I hope you're all feeling fine today. I have a story for you as fascinating and interesting as any you'll ever hear.
Every word of it is true, too. If you'll believe the word of old Jack Norris, a good friend of mine who lives in the San Fernando Valley in California.
It's the story of the famous treasure of Cahuenga Pass and how it got there.
From the tack room of Ken Maynard's Diamond Caye Ranch, we're bringing you stories of adventure,
stories of circus life, fascinating transcribed tales of the old west where cowboys still follow the cattle trails,
stories of rodeos and parades, colorful legends of the Red Man, hidden gold and buried treasures.
The exciting tales from the Diamond Caye are told by Hollywood's champion of western stars, internationally famous Ken Maynard.
Now while Ken is getting ready to spin another breathtaking yarn, I want to ask you buckaroos a question.
Have you closed your eyes and crossed your fingers when you've dropped one of mother's or dad's favorite phonograph records?
Boy, that's a breathtaking moment, I'll tell you.
But now if you have your very own phonograph records to play, you won't want to borrow your folks.
And you won't have to worry about breaking the records if you have a Diamond Caye record album of stories by Ken Maynard.
The Diamond Caye records are absolutely unbreakable.
Yes, sir, they're made of expensive vinylite that won't break like regular records, and they play so smoothly.
It's just like hearing Ken and Tarzan in person right in your own living room,
especially when Ken says hello to you and calls you by name right on the record.
Like, hello, Mickey. Hello, Louise. Or whatever your name is.
So the album will be especially yours.
Just send your name and address and the dollar bill to Records in Care at this station.
But be sure to include your name, buckaroos, so Ken can call you by name.
If you want the album sent to a friend, send your friend's name. But do it today.
Now here's Ken.
Well, folks, the story I'm going to tell you today is based on a real happening.
And I know you'll find it as interesting as I did.
It's the story of the treasure of Kalanga Pass.
I'd better explain first that Kalanga Pass is the name of a sharp two-mile highway
which connects Hollywood, California with the San Fernando Valley.
It follows an old pass through the Santa Monica Mountains.
Famous Hollywood is on the south, and the Great Valley of San Fernando is on the north.
When I'm in California, I drive through Kalanga Pass almost every day, just like thousands of other folks,
without thinking for a minute about its history or the strange story of the Kalanga Pass treasure.
Lots of people never even heard of it, and I might not have either
if Tarzan and I hadn't rode over to old Jack Norris Ranch one day for a visit.
He lived on the north end of the valley, up near the olive-growing country.
He had written me a letter about some fine Mexican saddles he wanted to sell,
and Tarzan and I went over to have a look at them.
We're sitting around the tack room talking.
He said, you know, a lot of interesting things went on in the days when California was a part of Mexico.
Well, even old Kalanga Pass over there has a treasure story that's a dandy.
Ever hear it? I had to admit I never had.
Well, get comfortable, and I'll tell you about it.
And here's the story he told me.
In the year 1864 or 1865, when Maximilian was emperor of Mexico,
the native Mexicans were in revolt against the Spanish rule.
They were trying to win their freedom by revolution, much like we won ours from England.
One of the generals leading the fighting was Pasito Vega.
He had a lot of trouble raising enough money to buy guns and ammunition,
so he called on the rich landowners to help out by giving their gold, jewels, and family treasures to the cause.
This they did, and General Vega collected a vast amount of diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones, and gold, and jewelry of every kind.
He selected the best of all these and trusted them with his favorite friend, General Carlos Riena.
Riena's instructions were to take the treasure secretly to San Francisco and sell it to raise money for munitions, food, and supplies for the Patriot's Mexican army.
General Riena selected three friends to help him on this dangerous mission.
There was Major Cecil Brompton, an English soldier of fortune, and a Captain Henry Malcolm,
who was an American adventurer fighting in the Mexican army, and Captain Orovia, a Mexican patron.
These four men carrying the golden jewels left Mazatlan and traveled northward, heavily armed and avoiding the settlements.
Some were on the way. General Riena fell sick and died.
The remaining three went on with the treasure to San Francisco.
Since General Riena had been the leader of the party, the three remaining felt they could not sell
unless someone with authority of the Mexican Patriots were there to supervise the sale.
So they decided to bury the treasure in the hills beyond San Bruno near Frisco
and send a messenger back to General Vega with the news that Riena had died and to await his orders.
In due time, General Vega himself arrived in Frisco to supervise the sale.
As soon as possible, the four went out one dark night to the lonely San Bruno hills to dig up the sacks,
since the Patriots were in great need of supplies.
They dug at the exact spot where Brompton, Malcolm, and Orovia had buried them, but as you may have guessed, they were gone.
Of course, this led to trouble. General Vega accused the three of stealing the treasure.
They said they were innocent. Then Bromley and Orovia accused each other,
and one hot word led to another until their guns were out and blazing.
When the smoke cleared, both men lay dead. Vega and Malcolm dug some more, but without result.
General Vega was almost crazy with rage, fear, and disappointment.
He would be disgraced forever if he went back without the supplies,
and only a lame story that the treasure had just vanished.
He did what he thought was his duty. He committed suicide.
Only Henry Malcolm was left of the original party.
He knew someone had taken the treasure, and that there would be a price on his head,
so he kept going north and later was killed in a saloon brawl.
This would be an end of the story, except for a strange thing which happened a few months later,
and I'll tell you about it in just a moment.
How about it, folks? Are you enjoying your visit to the Diamond Cave?
Well, I'll get along with the story in just a minute,
but I want to shoot the breeze about my Diamond Cave brand for a minute.
You know, I've always had my brand since I first started out in the rodeos,
and it's traveled me all over the country and Europe with the circus,
through Hollywood for movies, down in the jungles of Yucatan hunting for lost cities.
So naturally, I'm kind of fond of that brand, and I'm proud to know so many of you young fellows
have joined the Diamond Cave by wearing a K-shirt like mine.
The K-shirt, like I told you, is a trim-looking cotton shirt in a desert color
with a big red diamond K on the front that was made especially for me.
It has my picture and Tarzan's on the front, too.
I talked the fellow into making up some in buckaroo sizes to fit my young friends.
So if you want to join the Diamond Cave outfit by wearing a K-shirt,
just send me your name and address and what size you wear,
like a 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12,
and send along a dollar bill for the fellow who makes the K-shirt.
Ask Mom your size, she'll know.
Then send me your name and address and the dollar to K-shirt and care of this station,
and yours will be mailed out right away.
Pretty easy way to get a new shirt, I'd say.
Now let's get back to the story.
Well, now here's what happened next in the story of the treasure of Cahuenga Pass.
Several months later in the year 1865, a lonely traveler
leading three heavily loaded horses stopped for the night at an inn
which stood at the south end of Cahuenga Pass in what is now Hollywood.
That time the inn was the only stopping place between the Los Angeles Pueblo
and San Fernando Mission.
The traveler was coming from the north and seemed very tired and very sick.
The innkeeper, a man named Martinez, learned that the traveler was Diego Moreno,
a sheep herder from the San Francisco area.
He seemed very frightened of something and before he went to bed that night,
took all his horses with their heavy saddlebags back up the pass to the north.
He came back looking exhausted and without the saddlebag.
After stabling the horses, he went to bed.
In the middle of the night, Martinez, the innkeeper, was awakened by loud groans
coming from Diego Moreno's room.
He rushed up to see what was the matter.
Moreno was very ill.
He said he was sinking fast and might not live till morning.
Then he told Martinez this story.
One night he said when he was sitting in the lonely hills,
he heard three men riding up the valley below.
He heard the horses stopping out of curiosity and he slipped down the hill to watch them.
He crept close enough to see if they were burying something in the ground.
Six large bags which were very heavy.
After they had covered the hole carefully, they rode away without ever noticing Diego,
hidden behind a bush in the darkness.
He knew something valuable must be hidden there and after waiting long enough to be sure the men were gone,
he crept down and dug into the same spot.
The moment he uncovered the first leather bag, he reached his hand inside and his whole life was changed.
The temptation was too great.
He dug up all six of the packs and before dawn had stolen three horses,
load them with the two sacks apiece and headed south.
He left behind him unknowing the tragic consequences which befell Vega, Brompton, Malcolm, and Orovia.
He did not know that he had harmed seriously the cause of the Mexican Patriots.
He thought only of the great wealth that was now his.
His conscience must have bothered him though, for he told Martinez the endkeeper of a bad dream that came to him every night.
The dream told him to get rid of the treasure or die.
As he felt death approaching, he at last believed the warning and that very night had taken the treasure and buried it in the Coahuanga Pass.
In his words, I went north up the pass to the Five Mile Post, turned off the trail, went up to a big ash tree,
dug six holes, and buried there the accursed sacks.
I hope it's not too late, but it was too late for he died that same night.
Well, Martinez the endkeeper was greatly excited by this story and as you can imagine,
he lost no time getting up the trail to the Five Mile Post and the ash tree.
He took with him his little grandson named Jose about ten years old.
He found the right place, but the excitement was too much for his heart and he collapsed and died before he could even dig up one sack.
Little Jose, being frightened out of his wits, ran home and never told anybody until years later when his grandfather was looking for him.
Then about ten years later, we find a man named Echaparri.
He is now the owner and manager of the inn.
There are many sheep herders in the hills nearby and one of them, Miguel, has a dog.
This dog one day digs up a single sack in the pass.
Miguel takes it to Echaparri and the new innkeeper tells him it's very valuable.
Miguel must have found this to be true for the story goes that he soon after returned to Spain a very wealthy man.
That is, he started for Spain but never got there.
Strange bad luck was following him too.
He and what he had left of the jewels in that sack fell overboard as they reached Barcelona.
When the boy Jose grew up, he made friends with a major bell and they hunted for the remaining five sacks.
So while they were hunting one night, some suspicious landowner fired a rifle at them and killed Jose.
The major bell dropped the search and there the story rests for about fifty years.
Then one day, the Los Angeles man brought an old trunk at auction.
While going through it, he discovered an old map which had belonged to Jose.
It was dated April 11, 1892 and was hidden in a false bottom.
A circle was drawn around the treasure spot as Jose remembered it.
But this man never could find the right place.
Lots of other people have looked but no one's ever found it.
Somewhere today in Coahuanga Pass lies the treasure of old General Vega.
And there my story ends.
Jack Norris leaned back and looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.
What do you think of that tale, he said?
Well, of course, I thought it was the weirdest story I'd ever heard and lost no time making plans to hunt for the treasure.
This was around 1936.
I was pretty busy with my shows and movies and kept putting it off.
Then just as I was about ready to begin, I had to go off for a six-month tour.
And when I got back, other things kept me busy and it was several years later before I finally got around to seriously starting the expedition.
I hadn't been through the pass in quite a while and while I knew they were doing some work on it, I was not prepared for the sight which met my eyes.
There was a four-lane double highway with two roads on each side and a double streetcar line in the middle.
Bulldozers had cut down the hills and changed the whole place beyond recognition.
Where now was the five-mile post and where was the lonely hillside of Diego Marino?
And more to the point, where today are the five treasure sacks of General Vegas,
probably buried under tons of earth and ten inches of concrete.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Well, I'd like to take a guess at that too, Ken.
And, buckaroos, there's a real story for you.
I enjoyed every minute of it.
How about you?
Would you like to hear Ken tell another story?
Well, he hasn't time for one today but I'll tell you how you can hear a Ken Maynard story anytime you want.
It's by having a Diamond K record album of real Wild West tales.
The album is really a humdinger with beautiful color pictures of Ken and Tarson on the front and inside on the records too.
You get two complete Ken Maynard stories in this album and here's the best part.
The records are personalized.
The first thing you'll hear when you play your Diamond K record album is Ken saying hello to you personally right on the record
and calling you by name.
For instance, if your name is Paul, Ken will say,
hello Paul, this is Ken Maynard with a story just for you.
All you have to do is send your name, address, and a dollar to Records and Care of this station.
And Ken will see that you get a personalized record album by return mail.
It's standard 78 RPM speed for the regular kind of record player folks have used for years.
So if you want to get in on some real Western fun with a story record that you can play anytime you want,
send your name and address and a dollar to Records and Care of this station.
Do it today.
Now once again, here's Ken.
Well folks, it's time to bring our story round up to a close.
This is Ken Maynard and Tarson.
...
closing up the tack room at the Diamond K Ranch until I see you next time when I'll tell you the story about Peg Legg Smith.
We'll be looking for you.
In the meantime, get your one dollar bills in the mail now for some real Western fun. So long.
You've been listening to Tales from the Diamond K,
stories of adventure told by Ken Maynard, internationally famous cowboy stunt writer and Hollywood's champion of Western stars.
Tales from the Diamond K was produced and transcribed in Hollywood.