SDCFIA,
In just wondering about possibilities, I called the masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces. One has never HAD to be a Mason to be buried there. Just that if you are a Mason, your funeral is free. Doc was never known to have been a Mason, and judging from his behaviour, I doubt the masons would have wanted him as a member (unless they believed his story).
Since we have nothing solid as to the origins of The Caballo Treasure, I don't completely discount the possibility of a Templar Origin.
For me to give a theory some weight, I need to go on that tangent. So, lets go down that road for a moment:
When Philip IV had the Templars arrested in 1307 on Lucky Friday 13th, he didn't find the wealth that he knew they possessed (after all, he had borrowed heavily from them). Nobody knows where it went.
It was known that the Jesuits made entradas into Franciscan territories. The Franciscans made mention of it several times. So, lets say the Jesuits were looking for something. We don't know if they had a map and were looking for a marker, or if they had nothing but a story and were searching from scratch. Where could the Jesuits have gotten their map/information from? Well, the Jesuits were the Fathers Confessors of most of the members of the Royal families of Europe. Since it was Philip IV of France that had the Templars arrested and tortured, it is very possible that one of them had a map (or told a story) under torture about their treasure. The map/story may have been passed along until Father Charles LaRue came along in the early/mid1700s. Being a famous person (one of the greatest orators of the day and a Jesuit Priest), someone may have used the map/story to ingratiate themselves to him (or used the map/story as a means to get their child into a Jesuit School or Priesthood). LaRue may have passed the map/story along to Rome. From there, they may have sent different entradas to try and find the Templar Treasure under the guise of converting heathen Indians. As we all know how wild stories can get over many retellings, maybe the original story is that Father LaRue obtained the map/story from someone in the French Royal Family and it showed where a treasure was hidden, and it snowballed into Padre LaRue leading his flock into the Organs and mining tons of gold before being caught and killed by the Church.
Its just as plausible as anything else without any documentation.
Mike