Sunday, August 30, 2009

First a pirate, then an outlaw. Treasure in Mississippi

Are you looking for a large iron cooking kettle? Maybe something to whip up a big batch of stew in? Would you prefer one that is filled with expensive jewelry, gold coins and other priceless items? I thought you would!

If you find yourself in Franklin County, Mississippi with nothing to do you might take a stab at recovering such a kettle. About four miles northwest of Roxie, MS is/was a farm owned by the Doves. According to legend there is a HUGE kettle buried on this farm that is filled with precious metals and jewelry. And when I say huge, I mean huge! This is described as being several feet wide. Where did it come from?

Pirates!! Arrrrrgg!! You knew I was going to do that didn’t you? This kettle is supposed to be one of six that were hidden by a crewman off of Jean Lafitte’s ship. Unfortunately for the crewman he was captured and hanged for his piracy activities before he could recover and spend any of his booty. The crewman had buried his six containers on a small island and these containers were supposedly found by an outlaw named Samuel Mason.

It is said that Samuel Mason added to this hoard with items he had stolen and then chose to bury it in a spot of his own for safe keeping. Mason took his family and three helpers to a spot on the Reber Dove farm and there the helpers dug a hole near an “artesian well”. The treasure was placed in the hole and covered over. Samuel Mason promptly shot the three helpers. The very next day Samuel Mason was killed by two of his own men trying to get a reward that had been placed on his head. It seems the two conspirators took this phrase literally because after they had killed Mason they cut off his head and took it with them to the courthouse as proof that the “notorious outlaw Samuel Mason” was dead.

As a side note, this didn’t turn out to well for the conspirators because when they got to the courthouse they were recognized by some people they had recently robbed so the two were immediately arrested. I’m telling you people, Karma, it will get you every time!

I should also point out that the other family members that were at the burial of the treasure apparently left the area rather quickly for fear that they might be killed or even arrested by the authorities.

Back to our lost treasure, in the late 1920’s a search was made for this treasure by Reber Dove, the owner of the property it was supposedly located on. Mr. Dove claimed that he had a map that was given to him by a dying neighbor who supposedly helped “an unnamed outlaw” bury the treasure. The neighbor had apparently been shot while trying to rob a train. Was the neighbor related to Samuel Mason? How else would he have a map?

According to Reber Dove’s mother, in 1927 Reber Dove had located the site that contained the large kettle but when he had dug down to it he ran into ground water and the kettle apparently “sank deeper into the muck” before he could get any of the treasure out. Mr. Dove made several more attempts to recover this kettle but couldn’t get to it because of the water problems.

Sometime later another man by the name of Elom Dodds attempted a recovery and it is said he was able to get to the top of the kettle where he used “tongs” to try and grab it and remove it from the ground. This attempt also failed as the kettle slipped from the grip of the tongs due to its massive weight and “disappeared in the water filled mire”. There were other attempts in later years to make a recovery but they all ended in failure.

So there you have it, a pirate treasure, arrrrrrg! that was found by an outlaw who moved it to a new spot where it was found by a man then lost, then found by another man and lost again. I would think there would be some pretty good newspaper stories on this one, maybe even some local history from the “old timers” in the area. All you have to do is figure out just how far it has sunk over the years and how you are going to get it out of a water and muck filled hole. Can anybody say backhoe?

Good luck!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The new prospectors

From the Washington Post

Without prospects, they’re prospectors

COLUMBIA, Calif. - Maybe it was the nail in Ray's head. Maybe it was the economy. His wife said one as much as the other drove the decision to auction off everything that wouldn't fit in the trailer and leave Vermont for the mother lode.

"Thought we'd try to make a living at it," Kim Lague said, standing in a mining camp that was busier during the Great Depression than it was in the Gold Rush of 1849, and is busy once again.
And so, 18 months after a co-worker's pneumatic hammer drove a 2 1/2 -inch stainless-steel nail into Ray Lague's skull -- "the plunger of the gun brushed my hat and discharged" -- the once-thriving contractor took his place among the prospectors lining the steep banks of the South Fork of the Stanislaus River, 40 miles west of Yosemite National Park. The bearded man helping him drag the gear into the water was a jobless logger who lost his home to foreclosure.
Fifty feet downstream, an unemployed concrete-truck driver scoured the river bottom beside a laid-off furniture mover, back to prospecting after a day spent wrestling with the unemployment office.

"You have to consider the economy," said Gary Rhinevault, caretaker of the Lost Dutchman's Mining Association campground, where 45 prospectors pay as little as 30 cents a day to pitch their tents. "In 1932 there were more prospectors out trying to make a living than in the 1850s."

‘High hopes’ Even in the trough of today's great recession, most of the prospectors still double as hobbyists. The Lost Dutchman's club allows members to camp for six months at a time, and its dozen or so claims are crowded first with the motor homes of freewheeling retirees. But as the economy soured, their ranks were swelled by adults of working age, pulled by gold prices flirting with $1,000 a troy ounce -- the highest in more than two decades -- and pushed by unfortunate circumstance. While there is no way to quantify the trend, anecdotally it is clear that the jobless are showing up not only in California but also elsewhere around the country where gold has been found in the past.

"I have been seeing a lot of it this year, with so many people getting laid off or hours cut way back," said Tim LeGrand, owner of TN Gold & Gems in Coker, Tenn. Permits for prospecting in the nearby Cherokee National Forest, named for the tribe pushed westward after gold was discovered in the early 1800s, have more than doubled since 2007.

"People come out with high hopes and don't realize the work that is involved until they get into it," LeGrand said. "Most try a few days and give up. Many struggle on and learn to pan. Very few get enough gold to do them any financial good."

On the South Fork, everyone claims to know this. "No one's making a living down here," said Tony Stroud, an unemployed machinist who, like the other prospectors repeating the phrase, surely believes the words. And yet, here they all are, investing $1,500 to $5,000 for the suction dredges that vacuum up gravel, for the sluices that separate the gravel from the black sand, and, not least, for the big plastic pans that, after the machines have done the heavy work, reveal the glimmers of color that set hearts to racing and render reason irrelevant. "You didn't hear it from me," Stroud went on a moment later, "but a guy in Columbia said downstream he took 14 ounces out in 48 hours. And we're going to jump his hole."

Robert McFadden, seated to his right on a picnic table, set down his morning beer.

"What's the appeal of prospecting?" he said. "Hope I can get rich, number one."
The river is cluttered with the miners' gear and the boulders they constantly rearrange in the search for a spot not already groomed of flakes. Yet the feeling is orderly, tents and motor homes lined around a rustic clubhouse that evokes familiar notions of prospecting as reliably as the bushy beards sported by many of the men.

In a shady bend a mile downstream, DeWayne and Nick Shepard labored in frustration beside the Michigan flag, planted upon arrival 30 days earlier on a trip planned for three years.
Their vision of prospecting was informed by repeated viewings -- "must be hundreds of times," Nick said -- of "Gold Fever" and other cable television programs produced by members of the family that owns the camps.

"He shows you, in his pan, what must be $15,000 in gold he says he got in two days," said Nick Shepard, 28, who left his masonry job to come west with his retired father.
"We had hoped to come out and make enough money, take care of some things."
But even if their truck's transmission had held up, they would still be deep in the hole.
"We wonder if there aren't people who got sucked in worse than us," DeWayne said.
The Lagues watched the same shows.

"Realistically, when we first started out, they say you can make an ounce a day," said Kim Lague, in the 31-foot trailer the couple now calls home. "Now it's down to, we just want to make an ounce a month."

Their work is cut out for them. Large dredges can churn through so much river bottom that environmentalists fret for the salmon. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a bill this month banning gold dredging while the question is studied, but it is not yet being enforced and it faces a likely court challenge.

In any event, the two-inch nozzle of the dredge the Lagues chose to start with disturbs very little. "More of a toy than anything," said Stephen Buttram, the jobless logger spending the day helping Ray Lague. Buttram, 37, moved to the camp after losing his three-bedroom house in Pioneer, Calif. "I pretty much sold everything I had, my furniture, everything, trying to keep up," he said, moving stones to expose gravel for Ray to hose up. "I paid for my dad's funeral with my credit cards.”

The Lagues were falling behind on their own bills. Ray had laid off all workers in his contracting businesses and was spending more time looking for work than working. "The furthest west I'd ever been was St. Louis," he said. Now, chest-deep in a mountain stream, he looked to Buttram. "Want to check it? Just for the heck of it?"

They waded over to the dredge, which looked a bit like a snowmobile floating between the rocks. Gazing into the boxes that shone with the glitter of the mica and pyrite that so excited Ray his first couple of times out, Buttram shook his head.

"Just a fleck," he said. "Nothing for a snuffer bottle, eh?" Ray ventured, meaning a squeeze tube used to suck up the smallest bits. "No," Buttram said. "Nothing to write Mom about."
Lague gazed at the mica. "If that was gold, you'd be, 'Yeah!' " he said, and threw his arms wide under the blue summer sky. Then his hands met in a gesture that combined relish and determination.

"Day's not over yet," he said.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Mexican Leaves Gold Behind in Kansas


I think there is a joke somewhere in that title but I will leave it to the readers to come up with their own.

In Ford County, KS is the mouth of the Mulberry Creek and $500,000 in gold. This gold is from an 1815 Mexican freight wagon train that was traveling from Santa Fe to what is now Independence, Missouri. The Mexicans were on their way to buy supplies and were carrying the gold to pay for those supplies.

At one point during their trip from Santa Fe they stopped at a spot approximately one half mile west of the mouth of Mulberry Creek to spend the night. As luck would have it back then, the wagon train was attacked by Indians as they camped and an ongoing battle began. Stories say that the running battle lasted for six days and stretched out over an area several miles long.

When all was said and done the Indians had won the battle and there was only one lone Mexican survivor. He made it through the days long battle by hiding out in some nearby brush and not moving. After the Indians had taken the horses and what little supplies that were on the wagons the lone survivor came out of his hiding spot and found that the gold had been left behind. He took the time to bury the gold at the site of the massacre and the made his way back to Mexico, never returning for the gold.

This golden treasure is supposed to be located along the present day Highway 56 about twelve miles southwest of Dodge City, KS. Before you run out there with your shovel and start digging holes you may want to do a little more research. There is an alternative story that says the burial spot is in an area about seven miles west of the mouth of Mulberry Creek. And to make things even more difficult, this could be construed as meaning a seven mile area beginning at the mouth of the creek and heading west, not just a spot seven miles from the creek.
Here’s the good news. If the second story about where the cache is buried holds true then that would give you the direction that the battle traveled from the creek. The Mexicans camped about a half mile west of the mouth of the creek to begin with and if the battle went to the west then that would give you a direction to follow.

Now for the bad news, if you look at a topographical map you will find that the mouth of Mulberry Creek is about fourteen miles east of Dodge City, KS. This would mean that for the gold to be buried twelve miles southwest of Dodge City as described in the first story the battle would have gone on for twenty-six miles and not six. I doubt that a battle in 1815 would have lasted for twenty-six miles. So this brings us to the dilemma, what are we to believe so that more research can be done.

Personally, if you were asking my opinion, and you were, right? LOL

I would begin my search at the mouth of Mulberry Creek and work my way west from there. This seems like the most precisely described spot in any of the information and it makes sense that the wagon train would camp near water if they had a choice.

Back to the good news, most of the land out in this area of the state is still all open farm and cattle ranch land so you don’t have to worry about a city being built on top of the cache location.

Happy hunting!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

K.G.C. Conspiracy Theorists Unite!

If you have been treasure hunting or even had an interest in treasure hunting in the last five years then undoubtedly you have heard of the Knights of the Golden Circle. Just about everyone has talked about it sometime in the last few years. Some people try to convince others of the “reality” of the mega-depositories and the rest of us just give you a hard time about those alleged “depositories”. It’s the circle of life!


Well here’s a heads up to those of you that believe in the conspiracy of the K.G.C. and their alleged connection to the Masons. Dan Brown, the author of the Da Vinci Code is releasing his new book on 15 September 2009 which is titled “The Lost Symbol” and it has to do with a conspiracy concerning Freemasonry. I can hear the wheels spinning now, some of you are going straight to Amazon.com after reading this to pre-order your copy.

The story line has been a very tightly kept secret but if it’s any kind of hint at all the working title of the book was “The Solomon Key” before it was changed to it’s present title.

According to Dan Brown himself, he spent five years researching this book, Brown said the novel is "set deep within the oldest fraternity in history -- the enigmatic brotherhood of the Masons," and will explore "the hidden history of our nation's capital" so it ought to be filled with all kinds of information that will find it’s way into K.G.C. lore, true or not.

The book finds the intrepid hero Robert Langdon running around Washington, D.C. chasing a conspiracy dealing with the freemasons and a ciphered pictogram from a talisman.

Just in case you are wondering, more than likely there WILL be a movie version of this book. Sony Pictures owns the exclusive rights to the character of Robert Langdon. They don’t own the movie rights to this book yet but since it has the same hero there seems to be little doubt that Dan Brown will sell the movies rights fairly quickly, especially since the publisher has ordered an unprecedented five million copies for the first run.

For those of you that prefer instant gratification they are also going to release the E-Book on the same day the hard copy is released.

I expect to see lots of new clues to the K.G.C. depositories springing up after this book is released and there will be even more clues to follow. I can hardly wait! (For those of you that haven’t been paying attention the last couple of years, that was meant to be sarcastic.)

I think I’ll just wait for the movie!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Finding help finding treasure

Anyone reading this article knows that in today’s world finding information about treasure hunting or finding somebody that might have information is a whole lot easier than it was when I started treasure hunting. That was a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. OK, I was in Oklahoma but it was still a long, long time ago!

Even though it is easier to find the information, finding people with legitimate information willing to help the “average Joe” is still almost as hard as it used to be. There are professional treasure hunters that won’t tell you anything unless you have been introduced to them by someone with “access” and even then they won’t tell you much unless you are very lucky. I can say that I have been lucky enough to meet several treasure hunters willing to share information with me and one has been extremely helpful in teaching me how to hunt outlaw and Spanish treasure. Now, mind you, the fine fellows aren’t giving up all of their secrets and some of what I get is like pulling teeth but they do help.

I think the operative word is “help”. The treasure hunters that I know that are good at what they do will make you work for that information so that you learn and not just take the information for granted. If you are not willing to learn, the old timers just aren’t going to mess with you. They aren’t looking to make somebody else rich, especially someone that doesn‘t even want to try to do it themselves. If the old timers are helping you it’s because they want to teach you some of their secrets.

James started this blog for the purpose of helping other treasure hunters and hopefully cutting through a lot of the BS about treasure hunting. I was asked to chime in on occasional and I apparently took that to heart because now I just can’t stop myself.

We have strived to bring you the information that we can to help you in your hunts and we have tried to entertain you along the way. We have also answered many e-mails from people looking for help on interpreting signs and symbols and we have done so without hesitation. There are so many treasures still out there waiting to be found. If they aren’t found soon they may never be found except by accident as the signs and symbols are quickly being lost to time and “progress“. There is plenty of treasure to go around and sharing information is what we have decided is the best thing for our readers.

I guess we are trying to add to our Karma banks a little as I firmly believe that what goes around, comes around.

Keep in mind that we don’t have all of the answers, far from it, and there are a few secrets we are still keeping to ourselves but we do like to try to help everyone that asks and we do so as a way to pass on information that is rapidly disappearing from the knowledge base. We are all getting older and we can’t take it with us you know!

James and his lovely wife Amy have been working hard the last few years to put on an event that any and all treasure hunters (or even those just interested in treasure hunting) can come to and exchange ideas at. I believe that there is more good information passed along at these meetings than you will ever find in any book.

I would encourage all of our readers to help their fellow treasure hunters when they can. I’m not saying to give up your sites or maps or that glory hole that brings you gold nuggets every weekend but what I am saying is that by sharing an interpretation of a sign or symbol or a theory about how something might or does work you may be helping to solve a mystery that may otherwise go unsolved. Karma people, Karma!

You are probably wondering what brought on this diatribe. I recently read something by another treasure hunter who told someone looking for help that he would have to read his next book to learn what he wanted to know. I’m all for making a buck, especially in this economy and I understand not wanting to just give away your “secrets” but come on, if you’re not going to help someone then fine, but don’t advertise your next book at the same time. Maybe it’s just me but I think that is a little insulting. If you don’t want to help just tell them so and move on instead of; Oh, by the way, you should buy my next book. Paleeeeeeze!

I apologize for the personal use of the blog to rant and rave a little. Every once in a while I just get a little burned at the way people can be.

Treasure hunting for most of us is a hobby and it is meant to be enjoyed. Because we are looking for treasure the nature of the hobby requires some secrecy, even if it’s just for our own safety. With that being said, I’m not sure I completely understand the lack of help on the part of many treasure hunters. Some of the old timers will tell you it’s because they spent a lifetime learning and collecting the information and they don’t want to give it away. Personally, I would hate to die and take all of my knowledge to the grave. There may be a few secrets I keep about where a site or two are and what I’ve done on a few maps that aren’t solved yet so my grandson will have something to work on but that’s about it. Hmmmmmm, Maybe I will write a book in a few years and put all of my information in it if I haven’t already put it on the blog by then. :~)

A little bit of greed can be a good thing but too much greed makes you unhappy and generally unpleasant to other people.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

A Ghost Town Nobody has Heard of

What’s that you say? That’s why they call them ghost towns? I thought of that but there are generally several references if not tons of references about the different ghost towns you find or hear about. The ghost town in this article seems to truly be a ghost.

About eleven miles east of Chickasha, Oklahoma is supposed to be the location of what once was a town. The town was called Naples, Oklahoma and other than one very short mention of it, I can’t find any information about the town itself.

The one tiny piece of information I did come across mentions a “haunted house” and buried treasure, all in the same sentence. For some reason this grabbed my attention.

Because of the lack of information this article will be short and not very informative. I thought I would challenge our readers to see if they could find any more information about this little non-existent town.

The story says that there is a buried treasure located on the property of a “mysterious haunted house”. The treasure is supposed to be buried on a creek near or at the location of Naples, OK. There isn’t any other information about what the treasure is, who put it there and where “there” is. How’s that for a hint about treasure?

If you get out your topographical maps you will find a township area called Naples eleven miles east of Chickasha but no actual town. You would expect this since Naples is a GHOST town! The most prominent creeks in this area are the East and West Winter Creeks. There are several other small, unnamed creeks in this area but it would seem that the larger creeks might be the place to start. If you are looking closely you will find the Naples Cemetery. And if you’re not looking closely check out the photo with this article and you will see it on the topographical map. You will also see that the cemetery is less than a quarter of a mile from East Winter Creek. (Always happy to help when I can! )

I will be extremely impressed if someone can come up with more information about this town and the buried treasure. I am assuming (something that isn’t a smart thing to do) that the buried treasure has to do with the death of whoever buried it and that is why the “mysterious” house is/was haunted. If the house isn’t there any more do you think the spot where the treasure is is still haunted? Sorry, just thinking out loud.

Even if you don’t find any information about the haunted buried treasure you may find a really good place to swing the detector since ghost towns can have a bonanza of artifacts and coins left over from days gone by.

Let us know if you come up with anything on this. Good luck!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

The Texas Treasure of Bob Lee

This information for this story was submitted to us by our good friend “Homer”. Thank you sir!

In 1867 a Civil War Confederate leader by the name of Bob Lee returned to his family home in Fannin County, TX near Texoma. The area around Mr. Lee’s family home was known for its dense woods and was referred to as “Big Thicket”. The heavily treed area was 30 square miles in size and had rarely been ventured into until the Civil War. Once the war started Big Thicket became a haven for outlaws and deserters.

Add to that a post war family feud between Bob Lee and his local rival Lewis Peacock and you have the makings for a very volatile land. I should mention that Bob Lee was neither an outlaw or deserter, his family just happened to live in this area. Although Bob Lee wasn’t an outlaw he did bring $30,000 in gold coins home with him when he returned from the war. I wonder how he did that if he wasn’t an outlaw? That seems a little steep for a post war retirement payout don‘t you think?

Once Mr. Lee returned to his family’s land and the feud between he and Mr. Peacock began it was only a matter of time before someone got killed. The first to go, in 1869, was Bob Lee. It seems Mr. Peacock and some of his cohorts ambushed Bob Lee one evening and tried to force him to tell where he had buried his gold. Bob Lee declined to give such information to his arch rival and took the location of the treasure with him to his grave. I should point out that there is an alternate story that says the Forth United States Calvary led by General J.J. Reynolds killed Bob Lee in the night while searching (and fighting) from house to house. In 1868 General Reynolds had issued a $1,000 reward for Bob Lee, dead or alive. Maybe he chose to collect his own bounty?

Now at this point I don’t really think it matters how Bob Lee met his demise. The important thing is that when he died, his gold was still buried. If you are a treasure hunter you already have your thinking cap on and are wondering if this story could be true. Please read on.

People have been looking for Bob Lee’s gold ever since he returned to Texas in 1867. The majority of the searching has occurred around the old Lee Farm which, by a strange coincidence, is located near the Lee Cemetery. Go figure! This would seem to be a pretty good place to be looking for the treasure because in the 1950’s a man by the name of Hoot Gibson found part of the treasure on a creek bank about 300 yards from the cemetery.

It seems “Hoot” found a crock that had been sealed and wrapped in burlap. From what I can tell from the stories the crock must have been buried in the creek bank and had gotten washed out over the years by rain, leaving it in plain site for some lucky soul to stumble upon. Inside the crock were two and a half and five dollar gold coins. And he didn’t even need a metal detector! (I hate stories like that!!) The gold coins were sold to a local resident at the time whose descendant stated that not all of Lee’s gold was in the crock. It was said that there were “thousands of dollars of gold” still out there somewhere.

Treasures hunters have been searching the area for years and have even dug into the Lee Family cemetery but to this day the only gold known to be found was the small crock stumbled upon by Hoot Gibson.

I guess it pays not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. Maybe you can be the lucky individual to find another one of Bob Lee’s caches.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Taxes, Death and Treasure in Alabama

Here’s some good news and even better news, for us anyway. It’s not so good news for the tax collector which at this point is still good news as far as I am concerned.

In Marengo County, Alabama, just south of Myrtlewood was a low-water crossing to the Tombigbee River. In 1860 a tax collector was transporting what I would consider ill-gotten gains from point A to Point B. Can you sense a little animosity here? You don’t want to get me started on the tax man!

Back to the story, when the dreaded taxman neared the location of the crossing he had the unfortunate luck of running into a group of outlaws. OK, maybe it wasn’t luck; maybe the outlaws planned ahead just a little. The outlaws of course wanted to relieve the taxman of his strongbox full of gold coins, $30,000 worth to be exact.

In what would be considered a less than genius move, the taxman tried to outrun the outlaws and in the process chose to throw the strongbox full of gold coins into the river to keep it from being stolen. The not so bright taxman was killed during the chase and although the outlaws saw him toss the strongbox into the river they were unable to find it after they had killed the man.
The strongbox was supposed to have been tossed into the river at or very near the ford that was located south of Myrtlewood on the Tombigbee River. The story didn’t mention which side of the river this happened on so some research will be in order if you choose to search for this one.

As always, when you are dealing with rivers you will want to check old maps against new maps to see how much the river has moved. This treasure could very well be on dry land now. The old maps may also show the exact location of the low-water crossing too. If not, check the local courthouse and library for records about the area.

Hopefully this gold hasn’t sunk too deep into the ground by now. If there is anything left of the strongbox it may make finding this one easier. If the box had heavy steel straps on it those will be easier to detect than individual gold coins. This would be a good treasure to try a Schonstedt Metal Locator on.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Flyspeck Bill and his Gold Bars

Have you ever wondered where some of the nicknames for outlaws came from? I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as they left some treasure behind for us to look for.

This story is about a Nebraska outlaw by the name of Flyspeck Bill. He and his cohorts were part of a gang that robbed and rustled their way into big trouble. It is said that the gang Flyspeck Bill belonged to was being financed by some of the more important men in Sheridan County, Nebraska. These prominent and supposedly trustworthy citizens were the recipients of the livestock and some of the money the gang had stolen.

The gang became a little more popular than they expected, as they continued to steal from the locals who couldn’t really afford it they were making more enemies than friends. This lead to the local ranchers pitching in to hire a detective to catch the thieves. Unfortunately for the thieves, as quickly as they were caught and placed in jail a vigilante group was busting them out of jail and taking care of justice in their own way. Flyspeck and his buddies were dropping like flies! Oh come on, you knew that was coming!

For a twist to the story, it was thought that the vigilantes that were killing the outlaws were actually the prominent men in the county that had hired the gang and were receiving the stolen livestock from their raids. It appears as though these upstanding citizens were busting the gang members out of jail and killing them so they couldn’t talk about who they were actually working for. Can you say C.Y.A.?

You’re probably wondering when I’m going to get to the treasure. Patience people, patience. You have to have a little history to understand why this treasure is probably still hidden to this day. The treasure, $300,000 in gold bars, was stolen from the Deadwood-Sidney Freight Line in 1878. The bullion was being transferred from Deadwood, South Dakota to Sidney, Nebraska when it was intercepted by Flyspeck Bill and his gang. Now, here’s the important part. This gold was stolen by Flyspeck’s own small gang before they joined up with the larger gang that was stealing livestock and robbing the locals of Sheridan County.

The story goes that Flyspeck Bill and his gang hid the gold bars in a cave along the Niobrara River “due south of Gordon, Nebraska“. They later joined up with the other larger gang and started rustling horses for a living. Because of the horse rustling and subsequently being hunted and chased to their demise, no one in the gang lived long enough to retrieve the gold bars.
That’s the story anyway. As we all know, anything can happen. Keep in mind that the river might have changed course over the last 120 years so that cave might not be “along” the river anymore. It could be farther away than it originally was. This is where comparing the old and new topographical maps will come in handy.

Something else you should consider, in 1878 gold was selling for $20.67 per ounce which would mean there was about 900 pounds of gold that the gang stole and hauled into a cave. At today’s prices the gold bars would be worth over $13,000,000!!

I’m sure you’re wondering why they even got into horse stealing if they were sitting on $300,000 in gold. I would assume that back then as today, you couldn’t walk into a bar or store and lay down a 30-40 pound gold bar without attracting just a little attention. They may have been forced to steal horses for a living because they couldn’t get rid of the gold without being caught. Kind of a catch 22 type of deal.