Trinidad and La Veta Treasures

With this tale, I'm heading back to the Trinidad area. Most of these first tales are located in areas where I spend most of my time in the summer, Trinidad, Purgatory, Alamosa, Silverton, Westcliffe, Silvercliffe, Canon (pronounced Canyon) City, Buena Vista and Monte Vista. There's so much to do here in the summer as far as exploring that if you get bored here, it's your own fault! lol!

This first tale takes us back down south to the area around Trinidad. In 1864 the Reynolds gang, a group of Confederate guerrillas made their way into Colorado. Their plan was to steal all the gold they could and take it back to help the Confederate cause. They caused all kinds of havoc in southern Colorado. At one point they went into New Mexico and just outside of Santa Fe, robbed a stagecoach on the eastern trail.

They headed back north into Trinidad where they split up. The leader, John Reynolds took off towards the little town of Purgatoire. People there were very suspicious of him so he headed out that night. Somewhere along the trail his horse went lame. He couldn't carry the loot, and the horse was useless so he buried the loot, that at that time equaled about $50,000.00, along side the trail about 2 miles outside of Trinidad.

It's said that John Reynolds told this tale as he lay dying.

This next tale takes place just a little ways north, near La Veta.