A little over an hour’s drive from Brownwood can take you to the ruins of the Presidio San Saba along the banks of the lovely San Saba River. To me, this is one of the most fascinating places in Texas history. Here you’ll find some stories, and maybe a few tall tales as well: Spanish conquistadors, monks and priests, Comanche and Apache wars, frontier character Jim Bowie and friends in an epic battle with natives and, I believe most importantly, tales of lost treasure.
If you find yourself wanting something to do, and it needs to be free because you’ve already spent all your money over the holidays, there’s not a better day trip in Texas if you ask me. The Presidio was built in 1757 to protect the mission that was located about 4 miles south. Tensions between the Apache (for whom the mission was intended) and the Comanche eventually led to the violent destruction of the mission by the Comanche. A bloody raid took place there when 2,000 Comanche and their allies burned the mission and killed nearly everyone there in 1758.
Author J. Frank Dobie, in his essential collection of lost treasure in Texas stories, Coronado’s Children, tells the tale of the lost Los Almagres Mine (also called the Lost Bowie Mine). The story is about Jim Bowie, famous Louisiana tough guy and hero of the Alamo, who went out to find it in 1831. Jim and his brother Rezin P Bowie took a small group of explorers and left San Antonio in search of the mine. While attempting to reach the Presidio at San Saba, the expedition was attacked by a large raiding party of Tawakni, Waco and Caddo Indians near Calf Creek, a few miles down the road from the presidio site. Outnumbered 14 to 1, amazingly only one man of the party was killed. They aborted the search, but set out again a few months later in another attempt to discover the lost silver mine. This time, with a larger force, they wandered for months around the hills of the San Saba country, apparently to no avail. What they did succeed in doing, however, was to ignite rumors of lost treasure (some say silver, some say gold) in the hills near Menard that have lured treasure hunters there for over a century.
You can sit and contemplate this lost mine at the presidio, while you watch the river flow. I like to imagine an attack on the presidio by angry Comanches could have come from the river. It would be easy enough to use the high banks as cover, to climb silently from the water and surprise your enemies while they were sleeping. I like to think of Jim Bowie there, stashing silver bars under rocks while his party nervously watched through the night.
The mission site is on private property, with really nothing left of it but a few foundation stones. The remains of the presidio, however, fared a bit better, and some of the rock structure still remains. The original doorposts are there, and they have the signature of Bowie himself carved into the stone. The presidio site is open to the public. It is also free! There are picnic tables there, and even bathrooms, so you can bring the kids. Get them off the screens. Tell them you’ve heard about a lost treasure nearby. Have a look around for that lost mine. You might not find any silver, but I guarantee you one thing, you will find treasure!
***
Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns and articles appear periodically on BrownwoodNews.com
