Kansas Treasure

This one is for our Kansas treasure hunters! Of course I have in-laws that live near the search area, so it might be one I'll look for myself the next time we are up that way visiting. For those lucky enough to live near Seneca Kansas, in the northeastern part of the state, there are two buckskin bags full of gold nuggets buried.

According to legend two miners returning to Boston from the California gold fields had split from the wagon train they were traveling with because of the rowdy behavior of their fellow travelers. Reaching a ford in the Nemaha River, about two miles north of the present town of Seneca, the miners made camp. Old survey plats or county maps should show this ford as it was a junction point where the Saint Joseph Trail met the Oregon Trail. Many other relics and treasure could be located at this spot as well.

Needing supplies the miners decided to head into nearby Richmond, which I believe is a ghost town, before leaving for town they buried the two buckskin bags in an empty powder can. While in town one of the miners was shot and killed and the other barely escaped. Racing back to the wagon the surviving miner headed out towards St.  Joseph. In his haste to get away he failed to dig up the gold nuggets. At St. Joseph he sold his team and wagons and boarded a boat heading back east.

The young miner eventually married but joined the Union forces at the outbreak of the Civil War. Before leaving he gave his wife a rough map to where the gold was hidden, promising to to travel back and recover the gold after the war ended. The man died early in the war and it wasn't until 1889 that his two sons traveled to Seneca in an attempt to recover their fathers gold. Time had changed the landmarks around the old camping grounds and the sons returned to Boston empty handed.

With a little research and a good metal detector you might be the one to get lucky and find a small fortune. With gold, at the time of this writing, hitting the $1600 dollar an ounce mark it's definitely worth looking into.

Good Luck and Good Hunting!!!