Saturday, December 01, 2012

Sig's Tale of $48,000: Treasure in TX Town's Cemetery?

Earlier in the week, I was going nutty about unearned wealth.  The kind that just drops into your lap and you get to spend without reservation.   I wasn't thinking about the then-unwon Powerball lottery, I was thinking about $48,000 in buried treasure.  In 1951, Houston Press columnist Sig Byrd wrote of a second-hand account of 1935 bank robbery that resulted in the loot getting buried in the Jefferson, TX cemetery.  The great thing is the amount of detail that accompanied the story (the town, landmarks & the nearest gravestone.)

"It was said to be buried in a dutch over at the foot of a cedar tree, near a tombstone inscribed with the name A.D. Kenny," "besides the T & P tracks" (Texas & Pacific.)

A quick google map search shows in Jefferson, TX, a rail line on the south east border of the Oakwood cemetery.  Could this be the place? Not if my resource on the cemetery is correct (and thanks to the internet, I did find an expert on that small town's cemetery.)  But that is for another post.  Until then, here is the story in Sig's own words.