Fannin County landowner, retired professor of paleontology, amateur archeologist, and long-time treasure hunter, Mr. A.F. Diggs, bought his bottomland forested property along a Sulfur River tributary due to his studied notion that features of the terrain might reveal mounds of ancient historic period Caddoan settlements beneath the many small elevations overlooking his creeks and the river.
He knew that his location near Ladonia and the Sulfur River was located within the area known to be the prehistoric ancestral Caddo Civilization and ancient historic Caddoan Indian Homelands according to academic studies, ancient records, historic documents and maps such as those which can be viewed on the Texas Beyond History website @ http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/map/index.html .
And indeed, he found much evidence to support his notion that there were ancient historic treasures upon his land and found that after every heavy rain most of his fossil hunting, excavations, and discoveries were made easy work through the action of natural erosion which exposed objects of curiosity during exploratory walkabouts. But A.F. never even dreamed that rumors and stories like ones about treasure hordes hidden by The Knights of the Golden Circle might reside in his rural bottomlands so near the prolific Sulfur River dinosaur fossilbeds and the ancient Indian ancestral camps he was trying to find until lightening, wind and rushing stream waters toppled one of two giant bois d'arc trees over along the soft, crumbling banks of the stream on his property.
The two remarkably ancient trees with diameters of 40-46 inches, were affectionately named "Great Great Grandfather" and "Great Great Grandmother" by his wife, Joklyn, who was saddened by "Great Great Grandmother's" demise but was ''intrigued by the sands and gravels that had collected all around half of her streambound roots.'' Then after several repeating dreams that there was gold in the gravels around the feet of Great, Great Grandmother, Joklyn and AF decided on a lark that they would screen and pan the deep sandy gravels down to bedrock just for fun. Thet thought that they might at least find fossils or pottery shards that are often unearthed and exposed along the creek. But once again, the couple "found one thing when looking for quite another" reported the AFD CEO.
"It promises to be the biggest treasure ever found around here" said one local source who required that he remain anonymous in order to discourage calls and crowds of people from flocking to the riverbottom or disrespecting private property. Asked to describe what he saw, the security conscious official, who has been among the few who have been invited down into the damp chamber(s) simply emphasized "UNBELIEVABLE" and "ASTONISHING." Texas State University department heads have been unavailable for comment until a later date but the excitement has spread across the riverside community like wildfire.
AFD sources said a severly degraded copper plate was found attached or possibly just embedded by growth into several of the largest, deepest treeroots of 'Great Grandmother' and a stone slab which appeared to have been deliberately fashioned to cover the metal plate and fitting between roots was removed with great care and difficulty. The stone was marked by unknown symbols and was originally thought to be a burial stone or ceremonial alter. The degraded copper plate underneath the root stoneslab was removed to reveal a rough, quarried limestone slabbed staircase. The slab steps were slick with mud and water seepage and descended about 40 feet into manmade limestone chambers which resembled an underground quarry.
A.F. barely escaped serious injury from the sudden rush of falling debris and a large stoneslab slide which occurred near the entrance and seemed triggered by his difficult entry into the somewhat flooded first chamber. A.F. believed that he was lucky not to have died in the attempt and fortunate that he fell backwards when he lost his balance due to a tangled underwater obstruction toward his wife, who was waiting near the foot of the stairs helped to pull him to safety. Later, they discovered that it was possible to see through the remaining openings with flashlights that revealed jeweled metallic objects, jewelry, crystals, vases, stone boxes, sculptures, furnishings, gold coins in broken pottery containers, and studded artifacts such as swords, armor, and life-size carvings wherever the flashlight could shine.
A.F. declined to offer his hypothesis about the purpose and source of the chamber and the treasures within...but said the site was extremely unstable and he believed it might be booby trapped somehow so it would be some time before the chambers were safe enough for futher research. Plans are underway to divert the intermittent waters of that Sulfer River tributary around the AFD site temporarily to protect it from additional degradation.
The company's co-founder, Joklyn was reported to exclaim, "Oh! Thank You Great Grandmother!! when she first glimpsed the discovered treasure. She also stated that " I am terribly thankful that it didn't become my husband's burial chamber!... It very nearly became the AFDisaster site instead of the AFDiscovery site."
When asked if the discovery was reminiscent of her recurring dreams which led to the find, she said "I'm not psychic." "It was not at all like my dream which was more related to being an amateur prospecter, my treasure hunting hobby and my fascination with history that is hidden in plain sight...I was looking for gold flakes or a nugget or locket or maybe some coins!" Laughing at the absurd fantasies innately common to all hunters, she claimed "you wouldn't believe the fossils and rusty things or pottery that I have foolishly picked up and thrown back before finding out that they were valuable and of importance to some great mind or the other." "We are definately not the first people to settle on this River...we are finding so much indication that there have been many, many different ages of occupation by families, Indians, ancient ancestors, and extinct species of plants and animals living right here. Why should we think that we would be the only inhabitants to gravitate to this very beautiful area." Frowning, Joklyn said she feels it's all such a shame that others want to cover it with lakewater instead of treasuring one of Texas' last big, unique river systems. Did you know that Indians could reach the Red River and go on down to the Gulf or the Mississippi River in a few days to a week of travel by canoe? I wonder if that's the way all that treasure arrived...but we don't know how old it is yet."
Before their latest discovery, the founding AFD couple had already located several prehistoric camps, refuse middens, and possible digging pits where Caddoans had dug soil and transported it in baskets to cover the floor of their new habitation on nearby mounds which reflect many differing occupations at differing times. Both their front and back pastures contain large and small recognizable prehistoric fossils, bones and tools. In fact, the retired couple has discovered so many different ancient habitations on the property that A.F. formed the AFDigs Company which consulted with Texas State University Departments of Archeology, Anthropology, & Paleontology, and who, along with Smithsonion Museum experts has confirmed the importance of other AFD sites via carbon dating of multiple stone tools, a fossilized human femur, dung, and various fossilized plant and animal food remains along with ancient refuse middens which were tens to thousands of years older than the Caddoan camps A.F. had been expecting to find.
Many of AF's academic colleagues in the fields of anthropology and archeology direct and teach the AFDigs team of local landowning volunteers, history buffs, treasure and weekend fossil hunters in methods of recognizing, cataloging, extraction and other essential steps of artifact recovery and preservation on weekends in a race to discover all the knowledge possible from the ancient campsites before a controversial water reservoir floods the Sulfer River bottomlands and surrounding areas.
Many ancient treasures, historic sites and prolific dinosaur fossil beds like the Sulfur River are destroyed or removed from public access and study by condeming or forced sales of such lands for massive above-ground water storage and lake recreation. It was reported that when local landowners asked Trinity Water Authority Project officials and their lawyers what they could do to stop plans for the reservoir, they were told that 'virtually nothing but an endangered species could thwart the progress of the upcoming lake.'
Even the most recent AFD discovery which is considered ''priceless" by initial valuations and the possibility of similar hidden treasure holds dug deep into the quarried vaults of limestone beneath and adjacent to the Sulfur River is not enough to halt the Trinity Water Authority's controversial land confiscation in the name of public good...but it gives rise to the suspicion of some landowners that the powerful group of men behind this move had an inkling that the Sulfur River's AFD treasures, along with others, were there for their taking all along...a natural serendipity of riches accidentally to be discovered when blasting and bulldozing confiscated land for a reservoir which purportedly is needed to supply future water to Flower Mound residents but the Town of Flower Mound has hired engineers and experts that have rendered extensive studies which clearly seem to disprove or cast doubt upon the validity of the public claims of 'need or advantage' to local landowners made by the Trinity Water Authority. That no need for such a distant water supply actually exists now or will in the future, according to Flower Mound public officials is troubling, particularly to residents who don't want to sell their land at a fair price or "any price" against their will and believe that there is no such thing as a fair market price when the seller is threatened with guns or force of condemnation and forced to sell what they want to keep. Some wary citizens have begun to conclude that there is more than meets the eye to the controversy of Lake Ralph Hall Reservoir which 'smells more like sulfur and scandal' might be down at the offices of Trinity Water Authority and the supporting Texas state and local officials.
The ownership of the AFD treasure found under a tributary of the Sulfur River in Fannin County has not been determined and AFD employees and friends have said that there will probably be court challenges and attempts to claim ownership by several states and governments...but for now, the location and contents of the buried chamber is an AFD secret...
North Texas e-News wishes everyone a Happy April Fool's Day!