Happy Halloween! Ghosts & Gold Worth $250,000

For all of you treasure hunters out there that believe in something paranormal, which would include me, here is a spot you might want to check out the next time you are in central Oklahoma. There’s supposedly ghosts AND gold. You can’t beat that combination for an adventure!

The place is called “Ghost Mound” (you can imagine your own special effects sounds right now). Ghost Mound is located about 14 miles southeast of Weatherford, Oklahoma and is the central point in a story about $250,000 in 49er’s gold that was buried during an Indian attack. No one knows for sure where Ghost Mound gets its name. Some say it is because the mound sits by itself out in the middle of nowhere, far from the other mounds in Caddo County and that the mound looks “forlorn”. Just how a mound of rock and dirt can look sad or lonely is beyond me but hey; I’m just repeating the story. The other version of how the mound got it’s name makes more sense and is actually a better story in my opinion. It is said that the daughter of an Indian Chief had fallen in love with a young warrior in her tribe but that her father had promised her to the Chief in a neighboring village. The Chief’s daughter was so distraught over this that she climbed to the top of Ghost Mound and threw herself off, dying in the process and her ghost is said to haunt the mound. Isn’t that a lot better than a “lonely hill”?

Ghost Mound is a small hill by comparison but is rather steep in spots. It slightly resembles another famous hill in Oklahoma called Buzzard’s Roost. I can hear the wheels spinning out there. Slow down now and read the rest of the story!

Ghost Mound is covered in carvings, especially at the top of the mound so there are plenty of possibilities of some “real” carvings being on the mound. The mound also has many legends saying that the area around the mound was used for sacred Indian ceremonies.

So, are you ready to hear about the gold? The story goes that a group of 49ers were returning from the gold fields when Indians attacked them at or very near Ghost Mound. This would make sense if the mound was a ceremonial place for the Indians. We all know from the old western movies that’s it’s never a good idea to go traipsing through Indian territory, much less through their ceremonial grounds, but I digress. The 49ers were said to have a collective amount of gold worth $250,000 that they buried during the attack thinking they would survive and return for it later. As luck would have it, that didn’t happen. All but a few of the party were killed and the survivors weren’t privy to where the gold was hidden. Well I didn’t say it was good luck!

Now for some more paranormal stuff; back in 1939 a group known as the “Gold Restorers of America” came to Ghost Mound with the intention of recovering the gold. This group of individuals was apparently rather diverse in their methods of searching as it was said they used “doodlebugs”, “spiritual means” (read psychic) and a Spanish dip needle. I would think the Spanish dip needle would fall under the category of doodlebug but again, I’m just repeating the story.

One of the spiritualists, a man by the name of Luther Woody, was walking around the area in an “immense fur coat” even though it was 100 degrees outside. Mr. Woody said he was led to a spot “south by southeast of the hill’s crest”. Maybe that’s where all of the shade was!

Another member, Rebecca Tempey said the treasure was to be located “under a hackberry tree some yards away” from Mr. Woody’s spot. A third person by the name of Y.E. Posey said his dip needle was pointing to a spot beneath a boulder. His location was not near any of the others.

During the remainder of the day the group also identified several other spots as good places to dig. This caused confusion to set in and the men the group brought with them to do the digging disappeared into the nearby thicket of plum trees to stay cool and eat the plums. The search for the treasure ended with no holes being dug and no real answers being found. The Gold Restorers of America never returned to the location as far as I can tell.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, just think what that would be worth today! That’s something worth wearing out a little shoe leather on. Hopefully you will have better luck than the first group, which in retrospect, shouldn’t be too hard to do.

Besides the 49ers gold, there is a good chance you could find the type of carvings that would lead you to some outlaw treasure. These lone hills made for good landmarks and with all of the carvings on this hill you just might find one that tells you where to look. You will just need to look past all of the graffiti and hope for some good luck in that what you need hasn’t been carved over or destroyed. Remember, this isn’t that far from Buzzard’s Roost near Cement Oklahoma where treasure has been found and even more treasure awaits the lucky finder, maybe even me if I can get my lazy butt down there!

Ghost mound can be found in the southwest corner of the intersection of County Roads North 2460 and East 1110 in Caddo County, Oklahoma. The WGS 84 GPS coordinates for the mound are 35 24 8.2N, 98 36 46.3W.

Watch out for the ghosts! Boo!