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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Sharing Treasure Hunting Tips

 I'm brushing up on my real treasure hunting skills after reading Rosie Priddy's amazing new book: "Bud Hardcastle: The Truth Tracker". Last night, I began reading "Follow the Signs: A Treasure Hunter's Handbook" (1997) by Dayne Chastain. This book is humorous but it also has some very important treasure signs and true treasure stories in it. I made note of the following story because it provides a good tip to locating hidden treasure caches. This one caught my attention

***

Pages 27 & 28 - "...Hog pens are a favorite place for old farmers to hide their treasure, hog pens and fence posts.

Another hog pen north of Wewoka, Oklahoma proved more profitable. Jett had a friend from Wewoka who ran a general store. This friend told Jett about a hog farmer who, like the other one, would sometimes find coins when he went out to feed his pigs. These coins, however, were old silver dollars.

Jett and his friend went out and, with the farmer's permission, ran the metal detector around the hog pen. The land was sloping at about a thirty degree angle. At the higher end of the pen, Jett found and dug up a big bean post full of antique silver dollars.

They figured the pot had gotten tilted somehow and the silver dollars were just washing down into the pen a few at a time from the broken pot. Jett and his friend split the treasure with the delighted old farmer and went their separate ways."

***

This is one reason I love to hunt around old farmsteads.  

 

- Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club 

 

 

Meeting Tonight, Tuesday, January 6th!

 Our Central Texas Treasure Club will hold our 1st regular monthly meeting of 2026 tonight, Tuesday, January 6th.  Our regular meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month.  We meet at the old Early Chamber of Commerce Bldg. at 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early, Texas and the meeting begins at 6:30.

A new order of our amethyst CTTC shirts is in.  The price of those have risen again so the price of the new shirts will be $24, however, the previous 4 styles of Club shirts will still be available at tonight's meeting for $21 each.  After tonight, the price of ALL Club shirts will increase to $24 each so save a few bucks and buy your shirts at tonight's meeting!

I will be going over some of the new ideas I have for our Club this year at tonight's meeting so you won't want to miss it.  To fund these new Club projects and activities, we'll hold Special Fundraising Raffles at every meeting this year.  All proceeds from these Raffles will be used to pay for these events.  

Tonight's Special Raffle will be for a new copy of Steve Wilson's popular book "The Spider Rock Treasure: A Texas Mystery of Lost Spanish Gold"!  Raffle ticket prices for this Special Raffle are $2 each and will only be sold at the meeting.  You may purchase as many tickets as you want and both Members and Visitors may purchase them.  The drawing will be held after Finds of the Month voting is finished. 

See you tonight!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club 

325-646-1000 (no text)

 

2026 - Back to Our Roots!

 

Get Ready! 2026 is Going to be a Great Year to be a Central Texas Treasure Club Member!

Over the past several months, one recurring thought has kept coming to mind about our Club's future and how to make it brighter and a lot more fun for our Members. As some of you know, when my lifelong friend Friou Allen and I founded our Club in August, 1981, we intended to encompass ALL forms of treasure hunting into it. They include arrowhead hunting, metal detecting for small targets or "coin-shooting" as it was popularly called back then, gold mining, fossils, and especially locating outlaw treasure caches and individual "post-hole" banks where people buried their savings when there were no banks around or when they didn't trust banks for whatever reasons. That's why we named our Club the Central Texas Treasure Club, not just a metal detecting club. Over the decades since our Club's founding, we've gotten away from many of these exciting aspects of treasure hunting. Well, in 2026, I'm going to lead our Club "back to our roots" as we incorporate more of these aspects into our Club Events and Activities!

Over the decades since 1981, I've pursued many of these other pursuits and I've learned a lot about them that I want to share with our Members so you can enjoy them too. I've come to firmly believe that there is more lost and buried treasure right here in Central Texas than there is in any other area of its size in the United States and possibly in the world! We're going to go after some of it in 2026! I've also been formulating some activities for our Members, such as field trips, hosting guest speakers who are experts in these various fields, as well as giving lessons to our Members on gold panning and sluicing, deciphering treasure signs and symbols (which can be found all over Brown County and Central Texas IF you know what to look for), and gaining permissions for our Club to seek out these lost treasures.

I will outline some of these activities at our regular monthly meetings throughout 2026. We'll also be holding Special Fundraising Raffles, every month, to pay for whatever expenses we need to achieve these goals. Our Secretary/Treasurer Jen Evetts will earmark all proceeds from these Special Raffles exclusively for that purpose.

As a result of needing to prepare and organize these exciting activities, I will be leaning on our Officers to do a lot of the other work that I've done in the past. I'll outline what that entails at our next monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 6th.

2026 - CTTC Back to our Roots Year!

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

Attached are photos of some "old-time" treasure hunters who sought the big treasures and found some.

 

"Bud Hardcastle: The Truth Tracker - Hot on the Trail of Jesse"

 This book is a real treasure hunter's dream! It's packed full of American and especially Texas history which includes many, many leads to finding real, lost buried treasure!  Bud Hardcastle, who passed away last year before this book was published, was a good friend of mine.  I contributed a lot of my lifetime of history and treasure hunting research to this 800-page book.

 https://rosannepriddy.com/ 

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

 

 

Central Texas Treasure Club Meeting Tonight, Tuesday, November 2nd + CTTC Membership Application

 

CTTC Meeting Tonight! Tuesday, December 2nd, 6:30 p.m., old Early Chamber of Commerce Bldg. at 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early, Texas. Visitors and New Members are always invited and encouraged to attend our meetings!

Central Texas Treasure Club Membership Application

Central Texas Treasure Club

Meets 1st Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the Early Chamber of Commerce Building, 104 E. Industrial Blvd. in Early, Texas.

Mail to: CTTC, c/o Jay Longley, 2207 Ave. B, Brownwood, Texas 76801

Jay Longley, President - (325)646-1000 - Email: centraltexastreasureclub@gmail.com - Club's Official Website: https://centraltexastreasureclub.blogspot.com

The Central Texas Treasure Club was co-founded in Brownwood, Texas in 1981 by Jay Longley and Friou Allen. We've been in operation continuously ever since. Our members have introduced hundreds of treasure hunters/metal detectorists into this healthy and enjoyable hobby over the years. We've found and returned numerous rings and pieces of jewelry to their owners and always have members available to help area residents find their lost rings and metal valuables for no charge. At our regular monthly meetings, we begin with a business meeting to discuss our goals as we move forward, accept new member applications, have a door prize drawing and a marble drawing to help fund our club, have a Find-of-the-Month display in which members share their best finds of the previous month and let members and visitors vote on which finds they think are the best. Immediately following the business meeting, we have a program with guest speakers who share helpful and interesting information and tips related to treasure hunting, metal detecting, and history. Our monthly meetings are open to the public and we invite and encourage visitors to attend. Free refreshments are available! We publish a monthly newsletter that's sent to every club member.

In addition to our monthly meetings and programs, we also hold regular club activities including group hunts where members gather and detect permission sites, club picnics where detecting is allowed and where our members can hunt the picnic location, special club meetings in which members get together and discuss new club projects and teach beginners how to use their metal detectors, field trips, and specialized workshops.

Central Texas Treasure Club - Membership Form

Dues for a full year are: Individual - $20, Family - $25 (full 12 months).

You can turn in your completed membership application below and dues to our club Secretary at our monthly meeting or you can mail the application with a check or money order for the amount to: CTTC, c/o Jay Longley, 2207 Ave. B, Brownwood, TX 76801

*******************************************************************************************************************

Central Texas Treasure Club Membership Application - Annual dues are: $20 for Individual or $25 for Family

By completing this form, you agree to abide by the Metal Detecting Code of Conduct which protects our hobby for future generations.

Your name:______________________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________ Apt. #: _______

City:_____________________________________ State:______________ Zip Code: ___________

Home Phone: ______________________ Work Phone: _______________________

Email: ______________________________________________

Names of additional family members (for Family Membership):

____________________________________ Relationship to first member ________________

_____________________________________ Relationship to first member ________________

_____________________________________ Relationship to first member _________________ 

 

2025 Central Texas Treasure Club Christmas Party!

Central Texas Treasure Club 2025 Christmas Party! Section Hand Restaurant in Brownwood, Tuesday, December 9th, at 6:00 p.m. Dues-paid Members and Families invited. Attendees need to bring one wrapped or packaged (hidden) gift, valued at about $15-$20, for the traditional gift exchange.

Please direct any questions about the Party to Jen Evetts, CTTC Secretary.

 

Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club

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Central Texas Treasure Club Annual Old-School vs New Tech Competition!

 2025 CTTC Members-Only Old School vs New Tech Competition - November 22nd!
Annual Central Texas Treasure Club's 2025 Old School vs New Tech Competition Saturday, November 22nd! This is a dues-paid Members Only Event.
I created this annual Competition in 2018 when I was first elected Club President. It's been a big and fun success! The rules are simple. We divide into 2 Teams when we get to the secret hunt location, depending on the detector each Member is using that day. The Old School Team will use only vintage metal detectors that are at least 30 years old and are discontinued models. The New Tech Team will use modern detectors (any detector less than 30 years old).
Hunters need to be at Pat Coursey Park, at the corner of Center Avenue and East Baker Street in downtown Brownwood, BY 10:00 a.m. I will then give the location of the hunt site and we'll leave for the destination about 10:10. The hunt will last for 90 minutes. The standings for the past 7 years are: New Tech - 5 wins, Old School - 1 win, and 1 draw.
See you on the 22nd!
Jay Longley, President, Central Texas Treasure Club
My Facebook Messenger isn't working so to contact me, call (no text) 325-646-1000 or Email: centraltexastreasureclub@gmail.com 
Pictured: Pat Coursey Park and 2024 Old School vs New Tech Teams.