Since at least an 1870 Los Angeles Star account, travelers have sworn a Spanish galleon lies keeled over in the sands beyond the Salton Sea, its hold full of pearls, left behind when an ancient arm of the Gulf dried out from under it. Every big blow that reshapes the dunes revives the story. None of the pearls have ever come to town.
Colorado Desert, northeast of the Salton Sea
See it on the map