Treasure Mountain

The mountain is actually named Citadel Mountain. The legend of the lost "Spanish Gold" stems from an expedition financed and organized by Napoleon Bonaparte. Rumors of gold had been heard by the French court, at this time the French had laid claim to the whole of the Louisiana Territory.

Napoleon needed to finance his ambitions and had decided to sell the territory. So an expedition was organized in New Orleans to explore and put to rest this rumor before the decision was made to sell. The Spanish had laid claim to the territory and of course the Conquistadores had done much exploring of this new world. Many maps and reports were made.

Over 300 French soldiers and miners set out from New Orleans traveling up the Missouri River. At some point they struck out on foot into the mountains. It took more than a year, but they found gold. The expedition mined the gold for several seasons and had amassed a fortune in gold bars.

When winter came they were trapped in the mountains. It was a terrible winter, one of the worst in memory. Many of the men died, and the survivors were forced to cache the gold and attempt to walk out of the mountains in the dead of winter. Only a handful survived.

The survivors made maps showing the location of the cache. But somehow the treasure was never recovered. Some say it was because Napoleon sold the territory before the survivors made it back. Others claim the Indians killed the last survivors before they could return.

Today the mountain is called Treasure Mountain. It sits at the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Many have searched for the treasure. Some claim to have found the cache, but no one has ever produced the gold.