Tustin Treasure Hunter to Look for Legendary Silver

SACRAMENTO — A treasure hunter from Tustin has won permission from the state to search for another year for a shipload of silver that may have sunk in Owens Lake in Inyo County a century ago.

Without debate, the State Lands Commission Thursday extended for a year the permit it granted in January, 1987, to Al Enderle. He has made an avocation of trying to find the silver for the last 11 years.

Owens Lake, the sump for the Owens River south of Lone Pine on Highway 395, has been dry most of the time since the 1920s, after Los Angeles began using Owens River water.

In the 19th Century, the 100-square-mile lake had regular steamship service. Silver from the famous Cerro Gordo mines was carried across it in barges en route to Los Angeles.

Legends persist in Inyo County that one of the silver barges sank in the 1870s carrying its cargo to the muddy lake bottom.

Some historians doubt that the event ever happened. Enderle told the commission last year that he is pursuing the project with metal-finding devices similar to those used by the military.