by Daniel V. Garcia
Daily Lobo
The following is a tale that overflowed from "Dan Digs" into "My Strange New Mexico."
I recently visited my grandmother and her friend, Tommy Gabaldon, who told me about a time in his youth when he found a treasure box filled with Spanish gold coins in Albuquerque.
The year was 1948, and Tommy was about 8 years old. He and some friends were tossing rocks at each other during a makeshift war game.
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"I was in a ditch about 12-feet deep over there on the hills," Gabaldon said. "I had run out of firecrackers, and I went to pull a rock. That's when I pulled a box out."
The box, about 8 by 14 inches, was hand carved.
"The box itself was worth a lot of money because it was made out of stone," Gabaldon said.
Inside the box, the youths made an astounding discovery.
"We found a bunch of coins. They looked like golden nuggets, really, from the 1800s and 1700s. They were pretty old coins,"
he said.
Along with the coins was a map, presumably to another hidden treasure location, and a
large key.
"That key was the type of key that you unfold. It opened up really big. You folded it about three times," Gabaldon said.
The youths, excited about their discovery, ran down the street loudly proclaiming their find. They drew the attention of a police officer who suspected that the coins were stolen. They were arrested and subsequently released to their parents but were not given the coinage.
"Pat Dugan (the chief of police at the time) probably used the money to retire. He retired early after that. It was a lot of money, you know. He told the folks that each coin was worth several thousands of dollars," Gabaldon said.
At this point in Gabaldon's story, I suspected that I was the recipient of a tall tale, until he mentioned to me that the events were documented in the Albuquerque Journal. A little investigative effort turned up the article from May 13, 1948. The article reveals that the Journal tried to locate the owner of the cache, and that several people came forward claiming to be its inheritors, including one person from California. It also quotes Dugan as saying, "I wouldn't give a dollar and a half for the whole lot."
"That's what they put in the paper, but it was worth more than that. Each coin was worth several thousands of dollars. I never heard anything about it again," Gabaldon said in response to Dugan's statement.
Dugan retired Sept. 3, 1948, four months after the incident. Efforts to contact his relatives in order to determine if he ever alluded to gold coins were unsuccessful, and the Albuquerque Police Department doesn't have accessible records of its history.
While the value of the cache and its fate remain uncertain, the unearthing of these events has been a treasure unto itself. Now, if only I could find the mother lode.
