Treasure Mountain, CO - Lost Frenchmens Gold

[sdcfia]

The events of the second book took place from 1844-1848. At that time, fifty descendants of the Lebreau Expedition decided to search for the cache of Treasure Mountain. They used maps and notes of the expedition that Lebreau had authored. They traced the route that their grandfathers used, and they split their party, when they were close to Taos, so that the true size of their party would be unknown. At Taos, they hired a guide to take them into the mountains to the north and they let the word spread that they would be trapping. The guide was recommended to them by relatives of Spanish who had befriended the Frenchmen of the first expedition. They spent the next three years searching for the locations of two caches. The search involved looking for multiple clues as well as deciphering written instructions from Lebreau. The clues included symbols carved on trees and rocks and fake graves. They eventually found the caches, one was buried by an outcropping and the other was buried below the surface of a small pond their grandfathers had created by building a small dike to block the outflow of the original pond. They found all the gold and made preparations to leave the area and go to St. Louis by way of the Santa Fe Trail. Just as they were leaving the valley, their rear guard was attacked by the men of Diego Archuleta, a rancher who suspected the Frenchmen were looking for gold left by the previous expedition. The Frenchmen managed to thwart the attack but lost 15 men and a number of horses and pack animals. To continue their journey, the French had to cache 1000 pounds of gold bars so they could replace the horses they lost with pack animals. They eventually made it to St. Louis and returned to their homes, some in Canada and some in France. Their guide and confident, who helped them conceal their mission, returned to New Mexico. The rancher, Archuleta, had murder charges filed against the guide and had them dropped when the guide told him the location of the main camp.

If this is true, then the Treasure Mountain cache is a moot point, having already been recovered. Question: did Adams say that the 1,000-pound cache hidden on the way out was only a short-time temporary thing, or was it implied that it was left behind and still remains hidden?

 

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[Randy Bradford]

Thanks for the clarification mdog. I ordered the first book last night and am looking forward to getting Adams' details straight. That always helps. I'm especially interested in what Adams claims as his source information.

I used to be quite skeptical about the Treasure Mountain story, but the more I learn about it, the more I think it may be a real deal. Notwithstanding five years worth of recovering placer gold from virgin streams in mineral country, I also wonder if LeBreau's operation may have something to do with any of the other San Luis Valley-Spanish Peaks legends.

I'm quite sure it does...it's also why I have faith there is treasure left...because it was likely stashed in more than one location. But I absolutely believe LeBreau's stash is connected to another well known Colorado treasure legend...the LUE.

 

[cactusjumper]

I sure miss Colorado.......Big understatement!



Joe Ribaudo

 

[sdcfia]

I'm quite sure it does...it's also why I have faith there is treasure left...because it was likely stashed in more than one location. But I absolutely believe LeBreau's stash is connected to another well known Colorado treasure legend...the LUE.

But how can you be sure that the 1,000 pounds were not recovered? Otherwise, the LeBreau party may likely not have returned to their homes - as far away as France. Wouldn't they have waited an appropriate amount of time and retrieved the cache? That's $17,000,000 in today's money - tough to turn your back on, I would guess. Maybe mdog has more info from book 2.

The LUE. I knew it was coming. Are you implying that the LUE map may be French in origin? Most folks believe von Mueller's claim that it was "Spanish treasure." Since I don't revere von Mueller as much as a lotta folks, I guess you can't rule out a French connection.

 

[sdcfia]

I sure miss Colorado.......Big understatement!



Joe Ribaudo

Yeah, I'd probably still be there except for one thing - winter.

 

[Beans]

Interesting thread. I lived in Del Norte and South Fork early 60s as a Kid. Sure wish I could pass on some info to you guys. Last visit was last year, just passed thru. Tried to find were my Gparents lived but it must have been torn down. I just received a book called "Mt. Lookout" "Where you can see for two days..." by Ruth Marie Colville. History of Del Norte. Did a quick scan for any mention of Treasure Mt. did not find any thing. Copyright is 1995. I will read it and let you all know if there is any mention of any treasure.

 

[mdog]

But how can you be sure that the 1,000 pounds were not recovered? Otherwise, the LeBreau party may likely not have returned to their homes - as far away as France. Wouldn't they have waited an appropriate amount of time and retrieved the cache? That's $17,000,000 in today's money - tough to turn your back on, I would guess. Maybe mdog has more info from book 2.

The LUE. I knew it was coming. Are you implying that the LUE map may be French in origin? Most folks believe von Mueller's claim that it was "Spanish treasure." Since I don't revere von Mueller as much as a lotta folks, I guess you can't rule out a French connection.

The story about the 1,000 pounds left behind might be in book 3. Adams did comment in book 2 that the rancher
who attacked the Frenchmen, Diego Archuleta, spent the rest of his life looking for something that wasn't there.
I just received book 3 today. Archuleta would have been looking close to the main camp, where the area was
saturated with tree and rock carvings and empty graves.

Here's a note from Chapter 10 in book 2.

In the late 1800's, three men were caught in a "white-out" snow storm in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains,
on their way to Westcliffe to work in the gold mines. Crawling into a small cave, they found 25 bars of gold.
Taking five bars, they finally stumbled into Westcliffe, nearly frozen to death. The men nor their families, have
ever found the remaining treasure. Twenty bars still remain in the mountains.

Mdog here. According to Adams, in his second book, as the French dug up the gold from the two caches, they
transported it to the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and hid it in a cave near Music Pass. This was the
cave where they left 25 bars of gold and sealed the cave entrance with rocks.

The part about the three guys seems kinda like one of the stories Steve has written about. The cave was deep
enough to shelter them from the storm and Westcliffe was 12 miles away. Why didn't they leave one guy at the
cave and send the other two to Westcliffe for pack animals. Also, Adams said the Frenchmen sealed the cave
with rocks. Something else, the area of the cave must have been close to Marble Mountain, the site of another
treasure legend. The Caves

 

[sdcfia]

The story about the 1,000 pounds left behind might be in book 3. Adams did comment in book 2 that the rancher
who attacked the Frenchmen, Diego Archuleta, spent the rest of his life looking for something that wasn't there.
I just received book 3 today. Archuleta would have been looking close to the main camp, where the area was
saturated with tree and rock carvings and empty graves.

Here's a note from Chapter 10 in book 2.

In the late 1800's, three men were caught in a "white-out" snow storm in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains,
on their way to Westcliffe to work in the gold mines. Crawling into a small cave, they found 25 bars of gold.
Taking five bars, they finally stumbled into Westcliffe, nearly frozen to death. The men nor their families, have
ever found the remaining treasure. Twenty bars still remain in the mountains.

Mdog here. According to Adams, in his second book, as the French dug up the gold from the two caches, they
transported it to the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and hid it in a cave near Music Pass. This was the
cave where they left 25 bars of gold and sealed the cave entrance with rocks.

The part about the three guys seems kinda like one of the stories Steve has written about. The cave was deep
enough to shelter them from the storm and Westcliffe was 12 miles away. Why didn't they leave one guy at the
cave and send the other two to Westcliffe for pack animals. Also, Adams said the Frenchmen sealed the cave
with rocks. Something else, the area of the cave must have been close to Marble Mountain, the site of another
treasure legend. The Caves

That cave is the one that had a very badly weathered Maltese cross painted/chiseled near the opening. Interesting.

http://www.geocities.ws/kriticle/Clist/colorado-gld.txt

 

[lastleg]

I wonder how much midnight oil Xanthus Carson used dreaming up this yarn. Anyone familiar with Colorado
mining history and the geology of the area is getting a chuckle out this remake. A support group has been
founded to aid victims of yarnology.

 

[mdog]

I wonder how much midnight oil Xanthus Carson used dreaming up this yarn. Anyone familiar with Colorado
mining history and the geology of the area is getting a chuckle out this remake. A support group has been
founded to aid victims of yarnology.

I don't know about Mr. Carson but Maynard Adams left extensive notes about the French expedition in his Citadel Mountain books. I
intend to start at the beginning of his story and, at least, confirm the expedition of Captain Louis de Villemont. There's an author named
Abraham Phineas Nasatir who wrote a book titled Before Lewis and Clark Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785-1804.
He includes information about Villemont. There are parts of the book on the internet but I can't copy and paste. I'll see if I can link it.

https://books.google.com/books?id=y...q=don luis vilemont upper mississippi&f=false

On page 683, Villemont mentions gold on the Arkansas River in a letter to Talleyrand, but I still would like to see more evidence of his expedition.
Maynard Adams had this book in his reference notes.

 

[diggingthe1]

I loved this story when I lived in Alamosa. I took a few hikes towards music pass. Its incredibly wild and remote. There is a wonderful ghost town on the north side of the sand dunes. On the west side there is a spring north of Del Norte. Its a good spot for plume agate. It has remains of very old foundation nearby. That Valley is a treasure with the Spanish trail on each side. I heard the author speak in Saguache mostly what I got is that his family was looking for it more north of Del Norte. This turned me away from it because the books say the gold was stashed on the East side. If the story is a hoax it sure was a fun one for me to dream about. I haven't jumped in that spring but this thread starts me thinking about it again

 

[lastleg]

Isn't there an ancient trail just east of Del Norte crossing the present highway? Years ago I was
told it was a Spanish route to California. Anyway I always looked for it going toward Southfork
and bye gum I thought I could see it.

 

[Beans]

Interesting thread. I lived in Del Norte and South Fork early 60s as a Kid. Sure wish I could pass on some info to you guys. Last visit was last year, just passed thru. Tried to find were my Gparents lived but it must have been torn down. I just received a book called "Mt. Lookout" "Where you can see for two days..." by Ruth Marie Colville. History of Del Norte. Did a quick scan for any mention of Treasure Mt. did not find any thing. Copyright is 1995. I will read it and let you all know if there is any mention of any treasure.

Finished the book. Very detailed account of Del Norte. No mention of lost gold or of the names mentioned in this thread. Although there seemed to had been a lot of gold and silver in and around the area.

 

[mdog]

Here's a map that shows Spanish territory in the west about 1807. Click on the map and you can zoom in or out. It shows
a corrected route of the Pike Expedition. It shows Pikes Fort and where he was arrested by the Spanish. Pike's fort is about
55 miles ESE of Treasure Mountain.

https://www.loc.gov/item/99446138

Here's a modern map that shows Pike's expedition and how his route compares with the tracks of the Villemont and Lebreau expeditions, as described by Maynard Adams.

 

[mdog]

Villemont came in from the north along the South Platte River and went south to Santa Fe. Lebreau came in from
the south and the survivors of the massacre followed the Arkansas River to the east.

Just a note, I've spent a lot of time looking for evidence of the Villemont expedition and I still haven't had any luck.
I believe my research skills are too elementary to dig as deep as what is required. I'll keep plugging away and post
anything I find.

 

[lastleg]

mdog, you may want to check out "Great River" by Paul Horgan for Zebulon Pikes encounter with the
Spanish regime at Santa Fe. There was a white man there but he was a Kentuckian, not a Frenchman.

 

[mdog]

mdog, you may want to check out "Great River" by Paul Horgan for Zebulon Pikes encounter with the
Spanish regime at Santa Fe. There was a white man there but he was a Kentuckian, not a Frenchman.

Thanks, Lastleg. ECS has a post in my KGC thread that mentions James Purcell, a guy that Pike met in Santa Fe. Purcell was supposed to have found gold somewhere close to Fairplay, Colorado.

 

[mdog]

This is also known as the LeBlanc Treasure, Treasure of Citadel Mountain, and who knows what else, lol. A 'deposit' was identified while France owned that part of Colorado. Then, after some of that 'Treaty Stuff', Spain ended up owning it. Plenty of French Patriotism left over, as well as thoughts about the 'deposit'. A party of Frenchmen came in (from Quebec and St. Louis) to 'mine' the 'deposit', secretly. Then, the usual Treasure Tale stuff of running from Indians, etc. This also gets tied up with the Treasure of Round Mountain (there is also a Round Hill to the east, in the SLV, that might have gotten confused in.

Two books written on it by Maynard Cornett Adams are, Citadel Mountain and Citadel Mountain II (1844-1848). There was supposed to be a third published (but I don't know if it ever did), titled, Citadel Mountain III (1885-1920's).

Christopher O'Brien, whom you are quoting, claims that he was approached by a guy he calls Tito Ortiz, who married into the LeBlanc Family, and who's father-in-law had a Map, to see if he could 'lift the curse' on the Treasure. I highly doubt CO'B is capable of any such thing. That's this Christopher's sorta thang, lol.

EDIT: looks like Maynard was brought up already. Didn't read whole thread, lol.

Hi, Nobody. When you mention a deposit, are you talking about ore that hasn't been mined or gold that has been mined and hidden? Thanks for posting and good to hear from you.

 

[sdcfia]

You make assumptions here, sdcfia. Why? Why do you assume that the French were exploiting placers or a lode deposit? Maybe they were exploiting a cache that was previously mined. Those Frenchmen would have passed through some damn easy pickens placer gold, to get to that 'placer or deposit'. You think NM is the only place with Old Stuff? Lol.

Why? I always had the Treasure Mountain tale pegged as some sort of a coded message relating to other unnamed things in Southern Colorado. When mdog presented plausible events attached to historical people - stuff that I was too lazy to find for myself - I looked at the possibility that this story might actually be a possibility. Playing it straight, I have to admit that the timing and plot line are feasible, if not exaggerated. Knowing whether Villemont was a straight-up explorer or a guy who had prior information to follow up on would be telling, but that source data is missing. LeBreau spent five years following Villamont. His guys could have racked up a lot of gold from unworked placer streams in five years. Or, from another perspective, he could also have spent his time splitting up one Big Cahuna that Villamont found into several smaller Cahunas. That's the "old cache" approach. Verdict: undecided.

That said, this tale is quite similar in many aspects to at least one other "five-year gold harvest" legend that I'm very familiar with in New Mexico. We can draw our own conclusions about these things, but no matter what side you come down on, all we have to work with is circumstantial evidence - lots of it too - to support our views, no matter what they are. I know we live in a fractal world, but too many plot line coincidences eventually set off alarms with me. I will say this: the SLV environs has been an A-list destination beginning in the 16th century for some heavy hitting Spaniards, Frenchies, Americans and European Crypto-Jew refugees, and probably not for the hospitable venue. Before that? We don't know. Throw in the UFO/Treasure thingy and you've got a great place to run wild in.

You mentioned Fremont. He's a person of interest whose history is well-known. From a personal perspective, he's a troubling link for me. He ordered Kit Carson to murder two of my long-time searching partner's blood line in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in the 1840s. Their name was De Haro. A hundred and thirty years later, a man named Hare sent my partner to Santa Rita, NM looking for treasure, just a couple miles from where Carson wintered in the 1820s. I hate coincidences.

 

[mdog]

Concerning that time frame and general area (northern SLV), don't forget about the Spanish Cave of Gold on Marble Mountain, released to the public in the 30's in an article by Alberta Pike. Whomever released the Marble Mountain story had to have some idea about the Treasure Mountain stuff.



Napolean is an interesting one, to be sure. One of those Dudes who thought he was riding a Rising Star - found out differently at Waterloo. Of course, Napolean is tied into all of the Secret Society stuff, as well as the Jesuits:

]He [Napolean] takes care to state the legitimacy of his position in constitutional and theological terms: ‘Called by the divine providence and by the Constitution of the Republic to the imperial power...’ Two months after this letter was written, Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate, and on 2 December 1804, his coronation took place at Notre Dame Cathedral in the presence of Pope Pius VII.

Unfortunately, the relationship soon began to sour, initially over the French incursion on Papal territory in 1805, and with Napoleon gradually appropriating further Papal lands over the next two years. Finally, in June 1809, Napoleon was excommunicated. In retaliation, Pius was kidnapped and exiled until May 24, 1814, when Allied forces freed the Pope during a pursuit of Napoleonic forces which led to Napoleon's first exile to Elba..

Shortly after his release, with the political climate of Europe much more stable, Pope Pius VII issued an order restoring the Society of Jesus in the Catholic countries of Europe, including France.

I remember you posting a quip about a French Expedition traveling up the Ark, looking for a Green Stone. They didn't find it, but I did, lol ...

Yes, that was the la Harpe expedition. I'm interested in the story about the green stone you found on the Arkansas. What did you find?