San Jacinto Santa Anna Payroll Marsh

After Sam Houston's surprise afternoon attack, the Mexican army collapsed in minutes. TreasureNet and Dobie-era folklore hold that aides hurriedly dumped the army payroll and Santa Anna's personal valuables into a nearby marsh rather than let Texans capture them. Some accounts say Juan Seguín's Tejano scouts recovered the goods shortly afterward; others insist part of the hoard was never found. J. Frank Dobie wrote in Coronado's Children that countless pay chests may have been lost in Texas streams during the retreat. The San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site preserves the battlefield. Coordinates mark the battleground and marsh interface along the San Jacinto River.