Man accused of harassing Cook says family hired him to find gold

By Tom Sharpe

The Santa Fe New Mexican
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/article_c74b51b8-613d-52e9-a855-67f91661a988.html

Tuesday, October 1, 2013
updated: 7:19 am, Wed Oct 2, 2013

"A man accused by Española businessman Richard Cook and his family of harassing them says he was hired to find gold buried on Black Mesa, but has been barred from the area since he discovered that some of the gold was missing.

Gale Roberts of Jackson Hole, Wyo., says he has no intention of threatening or harming the 87-year-old Cook or members of his family, as suggested in a request last week for a restraining order against Roberts by Cook, his daughter and his grandson.

“I am crazy — I’ll own up to that,” Roberts said in a telephone interview Monday. “But what I did for [the Cook family], they should have been grateful for.”
Roberts, a professional guide for horseback trips and fly fishing, said he was in Arizona, working with equipment that detects gold beneath the ground, when John Melancon and others hired him to find gold on the mesa north of Española.

Roberts said Melancon’s company had a contract with the Cook family company to look for gold on Black Mesa. Melancon, he added, has access to Knights of the Golden Crescent maps of treasures hidden by early Spanish explorers, as well as directions to gold cannonballs stashed atop Black Mesa after they were stolen from a pack train near Ojo Caliente in the 1800s.

Melancon did not return messages Monday. But his website describes him as a “world renown archaeologist that maintains a semiprivate museum in Cortez” and the “world’s foremost authority on Spanish and Knights of the Golden Circle Society treasure maps, symbols and signs.” The website features a photograph of gold bars and has numerous stories about hidden treasures, but makes no mention of Black Mesa or gold cannonballs stolen near Ojo Caliente.

Another website describes Melancon as the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cortez, Colo., but the current pastor of that church, Mike Schrag, said he has never heard of Melancon. Another website says Melancon “holds a doctoral degree (all but dissertation) from Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque” — which describes itself as “a regional center of Christian scholarship, drawing top scholars from across the nation and world for on-campus lectures and symposia.”

Roberts said that after negotiating with Melancon for a percentage of any gold he found, he began exploring the top of Black Mesa at his own expense, accessing the area through Cook’s property. But after finding that “something wasn’t right,” he drove to Texas to tell Melancon, who was hospitalized at the time.

In a subsequent email to Cook’s daughter that is part of the court record, Roberts indicates that the gold had been stolen, but he declined to confirm that in an interview.

Melancon “told me to sweep it under the rug,” Roberts said. Realizing “something was suspicious, Roberts said he “pounded” the Cooks with emails, but they “wouldn’t even discuss it” and now seem intent on making him look crazy, dragging out the case in court and denying he has a claim on the gold.
Roberts said he wants a “peaceful resolution with the Cooks.” He said that when he spoke to Cook outside his home in Española on Sept. 23, he told him, “I would never in a million years threaten you or cause harm to you.”

Another Black Mesa landowner, Andrew D. Alexander of Katy, Texas, wrote The New Mexican on Monday to say that Cook, who for decades has mined rock on the east side of the basaltic mesa near the confluence of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama, is denying access to hundreds of landowners on the mesa top, even though Rio Arriba County approved the Black Mesa Development subdivision there and appropriated money for a right of way and maintenance of a road."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.

Novel digs for lawmakers' buried treasure

Tuesday, 17 September 2013
by Raymond Rendleman

Dell Isham, a Happy Valley resident and former state senator, released his fourth book last month.

The 411-page historical novel, “Knights of Gold,” is the tale of two Oregon legislators who discover clues to the buried Confederate treasury. They follow the evidence to South Carolina, where the Knights of the Golden Circle have been protecting it since the end of the Civil War.

Knights of the Golden Circle, an actual organization before and during the Civil War, is thought to have died out shortly after the war, but Isham proposes in his novel that they may still exist as an underground organization. His story takes the reader from Oregon, to South Carolina, Florida, Grand Cayman Island resorts and jungles in the interior of Brazil.

“The reader of this novel will not only enjoy a treasure-hunting story but also learn about plots, bargaining and back-stabbing common within any legislative body,” Isham said. “One character admits to an unforgivable error of judgment: trusting another politician. There are many courtroom dramas but few legislative dramas. This book is the rare latter category.”

Real-life inspiration

Isham learned of the myth of the lost Confederate gold while living in South Carolina for nearly a dozen years and did “a lot of historical research on lost treasures in preparation for writing this book.”

His publisher, Outskirts Press, notes that Isham’s education and experience prepared him to write the historical and political thriller. Isham has history degrees from Weber State (Utah) College and Colorado State University. He has 30 years of political experience — as a Democratic Oregon state senator (two years as Senate majority leader), 13 years as a lobbyist, and 10 years as the director of the South Carolina Sierra Club. He was the winner of the 2009 South Carolina Fiction Project.

Isham said one of the most enjoyable parts of writing the novel was basing many of the characters in the book on personalities of politicians he worked with in the early 1980s. He represented Lincoln and Tillamook counties in the Oregon Legislature from 1977-85.

“Like most authors, characters are not usually pulled from thin air, but from experiences lived,” he said. “Many who gravitate to public office have unusual personalities, and suitable for novels. ... Some found their way into this book, but guessing who they might be (or were, since many are no longer alive) is part of the fun of reading the book. Of course, most are exaggerations of reality, just like any story.”

As an impetus for his novel, Isham draws from an incident in 1981, when Senate President Fred Heard (D-Deschutes) was arrested for using a false name for a motel room in Klamath County. To make matters worse, he registered using the name of State Sen. Jack Ripper (D-North Bend). Most senators were upset with the circumstance during a time when possible homosexuality was even less tolerated, and Isham thinks Heard’s actions contributed to the decline of the Democratic Party during the 1980s.

We never learned of Heard’s real motivations, but could it have been that he had a lead on lost Confederate gold? Isham’s latest book offers a possible, albeit unlikely, hypothesis.

Isham’s other books include “Isom Dart and an Assortment of Scoundrels” and “Goodbye Vietnam: Love, War and Espionage in Vietnam.” all of which he’s written since he retired from political life four years ago.

“One thing I’ve noticed, my writing is getting better with each book,” he said. “Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?”

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/194714-novel-digs-for-lawmakers-buried-treasure

2 men continue search for Civil War treasure

Albert Atwell and Ed Powers say "talking trees" and buried maps point to hidden Confederate gold.

by DENICE THIBODEAU
Danville Register & Bee
Monday, August 19, 2013

Since the Civil War ended in 1865, stories of vast caches of Confederate gold have abounded without any trace of it showing up.

Two men are convinced the treasure exists and is there to be found by anyone who can crack the clues left behind about its location.

Albert Atwell, of Ridgeway, and Ed “Bubba” Powers, of Louisburg, N.C., both say they’ve been interested in treasure hunting since they were little boys.

Atwell said he first heard tales of Confederate treasure when he was about 5, when his father told him of his great-great-grandfather’s involvement in the Civil War. The story stayed with him as he grew up and his interest in Civil War history and treasure hunting continued to grow.

Powers, too, said he has heard stories of treasure since he was about 8 years old — when he found a couple of buried snuff boxes packed with silver dollars — and developed the same interests as Atwell as he grew up.

Between them, the men have gathered huge files of documents they say point to the existence of this treasure — as do “talking trees” in locations across the South.

The talking trees are ones that appear to have seemingly random marks and symbols, as well as words and numbers, believed to be written by Civil War soldiers. A huge tree in Danville’s National Cemetery is one of those talking trees, Atwell says, that — once the symbols are decoded, an effort that has taken a lifetime — point to the hiding place of maps that will reveal the 58 locations where the Confederate gold and silver are buried. He also believes the various caches of gold and silver began long before the Civil War, collected by a secret society called the Knights of the Golden Circle.

“Some of the signs on the trees say where, what town, gold is buried, but don’t say exactly where,” Atwell said. “We need the maps.”

Atwell believes his great-great-grandfather’s grave holds the maps, and believes the family history that says where that man is buried — despite the fact that the headstone on that grave names it as someone else’s resting place.

Atwell said he has asked for permission to disinter what he believes are his great-great-grandfather’s remains, so they can be tested for DNA. He also believes the disinterment will turn up the maps — and would be willing for forego the total disinterment if he could just get permission to dig 3 feet down, where he believes the maps are hidden.

Asked why they believe this treasure exists, when history shows Southern soldiers were dying of starvation and often were fighting shoeless because their boots had worn out, Atwell says the problem lay in distribution, not in having supplies. Atwell said he has found records that state in Danville alone there were warehouses full of food and shoes for the soldiers, but supply lines to them were cut off and blocked by the Yankees.

The gold coins, bars and silver the men have researched would be worth a lot now — perhaps even enough to pay off the national debt, Atwell said.

Atwell contacted John Spruyt, director of the National Cemeteries in this region, and asked for permission to open the grave in question. Spruyt turned him down, and says he will continue to do so.

“He claims there’s treasure all over the South,” Spruyt said, noting that Atwell originally wanted to open several graves, but when turned down filed a complaint against him.

Atwell also has contacted U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Steve Muro, the Department of Veterans Affairs under secretary for memorial affairs.

Muro and U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt met with Atwell and Powers at the Danville National Cemetery in January, and the end result of the visit was another denial.

“Muro said he’d fight us tooth and nail on this,” Atwell said.

Now the men are starting to talk about what they believe in hopes that someone will believe them and help.

“Can you imagine the flack I’m getting ?” Powers said. “People say I’m chasing butterflies and there is no gold.”

Atwell, too, feels frustrated; for centuries, he said, people were looking for the treasure.

“Now we’ve found the answer and no one will listen to us,” Atwell said. “I have a funny feeling it’s all about the secret society and we’ll never know.”

http://www.roanoke.com/news/2159775-12/2-men-continue-search-for-civil-war-treasure.html?aor

How Not to Watch ‘Copperhead’
Sidney Blumenthal misunderstands a film about peace, community, and the limits of dissent—not the Union or Confederate causes.

By BILL KAUFFMAN • July 24, 2013

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-not-to-watch-copperhead/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-not-to-watch-copperhead

Excerpt: "Those who wish to investigate the Copperheads further should read the works of the late historian and Marquette University professor Frank Klement, the dean of scholarly studies of Northern opposition to the Civil War. (Oddly, Blumenthal fails to mention Klement.) For more on such hobgoblins as the Knights of the Golden Circle—“I have here in my hand a list of half a million active conspirators!”—see Klement’s Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies, and Treason Trials in the Civil War (1984); for more on Ohio’s Copperhead, see The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham & The Civil War (1970); for more on the geographical heart of the antiwar movement, see Klement’s The Copperheads of the Middle West (1960); for a posthumously published collection of essays, see Lincoln’s Critics: The Copperheads of the North (1999)."

Romanticizing the Villains of the Civil War

From the Atlantic, a review of the new movie "Copperhead".

Caveat Lector,
CCC

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/the-copperhead-myth/277969/

Romanticizing the Villains of the Civil War
The newly released film Copperhead is in the same tradition as Gone with the Wind andGods and Generals. Its history is highly revisionist.


Excerpt: "The Copperheads opposed the draft, emancipation, and suspension of habeas corpus. They were not pacifists; none of them were Quakers (who were deeply antislavery and had supported the Underground Railroad). Rather, they were an organized political movement, with political aims, chiefly to undermine the Union effort. Nobody really knows how big it was. They belonged to groups such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, which claimed a half million members, and its successor organization the Sons of Liberty, .."

Anyone researching the history of the Knights of the Golden Circle will undoubtedly come across references to Geo. Bickley's "Address to the People of the Southern States", alternately as the "Knights of the Golden Circle Convention address Raleigh, NC. May 1860".  You will find it listed in the footnotes of various research articles listed as:
"Records of the KGC Convention, 1860, Raleigh, N.C. (http://gunshowonthenet/AfterTheFact/KGC/KGC0571860.html),"

Most recently this address was again referenced in David C. Keehn's "Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, civil War", published by LSU Press April 15, 2913 and noted as being at http://gunshowonthenet/AfterTheFact/KGC/KGC0571860.html.

This article is no longer available at the previous url but a complete transcription is available at http://knights-of-the-golden-circle.blogspot.com/2011/05/kgc-convention-address-raleigh-nc-may.html

The Circle Is Unbroken By Roger Dale Miller

From page 42 of the January issue of Treasure Cache magazine.
Copyright © 1996, 2000 Lost Treasure, Inc.

The Confederate Knights' Brentwood Cache
The Brentwood area was picked by the Knights mainly because of its location. It
lies between the big cities to the north and the major cities, such as Atlanta,
to the south. The roads had to be good enough to bear the weight of gold-laden
wagons as they made their way deep into southern soil.

Somewhere deep in the Brentwood Hills, 10 miles south of Nashville, Tenn., lies
a fortune so vast that it staggers the imagination. The mere thought of tens of
thousands of gleaming gold bars and other valuables buried deep in the hillsides
tends to make treasure hunters sweat with anticipation.

But hunters beware. Barrels of black powder are ready to explode at the wrong
touch. Hidden and trapped pools of water are ready to cascade downward and drown
the foolish. Camouflaged wires leading to the triggers of loaded weapons are
just waiting to be pulled. Guillotine-like devices are ready to drop from above.
And who knows what else lies waiting deep in the tunnels that smell of death,
but also speak of fabulous fortunes.

Today, Brentwood is a parade of homes of the wealthy. Immaculate lawns and
well-trimmed hedges spread out for many miles. Retired lawyers and doctors spend
their days on the golf courses or around their swimming pools. Even those people
who still work from 9 to 5 come home to fantastic splendor.

Most of them have never heard of the treasure. A few have heard but do not
believe. They have their own lives to live and do not care to go out on wild
goose chases. But it is a chase that could make them richer than they could ever
imagine.

The Knights of the Golden Circle appear to all have been Scottish Rite Masons
who were most active between 1861 and 1864. They did not believe that the War
between the States was fought over states' rights or the issues of slavery.
Instead they saw it as a cloak-and-dagger struggle between the northern bankers
and the southern wealthy for financial control of the Old South.

The South was ill-prepared to fight any kind of battle. Realizing early in the
war that the South could not win, the Knights began paving the financial
foundation for a second great civil war, one in which the South would be
victorious.

Using a vast network of southern spies, the Knights infiltrated all aspects of
northern business. They also joined the army and navy and entered politics. They
used the vast information they uncovered to steal gold, silver and other
valuables from the northern bankers, or other northern businesses insured by
them.

By re-investing these stolen moneys into legitimate business ventures, gigantic
fortunes were amassed over the years. Railroads and mining operations were a
favorite target and often led to quick profits. Eventually, these profits were
converted back to gold and silver, then carefully hidden in more than 500
locations across the United States.

Many of these cache locations are still intact, although a few of the largest
ones like the Doc Noss-Victorio Peak cache at White Sands, N.M., have been found
and probably recovered by the U.S. Government. (Editor's note: The story of this
cache was told in the 1994 edition of Treasure Cache.)

This location alone contained 68,240 40- to 60-pound gold bars and other
treasures. This cache location had to be one of the eight enormous depositories
created by hollowing out several levels of tunnels under mountains, hills and
mesas. By comparison, the Brentwood, Tennessee site is located in a hillside.

The Brentwood area was picked by the Knights mainly because of its location. It
lies between the big cities to the north and the major cities, such as Atlanta,
to the south. The roads had to be good enough to bear the weight of gold-laden
wagons as they made their way deep into southern soil.

As the wagons neared Nashville, they probably used part of the Natchez Trace
Parkway nearby for easy travel and for possible burying of some of the gold.
Most of the gold, silver and other treasures, however, ended up at the Brentwood
cache location.

The amount of this treasure is enormous beyond belief. According to secret
records, it is reported to contain tens of thousands of gold and silver bars
worth perhaps as much as $350 billion today. Also, a large supply of weapons of
every description are believed to be hidden at this site. These antique pieces
would be priceless in today's market. All this would surely make it one of the
largest hidden treasures in recorded history.

Several years ago, a blueprint copy of the tunnel complex housing this huge
treasure surfaced for a brief period. The document was in the possession of a
former intelligence agent. Since he obtained the copy by unknown means, there is
a great possibility that a few other copies exist and are carefully hidden by
descendants of the original Golden Circle members. The copy shows the immediate
site of the treasure, but gives no directions on how to get to it. The
surrounding landscape has probably changed greatly since the treasure was first
buried.

The blueprint copy showed a large vertical shaft that had been dug at the base
of a hill. Tunnels then branched off horizontally at different levels. These
contained the gold and weapons. The shaft, perhaps as deep as 60 feet, appears
to have been sealed with rock and dirt. The blueprint also shows the placement
of both black powder and water booby-traps.

This treasure site was the pride and joy of the Confederate elite, especially
the 12-member ruling council called the Knights of the Inner Circle. (The Outer
Circle contained the vast majority of the members.) The original Inner Circle
was made up of some of the most important historical figures of all time. They
included Confederate President Jefferson Davis, brutal guerrilla leader William
Clarke Quantrill, the heroic General Joe Shelby and the famous rebel cavalry
leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. But perhaps the most famous of them all were the
brothers Frank and Jesse James. There is no doubt that all 12 original members
knew the exact location of the Brentwood treasure, as well as the other seven
large ones hidden all across the United States.

The Golden Circle was led with a iron hand by Quantrill. After his death, Jesse
James took over and led the organization until the time of his real death in
Granbury, Texas, in 1951. Jesse passed away at the ripe old age of 109, and is
buried in Granbury. (While official records of the life of Jesse James dispute
this claim, recent information shows it is possible James lived on well into the
20th century.)

Jesse and Frank James had several relatives who lived in the East Nashville area
and visited there often. On Friday, March 25, 1881, a member of the James gang
was arrested by magistrate and ex-constable W.L. Earthman. Earthman had been
tipped off that gang member Bill Ryan was at one of the local saloons. In fear
of their lives, Frank and Jesse James and their families left the Nashville area
the next day. Witnesses reported to have seen them heading south toward
Brentwood, but they were never caught.

It is only natural to assume that Frank and Jesse, on their way out of the
middle Tennessee area, went right by the location of the treasure to make sure
nothing was disturbed. This would also account for so many of his relatives
living in the Nashville area. (Jesse's relatives were probably members of the
Outer Circle. They lived here to keep a sharp eye out for any one else looking
for the treasure.)

Here are several clues that will be useful in your search.

1. The treasure is probably in a hillside or series of hillsides within a mile
or two of a large supply of water. This water was needed for the many
booby-traps and also for watering the many horses who pulled the wagons. A large
creek or small river, like Harpeth River, would fit into the plans perfectly. It
would also have to be shallow enough in places for wagons to cross.

2. Search the nearby woods close to the water supply and look for old wagon
trails or parallel ruts in the earth. Look for old roads and shallow paths. This
could still be a long shot, since the ones who buried the treasure may have
cleaned up afterward and made sure there were no tell-tale signs leading to the
location.

3. Look for areas of clear pastures near the woods. A large operation, such as a
ranch or perhaps some sort of mining camp, would have been in the area. This
would help explain the many wagons coming and going at all hours.

4. Look for strange markings on old trees and unusual rock formations. Coded
messages could help newcomers quickly find the area. The trees may have long ago
been cut down by loggers, but it still doesn't hurt to check the bark and trunks
of old trees still standing.

5. Look for hillsides and bluffs with small cave openings — these may resemble
groundhog burrows. It would be so easy for people to fill such holes with
treasure and then use explosives to blast them shut.

6. Always have your metal detector going. A heavy concentration of Civil War
bullets, Confederate coins and other items should be in the area. With so many
people coming and going, things had to get lost now and then.

7. As always, get permission to search on private land. This huge treasure may
never be found by one person working alone. One may find small hoards here and
there, but the mother lode is well protected and it will take teamwork and
plenty of extreme caution.

During March 1995, I spent a whole day driving and walking the roads and streets
of Brentwood. I took pictures and tried to interview at least four people. I
wanted the people to be elderly, because I figured the young generation would be
totally lost when it came to the history of the treasure.

One gentleman told me he had just retired and moved to the area from Illinois.
This was the first time he had heard of the treasure. Another gentleman sitting
on his front porch seemed suspicious of me from the start, probably because
there is a lot of crime in the Nashville and Brentwood area. He told me he
didn't do interviews for anyone, and seemed relieved when I started to walk
away. He got up and went into the house. An elderly lady was working in her
flower garden and had very little to say.

Finally, I encountered an elderly man who was willing to talk to me. He was
swinging in his yard under a huge shade tree. He was a regular reader of Lost
Treasure magazine and agreed to be interviewed, but only if I promised not to
use his real name and address. The following is part of what he told me:

"Of course I know about the legend," he said. "I had distant relatives who
fought in the Civil War and at least three of them were members of the Circle.
When I was growing up, I heard plenty of backyard conversations when a bunch of
my kin got together for a reunion of sorts. I overheard whispered words about
gold and silver. I heard words like `rocky hills' and `water troughs.' As a kid
I had no idea what the words meant, and even today I am not sure. I do know that
they often spoke of general directions, but that is something I cannot tell you,
out of respect for all my relatives.

"I can tell you this much. If I were interested in searching for the treasure
today I would narrow my search down to one part of Brentwood. Be it north,
south, east or west, that is the part I must keep secret."

It seems there lot of secrets still hidden deep in the hills of Brentwood. One
day they may be revealed and the treasure found. There are many people who want
to find the treasure and still a few who wish it to stay hidden.

The Confederate Knights' Brentwood Cache

The treasure:

Thousands of gold and silver bars worth up to $350 million today. In addition,
there are likely hundreds of well-preserved Civil War-era relics.

How to find it:

The cache is located in the hills of Brentwood, Tenn., most likely near a large
creek or river. Look for wagon ruts and large nearby pastures.

Sources:
Tennessee State Library and Archives.
A Guide To Historical Markers In Nashville And Davidson County, 1993, page 19.
World Book Encyclopedia.
Lost Treasure magazine, November 1991, page 54; April 1992.
Tennessean newspaper, Nashville, Tenn., March 6, 1995