Buried Treasure And Headless Horseman

By Author: jygco
Total Articles: 19
Comment this article

El Muerto, “the dead one”, is the story of a headless horseman that terrorizes the county side in west Texas/Southeast New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua Mexico. Most of us have heard about “El Muerto” and consider it to be pure fiction, but according to Dobie J. Frank, in the mid 1800’s this tale of a headless horseman atop a fiery black stallion is actually true.

Vidal was the name of the man who became the headless horseman. After the Mexican war, Mr. Vidal had betrayed his people and was working for the Americans when the war ended. He could no longer go back to Mexico, so to make a living he resorted to stealing horses and taking them to Mexico to sell them to who ever would buy the horses without asking questions. One night while most of the ranchers were off fighting against a Comanche raid, Vidal and his men struck a horse farm in San Antonio taking hundreds of horses. Unlucky for them, two of the ranchers had not gone to fight the Comanche and had stayed behind to look after their ranch. When they saw the thieves take the horses they gave chase. On the way they were joined by “Bigfoot Wallace, ...
... a famous name in Texas history and by all accounts a cold blooded killer.” They caught up to the thieves and killed them. It was Bigfoot Wallace who suggested that they should cut off Vidal’s head and strap his body to his horse to send a strong message to other horse thieves. This is how the legend began. People would see this abomination day or night as it terrorized the country side. Some would shoot the rider but he would just continue riding as if nothing had happened. People were scared out of their wits. Some hardened frontiers men were afraid of nothing, they said, so they sprung a trap on the horse and with a shot they brought him down instantly. When they approached the rider they saw it was mummified and full of bullet holes thus ending the mystery of the legend of “El Muerto” or did they?

There is a story of a husband and wife who bought a house in Anthony, New Mexico many years after the mystery was solved. The husband was a big drinker and would go out drinking with his friends every night and his wife would stay home. One night the wife heard what sounded like a horse was walking on the wooden bridge that was just outside the house. When she went outside to see what it was, she was terrified at the sight of this ghostly body on a fiery black stallion. When the husband returned from drinking all night, she told him what she had seen. Convinced that she was making the whole thing up just to keep him from enjoying his pleasures, after the third time she had told him the same story, he decided to stay home and prove to her once and for all that there was no headless horseman or any fiery black stallion for that matter. Sometime during the night, they both heard the horse steps on the wooden bridge. They both ran outside to see what it was and low and behold there it was, “El Muerto”.

“One side note of interest about El Muerto it is said that if one follows the headless rider, the mighty stallion will lead the follower to buried treasure.” I recommend that if you see “El Muerto” grab your metal detector. He just might lead you to a treasure or maybe somewhere else, who knows.

Visit us today at http://www.metaldetectoritall.com for all your treasure hunting needs