Will Welton

The Young West Will Welton

When most people hear the word Oklahoma, they think about the Oklahoma Land Run, cowboys and Indians, and the oil boom. However, they do not realize there are many treasures that were lost throughout history in the state of Oklahoma. Things told and remembered of outlaw gold but none ever reported supposedly recovered. Even though there has been hundreds of moneys recovered that could have been outlaw gold that has been reported. Some of the lost treasures have no exact location. The owners just knew that while traveling through the Oklahoma territory their treasures disappeared, mainly because they forgot where they hide the money. Other stories centered about outlaws such as the silver coins buried in Le Flore County on the Holsum Valley road near the old Sulpher River Bridge. The legend states that bandits somewhere along the roadside hid around half a bushel of silver coins. More outlaws gangs as tales told, buried their stolen loot at what is now Roman Nose State Park close to Watonga in Blaine County. Famous outlaw gangs Henry Starr, Doolin and Dalton, Rufus Buck, Belle Starr, Jessie James, Frank James and Ned Christie hid their loot in Robber's Cave State Park close to Wilburton in Latimer County. The James brother's careers lasted nearly 16 years, and over 75 robberies totaling $6 million Northeastern Oklahoma Counties. There are many stories of Jesse James loot hidden in the state. There are stories of the treasure buried from the Northern Counties of Oklahoma, near Kansas, to Bryon County on the Red River in the south. Since the James gang came from Missouri, many people believe that they hid out in the Nation during a cooling off period from robberies. This is about one of the stories told by folks in the eastern part of the state where I lived at the time while working in my younger days. Also of some other information that I acquired over the years has been added. The real person that Spoof Jones character portrays in this book really did exist. He became a known figure in the Choctaw Nation and the Cherokee Nation fighting for the rights of Indians to vote and be citizens of the United States. However two years after his death President Roosevelt signed into law a proclamation in the year of 1939 which gave the American Indians the right to vote because they were born in the United States.