State Treasure - California

Legends of Yerba Buena Island
SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY – Legends of hidden wealth buried on Yerba Buena Island in the San Francisco Bay date to when Alta California, as it was known, was still a Territory of Mexico.
In 1837, a Spanish sloop carrying church plate and treasure from the Mission Dolores destined for Spain became distressed during a storm off the California coast.
Seriously damaged, the vessel drifted until striking the north point of Yerba Buena Island where she sank.
Several crewmen and one or two priests were killed, and the treasure was salvaged and buried on the island.
Some researchers claim at the time of the wreck the Spanish sloop had been seized by its mutinous crew who intended to hijack its treasure.
Once the treasure was buried, however, it appears to have been abandoned for reasons unknown and never recovered.
Mexican authorities by 1838 knew ships were docking in the island’s harbor at night to off-load contraband cargo before sailing into the port of Yerba Buena.
On departing Yerba Buena, it was just a quick stop back at the island to pick up the undeclared cargo before sailing into the Pacific.
The island continued to be used as a way station for smugglers after California became part of the U.S. During the California Gold Rush, opium smugglers off-loaded their opium here before it was distributed to the California interior.
During the fall of 1880, lighthouse tender, Hainault Holzhuter reported he observed three men digging a deep hole one night by the light of a lantern on the north side of the island.
Intent on making an investigation, Holzhuter retrieved his shotgun from home before confronting the strangers. When he reached the hole, Holzhuter discovered the men had left, but he could hear their voices not far from shore, rowing towards the city.
Inspecting the excavation, Holzhuter reported seeing evidence that indicated several bulky boxes or bales had been removed.
Nothing more was ever learned about the three mysterious men or their cache.Acton - Where X Marks the Spot!
LOS ANGELES COUNTY – During the 1930’s, a hospital worker claimed to have visited the tiny village of Acton, California, in the mountains south of Palmdale on a search for buried treasure.
The hospital worker claimed he’d obtained a treasure map one day from a patient at the hospital who also gave him directions to five separate caches of gold totaling 70 pounds worth.
The patient explained to the hospital worker that many years ago he had been an employee of the Governor Mine located just north of Acton near the intersection of Crown Valley Road and Governor Mine Road.
He stated he knew his boss was illegally hoarding gold, so he stole 70 pounds of gold ingots from the mine and buried them in five separate caches in Acton.
His reason for doing this is unclear; however the boss reported the theft to the sheriff’s department, who in turn arrested the thief, though none of the gold was ever recovered.
The man did some time in prison for the theft and was later released.
Why this man was in the hospital and his relationship to the hospital worker is unknown.
In addition to the treasure map given to the hospital worker, he took notes as to the exact location of where the treasure was buried.
According to his notes, the gold was buried in five separate caches within a 15-foot circle on the western edge of a small hill in a field, about 1/2 mile north of the Sierra Highway 6 (Crown Valley Road) and between a hill and the old Governor’s Mine.
According to this story, the hospital worker does search for the five caches of gold, but is unsuccessful.
Research confirms the old Governor Mine did exist and is located exactly where the story claims it is, but I wasn’t able to find any other corroborating evidence as to the legitimacy of this story.
Local research could help.The Macfadden Treasure
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY – Not many folks today would remember who Bernarr Macfadden (16 August, 1868 – 12 October, 1955) was, though a century ago his name was a common household word to most Americans.
His rise from poverty to riches is an epic saga, as is the story of his scattered wealth buried throughout the U.S. Macfadden claimed he’d buried “millions” in currency before he died.
To date only one of his caches, containing $200,000 in large bills, has been found, in Jericho, New York, in 1961.
Born into poverty and raised in a two-room cabin near Mill Spring, Missouri, by an alcoholic father and a mother described as appearing “undernourished,” Macfadden quit school at 11-years-old to work on the family’s farm.
Described as puny in stature, Macfadden began studying nutrition, health and bodybuilding as a teen while he worked on building his own muscular physique.
Macfadden moved to St. Louis, Missouri, as a young man and found work as a grocery clerk and later a bank teller.
With just $50 in his pockets, he arrived in New York City and decided to make it his home.
Macfadden wanted to publish a bodybuilding magazine, but his idea was rejected by several New York publishers.
In 1898, he founded the Macfadden Publishing Company, which grew into a publishing empire that published at least 10 different magazines and as many newspapers, in addition to the 100 or more books Macfadden authored before his death.
Publishing brought fame and fortune to Macfadden who, in 1930, founded The Bernarr Macfadden Foundation, a charity that he funded with $5 million of his own money.
The foundation established boarding schools for orphaned children as well as funding other humanitarian efforts.
Macfadden’s vast holdings included several “healthatoriums” he opened throughout the east and Midwestern states, a winter home near Miami Beach, Florida, and several hotels and plush resorts in New York and southern California.
Wealthy and flamboyant, Macfadden inspired millions of people worldwide to live healthy and vibrant lives, yet in spite of his good works and charity he was a controversial man.
During the 1930’s, Macfadden’s behavior became eccentric and bizarre.
He campaigned tirelessly against the medical profession, denouncing doctors as “pill pushers,” insisting a nutritional diet and exercise could cure any ill.
Macfadden founded the “Physical Culture City,” in Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. The “city” got off to a good start, but failed in a few years.
He then established his own religion called “Cosmotarianism,” based on beliefs in physical culture.
Macfadden claimed by following his strict doctrine, people could live to be 150-years-old.
He also gained much publicity for his “ahead of the times” view on sex, citing intercourse as a healthy activity, not one that should be done strictly for procreation.
Branded a charlatan and a “kook,” Macfadden was arrested on obscenity charges for which he was later acquitted.
By 1952, the aging Macfadden was being sued by both his former wives and several trusted business partners, all whom saw Macfadden’s fortune rapidly dwindling.
Those close to him saw a change - he became depressed, complained of pain in his legs, and lost much of his vitality.
Then, on October 12, 1955, he died of a urinary track infection while refusing treatment at a New Jersey hospital. He was 87-years-old.
Most believe Macfadden died penniless; but his third wife, Johnnie Lee Macfadden, in her 1962 book, Barefoot in Eden, revealed her husband’s odd fetish for .30 caliber U.S. Army surplus ammunition boxes.
Macfadden claimed one box could hold a half-million dollars in thousand dollar bills, and Johnnie Lee stated he buried caches of large sums of money near his usual haunts so if he ever needed fast cash he could get to it quickly.
He kept four known cache sites, one containing $500,000, that was buried on the property of his former Physical Culture City on East Hill near the edge of Danville, New York.
Another cache of $240,000 in currency was buried in the Ouachita Mountains overlooking Hot Springs.
A third cache containing $200,000 was unearthed by a bulldozer operator in 1961 at Jericho, New York, on property once owned by Macfadden.
And his fourth cache was buried and re-buried by Macfadden at his Arrow Springs Resort Hotel north of San Bernardino.Sources:
Boyes, Marcia Edwards, The Legend of Yerba Buena Island, http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbybi.htm
Terry, Thomas P. U.S. Treasure Atlas – Vol. 2, La Crosse, WI, Specialty Publishing Company, p. 159
Rascoe, Jesse Southern California Treasures, 1969, Frontier Book Company, p. 70-72
Wikipedia research: Bernarr Macfadden
Duffy, Howard M, Quite A Healthy Sum, 1995, Treasure Cache, p. 8
Lewis, Margaret, Bernard McFadden’s Lost Caches, Treasure Cache, p. 41
Vance, Tom, New York Tales, June 2001, Lost Treasure, p. 58
Pallante, Anthony J, Arkansas – Hot Springs, November, 2001, Lost Treasure, p. 20
Unknown, The Final Seven Years, http://www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden7.html