. 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. Posted on March 11, 2021 by Terry W. Platt. After a long day traveling Hansen ended up at a friends home. 2nd Alabama Cavalry said: There seems to have been a great deal of attention placed on finding the "Lost Confederate Treasure" which has spanned the last 154 years since the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on 10 May 1865 at Irwinville, Ga., which brought the Civil War to a close. Thats where the bad news begins. Hunley, was one of the first working submarines that operated with a crew. Over the years the trapper kept trying to find Red Bone Cave and the treasure without avail. This made Grady think that his uncle was burying the sack full of presumed gold coins in various places in the woods. His What in the World! podcast is a fun look at the latest weird and paranormal news, strange sports stories and odd trivia. She would then sail the goods back to France. This Metal Detector Has all the top features you would expect in a quality metal detector. Deep in the Everglades is Lost City, a place where mobster Al Capone reportedly produced moonshine to keep a nearby saloon . 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. 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. Martha Mizell Puckett, the author of Snow White Sands, had failed to include footnotes, references or even a simple bibliography to support the presence of gold in Brantley County. As heir to the Mumford estate, Miss Gertrude allegedly made provisions to return the balance of the Confederate treasure to Southern hands after her death. It may not display this or other websites correctly. A man named Hardy Clemens who was a rich businessman, politician, and farmer bought a few acres of land in Coaling, Alabama on the shores of Big Sandy Creek in 1845. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. However, his business fortunes suffered great losses throughout the course of the war. It's the site where the treasure-hunting group, Finders Keepers, says as much as $55 million in lost Union gold could be buried. Back in the 1800s that made for a huge town. There were , also, over 2000 Tallassee Carbines hidden and never recovered. Many of these treasures are now on private land or owned by the federal or state government. The Nunez Ferry ran for 47 years from 1815-1919. Both were published by The Surrat Courier, a . JavaScript is disabled. The folk ballad by Lonnie Donegan was named after him. The chief had a daughter that he wanted to be married off so that he could have a male offspring to carry on as chief when he died. Probably. Matthew Paulson / Flickr. 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. Also, keep in mind whenever you want to go metal detecting make sure you know the laws of the state in which you are digging in and always ask permission before metal detecting on any private property. The area itself was founded followers of Napoleon Bonaparte who . The legend of James Copeland, along with his treasure, is largely drawn from the somewhat questionable account of Sheriff J.R.S. There are many different stories of where on his plantation the gold was hidden. She questioned whether the agency is "acting in good faith.". Jean Lafitte the pirate supposedly buried gold coins on a beach in what is now Bayou la Batre. So they filled a strongbox full of gold coins that the town had stored up as the treasury. The officer brought troops to Henrys home in the hopes of getting Henry to tell them where his treasure was hidden. #1. The port of Mobile and Mobile Bay were blockaded by Union naval forces early in the Civil War. While they fought the commander detailed a couple of men to hide the gold. So I can't totally discount the story. Juan Monroy. JavaScript is disabled. It is said that some of those wine casks of gold and silver coins are stilled buried near his home. A town was named after her that once was one of the largest towns in Randolph County Alabama. Still lost: King Kamehameha's burial chamber. He told his friend all about the story of the two wagons, treasure, and the fight with the Union soldiers. Louinas gold and silver could still be buried under the ground in that old ghost town! 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. According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. FBI agents, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) employees and other unidentified people with shovels have descended upon the tiny town of Dents Run, Pennsylvania, looking for a cache of gold bars lost just before the Civil War battle of Gettysburg that could today be worth upwards of $54 million. Clemens owned many slaves so he was worried they would tell any soldiers that came by where the buried treasure was. I guess this happened more often than we would think. In the 1966 Spaghetti Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the . So if youre in Randolph County Alabama look up that old ghost town that was once called Louina. She made her money by running a trading post and she was one of the only Indian women to have owned slaves. Had he known that in April of 1865 he, his cabinet and about $700,000 in gold and specie would have to evacuate Richmond to avoid capture during the waning days of the Civil War, he might have elected to remain in Montgomery. They never made it. The area was founded by exiled followers of Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 1800's. Eventually the responsibility for the treasure was passed on to the Secretary of War, John C. Breckenridge, who then placed Brig. (Bibb Co.) buried a bag of gold to hide it from the invading Yankees. The balance of the captured treasure was assembled and loaded into wagons for transport to Washington, D.C. So as you can tell it was a great hiding spot for soldiers. A second scholarship, known as the Sylvester Mumford Memorial Fund, was to be awarded to students from Brantley County who attend Georgia College, then known as Georgia State College for Women. Waters in the Chulafinnee Mining District will all produce gold. Worth roughly $100,000 in 1865, when it disappeared, it would be a small fortune in today's dollars--around one million dollars. An unknown amount of gold. 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. Hardy grew his small acres of land into whopping 9000 acres by 1850. President Davis pleaded with Lee to form defense lines for just one more day and informed his cabinet that Richmond was to be evacuated and that they would take the Confederate treasury with them. But, the first story sounds very familiar with a post I put on Treasure Legends-"swamp gold." The Mystery of New York's Renegade Subway Psychic, Forget About What We Know About Roswell: It's What's Missing About the Case That We Need to Look For, Archeologists Discover Another Secret Corridor Inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, Self-Driving Robot Cars Claim Their First Human Victim, Bigfoot Bathing, Godzilla Egg, Five-Legged Toad, Presidential Hair in Space and More Mysterious News Briefly, About That Time Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Supposedly Saw Aliens on the Moon, Royal Time Traveler, Illuminati Psychic, Human with a Tail, Drug-Sniffing Squirrels and More Mysterious News Briefly. 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. In his early years, he was a sailor with the pirate Jean Lafitte. 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 . In this Sept. 20, 2018 photo, Dennis Parada, right, and his son Kem Parada stand at the site of the FBI's dig for Civil War-era gold in Dents Run, Pennsylvania. But is a hidden fortune really waiting to be found? He waited there until spring and set off to sail back to France at the beginning of April 1725. Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold Posted on December 5, 2020 December 31, 2020 by Terry W. Platt Confederate gold refers to hidden caches of gold lost after the American Civil War. The Treasures of our past that still have yet to be found. Byron Campbell. It was abandoned . Those products, whether pictures of a service or a product contain links to the seller.What companies do I work with and promote?I work with Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Clickbank, and MyTopo, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to these websites.I also promote Solo Build It Site Built It, because it's the product I used to build this website. Heirloom Seal of the Realm. Morris was formerly a skilled circus performer and had an athletic build which made getting on off trains a breeze. Henry refused to tell the soldiers where the treasure was and was beaten again. All the Confederate officials would board the first train, while the second train would hold special cargo. was the operator of a ferry during the Civil War, on the Perdido River. You must log in or register to reply here. He's been published in The New York Times" and "Huffington Post and has co-authored numerous collections of trivia, puzzles and humor. Legend. Of particular note, Wayne J. Lewis researched the connection between the Confederate gold and the Mumford estate due to his personal interest in the legend. 5. Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it? Named after one president, Thomas Jefferson, he went on to marry the daughter of another, Zachary Taylor. Legend of the Lost Gold of the Confederacy The main house of Chennault Plantation. Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI said its records were exempt from public disclosure. FBI spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski told CNN that the FBI personnel were "carrying out court-authorized law enforcement activity in Elk County." By Hans KuenziThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright 2008, All Rights Reserved, 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. buried near what used to be his house on the Alabama side of the river. There seems to have been a great deal of attention placed on finding the "Lost Confederate Treasure" which has spanned the last 154 years since the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on 10 May 1865 at Irwinville, Ga., which brought the Civil War to a close. Unfortunately, Parker found the U.S. cavalry already in the immediate area and made alternate arrangements. What remained of the Confederate treasury, in the form of gold and other valuable coins, was disbursed as payroll to Confederate troops during its transport south. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. Confirmed. He was very skilled at evading the police. Here are 11 hidden treasures most people don't know about: 11. By all accounts, he stayed by the tracks between Atmore and Bay Minette Alabama stealing from the trains every chance he got. You must log in or register to reply here. Military money pokes. . They are the rarest of any Civil War weapons. 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 Demopolis Alabama (White Bluff), C. Boaz Whitfield . Fort Morgan, Alabama: Lost Confederate Gold: Two wooden boxes full of gold and silver bullion and coins: Buried deep in a bog near Athens, Alabama: C.E. Long story short it is said that Levi Colbert buried some of his savings from the inn and ferry operations in what is now Colbert County Alabama. Other Confederate gold, remains of the treasury evacuated from Richmond, did ultimately reach Georgia. 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. The treasure was placed into all kinds of containers that had once been used for sugar, coffee, flour and ammunition. Some of the most valuable placers in Alabama are found in Cleburne County. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Those two boxes of gold could still be buried deep in that bog near Athens, Alabama. La Bellone ran aground at the entrance of Pelican Bay in September of 1724 which is on the east end of Dauphin Island. The troops were trying to keep the gold and silver away from Union soldiers. The FBI says it came up empty at the rural Pennsylvania site where Civil War gold is rumored to be buried. 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. Lt. General Richard Taylor would surrender the Department of Alabama . According to the legend, none of Castletons group of eight cavalrymen and one guide named Connors knew about the gold. I am sure some of your readers are from that area and are familiar with the Prattville, Montgomery area and of course, the Alabama River. Sharps bought a mill there called Whites Mill in 1897. It happened between the Confederate Armory which was not over run during the war and present day, Wall Street . Because it was in a state park, they were told to stop looking. Still feverish, Castleton took over and made a number of course changes, including a plan to build a raft and float down the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg. Somewhere near Primm Springs, Tennessee. The Army sent Pinkerton detectives disguised as prospectors and lumbermen to clandestinely look for the gold, but they obviously never found it. Finders Keepers asked the Justice Department for expedited processing, which can be granted in cases where there is widespread media interest involving questions about the government's integrity. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, Sorry, I don't know anything about these. General Lee advised Davis that he had until 8 p.m. to load the gold, valuables and cabinet members onto two trains which would travel southward on the only line still open between Richmond and Danville, Virginia. The crew members that survived and made it to shore said there was a million dollars worth of gold and silver aboard. With its rich history of lost treasure, there is no wonder that we have 15 stories pertaining to lost treasure in Alabama. He didnt even tell his son. This rumor of buried treasure in Wilkes County nevertheless spawned a legend involving a family of local repute, the Mumfords, and the location of the lost Confederate gold. The Search for the Lost Confederate Gold. He would then bury the wine casks in various areas around his homestead. May 17, 2014 at 12:00 am. Alabama. 's don't mention anything about the skirmish. 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. Expand. Your email address is safe, and unsubscribing is easy. One of the eight treasures of the Sasanian king Khosrow II. 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 . It may not display this or other websites correctly. There are many legends that surround the place, some saying it was blown up, hidden, or just forgotten deep in the hills. 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.. Henry Allen Nunez was an early-day entrepreneur. Morris started robbing trains because he was angry with the Louisville and Nashville railroad because a brakeman found him on a train ride that was headed for Mobile that he didnt pay for. In 1720 there was a trapper that came to the Chickasaw village. The duo heard about the legend from Kevin and decided to help him in his adventure. Pitts, who arrested the pirate before his hanging in 1857. circa 960. state of Alabama. 6) Lost Delosie Mine. The wreck is still there and its treasure is waiting to be recovered! In November 2004, they claim to have found a fire pit in Dents Run where human skeletons were allegedly discovered in 1876. Moving to the southwest, Parker and the wagons zigzagged across the South Carolina-Georgia state line several times to evade capture. You are using an out of date browser. He also contracted pneumonia and had an infection that contributed to his death. I have also researched the legend of Keel Mountain, I agree the O.R. Buried Train Robbery Loot: $30,000: On a farm in the Osage Hills close to the small town of Okesa, Ok. An FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize a fabled cache of U.S. government gold he said was "stolen during the Civil War" and hidden in a Pennsylvania cave, saying the state . This story takes place around Florence, Alabama. Looking For a Top Rated Metal Detector That Wont Cost You Thousands of Dollars but works like a $2000 machine? Sharps ended up falling off the mills roof when he was doing repairs in June of 1899. Numerous unnamed drainages will also produce placer gold for a hard working prospector. On March 7, 1896, he was in a general store in the town of Atmore, Alabama. Hansen and the two soldiers went on their way dressed as farmers. Hello all, Any of y'all ever read or hear of the Confederates escorting $250,000.00 in gold to the east coast in 1864 being attacked about two miles east of Tallassee, Alabama near or crossing a little creek? He also owned two plantations outside of what was called Savannah now central Alabama. His wife gave in again and told the soldiers where another cask was buried. The lost gold also played a key role in the legendary 1966 Western film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Jesse James the legendary outlaw of the west and in those days Alabama was considered out west had hideouts in and around the areas of Dawson, Guntersville, Gadsden, and Mentone Alabama in the Sand mountains. Please enter valid email address to continue. And some say its buried amongst the slaves in the graveyard on the property. Nikki Haley slams potential GOP contenders, and Trump and George W. Bush. He is said to have stored the gold and silver coins that he got from the Ferry goers in wine casks. In the 1939 movie "Gone With The Wind," the Union Army believes Rhett Butler to have the missing Confederate gold, and they threaten to hang him. Near Athens, Alabama, in Limestone County Alabama, there may be a Confederate treasure. Treasure hunters who believe they found a huge cache of fabled Civil War-era gold in Pennsylvania are now on the prowl for something as elusive as the buried booty itself: government records of the FBI's excavation. Arriving in Washington, Georgia, Lewis reported that the Confederate treasury had dwindled down to about $43,000 in cash. He went to Fort Rosalie and told a friend about the treasure. As a 155-year-old legend goes, a Union Army wagon train left Wheeling, W.Va., before the Battle of Gettysburg, carrying two tons of gold, but never completed its 400-mile mission. First published on January 6, 2022 / 11:11 AM. The town of Louina lasted from 1834-1902. Many attempts at recovering her gold and silver cache have come up empty. Levi Colbert who lived from 1759 to1834 was the bench chief of the Chickasaw Nation. Ill Trade You a Fredericksburg for a Winchester and a Pea Ridge. Paul Seaburn is the editor at Mysterious Universe and its most prolific writer. General Basil Duke in charge. The bushwhackers were stragglers from both the Federal and Confederate armies who had heard of the treasure and the handouts being given to soldiers. Sep 27, 2005. The townspeople decided to defend Newton but were worried that if they got defeated that the towns treasury would be looted. The 1907 theft included the removal of a diamond star, pendant, and the collars of five knights of the Order. They searched and searched for months coming up empty-handed so the trappers friend gave up and went back to Fort Rosalie. Hanson wounded the last Union soldier but he got away. Searching for more lost treasure? Chilton County has gold in Coosa River, Blue Creek, Mulberry Creek and its tributaries, and Rocky Creek. Three children and two men drowned but the rest of the passengers were saved by a brigantine sailboat that was nearby. The troops were trying to keep the gold and silver away from Union soldiers. Author Robert Scott Davis, Wallace State College, Hanceville, Alabama. Also while feverish, Castleton made the mistake of telling the troops about the gold. They loaded the two boxes of treasure onto two wagons and headed for Columbia. I got the Keel Mountain story from a treasure hunter in west Tennessee, and it was a small, one-paragraph statement. The courts eventually agreed with the federal government, who claimed the funds because the Richmond banks had aided a rebellion by making loans to the Confederacy. La Bellone didnt make it and sank near the entrance to Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island. 'The Curse of Civil War Gold' follows Michigan-based Kevin Dykstra in his 8-year mission to find the lost confederate gold of the Civil War. South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Subscribe Today! The chief said that he could have all the treasure if he would marry his daughter. One of the first settlements of Alabama is called Dauphin Island. He immigrated here from Scotland. But this time Henry died from being beaten. Or, a Top Secret Human Experiment Gone Wild? In the movie, the characters are hunting for . Bushes envelop the pig farm, and the cemetery is wooded over. Pistolero, In the book,"Buried Treasure You Can Find by Robert F. Mark, theres a little four line treasure tale. 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 . His anger turned to crime and robbing the L&N trains was the outcome. They tried to get the horses and wagons out of the swampy area but the load was too heavy and the wagons got stuck. Nor did anyone else looking for it after word got out. In April of 1862, Union Army Brigadier General Orsmby M. Mitchel left Nashville, Tennessee and moved his small army southward through Shelbyville toward Huntsville, Alabama. The American Civil War may be about to start up again and not for any of the reasons you might think. ****************. All but about $70,000 was recovered and transferred to Augusta, Georgia, where ownership of the funds was tied up in court until 1893. While on the route to Columbia the wagons and horses started to get bogged down on the marshy ground 4 miles North of Athens, Alabama. circa 990-995. Having his ferry there solved this problem. The gold became a lost legend. Since the gold standard was abolished in the 1930s, gold coins, aside from their higher intrinsic value and demand as collectibles, no longer have any special worth as a standard of value in world trade. The mountain I saw that looked like an overturned boat is just to the east of Belleville, off US 231. Union forces were strong in the area north of Alabama so Hansen and two confederate soldiers decided to take the two boxes of treasure to Columbia where General Hood of the rebel troops was held up. JavaScript is disabled. Two treasure hunters are hot on the trail of $2 million worth of Confederate gold bullion that went missing in the 1800s. He was then valued at $300,000 which made him a wealthy man, to say the least! The question that I pose. "From the outset, it seems as if the FBI is doing everything it can to avoid answering the question of whether they actually found gold," Weismann said. It would have taken a large amount of troops to dig and hide all the treasure, and as poor as alot of those soldiers were after the war, why not go back and dig up the treasure? So Hardy decided to bury the treasure late at night when everyone was asleep. He wanted to trap game on the tribal land so he asked the chief permission. Have fun in your search for Alabama treasure. Here's how this gold war began, according to a Pittsburg Post-Gazette article about a 1983 story in Lost Treasure magazine. There's a book out called " Confederate Gold" I haven't read it but it may give some clues. The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkners Great-Grandfather. 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. This means that certain products that you may see advertised on this site I get paid a small commission if that product is clicked on AND purchased by you. Original: Feb 28, 2018. 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. In conclusion, historical research has determined only $70,000 of the gold belonging to the banks in Richmond is missing, but not lost, as it was accounted for in the robbery during its shipment back to Richmond. Mr. Sharps became rich after owning the mill. 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. The legend of the Confederate gold is referenced in many films. The Irish Crown Jewels, stolen from Dublin Castle over a century ago, are still out there for treasure-seekers to find today. pistelero, everyone knows that confedereate gold was made and distributed throughout the south, and some stories about hidden treasure are real. C.E. Mr. Willismith owned most of the town. So do your due diligence before going on your treasure-hunting expeditions. It is said that John Buried $100,000 worth of gold there. "If gold was . That is a crazy amount of money even by todays standards. The treasure may be buried near what used to be his house on the Alabama side of the river. De Soto ended up dying of fever. Here we go! I grew up in Prattville, Alabama. If you ever dreamed of finding a treasure hidden by an outlaw, gangster, or a wealthy person, but was not sure where to start. Given this claim that the source of these scholarships was in fact a portion of the lost Confederate treasury, researchers throughout the years sought to confirm the veracity of the Mumford legend. Of treasure buried in the Florida sand during the civil war. However, this wagon train was robbed on the first night that it stopped to make camp, and the robbers improvised ways to carry the loot: stuffed in their shirts, pants, boots and whatever else would hold their plunder. Initially, with one-third of her estate, the will established the Sylvester Mumford Memorial Endowment at the Thornwell Orphanage in Clinton, South Carolina, which was founded in 1875 and is now known as the Thornwell Home and School for Children.