Arriving in Washington, Georgia, Lewis reported that the Confederate treasury had dwindled down to about $43,000 in cash. She made her money by running a trading post and she was one of the only Indian women to have owned slaves. The belief that Confederate gold is buried in Wilkes County has persisted since the end of the war. The Paradas accompanied the FBI to the site in Dent's Run, about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, but say they were confined to their car while the FBI excavated. John Willismith was a rich businessman who lived in Fort Payne, Alabama. The Nunez Ferry ran for 47 years from 1815-1919. The treasure may be buried near what used to be his house on the Alabama side of the river. The most famous lost Confederate ship, the H.L. I doubt very seriously that any of the phantom confederate gold myths are real. It was an E-mail he sent to someone and it found it's way to being an article on several sites. It was in Washington that the bulk of the treasure was captured along with Jefferson Davis and his staff. Pitts, who arrested the pirate before his hanging in 1857. He ended up in prison until the end of the war. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. In the movie, the characters are hunting for $200,000 worth of gold that is rumored to be . 33 Missing Treasures Experts Say Are Real - Best Life While sitting at the store Morris Slater was gunned down by Constable Leonard McGowin and some other posse members. The gold and silver coins are said to be buried east of his old homestead. Mar 7, 2019. Juan Monroy. Also, a Spanish galleon ship broke up near the east end of Dauphin Island in 1801. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. The first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the Hunley didn't . If you ever get out to Dauphin Island speak with the natives there and they will tell you about all the history and treasure stories that went on on the island. Explore Alabama - ALABAMA TREASURE LEGENDS Table of Contents: Alabama Treasure Legends, Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold, Old Flint River Settlement Gold, $30000 in Gold Coin Buried in Bridgeport Alabama, Loot Buried by Levi Colbert in Buzzard Roost Alabama , Rumors of Buried Treasure in . Many posses were formed looking for Railroad Bill. Jean and his older brother Pierre stole a lot of loot over the years in and around the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800s. 3. Solving mystery of 'Lost City' in Everglades - Sun Sentinel Somewhere near Primm Springs, Tennessee. Hardy Clemens died in 1863 leaving no trace of where he hid his treasure. Dictionary of Banking Terms.). The abandoned town of Demopolis can be found near the Tombigbee River, close to the intersection of routes 80 and 43. A man by the name of C.E. The funds were then stored there in a vault at a local bank, and within days after the war ended, the Richmond banks had their funds returned to Richmond on five wagons. In June 1863, President Lincoln ordered two wagons with false bottoms to carry anywhere from 26 to 52 gold bars weighing 50 pounds each from Wheeling, West Virginia, 400 miles north to Pennsylvania to pay the Union troops stationed there. Well, there you have it the 15 lost treasures of Alabama. Many names and records have been lost to time. Dennis Parada, founder of Finders Keepers, claims he used a metal detector to determine there was a large amount of metal about eight feet down at the site. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, Then check out 14 Lost Treasures of Wisconsin. All the merchandise including the gold and silver bullion and coins sank with the ship. var FIX=FIX||{}; . I would keep a close I on the eastern shore of Dauphin Island. Metal Detecting in Alabama - Coin & Treasure Hunting In Washington, Georgia, Jefferson Davis and his cabinet met for the final time, where Davis signed his last official order, making Micajah Clark the acting Treasurer of the Confederacy. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Pistolero, In the book,"Buried Treasure You Can Find by Robert F. Mark, theres a little four line treasure tale. Mystery of Lost Confederate Gold | History News Network He was a war hero, fighting in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, and looked set for a long, happy career as a statesman. Did Jesse James bury Confederate gold? These treasure hunters think so The Gold Vanishes - Official Author Site forBRUCE WETTERAU JavaScript is disabled. The gold never made it and various conflicting accounts of what happened confounded ever finding it. Lewis graduated from Thornwell High School in 1958 and then from Clemson University in 1962 before serving on active duty in Germany and Vietnam with the U.S. Army. And Confederate gold did go missing. La Bellone didnt make it and sank near the entrance to Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island. But the runway incident is a real one. All but about $70,000 was recovered and transferred to Augusta, Georgia, where ownership of the funds was tied up in court until 1893. Buried Train Robbery Loot: $30,000: On a farm in the Osage Hills close to the small town of Okesa, Ok. So with no luck finding the treasure he packed up and moved to California. Manage Settings Such is the legend of the Lost Gold of Keel Mountain told first by an old Madison County man named Jeremiah McCain, who had joined up with a renegade band of rebel guerillas in early 1862. . The Indians thought this request to be outrageous and attacked De Sotos camp. Also called hard currency. Demopolis is an abandoned town on the Tombigbee River, near the intersection of rout 43, and 80. La Bellone was a French merchant ship that was in the area of Dauphin Island to pick up merchandise from the French Colonials in Louisiana. He also contracted pneumonia and had an infection that contributed to his death. / CBS/AP. Bruce Wetterau is the author of Lost Treasure, A Clay Cantrell Mystery Adventure, a novel about the hunt for a horde of Confederate gold and the story of how it came to be lost in a cavern in the Allegheny Mountains. Searching for more lost treasure? This ended in the Trail of Tears that forced the Indians out. By 1960, this scholarship fund was creating more income from its principal investment than there were recipients for the scholarships. You must log in or register to reply here. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. His anger turned to crime and robbing the L&N trains was the outcome. It also carried bullion, donated jewelry, and 7Isaac W. Avery, The History of the State of Georgia From 1850 to 1881 (NewYork . The contractor detected an underground mass that weighed up to nine tons and had the density of gold, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed last year at the request of news organizations, including The Associated Press. You are using an out of date browser. In his early years, he was a sailor with the pirate Jean Lafitte. But is a hidden fortune really waiting to be found? In 2012, Finders Keepers members said they'd found the location of . Which leads us to today. He was then valued at $300,000 which made him a wealthy man, to say the least! They tried to get the horses and wagons out of the swampy area but the load was too heavy and the wagons got stuck. The trapper ended up not marrying the chiefs daughter and he went away freely although he killed two braves to make sure he was able to leave. He tried to locate the treasure but the landscape had changed so much over the years. Did the FBI Steal Nine Tons of Civil War Gold? - The Atlantic "There was a tremendous amount of gold that went missing during the Civil War," added author William Rawlings, who has written about a rumored Confederate treasure of gold and silver that went . After some minor resistance from roving Confederate bands, on April 11, 1862, his Union troops marched into Huntsville and occupied the city. Mr. Sharps would take a shovel and sack with him on these treks into the woods. After exhaustive research, Lewis concluded that gold from the Richmond banks and the Confederate treasury had in fact been evacuated from Richmond and shipped south to prevent it from falling into the hands of Union forces. Dreams of Confederate gold in Danville - Richmond Times-Dispatch Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI said its records were exempt from public disclosure. The Treasures of our past that still have yet to be found. He's been published in The New York Times" and "Huffington Post and has co-authored numerous collections of trivia, puzzles and humor. The lost gold also played a key role in the legendary 1966 Western film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. She would then sail the goods back to France. The "Lost Confederate Gold"; myth or reality??? - American Civil War Forums If you are ever in Muscle Shoals, Alabama along the Tennessee river you might want to take a look around for limestone caves although the Red Bone cave is more than likely underwater now and you will need to bring your scuba gear and do some underwater metal detecting. If you ever dreamed of finding a treasure hidden by an outlaw, gangster, or a wealthy person, but was not sure where to start. Two more Union soldiers were killed along with the two rebels that had been with Hansen. As the story goes, Thomas Jefferson Beale and a team of 30 men . A load of gold worth up to $54 million went missing during the Civil By the end of the war, nothing remained in the coffers of the Confederate treasury except for its incalculable amount of debt. The treasure was placed into all kinds of containers that had once been used for sugar, coffee, flour and ammunition. More information on where and how to research for lost treasures. This legend was first advanced by Martha Mizell Puckett, a former school teacher and Brantley County native, who spun her tale of Confederate gold in her book, Snow White Sands. According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The combined hoard is believed to be between $500,000 and $600,000 in gold, the combined values of the Richmond Bank & Confederate . This small island holds many lost treasure stories. Waters in the Chulafinnee Mining District will all produce gold. Mr. Sharps became rich after owning the mill. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. The duo heard about the legend from Kevin and decided to help him in his adventure. After a rest stop in St. Marys PA, they headed towards Driftwood. After meeting with the treasure hunters in early 2018, the FBI brought in a contractor with more sophisticated instruments. Few mysteries present themselves so close to home. Louina was forced to leave Alabama during the Trail of Tears and sold her trading post Isham T. Weathers. . January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM Continue with Recommended Cookies. Finally, in the wake of the treasure hunters' appeal, the FBI said it had located 2,400 pages of records and 17 video files that it could potentially turn over - but that it would take years to do so. In late May 1861, Jefferson Davis, the former Mississippi Senator and the reluctant president of the seceding Confederate States of America, moved the capital of the CSA from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia to boost the morale of the Confederate troops and weld Virginia to the Confederacy. Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it? They filled two wooden boxes full. 27.07 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Flames of Prophecy, 29.07 - MU Podcast - Contract with the Goddess, 29.06 - MU Podcast - Italian Disco Abductions, 27.06 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Secret Vaults of Time, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Queen's Ghost, Small Lake Monster, Space Caterpillar and More Mysterious News Briefly, A Haunted Book and the Most Haunted Bookshop There Is. From 1861 to 1862, it was a Confederate troop training base. He was specific about the state, but Bellview and Booneville are marked as being in Tennessee. I live n the the ala state line and have pulse and gpr if anyone is interested in searching, Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. Keel Mountain is located in Madison County in Alabama not in Belleview, Tenn. Here are a few of the gems and buried treasure in Virginia that we managed to dig up. state of Alabama. However, his business fortunes suffered great losses throughout the course of the war. Captain Kelly's Buried Gold. 13 Lost Treasures of Kentucky Another had the group split up because of Castletons fever, with the lieutenants group taking the gold and disappearing. A Tale of Lost Civil War Gold: Did FBI Secretly Seize Fabled Treasure There are stories that the Islanders tell of buried pots, jars, and treasure chests full of gold and silver. A rich man named Hansen was a Confederate sympathizer who wanted to financially help the Confederate economy that was falling apart at the end of the Civil War. Apparently in 1865, $100,000 of gold and silver was put into two large metal boxes by . An unknown amount of gold. Moving to the southwest, Parker and the wagons zigzagged across the South Carolina-Georgia state line several times to evade capture. Newton Alabama in Dale County came under attack by the 1st Florida Calvary that was led by former Confederate captain Joseph Sanders who lived in Dale County. The Curse of Oak Island. It would be a great place to find all kinds of history and relics that might still be strewn about by all those army camps. They fought with the Indians and ended up taking their gold and jewels and then going onto Alabama. Rocky Springs, MS 39086, USA. My Special Bundle Package of digital books and the links to my TV series is loaded with information that will guide you toward treasures large and small. Imperial Seal of China created by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, lost after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in the 10th century. One time in Montgomery, in the late '80s, or early '90s, I was finishing some sheetrock in a small business, in sort of a row of businesses in the same long building. He is said to have stored the gold and silver coins that he got from the Ferry goers in wine casks. Here is an OP that I posted on it a couple of months ago, to include sharing a couple of photos of one of the coins that he was paid on 4 May 1865, once they crossed the Savannah River and Breckinridge was more . According to most news accounts and his website, hes been fighting for the right to dig there ever since. FBI Hunt for Civil War Gold Detailed in Unsealed Affidavit Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. When he would return he wouldnt have the sack with him. circa 990-995. You see people didnt trust the banks back then because they were often robbed and the insurance programs of the Federal Government were not that good. Some think its on the Alabama side while others say its on the Florida side. Lost Confederate Gold - LostTreasures.US Hansen and the two soldiers went on their way dressed as farmers. Jean Lafitte the French Privateer and Pirate is said to have spent a considerable amount of time visiting Fort Morgan, Alabama. Ill Trade You a Fredericksburg for a Winchester and a Pea Ridge. He would then bury the wine casks in various areas around his homestead. Sometime during the Civil War Confederate soldiers were being pursued by Union troops and they buried $20,000 in gold and silver coins close to a spot named Old Camp Place. Treasure hunters in the area believe his house was located at the following coordinates: N 3030 38 W 872651 which is close to U.S. Highway 90 bridge that now crosses the Perdido River. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Eventually the responsibility for the treasure was passed on to the Secretary of War, John C. Breckenridge, who then placed Brig. May 17, 2014 at 12:00 am. The daughter didnt want anything to do with the braces that her father presented to her but she had an infatuation with the white trapper who recently came around. Lost Confederate gold near Tallassee, Al.?? Standing a discrete distance away and watching were Dennis and Kem Parada, owners of Finders Keepers, who still believe well, you known their name. Original: Feb 28, 2018. Im not sure of the accuracy of this story but here it goes. Subscribe Today! Mobile Bay was not permanently closed to blockade-runners until Adm. David G. Farragut's fleet ran past Fort Morgan into Mobile Bay on August 5 . If you are venturing on to State or Federal lands. The Lost Confederate Gold of Jefferson Davis, the Outlaw President On March 7, 1896, he was in a general store in the town of Atmore, Alabama. 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He took the bodies of the Confederate soldiers with him. As fate has it the 3 men that buried the gold ended up dead after the attack. Some of the treasure had been retained by Brig. It is said that he would only accept gold coins as payment for the ground corn and flour that he sold. The Union soldiers dug up the cask and went and spent the money in Mobile, Alabama. This spot was used during the Civil War as you guessed a popular camping area for southern refugees and Confederate soldiers. buried near what used to be his house on the Alabama side of the river. In fact, when she died in 1946 at age 99 in Washington, D.C., she bequeathed almost $600,000 to the children of Brantley County through an endowment and two scholarship funds. C.E. All the Confederate officials would board the first train, while the second train would hold special cargo. It was said that, after taking possession of the gold, Mumford transported some of the Confederate treasury southeast to North Florida and the Atlantic coast, where he boarded a British steamer bound for England. Railroad Bill real name Morris Slater was a black train robber, murderer during the late 1800s. 15 Lost Treasures of Alabama Some of the add-ons on this site are powered by. Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Library & Museum, William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, On Trees and Forests: Correcting Historys View of J. Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln on Emancipation Proclamation Day, January 1, 1863, General Burnside of Burnsides Bridge Fame Faced Infamy at Fredericksburg for Lack of a Bridge. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. While they fought the commander detailed a couple of men to hide the gold. She was a cargo ship that held deer hides, beaver pelts, tobacco, and 40,000 crowns of gold and silver bullion and coins. I hope you have found this article of interest and if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments section below. He waited there until spring and set off to sail back to France at the beginning of April 1725. You are using an out of date browser. History, that is to say old rumors, tells us that a giant cache of gold was buried within walking distance of my house. The story goes that when she was forced to leave she had so much gold and silver her horses couldnt carry the load so she was forced to bury the gold and silver where she stood. The American Civil War may be about to start up again and not for any of the reasons you might think. The FBI says it came up empty at the rural Pennsylvania site where Civil War gold is rumored to be buried. The 1907 theft included the removal of a diamond star, pendant, and the collars of five knights of the Order. However, although the banks and the Confederacy had shipped their gold on the same train, each had its own security forces and the gold was never commingled. Please enter valid email address to continue. Is the "Lost Confederate Gold" a myth or reality??? It's the site where the treasure-hunting group, Finders Keepers, says as much as $55 million in lost Union gold could be buried. Here's how this gold war began, according to a Pittsburg Post-Gazette article about a 1983 story in Lost Treasure magazine. So the treasure has never been found. Thats where the bad news begins. From lost confederate Civil War gold to lost Indian gold to plantation owners and their lost treasure we have a little bit of everything in these stories. After all, the mysterious doesn't always have to be serious. Some of the most valuable placers in Alabama are found in Cleburne County. Buried treasure in Alabama may be located in ghost towns. The treasure was suppose to be hidden under the foundation in the creek at the old Lucille grist mill, so one moonless night he employed the help of his . The two wooden boxes full of Confederate gold fell out of the wagons and sank quickly into the mud. . So if you are ever in that area you might want to have your metal detector and shovel ready because there might be something worth finding buried in the ground there. He researched the archives of the Thornwell Orphanage and found no reference to the Confederacy or gold in any of the handwritten letters from Mrs. Parkhurst. The balance of the captured treasure was assembled and loaded into wagons for transport to Washington, D.C. The legend states that DeSoto and his men cant to the Bay of Espiritu Santa which is now Tampa Bay Florida. Puckett claimed that when Miss Gertrude decided that the remainder of the Confederate gold should be returned to the people to whom it belonged, her personal lawyer, Judge J.P. Highsmith, suggested that an educational trust be established for the descendants of the Confederate soldiers. A message was sent to the Justice Department seeking comment on the suit, which asks a judge to order the FBI to immediately turn over the records. He and his friend decided to head out to recover the treasure. Three children and two men drowned but the rest of the passengers were saved by a brigantine sailboat that was nearby. Are they really out there ? Is there $54 million worth of Civil War gold buried in Dents Run? You see the Civil War was going on and many plantation owners were worried that their wealth would be looted if Union soldiers came around. . Louina by all accounts was a wealthy Indian woman. Lost Treasure Near Clear Fork Creek. Digging Deeper: Lost Treasures of Oklahoma. In Washington, Georgia, a small town untouched by the war, he was entrusted with $86,000 in gold coin and bullion (about $1 million in today's money) and disappeared into the night. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Approximately Four miles north of Athens, Limestone County, and about half a mile from a prominent stream crossing, two huge metal box's, containing $100,000 in gold and silver were dumped into a bog by Confederate soldiers to prevent their seizure by the Union Soldiers in 1865. Finders Keepers' owners, the father-son duo of Dennis and Kem Parada, had spent years looking for what, according to legend, was an 1863 shipment of Union gold that was lost or stolen while on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The crew members that survived and made it to shore said there was a million dollars worth of gold and silver aboard. The existence of caches of hidden or lost Confederate gold has been the source of numerous Georgia legends. The Ghost Town of Old Cahaba located on route 22 approximately 14 miles southwest of Selma, was used as a Confederate Fort during the Civil War. Bushes envelop the pig farm, and the cemetery is wooded over. The Beckham Plantation Treasure. He came to Alabama in 1815 and set up a ferry for crossing the Perdido River that has banks of the Alabama and Florida side. He immigrated here from Scotland. Win McNamee/Getty Images. It may not display this or other websites correctly. By the time that the trea-sure train under Confederate naval captain William Harwar Parker gold and silver coins. I live in Athens, Alabama. There are rumors that caches of coins and silverware are buried on and around the plantation ruins. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website.