[PBSS] Elusive silver-lined cave plagued man for 50 years

[Bill Bentley]

Monday's Internet Edition, 3:52 PM, February 26, 2007. Elusive silver-lined cave plagued man for 50 years 
        
      PHOTO BY MAT TAYLOR 
      Bill Brister examines a cave on his family ranch near Chappell in San Saba County. Although this is not the silver cave his great-great-grandfather Drury Beasley sought for 50 years, it is similar to the lost mine that Beasley spent his life searching for.  


http://www.lampasasdispatchrecord.com/front1.shtml

By MAT TAYLOR 
Staff Writer

Lampasas resident Bill Brister, a retired Evant school district superintendent, said that after reading a story in the Lampasas Dispatch Record last summer about the possibility of Spanish silver being buried in the county, he recalled the story of his great-great- grandfather's search for a lost silver mine. 

Brister said his mother, who recently passed away, remembered her ancestor Drury Beasley telling about his search for a silver mine in San Saba County. 

During the period of Indian raids in Central Texas, the young Beasley was among rangers who pursued Comanche raiders west. Just below where the San Saba River joins the Colorado, the group camped for the night. 

The next morning, their horses had strayed and while searching for them, Beasley discovered a cave in a ravine. It faced east with the sun shining into it. He entered the cave and discovered the walls were lined with silver ore. 

Brister said it is presumed Beasley had heard stories of the lost Jim Bowie or lost San Saba mine, and he did think he might have found it. 

For the rest of his life, Beasley would recall each minute detail of what he had seen that day -- and would never see again. 

Later, he returned east for his sweetheart and told her of his fabulous discovery. Beasley married Elizabeth Adaline Houston, who Brister said was a descendant of Sam Houston, in full confidence of soon becoming a wealthy man. 

An article written by C.L. Yarborough in the March 1981 issue of the publication "Vanishing Texas" listed the Beasleys among the first settlers in San Saba County. He built a house just above what is known as McAnelly Bend on the border of Lampasas and San Saba counties. 

When Beasley began his search for the mine, however, he could not locate the cave of silver. He apparently was stunned to find numerous caves in the area, and countless ravines, draws and valleys that all looked similar. 

His wife often accompanied Beasley on searches up hundreds of ravines, but none held the cave that he had seen that early morning years earlier. 

Brister said his great-great- grandfather searched for the cave for 50 years with no results. 

Beasley was no shiftless treasure hunter, though. He prospered as a farmer and rancher. Nothing about him suggests he was a man whose imagination had led him astray. 

He was 88 years old when he died in 1918, still believing that out in the hills of San Saba County near the Colorado River was his lost cave of silver, possibly the lost Bowie Mine or the Lost San Saba Mine. Beasley's grave and headstone may be viewed in the Sand Hill Cemetery near Bend. 

Did Beasley really find a cave full of silver, or merely see the reflection of sunlight on worthless calcite, Brister wonders. 

Rumors persist of lost silver mines in Central Texas, and a hidden fortune still may lay somewhere in the hills of San Saba County. But after years of searching by many individuals, no lost mine or cache of silver has been found. 

It is generally believed the lost San Saba Mine was in Menard County near the Llano River. Some historians say there was only one mine, whereas others contend there possibly were several. The San Saba Mine has become known as the Bowie Mine because of Jim Bowie's supposed search for the legendary quarry. 

Was the cave Beasley found one of the Lost San Saba Mines? That question may never be answered. 
Spanish priests and soldiers moved into the San Saba River region, and in 1757 constructed a mission and presidio on the river near what is now the city of Menard. 

The mission was a failure, as it was attacked by a large band of Indians about a year later. The mission was destroyed, and many inhabitants killed. 

There were also mining efforts in the region, but it is assumed they also were failures, because if the Spanish had found significant deposits of gold or silver, Spain would have made greater efforts to settle and control the area. Bowie and other treasure hunters, however, came to believe that there were tremendous deposits of precious minerals in Central Texas. 

Other legends and stories persist of lost mines and buried treasures throughout the Southwest, including buried silver in the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park and the Lost Negro gold mine close to the Brewster-Terrell county line near the Rio Grande River. 

Although there are gold and silver deposits in the Llano Uplift (Central Basin) area of Texas, geologists have not found significant amounts to make mining profitable. 

The only successful silver mines in Texas have been in the Shafter Mining District in south-central Presidio County in the Chinati Mountains. 

The Presidio mines were quarried for silver and related ores from 1883 until 1952. The most productive mine was the Presidio, which produced, according to an article in the Handbook of Texas, 32.6 million ounces of silver and 8,400 ounces of gold. 

The lure of finding mineral resources or a hidden cache of silver probably will continue to attract treasure hunters for many years to come. And who knows? Someday Beasley's lost mine might yet be discovered. 
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