Psst. Hey…you. Yeah…that’s right. You! c’mere. Lean a little
closer to the monitor. I gotta whisper. Sh sh. Anyone lookin’?
Hey …we’re gonna be talkin’ buried treasure here. And we don’
want no one listenin’ in on this…do we? Ya know what I mean?
Sharin’ the wealth is all well and good and all that…but
there’s a time and a place…and this ain’t the time and this
ain’t the place. So okay …go ahead…close your door an’ shut
the lights and don’t tell no one what’s goin’ on. All right?
Ready? Here we go.
The year is 1863. The time is about one week before the Rebels
clashed with the Federal forces at Gettysburg. A wagon train is
carrying 28 gold bars, weighing about 50 pounds each and worth,
at that time, a tad over a quarter of a million dollars. In
today’s market, we’re talking somewhere in the vicinity of over 7
million dollars. The task at hand…take the gold to the Mint in
Philadelphia.
Well my friends…there were many problems to worry about. First
there were the Indians to worry about. No one knew what they
would do. Then, since this gold was for the Federal government,
there were the Southern sympathizers to worry about. And then, as
if that wasn’t enough, there were the plain old thieves to worry
about too. Life…in them thar days, was rough.
A guard detail took off and traveled east around Pittsburgh in
order to avoid hostile forces. They took back roads and traveled
through muck and mire and slime. To show you how tough it
was…one of the soldiers–a lieutenant by the name of
Castleton–came down with malaria, and that didn’t help speed
things up one bit. During all this the envoy got a little
disoriented and decided to hire a guide to lead them on. Only
thing was…the guide didn’t know his Mason-Dixon Line from his
Appomattox.
Which way to go? Which road to take? It had rained the night
before… now the weather, it was dry…oh Susanna…oh don’t you
cry…no no… wait…I’m going off on a tangent here. Maybe if
they went through the woods over there…maybe there would be a
cabin in there somewhere… maybe they could re-group and find
their way out. Listen folks, the history books may not use the
wording I’m using…but that’s what happened…and manure by any
other name still smells like… (expletive omitted)
So…now…they were thoroughly lost. What to do what to do? One
of the soldiers…a genius by the name of Conners…had this
idea. Abandon the wagons and bundle the gold in canvas packs and
carry the stuff out of the woods on mules. The officer in
charge…a chap by the name of Castleton–he’s the one with
malaria–said let’s split up. You guys go that away and get help,
us guys will go this away and tote that gold. So Conners went off
to get help, and Castleton went off to…to…what? Who knew? He
and his cronies had disappeared…gold and all.
An Army inquest was held…but…well…you can inquest
away…but if the guys you’re inquesting about ain’t around…you
can inquest to your heart’s content, it ain’t gonna do no good.
However, the army had one last trick up its sleeve. It would turn
the case over to the Pinkertons to find the lost treasure. In the
summer of 1865, two of Pinkerton’s men found a half an ingot of
gold buried under a pine stump. This cut ingot ascertained that
the gold had indeed been stolen, and had, in fact, even been
split up between the thieves. Otherwise, why a cut ingot? In
1866, other Pinkerton men found two of the mules that had been
part of the envoy. I don’t think this ascertained anything more
than the fact that the army now had a couple of more asses on
hand. The official search for the gold was abandoned in 1871.
Except for these incidences, all traces of men and gold had
disappeared. However…and now my friends and treasure
hunters…perk up your ears and make sure that door is still
shut. However…the location of the lost gold is probably known.
It’s in a small area in Cameron County, in Pennsylvania. The site
where Conners claimed he had last seen man and gold is in an area
between the West Branch and East Branch of Hick’s Run…not too
far off of Highway 120. To all accounts…it was never
found…and that means that there’s a good chance it’s still out
there. Yessiree folks, there’s gold in them thar hills. So get
out your metal detectors and your hiking boots and begin a
huntin’. And if you find any of that yellow metal…just
remember who told you about it. Benjamin did. Benjamin of
Tyler-Adam Corp…at www.tyler-adam.com. And I think he deserves
a commission on all finds. Don’t you?
And there ya have it.
And that’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Take care,
Benjamin Mark
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