Thank You to Auto Glass Magic of Brownwood - Bronze Level 2026 Hunt Sponsor!

 

AUTO GLASS MAGIC - 100 N. Main in Brownwood - Returning CTTC Hunt Sponsor for 2026! Their Bronze Level Sponsorship Donation paid for two pair of Snake Gaiters - Snake-bite protective leg guards. They will make 2 great token prizes for our Hunt. Please join me in thanking Donna and her crew!

Auto Glass Magic specializes in repairing or replacing chipped or cracked windshields and window tinting. 325-646-9789

Our next Central Texas Treasure Club meeting will be Tuesday, August 4th at 6:30 p.m. at 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early. You can pay your Early Bird Entry fees, turn in Sponsorship Donations, buy Gold Coin Raffle tickets, or turn in Raffle ticket money for the ones you've sold.

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

CTTC 2026 Open Hunt Token Prizes Arriving. Hunt Sponsors Needed!

 

A CKG Metal Detecting Finds & Tools Pouch has arrived. It will be one of the nice token prizes given away at our CTTC Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt. Your business can become a 2026 CTTC Hunt Sponsor with a $35 Sponsorship Donation to cover the cost of this great prize.

Get your Early Bird Hunt Entries in the mail today!  

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

centraltexastreasureclub@gmail.com 

 

 

Brownwood Library's Kids Summer Reading Program - CTTC Presentation This Morning

 This morning's Brownwood Public Library's Kids Summer Reading Program after our Central Texas Treasure Club gave two programs for about 50 kids. The young ones were very well-behaved, attentive, and curious. Their generation represents the future of our hobby! In good hands. 

p.s. - Get your Early Bird Entries for our Central Texas Treasure Club's 2026 Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt in the mail today!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

Excellent Central Texas Treasure Club Meeting Last Night!

 We had a great Central Texas Treasure Club monthly meeting last night!  We had 24 in attendance - 23 Members and 1 Visitor.  We had a very nice variety of Members' finds from the past month entered into our Finds of the Month Contest (shown below), we gave away a bunch of nice door prizes and my young helper Abram won the Special Projects Raffle for a valuable Brilliant Uncirculated 1922 Peace Silver Dollar.  Congratulations, Abram and all of last night's prize winners!  

We also really got the ball rolling for our big October 10th Open Hunt.  Some Early Bird Hunt Entries and Gold Coin Raffle tickets were turned in.  This month, Members will be getting out and selling Raffle tickets and recruiting CTTC Hunt Sponsors and we urge everyone who wants to participate in our 2026 CTTC Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt to get your Early Bird Entry forms and fees in the mail.  This year, the Early Bird Entry fee is still only $25 but must be turned in or postmarked BY September 26th or the fee goes up to $40 for late entrants.

We also made arrangements for Members who are able to help out with next week's Brownwood Community Library's Kids Summer Reading Program where our Club will give two programs, the first one for younger kids and the second for older kids. about Treasure Hunting & Metal Detecting.  Anywhere from 150 to 250 young people are expected to attend the July 16th event!  

We have a lot of fun activities coming up so now's a great time to join and support our Club.  Memberships: $20 for Individuals for full year, or $25 for Family Membership for a full year.  

Thank you,

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

Coming Soon - CTTC Video & Photo Presentation by Longtime Treasure Hunter Robert Lee Rigdon!

 

Coming Soon! I contacted my friend Robert Lee Rigdon, who has 49 years of metal detecting/treasure hunting experience, several months ago and asked if he would be kind enough to give a presentation for our Central Texas Treasure Club. He was considering it but realized that the long drive from his home to Brownwood was not feasible so he put together a fascinating video program for our Club and visitors to enjoy! I watched it last night and it's great! Bob also sent a lot of photos on jump drive to include with his presentation. Everyone interested in metal detecting, bottle-digging, dump digging, and treasure hunting will benefit greatly from watching this video/photo presentation.

Our Club has a lot of activities lined up for this next 4 weeks, Speed-Gold Panning Workshop(s), our regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, July 7th, then two programs for the Brownwood Public Library's Summer Reading Program for kids about Metal Detecting/Treasure Hunting on July 16th, registering Early Bird Entrants for our CTTC 2026 Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt on October 10th, selling Gold Coin Raffle tickets to fund seeded silver coins for the Hunt, and recruiting CTTC Hunt Sponsors in order to purchase some great token prizes.

But Robert's program is so good that I'll be working on finding a good location and date to play it so that as many treasure hunting enthusiasts as possible will be able to enjoy it sometime in July!  Stay tuned for updates.

Happy Hunting!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

CTTC 2026 Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt - Flyers

 "Thank You!" to our Central Texas Treasure Club's Co-Huntmasters Joshua Furry and Caiden Tyler for creating and preparing these 3 flyers for our October 10th CTTC 2026 Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt in Brownwood! If you need a printable copy of our Hunt Registration form, you can find it in our Central Texas Treasure Club's Facebook page Files section or on our Featured Post at the top of our Facebook page. Get your Early Bird Entries in the mail today!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

2026 CTTC Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt - Brownwood, Saturday, October 10th!

 Here's what many of you have been waiting for! Our 2026 Central Texas Treasure Club Friou Allen Memorial Open Hunt coming on Saturday, October 10, 2026!  Get your printable copy of this year's Flyer/Registration Form in our Club's Facebook group's Files section.  If you don't use Facebook, email your request for the printable copy to centraltexastreasureclub@gmail.com . Early Bird Entries still only $25 so get your fee and form in the mail today!

Hope to see you on October 10th in Brownwood!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

Most people don't realize that the Spaniards had a big presence and influence right here in what is now Brown County and in rural central Texas. That's why all treasure hunters in this area or any area need to have some knowledge of carvings and symbols that may lead you to some very old and rewarding lost treasure caches. Here are a couple that you should keep in mind when out with your metal detector or just out exploring. The first is a check mark. The second are drill holes. I don't recall ever finding a check mark in this area but I have found numerous drill holes in Brown and surrounding counties. An important fact to remember is that very little was known about the Knights of the Golden Circle when this book was published. Now, however, we know that many treasure signs used by the Spanish and by the ancient Knights Templar were also used by the KGC. These tips are from "Follow the Signs: A Treasure Hunter's Handbook", an excellent book written by Dayne Chastain (1977). We have a copy of this book in our Central Texas Treasure Club Library that may be checked out by dues-paid Members, for 1 month, at our monthly meetings or by picking them up at my home by appointment.

Page 57 - "When you find a check mark, it indicates you should follow the direction of the long side of the mark."

Page 59 - "A drill hole is a Spanish mark. At least, we have always found that the drill holes we have located throughout the countryside of a five state area have always been related to Spanish markings, and more than likely Spanish treasure or gold...

If you find one drill hole, you can find every drill hole in a five state area because one will lead you to another."

 

Which would you choose?

 Woods.  

Friou Allen, Central Texas Treasure Club Co-Founder, Has Passed Away

 

Friou Allen, Central Texas Treasure Club's Co-Founder and my lifelong friend, passed away at 5:00 a.m. this morning at his home in Brownwood.

Friou's funeral will be at 10:00 a.m. Friday, May 8th at Heartland Funeral Home in Early with Visitation from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Thursday.

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

Today's CTTC 2026 April Surprise Hunt Was A Big Success!

 

Our Central Texas Treasure Club Members had a great time at this morning's 2026 CTTC Members-Only April Surprise Hunt in Brownwood. Thanks to Lisa Alldredge for doing a great job of photographing our Members having fun! 26 Members participated. The number of Club Members attending our activities continues to grow each year. While the most prevalent natural find today was old pull tabs, a couple of Members made some other nice natural finds. Caiden Tyler pulled a 1923 90% silver Mercury dime from the ground and Tommy Faught found a heavy octagonal "Bell System" telephone pole tag from the site.

Yesterday, I buried 3 special prize tokens - 2 for Mercury dimes and 1 for the Grand Prize, a beautiful Brilliant Uncirculated 1922 Peace Silver Dollar. Members Kendall Thomas and "Lucky Mike" Alldredge found the dime tokens and Alvis Boyce found the silver dollar token. Congratulations guys! I estimate that overall our Members cleanly removed over 300 aluminum pull tabs, pop-tops, and assorted aluminum and other trash from the site! Our next regular monthly meeting will be on Tuesday, May 5th. Visitors are always welcome and invited to attend.

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

2026 CTTC Members-Only April Surprise Hunt - Saturday, April 25th!

 Central Texas Treasure Club's 2026 Members-Only Annual April Surprise Hunt date has been set for Saturday, April 25th. We'll gather at Pat Coursey Park at the corner of East Baker and Center Streets in downtown Brownwood BY 10:00 a.m. We'll caravan to the secret hunt site from there about 10:05. Members are encouraged to wear your Club caps and shirts to this hunt to promote and raise public awareness to our Club. Shovels will not be allowed during this Hunt. Small hand-diggers only.

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Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

The Treasure of Dry Pond - Near Goldthwaite in Central Texas

 Most traditionalist "historians" and high-and-mighty archaeologists scoff at the suggestion that our area of Central Texas holds massive amounts of buried treasure, including that left well-hidden by the Spaniards and Spanish settlers. Treasure hunters over the past century and a half have proven otherwise. Here's one such story of many treasure hunters who have sought Spanish treasure near Goldthwaite, just 30 or so miles from Brownwood.

 https://www.texaslostmines.com/dry_pond.html 

 Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

Tip from a Professional Treasure Hunter - Old Forts

 

Tips From a Pro - Hunting Old Forts

From: the late professional treasure hunter Robert F. Marx

"Besides the many old forts which are now National Monuments or State Historical sites, off-limits to treasure hunters, there are thousands of others in ruin. In some cases only the sites now exist and no traces of the original structures are visible; most of these sites are not off-limits. Old forts are similar to ghost towns in that they had private dwellings, stores, shops, trash dumps, wells, and outhouse pits in addition to military buildings. Around the old barracks one usually finds weapons, shot, cooking and eating utensils, smoking pipes, buttons, watches and chains, jewelry, and scattered coins. The big bonanza are the places where soldiers stashed their individual caches of coins. Military men had two problems: how to safeguard their valuable from their comrades and where to keep their money when they went off on long patrols from which many never returned. Because most forts were overcrowded and privacy was practically nonexistent, soldiers generally hid their small caches outside the fort, usually within walking distance, in and around places which could be easily relocated. The most likely spots to search are near the base of a tree or in or near a prominent natural feature. A Fort Pierce, Florida treasure hunter specializes in finding the small hoards left behind by soldiers. Working a number of Seminole War period fort ruins he has turned up over $100,000 in coins and jewelry. (1978 values) His largest find consisted of 44 gold, twelve silver, and one brass coin, as well as a gold wedding band and a silver pocket watch, which he found under a pile of rocks about 100 paces from the fort ruins."

Photo is of Presidio San Saba at Menard in central Texas. This site is a state historical landmark so its off-limits to treasure hunting but there are many other old Spanish and other forts in Texas that are on private land and can be detected with permission from the landowners. A lot of these have never been found or documented.

 

 

 

Tip from a Professional Treasure Hunter - Ghost Towns

 

Treasure Hunting Tip from the late professional treasure hunter Robert F. Marx.

Ghost Towns

"Many modern treasure hunters prefer exploring ghost towns to any other type of site for the simple reason that they are easy to find - many are still shown on current road maps. There is always the possibility of finding a buried cache of treasure. Besides, you never come home empty-handed as you are sure of finding at least some interesting, and sometimes valuable, artifacts and a few old coins. There are thousands of ghost towns from Maine to California..."

***

There are A LOT of them right here in Brown County and neighboring Central Texas counties! Get busy! 

Take a look at this 1907 postal map of Comanche County for example.

 

Get Ready! Speed-Gold-Panning Workshops Coming Up!

 

I announced plans to hold some speed-gold-panning workshops this spring for interested Central Texas Treasure Club Members at our February CTTC meeting. The first one will be held some Saturday in May.

I decided to share these secrets, that I learned from the then-World Champion Speed Gold-Panner and professional treasure hunter Richard Ray in 1984, with dues-paid Club Members who want to learn. I've used this technique successfully to pan gold for many years. Once you learn these secrets, you can forget about the old, slow methods of panning gold that you've heard about your entire life.

There will be only 2 requirements to sign up for these free workshops.

1) You must be a dues-paid Central Texas Treasure Club Member.

2) You must have or buy a 14" Garrett Gravity-Trap (Gold Trap) Gold Pan like the one in the photo. This is the ONLY gold pan that you may use as it's the kind I learned with and the only kind I can teach you how to use successfully and it must be the 14" pan.

Each workshop will include only 3 Members and myself and will be held at a flowing Brownwood or Brown County creek. If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments. I will go over this information in our CTTC February Newsletter that I will send out in a few days and I'll start making a list of those Members who meet the requirements and want to participate at our March 3rd meeting.

You can find these pans on ebay but I believe Garrett offers the best price.

 

 https://garrett.com/garrett-14-gold-trap-pan/ 

 

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club 

 

 

 

The Importance of Research by Charles Garrett

 

The Importance of Research

"Research is a key to successful treasure hunting. Without proper and adequate research, you are shooting in the dark. Your efficiency and likelihood of successful recovery increases proportionately as the amount of your research increases. Without research you may not be as successful as you should or could be since 95% of a successful recovery usually depends on research. Always remember that you must go where the treasure is located. Even the world's finest metal detector can only inform you about what is beneath its searchcoil."

Charles Garrett 
 
 
 

Central Texas Treasure Club Meeting Tonight! Tuesday, February 3rd.

 Central Texas Treasure Club Regular Monthly Meeting Tonight! 6:30 p.m. at the old Early Chamber of Commerce Bldg. at 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early, Texas. Our monthly meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month at this time and location. Visitors are always welcome and encouraged to attend!

See you there!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

Central Texas Treasure Club Library Additions & New Policy

 

Central Texas Treasure Club Library

I will be adding some more treasure hunting/metal detecting books to our Club Library over the next few months. Only current dues-paid Members may borrow these books. The one that will be added for the February 3rd meeting is a fascinating book - "Follow the Signs - A Treasure Hunter's Handbook" by Dayne Chastain. We gave some of them away at our 2025 Central Texas Treasure Club Open Hunt but we didn't get a Sponsor for this copy. One of the perks of being CTTC President is that I'll get to read our library books first!   I read this one and loved it. 

 New Library Policy - Our CTTC Secretary/Treasurer Jen Evetts will be in charge of keeping up with the book borrowers, due dates, and such. Members may only check out one book per month. A $5 late fee will be charged to any Member who doesn't return a book to the Library before or at the next meeting after the book is checked out. $5 will be added for each month thereafter that it's overdue. 

Thank you,

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

CTTC Members Detecting Old Brown County Fairgrounds in 2014

 

I took this photo of our Central Texas Treasure Club Members in January, 2014 when we were given permission to metal detect the old Brown County Fairgrounds Racetrack for one morning. About 15 of us showed up for that one-time opportunity when the property was in the custody of a local bank. We were honored to have a 90-year-old man share his memories of the old track. He told us he went to it when he was a young man. He said they had horse races and motorcycle races there. I was excited because I knew that William C. "Bloody Bill" Anderson regularly attended and bet on horse races there as his youngest son Patrick Henry Anderson told of how he used to go to the races with his father who would leave home with his pockets bulging with silver dollars. I also suspect Jesse Woodson James attended them and may have even had one of his horses entered.

A couple of Members found a few old coins that day. I didn't find any coins but my prize for the day was this very small horseshoe that I found with my detector. I have it hanging on my Relic Fence in the backyard along with many other of my most interesting old iron and metal relics that were all found with my detectors. We were also able to locate the concrete foundation where the old Grandstands once stood. The old track is on private property now and I don't know who owns it. The field is located behind the DPS Office and the old Staples store in Commerce Square in Brownwood.

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

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