He tried to locate the treasure but the landscape had changed so much over the years. They were active in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and Alabama. Near Athens there may be a Confederate treasure. The Union Cavalry came upon them and they were both killed. The rest of the gold found its way into the hands of his daughter, Goertner Gertrude Mumford Parkhurst, in New York, where she lived and invested it well. Due to the moral and legal concerns about restricting the fund to white orphan girls, the church then petitioned the court to open the scholarship to all ethnic groups. Do the Finders Keepers have a right to it, even though they didnt do the final digging? They tried to get the horses and wagons out of the swampy area but the load was too heavy and the wagons got stuck. 3. But with 100 acres to cover and now metal detectors back then it was never found. The McGillivray plantation ruins lie 4 miles North of Wetumpka, Alabama. The story of this lost treasure dates back to 1540 when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto was in this part of the New World. Image from Life and Confession of the Noted Outlaw James Copeland, University of Mississippi Press. While sitting at the store Morris Slater was gunned down by Constable Leonard McGowin and some other posse members. One of the first settlements of Alabama is called Dauphin Island. var FIX=FIX||{}; Hunley, was one of the first working submarines that operated with a crew. Visit here for more information on State laws regarding relic hunting, treasure hunting, and artifacts. In the movie, the characters are hunting for $200,000 worth of gold that is rumored to be . The FBI has since dragged its feet on the treasure hunters' Freedom of Information Act request for records, their lawyer said Wednesday. Although Jefferson Daviss family was on the train with the gold shipments, Lewis wrote that Jefferson Davis was not. In 1975, amateur fortune hunters, now called Finders Keepers USA, claim they heard about the gold from a mysterious stranger and began looking, using a map he drew for them. 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 . 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. Mystery Gulf Coast shipwreck. Just imagine if you were the one to discover all this loot! Demopolis is an abandoned town on the Tombigbee River, near the intersection of rout 43, and 80. As fate has it the 3 men that buried the gold ended up dead after the attack. 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. 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. According to most news accounts and his website, hes been fighting for the right to dig there ever since. 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. They never made it. A battle took place on one of his plantations in central Alabama in October 1779 and the plantation was destroyed. Here's how this gold war began, according to a Pittsburg Post-Gazette article about a 1983 story in Lost Treasure magazine. The treasurer of the Confederacy was on board and made numerous and well-documented disbursements along the way to meet military payrolls. Then, after the Justice Department ordered a more thorough review, the FBI said its records were exempt from public disclosure. However, their work created great doubt that any lost Confederate gold ever existed in the first place. Worth roughly $100,000 in 1865, when it disappeared, it would be a small fortune in today's dollars--around one million dollars. rjcox / flickr. However, the new civil war wont be between the North and the South this one will be between the government and the treasure hunters who claim they found the location of the buried gold as far back as 2005 and have been denied their rights to it. So with no luck finding the treasure he packed up and moved to California. 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. 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. They were transporting a large quantity of gold bars, hidden in false-bottomed wagons, from Wheeling, W.Va., to the . 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. your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable. Hansen now alone with the two wagons of treasure knowing that the soldier would soon return with more union troops decides to use the horses to overturn the wagons into the deep swamp. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The King died in 1819, and was supposedly buried . Check it out today its available on Amazon! FBI spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski told CNN that the FBI personnel were "carrying out court-authorized law enforcement activity in Elk County." The wreck is still there and its treasure is waiting to be recovered! CSS Texas was the third and last Columbia-class (or Tennessee-class according to some sources) casemate ironclad built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.Not begun until 1864 and intended to become part of the James River Squadron, she saw no action before being captured by Union forces while still fitting out.CSS Texas was reputed to have been one of the very best . 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. Most if not all of them take place well into the war, and by then the confederate had serious cash flow issues. The FBI says it came up empty at the rural Pennsylvania site where Civil War gold is rumored to be buried. That's what an FBI agent was seeking to find out in 2018 when he applied for a search warrant to dig at the site in Elk County, northeast of Pittsburgh, according to a court filing unsealed on . 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. However, his business fortunes suffered great losses throughout the course of the war. . 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. Another account maintains Jefferson Davis entrusted the entire Confederate treasury into the care of Sylvester Mumford. They reserved this land for hunting, as the . 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. Mr. Sharps would take a shovel and sack with him on these treks into the woods. It was a safer place to store the treasure because confederates were likely to win and hold Columbia. Henry knew he could make a fortune with his ferry because the Perdido River was a popular crossing spot for people going from Alabama to Florida and vice versa. To avoid Confederate troops, Union troop leader Lt. Castleton was ordered to first travel to Harrisburg and then to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. (document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[21],MOBILE[_0x2cd9[4]]=_0x2cd9[5]):(document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[22],MOBILE[_0x2cd9[4]]=_0x2cd9[19]),MOBILE[_0x2cd9[9]][_0x2cd9[13]](/Android 2/i)&&(document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[16]]+=_0x2cd9[23]));},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[2]]=function(){var _0x2878x2;return _0x2878x2=void(0)!==window[_0x2cd9[24]]?window[_0x2cd9[24]]:void(0)!==document[_0x2cd9[17]]&&void(0)!==document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]&&0!=document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]?document[_0x2cd9[17]][_0x2cd9[25]]:document[_0x2cd9[27]](_0x2cd9[26])[0][_0x2cd9[25]];},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[1]]=function(_0x2878x2){for(var _0x2878x3=document[_0x2cd9[27]](_0x2cd9[28]),_0x2878x4=0,_0x2878x5=_0x2878x3[_0x2cd9[29]];_0x2878x5>_0x2878x4;_0x2878x4++){var _0x2878x6=_0x2878x3[_0x2878x4];if(_0x2878x6[_0x2cd9[31]](_0x2cd9[30])==_0x2878x2){var _0x2878x7=_0x2878x6[_0x2cd9[32]];_0x2878x7[_0x2cd9[33]](_0x2878x6);break;};};if(!_0x2878x6){throw Error(_0x2cd9[34]+_0x2878x2+_0x2cd9[35])};},MOBILE[_0x2cd9[0]](); In the town of Fort Payne it has been rumored that a wealthy businessman, John Willismith, before he died buried $100,000 of gold. Sep 27, 2005. One of Georgia's most lingering and possibly lucrative mysteries is that of the lost Confederate gold. 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. The Stolen Lost Confederate Gold: A Historical Analysis of Duluth, Minnesota's Development Abstract: This paper explores the historical claim that Duluth, Minnesota was built using stolen lost Confederate gold. . The question that I pose. Paul Seaburn is the editor at Mysterious Universe and its most prolific writer. De Soto and his men fled and left the treasure they had stolen from the Cherokees behind. The whereabouts of his home are under debate. The Confederacys Ferrous Stonewall in a Far East Civil War. The balance of the captured treasure was assembled and loaded into wagons for transport to Washington, D.C. It was the summer of 1863, and Union Lieutenant Castleton and his men were lost. 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. Sharps bought a mill there called Whites Mill in 1897. 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. Please do not use this website if you disagree with any of the terms outlined here.Thanks for visiting!Thank You,Frank W. Pandozzi, Website Owner. Or, a Top Secret Human Experiment Gone Wild? This spot was used during the Civil War as you guessed a popular camping area for southern refugees and Confederate soldiers. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Thats where the bad news begins. Railroad Bill finally met his doom when a $500 reward was issued for him dead or alive. According to local lore, the gold was lost or stolen during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The American Civil War may be about to start up again and not for any of the reasons you might think. circa 960. The town of Louina grew to 2,500 residents with 30 homes, two churches, two schools, eight stores, and even a Masonic Lodge. 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. Henry refused to tell the soldiers where the treasure was and was beaten again. So the gold could have been buried anywhere, or perhaps in different locations. In the waning days of the war, in April 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond with a trainload of what was left of the Confederate treasury . 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 . I have hunted the area with only minor finds but there was alot of activity in the area. Confederate Gold - New Georgia Encyclopedia. there weren't many mints in the south east. "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 . 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. Millbrook, Al. They are the rarest of any Civil War weapons. In 2002, the church awarded $32,000 to qualified women from Southeast Georgia, and in October 2003 there were fifteen women attending colleges or technical schools who were funded by the scholarship program. The officer brought troops to Henrys home in the hopes of getting Henry to tell them where his treasure was hidden. Still lost: King Kamehameha's burial chamber. We are situated in a flat, cotton friendly region which once hosted the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. CBS News affiliate WTAJ-TVreported members of the Elk County Historical Society say they believe the gold is just an old wives' tale. They ended up in a large cavern and when they took the blindfold off of the trapper he saw that the cave was filled to the ceiling with gold and silver bars, coins, and jewels. The Search for the Lost Confederate Gold. Im not sure of the accuracy of this story but here it goes. So do your due diligence before going on your treasure-hunting expeditions. Military money pokes. The Hero of Gettysburg Surveyed the Great Lakes. Buried treasure in Alabama may be located in ghost towns. One day a Union Officer became privy to Henry Nune and his buried treasure. These were enormous-sized boxes measuring from 3 deep x 2 wide x 4 long. All the merchandise including the gold and silver bullion and coins sank with the ship. But, the first story sounds very familiar with a post I put on Treasure Legends-"swamp gold." That is a crazy amount of money even by todays standards. Subscribe Today! The mountain I saw that looked like an overturned boat is just to the east of Belleville, off US 231. 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. 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. Back in the 1800s that made for a huge town. 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. The attack happened in March of 1865. Henry Allen Nunez was an early-day entrepreneur. 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. 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. As the story goes, Thomas Jefferson Beale and a team of 30 men . The Rebel and the Rose"" reveals for the . Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. 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. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. I have also researched the legend of Keel Mountain, I agree the O.R. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This made Grady think that his uncle was burying the sack full of presumed gold coins in various places in the woods. They picked 3 men to bury the box full of gold coins somewhere near the courthouse. All the Confederate officials would board the first train, while the second train would hold special cargo. Legend. One night two braves took the trapper, tied his hands and feet, and blindfolded him. He allowed both sides to use the ferry free of charge in hopes that he would be allowed to continue his ferry operations. Supposedly, Nunez buried a treasure of approximately $200,000 somewhere near a point where route 90 crosses the river. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. And some say its buried amongst the slaves in the graveyard on the property. I have talked to the guy who wrote what you found on #2. He waited there until spring and set off to sail back to France at the beginning of April 1725. He wanted to trap game on the tribal land so he asked the chief permission. In recent years, the number of students receiving tuition assistance has fluctuated between ten and twelve. Supposedly, Nunez buried a treasure of approximately $200,000 somewhere I was born and raised in the area. 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. It was in Washington that the bulk of the treasure was captured along with Jefferson Davis and his staff. It happened between the Confederate Armory which was not over run during the war and present day, Wall Street . His farm can be found off of Nicholasville Road North of Stone Road. General Dukes Brigade. 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. Apparently in 1865, $100,000 of gold and silver was put into two large metal boxes by Confederate troops, and then thrown into the swamp. Wesley Millett and Gerald White are the authors of The Rebel and the Rose. 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. According to reports, the total bounty would be worth more than $1.36 million today. 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. Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold. It definitely would be worth taking a metal detector to the beach. The combined hoard is believed to be between $500,000 and $600,000 in gold, the combined values of the Richmond Bank & Confederate . Original: Feb 28, 2018. 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. 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? Gold and Silver Coins: Ohio River: Lost Confederate Payroll: Unknown: Small cave near Cumberland Gap, Kentucky! 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. Imperial Seal of China created by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, lost after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in the 10th century. The church petitioned the court to expand the scope of the scholarships by including residents of counties which immediately surrounded Brantley and by defining an orphan as a child who had lost at least one parent. The Irish Crown Jewels, stolen from Dublin Castle over a century ago, are still out there for treasure-seekers to find today. circa 990-995. They worked hard to get good lands out west which the U.S. Government was trying to move them to.