L.A. GOOD AS GOLD, RUMOR HAS IT\Group thinks settlers may have buried treasure in Elysian Park;\city nixes dig.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

As legend has it, the Mexican settlers of Los Angeles buried their gold and heirlooms in the hills near downtown as U.S. troops led by John C. Fremont approached the pueblo in 1847.

The Arizona-based National Underwater and Marine Agency, founded by adventure novelist Clive Cussler, thinks the old tales of buried treasure are compelling enough to warrant a treasure hunt in what is now Elysian Park.

But the city Recreation and Parks Department isn't about to let the NUMA group dig up the park based on legend alone.

"From a historical perspective, there exists no compelling reason to believe treasure ever was buried in Elysian Park," the city parks director, Jackie Tatum, said in a report filed Wednesday with the city Parks Commission.

"From a common-sense standpoint, it is difficult to believe that, over the years of natural change, public use and improvements, and maintenance on the property, this phantom treasure could have eluded discovery," Tatum said.

NUMA spokesman Wayne Gronquist said the nonprofit group is still interested in digging for treasure in Elysian Park. But he said the group will delay any appeal of the city's decision while it pursues another mystery - the burial site of Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo.

Although Gronquist filed papers to appeal Tatum's decision before the Parks Commission, he canceled his appearance Wednesday. In a telephone interview from his Texas law office, Gronquist said the volunteer group has limited resources and wants first to pursue Cabrillo's burial site.

Cabrillo, the first European to survey the Southern California coast, is believed to be buried on San Miguel Island off the coast of Santa Barbara.

But Gronquist said he, Cussler and the other history enthusiasts involved with NUMA are intrigued by the idea that there might be gold and silver treasures buried in the 585-acre park near Dodger Stadium.

"These were wealthy Mexican citizens who buried their family heirlooms, - gold and silver presumably - because of fear that the oncoming American forces would steal their treasure," said Gronquist, a Texas attorney.

Accounts by historians and in newspapers of the last century have convinced some treasure hunters that valuable treasure may have been buried by Francisco Avila, who built the first adobe house in Los Angeles in 1818, and Pio Pico, an early land-grant settler who was the last Mexican governor of California.

Working with the television show "Unsolved Mysteries," NUMA hired a Houston-based company to do tests in the city park, including metal detection and ground-penetrating radar tests.

Joe Austin, of the Houston-based company Earth Measurement Corp., said the tests found "anomalies" in two locations that could indicate ground was disturbed and there is metal underneath.

"It could mean anything from a different kind of rock, to a hubcap to a bunch of gold," Austin said.

Based on the initial tests, NUMA applied last year for a permit to dig in Elysian Park.

"The scientific evidence is that there is an anomaly - there could be something there," Gronquist said. "It definitely merits further investigation."

Gronquist said the group has successfully located 70 shipwrecks, and last year located one of the first submarines used in battle off the coast of South Carolina.