The Reynolds Gang
of Park County Colorado
A group of Confederates from Company A of Wells’s Battalion, led by James Reynold. Also in the gang - his brother, John Reynolds; Jackson Robinson, a guard that helped the Reynolds brothers and other confederates escape imprisonment in 1862; Owen Singleterry, who’s head was stored for years in a vat of alcohol in Fairplay after he was killed in retaliation for their crime spree; Tom Holliman, an outlaw that was captured after fleeing to Canyon City alongside 4 other bandits (a fight would later break out killing 3 as the 2 others escaped), and others.
It is estimated that they robbed between $5,000 and $100,000 from the Colorado Territory in 1864, raiding stagecoaches and ranches in the Park County area.
“Jim and me buried the treasure the morning before the posse attack on Geneva Gulch. You go up above there a little ways and find where one of our horses mired down in a swamp. On up at the head of the gulch, we turned to the right and followed the mountain around a little farther, and just above the head of Deer Creek, we found an old prospect hole at about timberline. There, we placed $40,000 in greenbacks, wrapped in silk oilcloth, and three cans of gold dust. We filled the mouth of the hole up with stones and, ten steps below, struck a butcher knife into a tree about four feet from the ground and broke the handle off and left it pointing toward the mouth of the hole.”
John Reynold’s luck finally ran out in Taos, New Mexico, years after alluding capture for his crimes across Colorado. While trying to steal a horse, John Reynold was mortally wounded with a gunshot. On his deathbed he confessed to hiding the loot and drew a map that he gave to his current partner in crime, Albert Brown. After his death, Brown and a few others travelled to the South Park area and searched for the location of the treasure according to John’s clues. To their dismay, they discovered that a forrest fire had destroyed many of the landmarks. They were still able to find Singleterry’s alleged white hat, a headless skeleton, and horse bones located in a swampy site. However, they never could find the rock filled prospect hole that contained the treasure. Brown attempted to find it four times unsucessfully. He was later killed in a barfight in the Wyoming territory - but not before sharing the clues to the buried loot with a local lawman, Detective David J. Cook.
An excellent book displayed digitally by the Colorado Archives written by John W. Cook with an entire Chapter about the Reynolds Gang titled "A Hidden Treasure" from 1897
