Jim Bradshaw: Looking for Lafitte’s treasure and for grandmere’s jewels

Lafitte is supposed to have scuttled a treasure-filled schooner in a place called Bottle Neck on the Sabine River, near Niblett’s Bluff in Calcasieu Parish.
Nobody’s ever found any trace of it, but it still became a part of local lore.
At one time there was a billboard on U.S. 90 near the Sabine bridge telling folks arriving from Texas that “Lafitte Buried His Treasure Here Near 40 Gum Trees.” Nobody’s found the gum tree grove, let alone the treasure.
As a matter of fact, the places in south Louisiana once rumored to hide Lafitte’s gold probably outnumber those without a treasure tale.
His horde might be on Kelso’s Island in Calcasieu Lake, or buried on Pecan Island, or Grand Terre, or Grand Isle, or along Contraband Bayou in Lake Charles (so named because a few doubloons once washed out of its banks), or on Jefferson Island (where a worker once dug up a handful of Mexican coins), or on the grounds of any of the plantations Lafitte may or may not  have visited.
William Hargruder was 83 years old in 1910, when he finally figured out where Lafitte buried treasure believed to be worth $32 million.
Luckily, he was still a vigorous fellow who had the wherewithal to put together a big expedition to find it.
There are missing pieces in newspaper accounts (there always are in stories about buried treasure), but Captain Hargruder, “a sailor of many years’ experience.” had “given the lost treasure of Jean Lafitte a lifetime study,” according to the St. Landry Chronicle.
He’d spent “large sums of money” on three expeditions that turned up no treasure but did uncover clues that made him sure he was closing in on his goal.
According to the sketchy accounts, Hargruder’s father sailed with Lafitte and left his son some old charts “with strange markings on them” and, the newspaper said, “he has recently come into possession of another original chart which describes the position of the lost treasure so definitely, and gives such well established landmarks, that it will be but very little labor and expense to get [to] the exact location described, where it is expected, from figures on this chart, the $32,000,000 … will be found.” The charts led him to White Lake in Vermilion Parish, “in which vicinity it is supposed the search will be made.”
The captain took with him “a geologist, a mining engineer, a civil engineer, and a large corps of laborers,” according to another account.
The Orange, Texas, newspaper reported that Hargruder planned to “make a thorough search of all … places adjacent to the lake where it is thought likely that the wily pirate may have secreted his treasure.”
Alas, the new-found clues were not as precise as the captain believed them to be, or, more likely, Lafitte never had $32 million to bury.
If he did bury his treasure near White Lake, it’s still there.
A good many of the family stories involve gold coins or old silver or priceless jewels believed to have been buried to save them from looters during the Civil War.
Some of those tales probably are more authentic than stories of pirate treasure, but the fortunes are just as elusive. In my family, the story is that $30,000 in gold coins was buried somewhere near an ancestral home to hide it from roving bands of bandits.
We’ve hunted. Nobody’s richer.
A bit of folklore might help if you’re inclined to go treasure hunting.
The best day to find treasure is on the second day of the full moon.
You will never find anything if you talk, spit, curse, or sweat while you’re digging but you may get lucky if grandmere remembered to bury a rooster’s head with the family jewels.
Everybody knows that the rooster will crow if the treasure’s rightful owner comes near.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.