The legend of the Iron Door in Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains is one of those mysteries of the American West that continues to stick around. This is in spite of the lack of any hard evidence that the Iron Door truly exists or ever existed. In fact, a few people debate if it was an actual iron door or a just wooden door.
Perhaps even more important is the question concerning TREASURE! Is there treasure hidden and lost in the Wichita Mountains? And if treasure actually exists, what type of treasure is it? Some claim the treasure was Spanish gold coins, others gold bullion.
In spite of the many unknowns, the legend continues to persist making it difficult to completely dismiss. Maybe it’s just human nature to want to believe in mysteries and lost treasures, but it’s hard to not hope that somewhere within all of the stories, there’s some truth.
What is the Secret of the Iron Door?
Some stories have the Iron Door cache of treasure hidden in an old mine shaft. Still another, perhaps better account, or at least more likely, claims the door blocked an entrance to a cave.
People share tales of mythical vast amounts of gold and lost fabled treasure, concealed behind iron doors all across America in many different states. The main Oklahoma version is in southwestern Oklahoma. Specifically, in the southern area of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
There is another similar legend that has the Iron Door located somewhere in Eastern Oklahoma. Most, however, place the Iron Door legend, in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is near Lawton Fort Sill and Medicine Park, Oklahoma.
One characteristic of everyone that claims to have seen the Oklahoma treasure behind an Iron Door, is that no one can ever successfully retrace their steps and find it when they return. These were the days long before google search, of course. Nor could you simply download google books to find more information.
Where did the Treasure of the Iron Door in the Wichita Mountains Originate?
Spanish Explorers
Europeans sought treasures of gold and more in the New World. The earliest account of the Iron Door revolves around early Spanish explorers. The lore states indigenous Native Americans were enslaved as miners. A cave, in this story, housed the slaves.
Simply put, they placed their plunder of Spanish gold in the lost cave along with the Indians and sealed it over. To this day, the skeletons of seventeen Indian slaves lay undisturbed alongside a wealth of golden treasure. The Spirits of the Indians still stand guard over the elusive Iron Door.
Belle Starr
Colorful legends about the famous female outlaw, Belle Starr, emerged in the years after her 1889 death by two shotgun blasts. Most legends are born from a kernel of truth though, and it is true that she was lifelong friends with both the James gang and Younger gang.
Belle and her husband Sam Starr were both criminals. Belle was highly intelligent and her forte was basically helping the outlaws liquidate their loot. She took care of them so they could avoid capture.
Belle’s Connection with the Wichita Mountains
Belle’s connection with the Wichita Mountains Treasure Iron Door dates from the early 1880s. One of the gangs she harbored and advised stole a half-million dollars in gold from a freight train bound for the Denver mint.
Knowing there would be a lot of federal government attention from a heist of this size, Belle advised them to hide the cache stolen from the train robberies in a cave in the Wichita Mountains and seal it over with an iron door.
The bandits stacked the gold against a wall, sealed the cave with a railroad car door, and covered everything with rocks and dirt, then they concealed that with a brush pile.
To leave a specific landmark, one of the robbers hammered a railroad spike into a nearby oak tree, 100 yards away. Later that year, all the gang members attempted another train robbery and died.
Belle was the only one who knew the location of the cave, and all knowledge of its whereabouts vanished with her murder in 1889. The legend goes on to say that the tree was discovered and cut down, much later.
Jesse James
A treasure worth $1,000,000 in gold bullion was taken from a Mexican caravan led by an unnamed general. This theory has Jesse putting the gold bullion in the hiding place in order to escape the pursuing posse.
The Iron Door hasn’t definitively been tied to this report, but the James Gang’s connection to Belle Starr lends plausibility. It is also a fact that the Wichita Mountains were a favorite place of the James Gang, or at least of Frank James.
After Jesse James’ death, Frank actually ranched in the Wichita Mountains. This would certainly give him even easier access to any stashed treasure they might have hidden in that area.
Some outlaw loot from the James Gang has been discovered in the Wichita Mountains, but nothing of this magnitude has been recovered.
Treasure Hunters & Possible Sightings
The 1850s Treasure Hunters
Evidently, people have been looking for the iron door and the hidden treasure behind it since before the Civil War.
The first near-discovery came when men used a map and found the door. They dug down several feet and broke in using miners’ tools. They lit torches to examine the contents. Inside were the skeletons and the gold.
They were interrupted by Native Americans and ran for their lives. Later they returned and found that the Native Americans reburied the cave. This lent credence to Native Americans guarding the door and its treasure.
Father and Son
At the turn of the century, a rancher and his son rode through a canyon near Elk Mountain in the early 1900s. The son spotted the reflection from something on the eastern side.
They wanted to explore but the father urged them on for the sake of time. Later they learned of the legends of caches of gold. Like other accounts, when they couldn’t re-locate the site when they returned.
Old Lady from Missouri and Silas Lee Isom
Silas was an old prospector who lived in the area and prospected for gold for 70 years but never found anything. He told of a 70ish-year-old woman named Holt from Missouri who arrived in 1908 with a map and key.
An outlaw there had told her of the Iron Door from his deathbed. She spent a month looking for landmarks but didn’t find anything, so she returned home.
3 boys-(4 boys) 1910s
There are two similar stories about boys going from somewhere to Indiahoma, just south of the Wichita Mountains. A 1910 account has four boys, and another very similar report places the events in the 1920s.
The boys discovered an old Winchester rifle hanging in an oak tree and got a glimpse of the iron door near mount Pinchot. With time short, they continued without further assessment.
Later, an old Indian Warrior told the boys he knew of a great treasure with spirits of dead men protecting it. He also knew the whereabouts of the cave but was forbidden to tell white men where it was.
Frank James
In the early nineteen-teens, after Jesse James was killed, Frank James bought a ranch in the Wichita Mountains and returned to the area. Remember, the James-Younger gang had supposedly stashed their loot in those mountains.
He wore out several horses but never found the treasure. The area was domesticated and fenced in the years he was away. Nothing looked the same. Defeated, he returned to Missouri and died in 1915.
Coon Hunters
Sometime in the 1920s, a group of coon hunters had a raccoon treed in the area north of Treasure Lake. The shooter saw the door beyond his aim.
They took note of the spot and continued the hunt. However, they were not able to find it later when they came back to explore the door.
Some Treasure Was Found in the 1940s
In the 1940s, some treasure was actually found in the Wichita Mountains. One of the items was a kettle with the name of the James gang on it.
This treasure was found by treasure seekers following one of the old maps made by Jesse James. This find led to another treasure map of his, which the hunters then followed to even more treasure.
Click here for the newspaper clipping.
Traveler
The most recent sighting happened in 1996. An unemployed, middle-aged man walked from Cooperton to Lawton. Taking a shortcut, he spotted the door and continued on his way.
He got a job and learned about Belle Starr’s stash. Three weeks later he took tools to find her treasure. As luck would have it, he had a heart attack on the way to the mountains and died.
Conclusion
Unlike many of the other American legends of Iron Doors leading to treasures, the one in Oklahoma persists because there are at least some grains of truth in it.
Outlaws were in the area, they did steal gold, Outlaws did have to find places to hide their loot for safekeeping. There were outlaw gangs operating in the surrounding areas.
Spaniards were also in the area, and they did horribly mistreat the Native Americans. Unfortunately, human rights activists were not present as they settled in America. The Spaniards also carried significant amounts of gold as their “spending money”.
Now, determining what exactly is the whole truth and finding the treasure is a whole other matter. There are many who believe the treasure is still out there.
One of the neat things about trying to answer the old question of whether or not the Iron Door truly exists in Oklahoma is the fact that much of the Wichita Mountains are open to the public, and anybody can be a treasure hunter for a day.
IF you choose to go hunting for the lost treasure, be sure and get the exact location, perhaps create an Iron Door geocache. You don’t want to be yet another in the long line of those who have found and then lost the Iron Door.
THANKS FOR READING
About the Iron Door in the Wichita Mountains
Looking for more information about the surrounding area?
The Wichita Mountains:
Other Attractions in the Area:
There’s an actual Iron Door cabin, named for the famed legend of the Wichita Mountains. The cabin is located in Cache, OK. Fort Sill is also nearby and Lawton has the wonderful Museum of the Great Plains.
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