[Old Fossil]

I have posted here before that another good, easy, way to find treasure is to dig through your boxes that have been in storage for a long time. I have found "treasures" several times that way. Last week was the latest experience. I was looking for something and saw the plastic tub containing my raw mineral collection I have not look in, in a long time. I saw, and remembered, chalcedony, apache tears (obsidian), tiger eye agate, and a rock about the size of my two fists that I didn't remember. It was a rough rock, not a geode. A piece of the matrix had been broken off and inside was what looked like opal. I'll have to take the rock to a geologist to see what it really is. I have sold lots of stuff on eBay and I immediately "saw" PayPal deposits going into my account. Ooops, hold on Old Fossil! I checked it out on eBay and found that in all the minerals except the "unknown", have minimum bids of less than the cost of packing and shipping. Oh well, it was interesting to dig through that stuff again.


Oh, and I never found what I was looking for.

[Old Fossil]

More store room treasure - A brother of my maternal grandmother was a Medical Doctor. My sister is cleaning out some self storage units since she moved and is finding all kinds of stuff, including this book. See Attachment. It was published in 1885 and we don't know if it was a medical school text book or one he acquired later for his private practice library. He had an extensive library which I inherited and hung onto for years until I moved and no longer had room for them. I called the University of Arkansas Medical School Liberian to see if they would be interested in them for their archives. When I told her what I had she said "YES!" and that she would be here within the hour. In a short time she was here with a station wagon loaded with empty boxes. I had sorted the books by dates and subject and told her to take what she wanted. She said; "I want them ALL!", and packed, loaded, and took them away.


Later I was talking to a cousin and told her what I had done and she said she had Uncle Joe's first Medical License and would call the school to see if they were interested in it and if so would donate it to them. They were and she did. I didn't know about that document and would like to have had it copied made before it was donated, but things moved too fast. Oh well.

[Old Fossil]

Treasure within the treasure - After the above Post about the medical book I was leafing through it and found, written in pencil, the birth and death dates of family members from 1891 to 1905. I have very little documented data on this family so this was indeed a "treasure".

[Old Fossil]

When I started this Post seven years ago I gave it the subtitle of "Fact, Folklore, and Fable". As we all know, "treasure" is in the eye of the beholder and I have Posted the stories as I experience, hear, or read about them. Although some of the info in this story must be vague, for obvious reasons, the story is rue.


A friend in a distant city owns a guitar store and one day a man walks in with a major brand guitar he wanted to sell. Friend looked it over and decided that with some cleaning and refurbishment he could retail it for about $1,200.00, so offered the man $900.00 which was above "normal" wholesale price, which the man accepted.


Over the weeks as friend worked on the guitar, things about it just didn't seem right. It kept bothering him until he finally dug out his reference material and started making measurements, checking color, and wood grain. What he had was a limited edition which was retailing for $4,000.00! I haven't heard if he put it on the market or kept it for his private collection.

[prerunner1982]

Originally Posted by Old Fossil

Treasure within the treasure - After the above Post about the medical book I was leafing through it and found, written in pencil, the birth and death dates of family members from 1891 to 1905. I have very little documented data on this family so this was indeed a "treasure".

Love genealogy as well.
Hope you are doing well sir, been awhile since you have posted.

[globalgrl]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

Arkansas, like many other states, has lots of lost treasure stories. I would like to see this Thread used to pass on some of those stories that you have heard from family members, have personal knowledge, or have heard or read about. There are many stories in Arkansas about lost Spanish gold, or gold mines. The most common ones are of the Spanish had found gold and were mining it until the Indians ran them off, and the Spanish were going cross country with burro loads of gold when they were attacked by Indians and buried the gold and escaped. I will add other Spanish stories from time to time if this Thread is as popular as I hope it will be.

But first I'd like to add my research and opinion on the subject of lost Spanish gold. When the Spanish crossed the Mississippi River and came into what is now Arkansas, they did so about where West Memphis is now located and they found a swamp several miles wide and several miles across, but of course they didn't know that until it took them many many days to get out of it. And I don't find any reference in the available documents referring to them having burros; horses yes, but not burros. Also, after they finally got out of the swamp they found a few friendly Indians but before long they ran into hostiles and their supplies were getting short, so, instead of taking time to look for, and mine gold, their primary objective was to get the outta dodge.

Please jump in here and tell us your stories or you are going to have to read mine from East Pike County and a few Spanish stories thrown in for good measure.

Great thread!

I was just curious if anyone had any ideas about finding the location of an old still near Acorn, AR. I have a photo of my great grandfather in early 20's I think. It is a group of men around an old still in the woods and on the back it says US Marshals bust still near Acorn, AR and one man is dressed nicely in more formal or business attire, it identified him as the Revenue Man.
I have other photos that say 'rounding up slackers'.
If I figure out how I will post these next week when I have my scanner.
But I have been to Acorn, doesn't seem much of anything there anymore. I was wondering how I could talk to old timers or where to research this. Thanks.

[Poppins101]

This thread of posts is delightful to read. Thank you