Hardin explains for future treasure hunters, that although he knows the surface has changed, he is certain that the spot can easily be located again. His directions are, “Start at the jetty on the southmost tip of Padre Island, and drive up the Gulf beach exactly twenty-six miles. Then walk a little less than one-eighth of a mile, about two hundred yards, back up into the dunes.”
Lost City was not a city as such, but the site of various settlements that were established over the centuries by different inhabitants. Old Padre Balli, you will recall, established his Santa Cruz Ranch here. Here it was also that General Taylor camped on his way to the Mexican War. John Singer used it as his home site, and cattle rancher Patrick Dunn also used Lost City as his headquarters.
In 1958, Charles Hardin participated in the rediscovery of Lost City with Frank Tolbert, a Dallas newspaperman. Hardin was then sixty-eight years old. They uncovered the foundations of Lost City, which were composed of monster mahogany timbers fastened together with ancient ships’ iron hardware. They found a pirate-style pistol and other parts of eighteenth and nineteenth century firearms, and the head of a tomahawk. Still a mystery, however, is the eighty-five thousand dollar fortune buried in the huge screw-top jar of Singer’s.
Five great ocean currents meet off the coast of Padre Island to toss back onto the white shores many interesting objects from the sea. Some of the mellowed rare woods, eagerly sought by collectors, are giant mahogany, or Spanish cedar logs, cypress, cottonwood, walnut, bamboo, gum and teak. An interesting driftwood museum has been started at Padre Beach. Coconuts, probably from the West Indies, are found at times by the thousands.
Not long ago, a man idly kicked a can along the sandy beach and, after a few moments, tiring of his sport, kicked it aside. The man behind him picked up the can and found it contained three hundred dollars worth of old coins. A woman, noticing an oddly designed box, opened it and discovered it was full of jewels. One hunter received eight hundred dollars for two silver bars and an interesting old one hundred-fifty foot chain, of the type used on ocean going vessels of years long past.