One of the many articles that have kept alive the legend of hidden riches on a narrow strip of sand off the Texas Gulf Coast ran in the Harlingen-based Valley Morning Star on Oct. 27, 1966.

The subject of this always entertaining tale is the treasure supposedly buried on Padre Island by a band of castaways in the early days of the Civil War. Driven from their private paradise, the Singers never imagined they would lose everything they had created over the past decade and a half.

John V. Singer was...