My Treasure Find: Ron Pastore's digging site
I was very unaware of this documentary of Jesse James' hidden treasure until this memorial weekend (May 2010). After the cemetery memorial service earlier in the morning, my father, uncle and I were driving the back country roads of Kansas venturing out through the land and praries where my family settles in the 1800s.
My uncle stops his vehicle and he asks if we'd like to see where Jesse James' Hideout was, and as an adventurer myself, I was intrigued by what he was going to show us. I said sure and I pulled my SUV off the road into a field marked with a no trespassing sign and ventured further into private property where we probably should not have been.
We end up near these caves and begin looking around at the carvings. Less than 4 minutes later, a man comes driving up in a newly looking orange ATV. He has a gun strapped to his hip and a badge of some sorts on his belt. Wearing khaki colored pants, shirt, and boots..he cautiously walks up to us to see why we are here and what our intentions are.
He seemed surprised to see us on the land, and my uncle politely told him that our family was from the area and that my grandmother used to come up here when she was younger and that we were just coming out to see how to walk around and look at the caves. My uncle mentioned that he recognized this place from the History Channel documentary and asked the man if he had seen it. Enter RJ Pastore. Mr. Pastore introduces himself and states that he is the one that was in the documentary, which was a huge surprise to us. We were simply adventuring on a summer's day in land that we should not have been venturing on.
After becoming more comfortable with us, he knew we meant no harm or trouble to the dig. He became excited to tell us about the glyphs that were carved into the cave walls and their meanings, including the names of JJ, Zerela, and JJ's other siblings, etc. They were all there, and very old looking etchings. After sometime of giving us a history lesson of the 'hideout', he politely offered to show us another area where the show was actually filmed and the mason jars were found. He gave several of the family members wearing sandals a ride on the back of his ATV to the next site so that the wouldn't get hurt. On the way, several of us others walked the route. He pointed out large cat prints several inches across in the mud near the caves and told us that they were from the cougars that live in the area. 'Make loud noises by clapping your hands' while you walk around he warned. Who says Kansas doesn't have Mountain Lions..
Mr. Pastore was a very polite man and seem to know an incredible amount of history (whether some believe him or not). He allowed us to take snapshots of the area, the caves, the glyphs, as well as several pictures with him. He did ask that we don't tell people where the cave is located and to not disturb any of the glyphs.
Coming across this man out in the middle of nowhere, on a random day was definitely a fun surprise for us and him too I am sure. My uncle offered him $20 for giving us the history lesson and for showing us around, he politely declined and headed back to where him and his crew were working before we showed up on the land.
After about an hour or more of the venture tour, we headed off the property and back home. Fascinated with what had just happened earlier in the day, I went home and began googling everything I could find about Pastore and the Hidden Treasure. I found this message board and thought I'd share my findings. I'll respect Pastores' request to not share the location. I also ordered the DVD documentary and can't wait to watch it.
From many of the postings on this forum, I cannot say whether Pastores' ideas are exactly correct regarding the faking of JJ's death. However, the dig site was definitely legit, with ATVs, a smaller back hoe, and definitely in Kansas! He was very knowledgable and extremely interesting to listen to and quiz. I was surprised to see such disconnect with Pastores ideas posted all over this forum and the Internet. I'll have to keep doing my own research and balance it with what I saw with my own eyes.
Thanks for all of the interesting posts everyone, I think I've found a new hobby
and RJ Pastore, if you read this, thanks again for the tour and for being open-minded with our adventure.