roughly 3 years on and off heading to the south side of whats now known as pirates cove at the end of the beach there is an obvious small cave a strange Z shaped rock formation and the cliff walls jet out forming the next little cove to a private beach about 200 feet long. it wasnt until 2013 that i learned of the avila bandit and after spending so much time there here are my theories; first the cave has long since eroded and fallen into the ocean burying the horde either under a cliff that used to have a cave at the bottom, if this happened the horde would have most likely come loose of whatever it was held in and been spread by constant waves and erosion, if this is the case its in a pile buried in a cliff or spread out from a cliff wall in the path the tide would have taken the material, second is that the bandit didnt hide his stash in the pirates cove beach cave like most people think, that possibly there was in the past another cave on either side north or south of pirates cove where he hid his stash however avila beach is right around the cove to the north and the possibility remains much higher that this horde is hidden somewhere in the cliffs to the south of pirates cove, the current target area is just too heavily trafficked for something to go unnoticed for so long with all the college kids and locals and former treasure hunters there are always people metal detecting at these local hotspot hangout beaches the beach is probably 40 feet deep and 400-500 feet wide and its a nude beach so people really spread out into the nooks and crannys for privacy, i just cant see it being there without being found by now after 5 years of living so close and decades of it being hidden there, although this story got me started in all this treasure hunting ive been looking into more central coast lost treasure stories, cant find too much on the central coast though, any thoughts or opinions on where i can find more information on my area(san luis obispo county, Pismo Beach. thanks all and good hunting *Danny*

Just thought to add that the area leading down to pirates cove might have been a landing point for the famous Capt. Drake and theres a treasure stash not too far away on land..ill look into it more tho

 

[HappyTrails55]

ghostdog has it Right, Frank Fish FOUND IT.....around 1948...BUT, if I was to be inclined to search anywhere for Treasure and such on the Coast Beaches or that vicinity, I would rely on the HISTORY* and do DILIGENT RESEARCH FIRST. 80 to 85 per cent of the finding is RESEARCH. Now, the Spanish had California (or Upper Baja) in their Control since the Time of Cortez and then lost it to the Mexicans in the 1820's. The Spanish Ships (even Galleons) plied the Coastal Waters for alot of different reasons for around 250 years or so and they would stop every once in a while for Explorations and to Re-Supply for the Basics. Just because there isn't a written Record that is available for us to read, doesn't mean it ain't so. There's Archives in Mexico and Spain that have barely been touched by the Scholars. But there is certain records to this day one can find that state that the "JESUITS" (BLACK ROBE) have ventured into the Wilds of Old California long before Juan de Anza left Tubac Arizona. When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the Franciscans came into power and many of the Franciscans were once Jesuits. The Spanish would kind of like Inherit alot of Indian Culture Trade Secrets over the years of their Conquest that could have been used for stashing Treasures and Sealing Mines, etc..The Main Bible for Mining "Re De METALLICA" written by a Jesuit Monk in the 1550's, was the Main source for how the Spanish culture would mine anything....The Spanish used Rocks, Boulders, Clusters of them, Mountain Sides etc., to Build and Construct and Carv Spanish Monuments...and then there was the Art of "INDIAN MARKER TREES" and there's lot's of them all over California and the American West, besides as well as back east Indian Marker Trees | susan sink ....they are in the mountains of La Panza as well as other Los Padres Forested Areas, the Santa Lucias, on Cattle Ranches and other Private Properties. I would say that MOST PEOPLE or about 99.9 per cent HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE, hee,hee, yet most people have seen them. That's Your TIP For the Day Danny......Darrell, Good Luck

 

[dannyg]

HT- darrel thanks for the tip do you know of any of these marker trees or boulder mounds in the 5 cities area stretching up to slo most of my time exploring has been spent between montana de oro south to the nipomo mesa east to the corbett and carpenter canyons out stretching into the los padres toward pozo but never that far. Any info on areas to explore or old historical settlements would be so appreciated. Im currently looking for old maps to mission de tolosa properties in san luis and how they marked property lines so i can possibly find the old silver mine boy thatd be nice!!

 

[BosnMate]

I see this thread started in 2008, with the last post about 5 months ago, so I don't know if this will be of any help or not. I was raised in San Luis Obispo, and it wasn't Pirates Cove until after WWII and the college kids started going there. Before that it was Cave Landing, and when I was a kid the rings were still in the rock where Spanish hides were loaded to take out to ships. To find out about the hide trade, read "Two Years Before the Mast" by Dana. During prohibition that landing saw use also. In the '30's there was a Japanese farmer that had a house where people now park their cars, and he farmed that bench land above the bluffs, probably to peas. I remember pea fields all the way to Oceanio even when I was a kid in high school. My brother picked peas for one day, where that large Inn is now located at Oceanio. When WWII started, the Japanese family was sent to a camp and never returned. Their empty house was there for a long time. We went on a picnic to Cave Landing in probably 1948 or '49, and the gutted house was still there. I was old enough that I had brought my .22 rifle along, so my guess is 11 or 12. At that time the cave or tunnel that was on the south west edge of the bluff, which was below the house and what is now the parking lot, and for which Cave Landing is named (I think) is or was more like a large tunnel, open on both ends, and the floor of that cave had been thoroughly dug out, with large holes. I haven't been there for a long time, but if I remember correctly, the last time I was there, most of the dirt had been removed from that cave. Directly below that tunnel is another cave that is in the tide zone, and at high tide swells really pound into that cave, and just watching the water action, it appears to be rather deep. Anyhow the large holes in the tunnel floor was no doubt left by Frank Fish if he found the treasure there. We also used to go out to Pozo, in fact to La Panza, which I think is Forest Service land. It's been a long time, and my directions to the location would be impossible now, but we would go out there on picnic's and deer hunting. If you drive through Pozo, go over the hills, like you were planning to go to Navajo Camp. Over the hill, turn left off the paved road, and drive up the canyon towards Navajo Camp, and probably about halfway to that camp ground, there was a cluster of ghost buildings just off the road to the right. I can't give you directions worth a hoot now, and during the 60's the Forest Service removed them so the hippies wouldn't move in. This was a gold mining camp, and we actually panned a little color out of that creek. We found a large old sluice box, and dad took it apart and did pretty good on that pan full of dirt. In the 50's, just before you got to the location of the buildings, on the right hand side of the road there was a pond, where the fire trucks could take on water, it was a dug tank they pushed in there, and just beyond that on the right hand side, across a grassy flat up against the hills was where the buildings were. Beyond that, along the creek there were also some very small stone, roofless buildings, just room enough for a couple of guys to sleep in. My dad figured Chinese miners lived in them. Anyhow, there is a little gold there, and I've never been to American Canyon, but they say there was a lot of gold mined there. If you guys are still around, I hope this helps.

 

[dannyg]

Hey BM thanks for the info I do live very local and frequent the coastal cliffs and caves often but more info on cave landing and pirates cove I found it to be named mallagh landing when it was first built and it was the very first port in san luis bay its marked mallagh landing on our local librarys big maps anyways and I've been wanting to head out to la panza for a few months now it looks like I'll finally have a chance to go here soon too.

 

[dannyg]

Well bosnmate you've sold me I'm stuck on pirates cove and LA Panza right now here are those rings at pirates I have metal detected about half of the point the ocean facing side and I did half the beach today

 

[dannyg]

Another site to see there at pirates cove is this super old staircase carved out of rock on that same southwest point about 30-40 feet from the mouth of the cave.