Cross De Sign, I have zoomed in on the text of the same pages you show. From the river of gold book.
Look closely at the sources of the ... uh ... stimulating stories and claims the author tells. And ask yourself if "more plausible explanations" could be a play. eg.: Some dude is walking along the road and talks to a rancher. The rancher tells him of "boulder sized nuggets" that so & so got from such & such mountain. As attested to "... by their great great grandfather".
I have been into this for over 40 yrs. now. And if I had a dime for every doozie I've heard, I'd be rich. Ya know, like: You're at a company Christmas party. Someone at the water cooler finds out your into md'ing. So they launch into a story of how they know of a "cache buried at such & such ranch". Or a "cave with skeletons in it". Or the probable location of a lost mine, etc.... And... sure,... they all sound so compelling.
One time, a trusted friend from church and I were talking. The subject of md'ing came up. He started spinning the tale of how he knew of a cave where a skeleton was found, in a SUIT OF SPANISH ARMOR ! Wow. And that you needed ropes to rappel down inside. And no one knows where it's at except a select few (including him). And that it's a 2 hr. drive to the middle of nowhere. Blah blah blah. I was spell-bound !
We hatched the plan to go there together, as soon as our schedules would allow. I'd bring the detectors and know how, and he'd show me the spot. In the days that followed, I began to do a little google searching on some of the details of his story. Turns out it was simply the story contained in a fanciful book of "ghost story" type legends sold in local tourist trap shops. Where the author weaves true historical facts, into colorful "what if?" type treasure speculations. The kind of stuff you buy for your grade school kids to read.
And the particular "cave with skeleton in armor" story was along this lines: When Hwy. 1 went through in the 1930s, along the rugged Big Sur coast, a worker died in an accident during construction. His fellow workers paid their last respects, and lowered his body down into a cave that ... happen-chance, was at that section of the road-building effort. And this cave had also been the site of pre-contact (pre European) indian burial cave site. Thus there were , of course, other human bones down @ the bottom.
Fast forward 25 or 30 yrs. later (late 1950s? early 1960s?), some people were exploring this cave. Found the indian burial bones. And ... wow ... in with those remains were the remains of a white man ! With western clothing evidence. That made the newspapers of the day. Before long, the "western clothing" was morphed into "suit of armor". Speculation grew wild, since this was a corridor of travel from Mission San Antonio to the coast. And since it's historical that that particular mission did try their hand at gold in those hills (albeit unproductive commercially or viably , truth-be-told). And before long, now "treasure" is in the wild rumors following the newspaper account .
But as said, all it was , was a pre-history burial cave , where an unfortunate worker from the 1930s had also been laid. NO TREASURE. But once a rumor and story like this gets into popular lore, it's impossible to put to rest. The author of this local legends book "Randy Reinstedt" just collected a bunch of stories like this, all based in actual historical dates, names, events, etc.... I spoke to Randy personally, and he acknowledged the background of that particular story.
BUT DO YOU SEE from this example, how all such things you "hear from a rancher" are not necessarily "proofs of treasure" ? The friend from church at the water cooler WAS A SMART GUY ! He was quite sincere. I mean, after all, he "read it in a book" . And after all, the book contained faded clippings from newspapers of the day. It contained real names, events, dates, etc... The skeletons and mission travel route existed. So ... WHO'S TO DOUBT THERE'S A TREASURE THERE ? But as you see, there's no treasure.
So too do I have a suspicion on this River of Gold book . I'm sure the author is sincere. I'm sure there's helpful stuff about where, in the world, that naturally occurring gold is bound to be found. But when it comes to the legend and cache and lost mine stuff: That all relies on "he said she said". And ... as you well know, when it comes to "treasure stories" , all skepticism and critical thinking is put aside. It's only natural to believe, "lest you be left out".
So look closely at that author's sources, and ask yourself: "says who?" and "could there be more plausible explanations?"
