You’ll find that Spanish colonial archives document thousands of silver pesos vanishing between 1766–68 while presidio soldiers drowned in debt across the northern frontier. Payroll shipments disappeared during Apache attacks, corrupt officers diverted funds, or muleteers concealed caches after ambushes and died before revealing locations. Modern treasure hunters use metal detectors and ground-penetrating radar to search former garrison sites, guided by Seville’s archival records. The evidence spans skeletal finds with scattered reales to systematic gaps in coin production documents, and what lies beneath these abandoned outposts continues to intrigue investigators today.
Key Takeaways
- Spanish presidio soldiers often received insufficient or delayed wages between 1766-1768, creating widespread debt and economic hardship across frontier outposts.
- Thousands of silver pesos in payroll shipments vanished due to Apache attacks, corruption, or muleteer ambushes, with locations never documented.
- Archive evidence includes missing shipment reports, coin production records, and soldier petitions indicating significant gaps in payment deliveries to remote garrisons.
- Buried silver caches were hidden during attacks for later retrieval, but many died before revealing locations, fueling modern treasure hunting.
- Modern searchers use metal detectors, ground-penetrating radar, and Seville archives to locate colonial-era cache sites at abandoned presidio locations.
Years Without Wages: The Presidio Payment Crisis
When the Marqués de Rubí conducted his inspection tour of Texas presidios between 1766 and 1768, he documented a crisis that had been festering for years: soldiers drowning in debt because their wages hadn’t been paid. This economic mismanagement destroyed discipline and morale across the northern frontier.
You’ll find archival records showing officers exploiting these arrears, selling inferior goods at inflated prices to desperate troops. The colonial administration’s systemic failure reached from Gran Chichimeca to Alta California, where soldiers received little or nothing. Meanwhile, convict laborers at these same presidios provided the state with inexpensive labor for construction and maintenance, exemplifying how Spain exploited multiple forms of coercive work throughout its empire. Beyond safeguarding missions and conducting military campaigns, presidios functioned as Indian agencies and safe havens for travelers crossing the dangerous frontier.
When Soldiers Sought Second Incomes to Survive
Because official wages rarely materialized, presidio soldiers engineered elaborate survival strategies that transformed frontier military life into a complex web of entrepreneurship, exploitation, and dependency.
You’d find them operating ranchos del rey—theoretically self-worked lands that quickly became neophyte labor camps.
Soldier barter networks flourished: reselling Mexican tobacco, chocolate, and supplies at inflated prices while extracting mission wheat and cattle through perpetual credit schemes.
Mission San Diego’s records reveal individual soldiers accruing 400-500 pesos in unpaid debts by the 1780s.
Native cooperatives emerged as priests retained portions of neophyte wages earned at presidios, creating alternative economic structures.
Officers embezzled pay meant for dead or deserted soldiers.
Missions responded to constant requisitions for food, draining their stores to shelter and supply underfunded military garrisons.
These soldados de cuera, named for their distinctive leather jackets, carried lances, swords, muskets, and pistols as standard equipment for frontier defense.
Remote Outposts Abandoned With Unpaid Garrisons
Across the northern frontier, presidios collapsed under the weight of their own insolvency, leaving soldiers stranded between military duty and financial abandonment. You’ll find documented cases where garrisons at La Junta de los Rios waited years for wages that never arrived.
Soldiers waited years for wages that never came, stranded between duty and financial ruin at the frontier’s edge.
By 1749, Muñoz’s men directly petitioned Viceroy Horcasitas—a desperate act revealing systemic failure. When Rubí inspected presidios in 1766–68, he discovered crushing debt among soldiers forced to purchase deteriorating equipment from corrupt officers at inflated prices.
By 1782, full garrisons evacuated Big Bend outposts, leaving ten-man caretaker crews who likely abandoned their posts by 1784. The Presidio del Norte, believed to lie within modern Ojinaga, vanished beneath subsequent settlement as soldiers departed. These departures fractured Native alliances and ended essential cultural exchanges that had sustained isolated communities.
This transformation turned strategic outposts into ghost settlements marking Spain’s retreat. Soldiers who typically served for ten years under such conditions faced abandonment without compensation after dedicating their service to frontier defense.
Hidden Silver: Theories on Missing Military Payrolls
Military payrolls carrying thousands of silver pesos vanished into the frontier’s documentary void, creating enduring speculation about hidden caches between mining centers and distant presidios. You’ll find three competing theories in historical records:
commanders buried silver during Apache attacks, intending retrieval that never occurred; payroll corruption diverted funds into private hands, with officials falsifying delivery records; or muleteers concealed shipments after ambushes, dying before revealing locations.
Archival evidence from Zacatecas and Guanajuato mints documents coin production, yet presidio ledgers show persistent payment gaps. Counterfeit coins discovered at some outposts suggest additional embezzlement schemes. The Crown’s reduction of the royal fifth tax was intended to boost silver production, but this also increased the volume of precious metal in circulation vulnerable to theft during transport. Smugglers and corrupt officials working in collusion compromised many legitimate shipments before they even departed mining regions.
Each theory draws support from documented cases—unpaid La Junta soldiers petitioning in 1717, missing shipment reports, and skeletal remains found with scattered reales, fueling treasure hunters’ searches across Texas and New Mexico’s backcountry.
Modern Searches for Buried Presidio Treasure
These historical mysteries have drawn systematic investigation since the 1960s, when metal detector technology first enabled systematic surveys of documented presidio sites.
Metal detector technology revolutionized presidio archaeology in the 1960s, transforming historical treasure hunting into systematic scientific investigation.
You’ll find that treasure hunters and archaeological teams approach these searches through distinct methodologies:
- Ground-penetrating radar surveys at Texas presidio ruins have identified anomalous subsurface features matching colonial-era cache descriptions.
- Spanish military payroll records archived in Seville guide researchers toward specific garrison locations and payment schedules.
- Geophysical mapping techniques combine historical cartography with modern sensing equipment to pinpoint likely burial sites.
- Metal detector associations document amateur discoveries, though most significant finds remain within professional archaeological contexts.
Modern investigations balance historical evidence with technological capabilities, yet documented recovery of authenticated presidio payrolls remains elusive despite decades of systematic searching. Spanish authorities continue addressing illegal artifact collection, as demonstrated by recent Civil Guard operations that have recovered Roman amphorae, Phoenician pottery, and hundreds of undocumented antiquities from private collectors. The trafficking of archaeological items extends beyond Spain, with authorities recently seizing over 6,400 smuggled items including ancient fossils and dinosaur skeletons that had been illegally transported from Argentina.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Denominations of Spanish Coins Were Used for Presidio Soldier Payments?
Picture dusty leather pouches clinking with silver: you’d find presidio payroll practices used Spanish coin denominations of 8, 4, 2, and 1 reales for soldiers’ wages, with archival records confirming these working-class payments funded your ancestors’ frontier service.
How Did Soldiers’ Families Survive During Years Without Receiving Wages?
You’ll find soldiers’ families survived through community support networks—taking extra jobs, trading with local merchants, and intermarrying with indigenous communities. This interdisciplinary evidence shows how mutual aid preserved soldier morale despite years of unpaid wages from distant authorities.
Were Any Presidio Commanders Ever Prosecuted for Withholding Soldier Payments?
Corruption ran rampant, yet you’ll find presidio corruption rarely faced military accountability. Accusations against Heredia, Silva, Figueroa, and Esplana appear in archival records, but no documented prosecutions exist—isolation shielded these commanders from justice they deserved.
What Happened to Payroll Silver During the Journey From Mexico City?
Payroll silver faced ambush attacks by Chichimeca warriors during transport from Spanish coin minting centers in Mexico City. You’ll find archival records show Presidio financial management collapsed when raiders struck convoys, forcing silver shipments into waterless deserts where freedom-seeking soldiers never received payment.
Did Unpaid Soldiers Ever Mutiny or Abandon Their Presidio Posts?
Yes, you’ll find archival evidence shows wage shortages devastated soldier morale across Spanish presidios, creating serious mutiny risks. Governors documented multiple rebellions—particularly in Ternate, Moluccas, and Marianas—where unpaid troops either deserted or violently revolted against corrupt authorities.
References
- https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/junta/frontier.html
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-presidiomission/
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/presidios
- https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-presidios-of-the-spanish-frontier.htm
- https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/articles/the-presidios-of-alta-california/
- https://npshistory.com/publications/goga/hrs-el-presidio.pdf
- https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/adaes/life.html
- https://open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/the-presidio-and-militia-volume2-part1/section/baa9e4bd-4b23-436f-b554-62a71ca6da68
- https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/58/1/21/151778/Penal-Servitude-in-the-Spanish-Empire-Presidio
- https://sites.keene.edu/marieduggan/files/2016/01/PHR8501_02_DugganFinal.pdf
