Cursed Legendary Aztec Treasure in Southern Utah

Tales of lost and buried treasure are nearly as old as time and span cultures worldwide. If you’ve watched an Indiana Jones film, the animated classic The Road to El Dorado, or anything on the History Channel, you’ve seen stories about the Ark of the Covenant or lost treasure in Nova Scotia. This story is another tale of hidden treasure in Utah. The information in this piece comes from Visit Southern Utah.com. 

The tales of Montezuma’s treasure originate from when Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1509. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Aztec Emperor Montezuma offered Cortes gifts to ease potential disputes. Because Montezuma was so thoughtful, Cortes would go on to put the emperor on house arrest and pillage the town of Tenochtitlan for gold and silver and torturing and killing the native people. So, yeah, that didn’t really go well. 

The Aztecs would go on to rebel against the Spaniards because, ya know, they acted like jerks. Montezuma would die in the rebellion and Cortes and his men were forced to flee. After that disaster, “Legend has it that Aztec warriors and slaves headed north for a new resting place for the remaining riches.”  

Moving forward several hundred years, in 1914, “A prospector named Freddy Crystal arrived in Kanab after having been in Mexico.” While he was in Mexico, he came across a monastery that was set for demolition. “While in the monastery, he leafed through old manuscripts from the time of Cortes and found a hand-drawn map that he claimed looked like the terrain surrounding Kanab.” 

Freddy came to Kanab looking for a cave with Aztec petroglyphs at the entrance and in 1922 he thought he had found it. Alas, he and the community members who had joined him were unable to find anything.