Spanish Treasure in Polk County

Noble Hill is located on State 13, about 13 miles north of Springfield, and almost on the Polk-Green County line. There has long been a story known locally of a Spanish treasure buried in this area but details are scant. From 1940 until 1946 a man named Mullen owned 80 acres at the top of Noble Hill. When he had the land surveyed, the surveyors from Springfield found two graves on the land. In the brush-covered area they uncovered piles of stones obviously not placed there by nature, and some flat stones with strange marks chiseled on them.

Bill Mullen, son of the farmer, was 10 years old at the time. He remembers the surveyors and his father wondering who would be foolish enough to pile rocks up like that and chisel marks on them. It was not until many years later that people realized these marked rocks might indicate the site of the legendary treasure. All efforts to locate the rocks since then have failed.