The Motherload — Ronnie G. Anderson

The Rattlesnake Gang (1870s west Texas train thieves) successfully robbed five eastbound gold bullion shipment heading to the United States treasury. The sixth train robbery wrecked burying the gang and their gold in an old silver mine where they hid. Such a shame that twelve hundred thirty-two pound gold bullion bars never made it to the treasury. They did not make it anywhere else either. A century later an ancestor of the Wraith family formed the ten thousand acre AAA Ranch where the gold and the train were buried. He retrieved five gold bars from the wreck as the rest of it had caved in and was far too dangerous to get to; besides, the news of that much gold sixty-three miles west of San Angelo, Texas would cause all kind of other thieves to come looking for quick riches. He died with only his heir given the information as to what was really on his land. His sole heir was a thirty year old woman from New York City by the name of Sharon Andrews. She could have his sixty four million dollars worth of oil money and the ranch provided that she came in person and cared for it. What the - money is money. Sharon and her girlfriend moved to Texas y'all Then when the bank safety vault was opened for her and she discovered the existence of the Wraith Gang gold, she also discovered the responsibility of keeping the news of its existence silent. On an inspection of the cave in sinkholes on the hill over the mine, Sharon discovered a thirty by fifty foot wide vein of shiny silver looking rock. Was this silver. Picking up a considerable amount of the material she had her foreman call some local rock-hounds to see if it was silver ore. If it was they would reopen the old Wraith Silver Mine. The ore turned out to be Sylvanite. It was indeed a silver ore, only there was twice as much gold in it as there was silver. Getting the gold ore out of the ground was no problem. Building an onsite smelter to separate the silver and the gold was no problem. Keeping the news that they had struck The Motherload - that was the problem