In the spring of 1961 an old retired Louisiana state official was finishing a week long fishing trip out of Buras Louisiana. As the old retired Louisiana state Official was off-loading his fishing gear from his boat, he noticed a strange piece of planking stuck in the rigging of a near by oyster-boat.
He was intensely taken with the exotic planking. He went over to the oyster-boat for a closer look. Indeed the planking was very strange. The old oyster-man who owned the oyster-boat thought the retired State Official was strange. The retired State Official wanted that hunk of wood. The old oyster-man now believed the retired State Official was touched.
The retired State Official ask the old oyster-man where he gotten the wood planking. And the old oyster-man told him "In oyster-bed where no oyster-bed should be, in Bay of Spanish Barge". "The Bay of Spanish Barge"!? The retired State Official asked. "Yes M'sieur, the Bay of Spanish Barge. A big Spanish Barge sank there in big blow (hurricane). long before Jean Lafitte's time", the old oyster-man told the retired State Official. The retired State Official asked the old oyster-man, where is the Bay of the Spanish Barge? And the old oyster-man told him, "between here and Grand Isle".
The retired State Official asked the old oyster-man if there was any treasure there? And the old oyster-man said "yes, many big oysters there every year".
The retired State Official took the wood planking back to Baton Rouge for examination by the State Agriculturist. Their test revealed the planking was made from trees only grown in Central and South America. Upon learning of this he began to research any and all Spanish barges lost along the Louisiana coast prior to 1800.
After 32 months of research he learned of the Lost Spanish Treasure Barge and of it's only surviving Spanish Conquistador.
This is what the old retired State Official learned: Before 1800 there was a great Spanish expedition to bring looted Indian treasure (Gold, Silver, Gem Stones) from Central America back to Spain. The plunder was so great the three Spanish ships of the expedition could not hold it all. The Spanish had to build an immense barge.
Once the barge was built the Spanish loaded the Indian treasure onto the barge. To help safe-guard against piracy the Spanish would take the northern Route through the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida straights. They would also post two Conquistadors on the barge at all times.
With the barge in tow the sailing was slow. On a good day the Spanish expedition would make 50 miles a day. While in the central Gulf of Mexico the Spanish expedition encountered a hurricane. The three ships of the Spanish expedition sank in the fury of the storm. One of the Conquistadors on the barge was washed over-board. The other Conquistador took shelter down in the barge. For days the barge, treasure, and surviving Conquistador, were tossed around in the raging tempest.
One morning the Conqistador awoke to silence, no howling wind, no sound of violent storm tossed seas pounding against the barge. The barge was no longer pitching, the barge was still.
The Conquistador came out of the barge and looked around him. He and the barge was in an inland bay, in a great marshland.
The Conquistador abandoned the treasure barge and wandered through the marshland for days. When the Conquistador's water and food ran-out he lost all hope of ever seeing home (Spain) again.
He expected a slow death in the wilderness. At that point a band of Indians came upon him. The Conquistador now expected an agonizing death from the Indians. But the Indians of the Barataria Basin did not know of Spain or the Spanish Conquistadors who pressed Indians into slavery.
The Conquistador lived with the Barataria Indians for three years. He learned from the Indians how to live off the land (the marsh). One day the Conquistador made the decision to fined a way to Florida, and a Spanish outpost.
He made his way north up the Mississippi River to where Baton Rouge is today. From there he made his way across the Mississippi river. From one Indian village to the next, eastward, always eastward. Days passed into weeks, weeks passed into months, months passed into years.
One day the Conquistador came out of the wilderness into a Spanish outpost in Florida. The Conquistadors of the Spanish outpost first thought he was an Indian. He did look like a Indian at this point.
The Conquistador told the commander of the outpost who he was and of the expedition he was part of, along with an account of his nine year ordeal in the wilderness. The commander of the outpost put the Conquistador on the first ship for Spain.
Once the Conquistador was back in Spain he gave a report to Officials of the Spanish government. The Spanish sent a salvage expedition after the Lost Treasure Barge. Once the salvage expedition reached the Barataria Basin the Spanish never attempted to enlisted the aid of the Barataria Indians. The Spanish were brutal to the Indians, killing and violently raping many of them.
The Indians would never tell the Spanish the barge sank, and where it sank. After five years the Spanish abandon hope of finding the Treasure Barge.
This is what the retired Louisiana State Official learned from his research. He also learned the value of the Gold, Silver, and Gem Stones was worth a billion dollars.
The retired State Official would have to induce the old oyster-man to show him where the wood planking came from. He would also have to learn all he could about the area from the oyster-man (in order to know what time of the year to salvage the treasure from the barge with out being noticed!), and keep the old oyster-man incognito while he planned and salvaged the treasure.
In the fall of 1964 the retired State Official went back to Buras. He found the old oyster-man and offered to pay the oyster-man $40.00 to show him where the wood planking came from. The old oyster-man agreed (in 1964 $40. was like $200. today).
Soon after the retired State Official and oyster-man were on the oyster-boat, and on their way to the Bay of the Spanish Barge.
After a few hours of the sailing through a number of bayous and bays, the oyster-man drooped his outriggers. After 15 minutes or so the oyster-boat came to a sudden stop and then lurched forward.
The oyster-man raised the outriggers. In one of the outriggers was a large wood plank. The oyster-man told the retired State Official "this where wood come from"!
The retired State Official now offered to pay the oyster-man $100.00 to sail him to Leeville. The old oyster-man agreed to take him to Leeville (for the old oyster-man a $140.00 for a day of not working was a great pay day).
For several hours they sailed across the Barataria Basin. It was almost midnight when they reached Leeville on Bayou Lafourche. Unknown to the old oyster-man the retired State Official had a reception committee waiting for them at Leeville.
When they landed at Leeville the reception committee seized the oyster-man, and bound & gagged him. Then they put him in a van, they drove to West Baton Rouge Parish, where the old oyster-man would be held captive and interrogated.
It would be a month before the old oyster-man would be interrogated. Until then He was given anything he wanted to eat (beef-steak three times a day), he was also given booze and prostitutes.
The day came for the interrogation. The oyster-man was asked if he would like to have $100,000 in cash, and if so, would he tell all about the Barataria Basin, around the bay of the Spanish Barge, and stay in captivity until the work with the barge was completed?
The old oyster-man asked: "How can I trust you"? The retired State Official handed the oyster-man a suitcase with $100,000. cash in it, plus $140.
Over the next several months a salvage expedition was planed and assembled. The salvage fleet would consist of 4-36 foot cabin-cruisers, 1-33 foot cabin-cruiser, 1-40 foot supply barge, 1-55 foot utility barge, 2-50 foot cargo barges, 1-33 foot dive utility boat, 6-45 foot house-boats, 3-20 foot runabouts, And for security 10 mercenaries (all combat veterans of the Korean war).
Once on seen of the Lost Treasure Bargethe salvage fleet would have only 130 days to salvage all the Treasure. The salvage fleet would assemble at the Anchor Marina on Grand Isle. On the morning of September 5th, 1965 the retired State Official set-sail with the salvage fleet. The fleet was last seen rounding the Grand Isle sea-buoy heading East. With a Billion Dollars of Treasure almost in hand he was not going to let Hell or high water stop him! And that was his undoing, 4 days later Hurricane Betsy roared into the Barataria Basin. Betsy's eye passed over the Anchor Marina, on Grand Isle.
The following April, family members of the salvage expedition came to Grand Isle to fined out what happened to their relations. At that time no one on Grand Isle know of a salvage expedition for lost Spanish Treasure. A search party was organized to fined the salvage fleet. No one expected to fined any survivors of the salvage fleet. Wreckage of the salvage fleet was scattered over a 100 square mile area. No bodies were ever found.
To this day somewhere between Grand Isle and the Mississippi River, in a bay once known as the bay of the Spanish Barge an enormous treasure is waiting to be found.
