1865 Texas State Treasury Robbery Loot — Austin

At the chaotic end of the Civil War, Confederate state leaders fled toward Mexico while looters ransacked Austin. Historian Patrick Cox described a resident's diary entry: "Everything is confusion, and there is no law." An estimated 20–30 robbers broke the treasury safe on a bright moonlit night. Church bells rang; citizens fired on the fleeing gang, killing one robber. The survivors split into groups heading west and north with roughly $17,000 — worth on the order of millions in today's dollars. No arrests and no recovery followed. Treasure hunters later linked the treasury haul to digs along Walnut Creek and Shoal Creek. KUT and Texas historians treat the robbery as documented fact; buried-cache locations are unverified legend.