Beyond Buried Treasure

A real life version of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is unfolding in Bear Hollow.

D. Jason Knowles, an assistant professor of film at Georgia Southern University, is nearing completion of his documentary recounting the folklore surrounding Bear Hollow Cave. The legend's telling varies, but the crux of the story remains unchanged: Centuries ago, a group of miners decided to hide their riches inside a chamber in Bear Hollow Cave before sealing it off and leaving clues behind for their return.

Knowles' documentary is one of two films he's overseeing this summer. The other is a student-produced action-adventure homage similar to the Indiana Jones franchise. It will present a fictionalized version of the search for the treasure.

"When I saw just how big this research project was growing, I realized I would actually have to make it into two films," Knowles wrote in an email. "And the only way you can shoot a feature-length movie with film students is during a summer."

The documentary, "Demystifying the Madré Véna," is 85 percent complete, Knowles said in mid May. It features footage from "around and underneath Bella Vista" and interviews from Bella Vista residents -- including Police Chief Ken Farmer.

Knowles is coming to Bella Vista in July to finish shooting for the documentary, and that footage also will be used for historical re-enactments in the movie "Relics of the Madré Véna."

Undergraduate students in GSU's Multimedia Film and Production curriculum will act "as a Hollywood-style film crew on the production" of both films, Knowles said.

The goal is give students a "real-world experience" through the Georgia Southern Feature Film Project. The nine-week summer course is offered through the university's communication arts department.

"If we succeed, we will be one of only a handful of universities in the United States to shoot a feature-length movie in less than a summer," Knowles added. "And one of the first to shoot both a feature and a long documentary in less than three months."

Travel restrictions and budget concerns kept Knowles from bringing the film crew to Bella Vista.

"As much as I really, really want to shoot the action-adventure film with my students at the real Bella Vista locations discovered from researching this legend, our project is very limited in travel and expenses as an independent, non-union, micro-budget production," Knowles said. "So, what we are going to do instead this summer is to re-create the Ozarks and parts of the Bella Vista community in northern Georgia. We have some wonderful locations picked out that will give 'Relics' a nice, cinematic look."

"Right now, the greatest challenge we are facing is in funding this project," Knowles said. "While my students and I will utilize existing university film equipment and studio space, production expenses such as travel and lodging for the cast and crew, meals on-location and in-studio during our long days of shooting and the construction of safe and efficient studio sets that accurately depict the real caves from the Madré Véna legend are things our department cannot afford on its own."

"If we achieve our funding goal ... we may even be able to pay some of the cast," Knowles said. "It all depends on the funding."

The Legend

The project has been nearly a decade in the making. Knowles first discovered the legend of the Madré Véna while he was teaching in Missouri.

"Seven years ago, I began researching various Ozark legends and folklore to develop a script for an action-adventure film," Knowles said. "I've always wanted to make a treasure-hunting movie centered around a strong, modern-day female Indiana Jones character. However, I wanted the focus of the movie to be based on something totally different than what most other action-adventure films out there had already done. I wanted my film to be about solving an American mystery that was very local and somewhat forgotten."

Digging deep into the region's history, Knowles stumbled across "Buried Treasures of the Ozarks," a book written by W.C. Jameson. The book alluded to the legend of the Madré Véna ore cache, which says a group of Mexican miners in the 1800s buried treasure in the "the central chamber of a maze-like cave on the Arkansas-Missouri border. Naming the site the "Madré Véna" (or Mother Lode), the Mexicans disguised the cave entrance before camping for the evening," Knowles said.

Led by a man named Manuél Alárcon, the miners chose to bury their "fortune of ore and other treasures" because of increased tensions with white settlers and bandits invading the area, Knowles said.

"However, in the middle of the night, Alárcon woke silently and murdered the other three in their sleep," Knowles said. "After burying his companions near the cave entrance, he then left the Madré Véna behind to wander the Ozarks for the next 30 years as a semi-crazed hermit shunning all human contact -- until he arrived in Pierce City, Mo., in the mid-1890s suffering from a severe fever. On his deathbed, he revealed the secret of the cave to the local doctor, and the legend went public."

Knowles instantly was drawn to the legend of the Madré Véna.

"The moment I read this account, I knew it would be a great story to adapt into a movie," he said. "The catch is, almost all of it is a lie!"

In trying to sort fact from fiction, Knowles sought help at the Bella Vista Historical Museum. Knowles said assistance from museum docent Xyta Lucas unearthed "a wealth of information through old newspaper articles and historical documents that has led us to our next big breakthroughs with the research."

"The first breakthrough I had ... was when I found an old Benton County plat map," Knowles said. "Marked on the north border was a dot with the name 'Nedra Veta Lode Cave.' After cross-checking this map with current ones, my research partner Shaun Speers and I were able to confirm that the location was actually Bear Hollow Cave."

Knowles thinks the legend may actually involve Spanish miners who passed through the Ozarks in the 1700s, not Mexican miners in the 1800s as mentioned by Jameson. Knowles' research points to a doomed expedition, which was returning from a mining trip in the American Southwest that was ambushed by Osage Indians.

After the Osage killed several Spaniards and their pack animals, seven miners stayed behind to bury their brethren and stash their silver and gold ore in a nearby cave, Knowles said.

According to articles published in the May 14 and May 21 editions of the 1986 Weekly Vista, Bear Hollow Cave was mined extensively from the 1890s to the 1950s by would-be treasure hunters. Knowles thinks that could mean Bear Hollow Cave is a decoy.

"If these Spaniards did hide something, it is most likely in another cave in the area -- which I have found and will be exploring with my camera and lighting equipment in late July," Knowles said. "It is also possible that I may have found one of the last existing Spanish graves. I won't say where because I feel these locations and the people involved need to be protected."

History Revealed

Knowles' quest to uncover the truth about the legend of the Madré Véna has piqued the interest of the museum, Lucas said.

"We're a fan of his. We're certainly going to try and watch (the film)," she said. "It's good for Bella Vista, and it gives the museum more exposure. I am excited about his project and want to spread the word as much as we can as a thank you for the publicity he is giving to Bella Vista. In his promotional video, he mentions the 50th and 100th anniversaries."

Despite his tireless research on the Madré Véna mythos, Knowles bucks the label of treasure hunter.

"I am an educator, filmmaker, historian-- not treasure hunter. For me, the real treasure is the history," Knowles said. "The people, families and communities who actually lived and suffered through these experiences -- that's what I want to capture through these films."