Dr. García's Gold

by Francisco Guajardo, Ph.D., the MOSTHistory CEO

In 1933, Dr. José García, a country doctor based in San Diego, Texas, buried about 500 American gold coins under his house.

According to family documents, Dr. García began to acquire gold coins in the 1890s. In the buried stash were $2.5 coins, $5 coins, and $10 and $20 coins. The oldest, a $2.5-dollar gold coin, was dated 1836.

Early in 2022, the Museum of South Texas History received a donation of 400 gold coins originally obtained and then buried by Dr. García.

The story of the gold takes a dramatic turn during the Great Depression. To control the currency market, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1933 to collect gold held privately

by Americans. Dr. García refused to sell his gold to the government. Instead, he buried it under his house.

Upon Dr. García’s death in 1964, his daughter Gloria and her husband Héctor López assumed ownership of the house, as instructed by Dr. García’s will. In 1976 Gloria and Héctor sold the home to a man named Alejandro López. In 2002, Alejandro found a leaky sewer line under his house and called on town plumber Serafín Treviño to fix it.

Treviño’s path to the leaking pipe was through a trapdoor in the kitchen that Dr. García installed in the early 1930s. The trap door led to a two-foothigh crawl space between the house floor and the ground. Serafín thought he needed more room to

maneuver, so he began to dig. As he dug, he unearthed a big chunk of mud enmeshed with gold coins. Instead of reporting the find to Alejandro, Treviño took the gold home and then began to sell individual gold coins in the community.

When Alejandro learned of this, he went to Treviño and told him the gold was his; he claimed he had received it from his father. Treviño did not believe Alejandro, so they sued each other for rightful ownership of the coins.

Word of the trial at the Duval County Courthouse over legal possession of the gold made it into the local news. In nearby Alice, Texas, Gloria and Héctor found out, and they promptly approached Alejandro and Treviño. They told them that Gloria’s father buried the gold under his house many years before. Gloria argued the gold was her birthright.

But Alejandro said it was his, and so did Treviño. Gloria and Héctor then took legal action to gain possession of the gold. In 2004, a Duval County jury decided the gold’s rightful owner.

In its next exhibit, titled “Dr. García’s Gold,” MOSTHistory explores the legal proceedings that determined legal ownership. The exhibit also examines the broader story that shaped Dr. García, Gloria, and Héctor as significant actors in the history of South Texas.

The exhibit opens in September 2023 and is included in the regular museum admission fees. Visit mosthistory. org/events to learn more about your visit to the exhibit.