Waiting for some lucky finder, the bulk of this treasure still lies imprisoned in sand dunes and the purple depths of the island’s coast. The _Nicaragua_, which went aground on Padre, never to be budged again, forty miles north of Padre Beach on the night of October 16, 1912, is still clearly visible. It is generally agreed there are still many large caches buried on the island. Some were secretly stashed away by pirates, smugglers and other outlaws who used the island as a rendezvous and safe hiding place. Padre was distinguished as a pirates’ summer hangout. Pirates’ earrings and noserings have been recovered from the sand. Lafitte is said to have buried a fortune in gold, here on Padre, beneath a millstone with the inscribed command “Dig Deeper!” Several years ago a treasure hunting party, with a chart pinpointing a Spanish dagger plant and three brass spikes, began their search for the Lafitte treasure. Spanish dagger plants they found by the thousands but no brass spikes, and hence the cache is still waiting to be uncovered. Lafitte dug Port Isabel’s first water well to replenish his ships with sweet water. He, too, had discovered that fresh water could be found under the sand hills around Laguna Madre. The Lafitte wells are now an interesting tourist attraction. Old English and Spanish gold and silver coins, dating back as far as the 1600’s, have been unearthed, as have stacks of dollars in rusty cans, and jewelry consisting of rings, brooches, earscrews, bracelets and necklaces. Many of these treasures have been purchased by museums. Respectable people, as well as robbers of the sea, often used Mother Earth as a safe hiding place. The owner of a buried cache often met death at the hands of Indians without having revealed to anyone the location of his valuables. Money Hill is a sand dune reputed to be filled with a fortune of old coins, silver, gold and jewelry, hidden by John Singer. Some say that the real Money Hill is near Padre Beach, others say at the north end of Padre Island, and still others hold that it is on neighboring Mustang Island. One version has it that Singer and his young son rowed six miles up Laguna Madre from their Rancho Santa Cruz home, now referred to as “Lost City,” to bury the fortune in a dune marked by two small oak trees. Regardless of which story you care to accept, the Money Hill containing the Singer fortune never has been found. When the Singer family and their ranch hands fled during the Civil War, it was said they buried eighty-five thousand dollars in a screwtop jar along with Mrs. Singer’s emerald necklace, under the foundation of the ranch home. This, too, has never been found, although Lost City itself was discovered in 1931 by Charles Hardin and a treasure hunting party. Here is his story: