WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.200 Hi there folks, this is Ken Meriden-Tarzan, 00:03.200 --> 00:11.600 inviting you to join us here in the tack room of the Diamond Cay Ranch for another exciting tale of adventure. 00:11.600 --> 00:16.100 I don't remember if I ever mentioned old John Foster up in Montana before, 00:16.100 --> 00:18.800 but if I didn't, I want to make up for that today. 00:18.800 --> 00:23.000 He and I went on a treasure hunt an expedition a while back that ended happily, 00:23.000 --> 00:26.800 and that's enough reason to make the story unusual because very few of them do. 00:26.800 --> 00:32.800 So lean back in your chairs and get ready for an extraordinary history of the Post Hole Bank. 00:32.800 --> 00:37.200 From the tack room of Ken Maynard's Diamond Cay Ranch, we're bringing you stories of adventure, 00:37.200 --> 00:40.800 stories of circus life, fascinating transcribed tales of the Old West, 00:40.800 --> 00:43.400 where cowboys still follow the cattle trails, 00:43.400 --> 00:47.000 stories of rodeos and parades, colorful legends of the Red Man, 00:47.000 --> 00:49.200 hidden gold and buried treasure. 00:49.200 --> 00:55.000 The exciting tales in the Diamond Cay are told by Hollywood's champion of western stars, 00:55.000 --> 00:57.400 internationally famous Ken Maynard. 00:57.400 --> 01:01.000 Now Ken has a mighty interesting western tale to tell you today, folks. 01:01.000 --> 01:05.000 So while you're all getting settled, because you won't want to miss a word of this story, 01:05.000 --> 01:08.800 I'd like to tell you how Ken Maynard can say hello to you personally. 01:08.800 --> 01:10.400 Sounds exciting, doesn't it? 01:10.400 --> 01:12.800 Just imagine hearing Ken's voice saying, 01:12.800 --> 01:16.600 Hello Margie, or Hello Phil, or whatever your name is. 01:16.600 --> 01:21.800 Well, that's exactly what happens when you order a Diamond Cay record album of Ken Maynard's stories. 01:21.800 --> 01:23.600 He'll personalize them. 01:23.600 --> 01:28.200 Tell the story especially for you and call you by name right on the record. 01:28.200 --> 01:30.400 And wait till you see the album. 01:30.400 --> 01:34.200 It's in full color with a picture of Ken and Tarzan right on the front. 01:34.200 --> 01:41.000 And inside are two complete Wild West tales that you can play on your phonograph or record player any time you want. 01:41.000 --> 01:45.000 And the first thing you'll hear is Ken Maynard calling you by name. 01:45.000 --> 01:49.000 And say these records have pictures of Ken and Tarzan on them too. 01:49.000 --> 01:51.600 Now send for yours right away. 01:51.600 --> 01:56.600 Just send your name and address and a dollar bill to Records in Care of this radio station. 01:56.600 --> 02:01.400 Can you imagine just one dollar for this rootin' tootin' western album of records? 02:01.400 --> 02:06.400 They're standard 78 RPM speed just like mom and dad have used for years. 02:06.400 --> 02:10.600 They're made of the finest material money can buy so you don't have to worry. 02:10.600 --> 02:16.800 They're unbreakable and you can play them over and over again and never worry about wearing them out. 02:16.800 --> 02:20.800 These pure vinylite records are the finest quality that money can buy. 02:20.800 --> 02:28.800 But still you send only one dollar with your name and address to Records in Care of this station and your album will be mailed to you. 02:28.800 --> 02:30.800 Now Ken. 02:30.800 --> 02:35.800 Well sir folks, you know it isn't every day you run into an interesting treasure story. 02:35.800 --> 02:43.800 It's true that there are thousands of treasures of all kinds hidden around the southwest which nobody's ever found and most of the stories are quite true. 02:43.800 --> 02:51.800 Of course a few of the legends are just plain campfire tales and many treasures have been found and quietly taken away without anybody knowing about it. 02:51.800 --> 02:56.800 If you stumbled onto something valuable would you rush to the newspapers? Probably not. 02:56.800 --> 03:04.800 Many of the hidden treasures don't amount to very much as we judge things today, but anything hidden appeals to the detective instinct in all of us. 03:04.800 --> 03:08.800 We like to solve puzzles. Most of the treasure stories are just that. 03:08.800 --> 03:17.800 Anyway as I say it isn't often you run into a story where all the facts are clear and all you have to do is to supply one missing clue to lead you to the hidden goal. 03:17.800 --> 03:24.800 So I was very happy some years ago to run into an old friend of mine while I was touring my Wild West show through Montana. 03:24.800 --> 03:29.800 We stopped at Harlington on our way to Helena one night and put up at the hotel. 03:29.800 --> 03:35.800 Long about nine o'clock came a knock at my door. I was pretty tired and hoped it was only the bellboy. 03:35.800 --> 03:40.800 But to my surprise it turned out to be Big John Foster, an old time movie stunt writer. 03:40.800 --> 03:48.800 I had known him years back as a daring horseman who doubled most of the dangerous stunts for movie heroes, but had lost track of him for some ten years. 03:48.800 --> 03:56.800 Big John was just as you'd imagine him, a tall muscular fellow with a cheery disposition and a hand clasp which would crunch your bones. 03:56.800 --> 03:59.800 I wasn't too tired to welcome Big John and we had a fine talk. 03:59.800 --> 04:08.800 John had a reason for coming to see me. He knew I was a treasure hunter in my spare time and he had lost the treasure that he thought I might help him find. 04:08.800 --> 04:10.800 Here's what he told me. 04:10.800 --> 04:15.800 Seems that when he left Hollywood he went back to his father's ranch in Montana and took over the management. 04:15.800 --> 04:21.800 When his father died he was so busy and the ranch was so profitable he forgot all about Hollywood and decided to stay there. 04:21.800 --> 04:27.800 There was a lot of work to be done checking over the deeds, cattle accounts, water rights and so on and he spent several weeks at it. 04:27.800 --> 04:33.800 One day he was going through an old desk, one of them roll top affairs, when he found some papers belonging to his grandfather. 04:33.800 --> 04:44.800 In a notebook was some mysterious writing. It read, $20,000 gold deposited post hole bank, 97 North. That was all. 04:44.800 --> 04:53.800 His father had never mentioned anything about a post hole bank that he could remember and there had never been a bank anywhere in the state with such a crazy name. 04:53.800 --> 04:58.800 But the mention of $20,000 in gold led him to think it might mean just what it said. 04:58.800 --> 05:03.800 Since his grandfather, who had established the ranch back in the 80s, had been a cagey old fellow, 05:03.800 --> 05:09.800 he thought maybe it meant that some gold was hidden around the ranch somewhere and he wanted to know what I thought about it. 05:09.800 --> 05:13.800 Well, I realized right away that here was something worth looking into. 05:13.800 --> 05:21.800 You see, in the early days before towns and banks came along, some of the old timers had a habit of putting their money for safe keeping in a post hole. 05:21.800 --> 05:30.800 What they would do is ride out and select a certain fence post, lift it up, dig out the earth below the hole, and put their gold down there and replace the post. 05:30.800 --> 05:35.800 Since there were thousands of posts on the ranges, it would take a thief years to find the right one. 05:35.800 --> 05:39.800 Nobody could know the right one except the man who had buried the gold. 05:39.800 --> 05:49.800 If Big John's grandfather had buried $20,000 in gold in a post hole bank, then there was the clue. Plain as could be, 97 North. 05:49.800 --> 05:55.800 The 97th post hole North. But of course, North from where? That was the question. 05:55.800 --> 05:57.800 I asked John a lot of questions. 05:57.800 --> 06:02.800 John, I said, are the fences in the same place today as they were when your grandfather was alive? 06:02.800 --> 06:09.800 He shook his head. No, Ken, that's the trouble. All the fences have been changed and some have been taken out altogether. 06:09.800 --> 06:15.800 If grandfather buried any gold, it must have been 50 or 60 years ago, and I don't see how we can find it today. 06:15.800 --> 06:25.800 Well, here was a real problem. Where have the old fences been and what would John's grandfather have used as a starting point to begin with, counting off 97? 06:25.800 --> 06:31.800 John, I said, I think we can figure this thing out. I don't have to be in Hellen until the day after tomorrow. 06:31.800 --> 06:35.800 I'll come out to your place first thing in the morning, and we'll spend the day looking. 06:35.800 --> 06:42.800 Meanwhile, you go home and hunt for anything you can find among the ranch papers which might show where the old boundary lines were. 06:42.800 --> 06:47.800 John said he would. The next morning I saddled up Tarzan and rode out to the old Lazy X. 06:47.800 --> 06:51.800 I sent the rest of the troop on ahead and promised I would catch up with them the next day. 06:51.800 --> 06:57.800 Well, it was a bright morning, and when I rode up, John was out to meet me with an excited look on his face. 06:57.800 --> 07:02.800 He had found something. I could tell. And what it was, you will learn in just a moment. 07:02.800 --> 07:07.800 Speaking of spinning, which I wasn't exactly, you know how many miles of thread go into a K-shirt? 07:07.800 --> 07:14.800 Well, neither do I, and really who cares as long as the shirt looks good, feels good, and wears a heck of a long time. 07:14.800 --> 07:21.800 That's the way I feel about my K-shirt. I wear one every day as regular as clockwork, because they're so easy to slip into. 07:21.800 --> 07:26.800 No buttons or zippers or anything. Just pull them on, and you're ready to work or play. 07:26.800 --> 07:32.800 Now the K-shirt is cotton, like a T-shirt, and in just about the same color as desert sand, 07:32.800 --> 07:36.800 with a big red Diamond K brand blazing across the front, and of course Tarzan and me. 07:36.800 --> 07:38.800 We've got our pictures there too. 07:38.800 --> 07:43.800 Well, there's the K-shirt story. If you want to join Diamond K cowboys who are wearing one, 07:43.800 --> 07:47.800 just send your name, address, and size to K-shirts and care of this station, 07:47.800 --> 07:50.800 and then close a one dollar bill for the folks that makes them. 07:50.800 --> 07:55.800 The K-shirts come in sizes two, four, six, eight, ten, or twelve. 07:55.800 --> 08:03.800 Ask mom, she'll know what size you wear, but send a day, so your K-shirt will be sent by mail direct from Hollywood right away. 08:03.800 --> 08:08.800 Send your name, address, and size to K-shirt and care of this radio station. 08:08.800 --> 08:11.800 Now let's get back to our story for today. 08:11.800 --> 08:17.800 Well, sir, Big John told me he had spent the greatest part of the night searching through the old desk, 08:17.800 --> 08:22.800 and he had come across an old map showing water holes, trees, canyons, ranch houses, 08:22.800 --> 08:27.800 and most important, the fence lines as they were in his grandfather's day. 08:27.800 --> 08:32.800 This was a good start. We studied the map for a long time. 08:32.800 --> 08:36.800 The nearest fence line to the house began at the northeast corner of the feed barn. 08:36.800 --> 08:39.800 It was the only fence which ran due north. 08:39.800 --> 08:44.800 John, I said, let's suppose that your grandfather didn't want to bury his money too far from the house. 08:44.800 --> 08:48.800 Let's imagine that this fence starting at the feed barn is the right one. 08:48.800 --> 08:54.800 Then all we have to do is get a compass, allow about 25 feet between such fence posts, 08:54.800 --> 08:58.800 and count off 97 of them to have the right spot. 08:58.800 --> 09:03.800 John agreed that might work, but it would have to be the old feed barn as shown on the map, 09:03.800 --> 09:06.800 one which had burned down years ago. 09:06.800 --> 09:10.800 We found the right location and determined that the fence began at the northeast corner. 09:10.800 --> 09:16.800 With John's compass to hold us to the right line and a long iron rod for poking into the ground, 09:16.800 --> 09:20.800 we started out counting 97 sections of 25 feet. 09:20.800 --> 09:26.800 It took quite a while. When we reached the end of it, we drew a big circle again, poking with the iron rod. 09:26.800 --> 09:29.800 Well, we poked for hours. 09:29.800 --> 09:32.800 About two feet deep, and the goal had to be below that. 09:32.800 --> 09:35.800 It took some poking to cover the area we had marked out. 09:35.800 --> 09:39.800 We both had blisters on our hands before many hours went by. 09:39.800 --> 09:44.800 Just as the sun was going down and we thought we'd have to give up and recheck our map, 09:44.800 --> 09:47.800 John poked the iron rod into something hard. 09:47.800 --> 09:52.800 He poked again to be sure. It might be a rock, but it didn't sound like a rock. 09:52.800 --> 09:58.800 The thump was metallic. I went over to Tarzan, got the shovel we'd brought along, and began digging. 09:58.800 --> 10:02.800 About three feet down, my shovel hit something, and after clearing the dirt away, I brought it out. 10:02.800 --> 10:07.800 It was an old coffee can, and inside were $250 gold pieces. 10:07.800 --> 10:11.800 We dug further and found beneath another can with 200 more. 10:11.800 --> 10:17.800 You can't imagine our feelings. It seemed like old Grandfather Foster was watching us and smiling his approval. 10:17.800 --> 10:22.800 We left the iron rod to mark the spot, and loading the coffee can started home. 10:22.800 --> 10:28.800 I tried to tell John what a rare thing it was for a treasure hunter to trace his location and find the gold all in the same day, 10:28.800 --> 10:31.800 but John wasn't paying much attention. 10:31.800 --> 10:34.800 He was mooning along, thinking what he would do with the money. 10:34.800 --> 10:36.800 Not that he needed it, for he had plenty. 10:36.800 --> 10:38.800 The lazy X was making him lots of money. 10:38.800 --> 10:41.800 It wasn't until we got almost home when he began to talk. 10:41.800 --> 10:48.800 Ken, he said, you know, I've been thinking. This gold came from nowhere. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have never found it myself. 10:48.800 --> 10:53.800 I know you won't take a reward for helping me, and I don't need the money myself either. 10:53.800 --> 10:55.800 I got all I'll ever want. 10:55.800 --> 11:00.800 I was thinking that maybe old Grandfather Foster might like to see me doing something worthwhile with it. 11:00.800 --> 11:03.800 I don't know anything more worthwhile than helping kids. 11:03.800 --> 11:09.800 What would you say if I gave all of Grandfather Foster's gold to the nearest Crippled Children's Hospital? 11:09.800 --> 11:15.800 Well, I wrote a long piece, and I admit I was too choked up to say much, but I didn't let John know it. 11:15.800 --> 11:20.800 And when I could, I said, why, John, that's the greatest idea I ever heard. 11:20.800 --> 11:22.800 I hope that's just what you do. 11:22.800 --> 11:25.800 And sure enough, Big John gave all the money away to help the kids. 11:25.800 --> 11:31.800 And now maybe you don't wonder why I think John Foster's one of the greatest guys I ever knew. 11:31.800 --> 11:38.800 The only thing I asked him was to let me have the right to use the story on my tales and the Diamond K, which John was glad to do. 11:38.800 --> 11:45.800 So as I told you in the beginning, it isn't every day you run into a treasure story with definite clues that works yourself out in a single day. 11:45.800 --> 11:49.800 In fact, the tale of the Post Hole Bank is the only one I know of. 11:49.800 --> 11:55.800 So if you're ever out riding the range and come across old fence posts, well, you never know. 11:55.800 --> 11:57.800 That's my story for the day. 11:57.800 --> 12:02.800 Well, Ken, that was really an amazing story, and I was mighty glad to hear it too. 12:02.800 --> 12:08.800 You know, folks, Ken has had so many exciting adventures himself, he just never runs out of adventurous stories. 12:08.800 --> 12:13.800 Of course, he has his favorites, and two of them are the ones he tells on his Diamond K Western album. 12:13.800 --> 12:18.800 They're full of action and suspense, wonderful stories that you want to hear over and over again. 12:18.800 --> 12:23.800 And you can hear them any time you want when you have this Ken Mina record album for your very own. 12:23.800 --> 12:26.800 Now, don't forget, you can't buy these records in any store. 12:26.800 --> 12:31.800 The only way you can get one is to send your name and address to records in care of this radio station. 12:31.800 --> 12:34.800 And be sure to include a dollar bill. 12:34.800 --> 12:37.800 Now, that's a mighty little price for all the fun you're going to have with this album. 12:37.800 --> 12:43.800 And remember, it'll be personalized with Ken saying hello to you by name right on the record. 12:43.800 --> 12:45.800 So don't wait any longer. 12:45.800 --> 12:53.800 If you haven't already sent in or if you want another album for a gift, send the name and address the album is for and the dollar to records in care of this station. 12:53.800 --> 13:00.800 Remember, always include the name you want on the records so Ken can say hello to you or to whoever the record is for 13:00.800 --> 13:02.800 right on the record. 13:02.800 --> 13:04.800 Now, let's hear from Ken again. 13:04.800 --> 13:07.800 Well, folks, it's time to bring our story round up to a close. 13:07.800 --> 13:09.800 This is Ken Maynard in Tarzan. 13:09.800 --> 13:19.800 Closing up the tack room at the Diamond K Ranch until I see you next time when I'll tell you the story called Pot-A-Go. 13:19.800 --> 13:20.800 We'll be looking for you. 13:20.800 --> 13:25.800 And in the meantime, get your one dollar bills in the mail now for some real Western fun. So long. 13:25.800 --> 13:33.800 You've been listening to Tales from the Diamond K, stories of adventure told by Ken Maynard and the nationally famous cowboy and Hollywood's champion of Western stars. 13:33.800 --> 14:02.800 Tales from the Diamond K was produced and transcribed in Hollywood.