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My family comes from the Northern
          New
          Mexico, Southern Colorado area, particularly near the Rio
          Grande. 
          There are many tales of buried or found Spanish gold there,
          and this
          story
          indirectly relates to that.  My uncle had a cattle ranch
          (he has
          since
          passed on, although my aunt and cousins still live there) in
          the San
          Luis
          Valley, and if you faced east from his front porch, you could
          see
          across
          his land and the land of some of my other relatives.  The
          land is
          usually green with wild grasses although the terrain is high
          desert
          plain. 
          The ranchers have a system of canals with which they irrigate
          their
          lands,
          making them lush with grasses.  If you face slightly
          southeast
          from
          my uncle's porch, there is a barren, small hill that rises out
          of the
          green
          fields.  I would spend some summers in this part of
          Colorado and I
          would visit my uncle's ranch.  While I was there, we
          would look to
          the southeast and see floating lights around the area of the
          barren
          hill. 
          The family story is that this hill is where there is buried
          Spanish
          gold
          that is protected by spirits, and that the lights are those
          spirits. 
          One day, my cousin and I decided we would go gold hunting and
          we walked
          out to the small hill and began poking around.  We found
          there was
          a cellar type of structure in the hill, with a wooden door,
          probably a
          potato cellar, we thought at the time.  Anyway, we
          explored the
          cellar
          and didn't find much but dust.  We climbed to the top of
          the hill
          and were drawn to a medium sized lava boulder which we
          strained to
          overturn,
          successfully.  On the bottom of the boulder was carved a
          small
          cross. 
          We thought this was unusual, but soon dismissed it.  That
          night,
          we
          were with our other cousins in a small trailer we were using
          as our
          bedroom,
          excitedly telling everyone about our treasure hunting
          experience that
          day. 
          Suddenly, the kerosene lamp we were using for light flickered
          as though
          someone were trying to blow it out, then it actually went
          out.  It
          was pitch dark in the trailer, and everyone went for the
          door.  I
          was at the back of the trailer laying on the bed away from the
          door,
          and
          was the last one to make it to the door.  I stepped out
          and turned
          180 degrees to run to the house about 50 feet away from the
          trailer. 
          It was a pitch black night, moonless, but I still could make
          out the
          silhouettes
          of my cousins making it to the porch 50 feet or so away. When
          I was
          about
          to break into a run, something grabbed the collar of my
          jacket,
          stopping
          me from moving. Terrified, I turned to see who was holding me,
          but all
          I saw was darkness....whatever had my jacket let go at that
          time, and I
          broke into a sprint for the house.  I did not sleep that
          night,
          and
          when I got up in the morning, I told my aunt what had happened
          and she
          told me, essentially, "one should not disturb the spirits.."