We have had a lot of foot traffic in the store this summer and honestly it has been quite fascinating.  I have heard conflicting opinions on the subject and really I don’t know enough to have an opinion one way or the other.  My 70 something year old ears are relaying messages to my brain that can not be translated.  All kidding aside, Pokemon, Peekaboo, Poopachoo, & Macrame mean nothing to me. BUT, I tell you truthfully, a good treasure hunt does!

This Pokeman Go search reminded me about a story my mother use to tell me and so I would like to tell you the story….the story of treasure lost! I am not talking about imaginary made up treasure but real treasure.  A lost treasure, a Lindale legend called “The Litchford Gold”.

So the story goes….Back in the mid 1800’s, a settler by the name of Mr. Litchford came to the area from the Kentucky/Tennessee part of the country to establish a home for his fiancé that he had left behind.  After having his land surveyed and prepared, he was ready to return for his fiancé and bring her back to their new homestead in Texas.  Before he left, he buried a cache of gold coins because it was too risky to take with him on such a long trip.  Sadly, Mr. Litchford never made it back to Texas.  He fell sick and died before his return.  Unfortunately, he never told anyone where he buried the gold.  The only clue to where the fortune might be was that one of his workers saw the direction in which he traveled to bury the treasure.

My great grandfather Joseph Newton Vandiver bought part of the Litchford place in the late 1800’s and along with the purchase came the legend.  My mother grew up on the Litchford place and she said as a young girl (1920’s) it was very common place for people to come to their farm with shovels and dig all around searching for that buried treasure.  I’ll admit that my brother and I got caught up in the hunt a few times as well.  We spent many an hour digging with friends for “The Litchford Gold”.  The only treasure we found was in the form of berries, “blackberries” that my grandfather farmed.

As far as I know the treasure was never found.  I’m pretty sure that is true, because I had a dream in the early 1970’s exactly where the treasure was buried and I have yet to go discover it.   Maybe I need to play a version of that Peekaboo Go game except I’ll call my version Litchford GO-ld!