TexasCharley
There are 3 things to remember about the lost San Saba mine. First, it's not lost. La Cueva de San Jose del Alcazar, locally known as the 'Boyd Shaft,' is located along Texas 71 in Llano County, south of the city of Llano. The 'cerro de almagre' is called Riley Mountain these days. The shaft, which was positively identified as la Cueva de San Jose del Alcazar in 1907 by Dr. Herbert C. Bolton, author of TEXAS IN THE MIDDLE 18TH CENTURY, is located on private property & is not open to the public.
Second, the 'lost San Saba mine' is nowhere near anything called San Saba.
Third, James bowie never searched for a mine & never mined anything in his life. The whole Tres Manox/Xolic story is pure fiction. Spain--and later Mexico--shipped bar silver by mule train across Texas to New Orleans, where it bought letters of credit to engage in international trade. Bowie, being the son-in-law of the vice-governor of Coahuila & Texas, which were at the time considered a single province, knew the routes and times of those trains. He and his compatriots simply waited in the rocks alongside the trail, then cut off the last three or four mules. This comes from Ralph A. Doyal, grandson of Matthew A. Doyal, also sometimes called Matteo Diaz in the Bowie story. Matt Doyal was with Bowie, his brother Rezin, Caiphas Hamm, & others in the Calf Creek fight in 1831 & was wounded there. The Indians in the fight were Wacos & Tawakonis, not Lipans. Ralph heard the story from his grandfather many times in his youth, & in 1948 he first told it to me.
Second, the 'lost San Saba mine' is nowhere near anything called San Saba.
Third, James bowie never searched for a mine & never mined anything in his life. The whole Tres Manox/Xolic story is pure fiction. Spain--and later Mexico--shipped bar silver by mule train across Texas to New Orleans, where it bought letters of credit to engage in international trade. Bowie, being the son-in-law of the vice-governor of Coahuila & Texas, which were at the time considered a single province, knew the routes and times of those trains. He and his compatriots simply waited in the rocks alongside the trail, then cut off the last three or four mules. This comes from Ralph A. Doyal, grandson of Matthew A. Doyal, also sometimes called Matteo Diaz in the Bowie story. Matt Doyal was with Bowie, his brother Rezin, Caiphas Hamm, & others in the Calf Creek fight in 1831 & was wounded there. The Indians in the fight were Wacos & Tawakonis, not Lipans. Ralph heard the story from his grandfather many times in his youth, & in 1948 he first told it to me.