Pease Park Buried Treasure — Austin

Pease Park lies along Shoal Creek just west of downtown Austin, donated by Governor E.M. Pease and his wife in 1875. The park shares the same treasure-hunting fever that swept Austin in the 1890s when rumors of Mexican payroll gold along Shoal Creek made headlines. TreasureNet archives cite Austin newspaper accounts of $60 in silver dollars buried in the park in 1893, plus a larger $100,000 gold hoard legend in the same area. These may be distinct stories or variants of the broader Shoal Creek tradition documented by O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) in 1894. Travis County Treasurer A.J. "Dad" Jernigan famously borrowed county funds to dig for Shoal Creek gold in the 1890s — a scandal that ended in tragedy at the courthouse in 1896. No treasure from any Pease Park or Shoal Creek tale has been authenticated.