Rumored site of $55M in Civil War-era gold draws FBI’s attention, reports say
Date of the Civil War: For upon |The FBI has come out empty-handed at the remote Pennsylvania site where Civil War-era gold treasure is rumored to be buried. (Katie Weidenboerner/The Courier-Express via AP)
Dozens of FBI agents, Pennsylvania state officials, and members of a treasure-hunting group dug in a remote Pennsylvania site earlier this week, on rumors of Civil War-era gold being buried there.
A 155-year-old legend has it that a Civil War-era gold shipment bound for a U.S. Mint in Philadelphia was either lost or hidden northeast of Pittsburgh around the time of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Date of the Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln reportedly ordered the shipment to help pay Union Army soldiers, Dennis Parada, owner of the local treasure-hunting group Finders Keepers, told WJAC-TV.
“I’m not going to quit until it’s dug up,” Parada told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “and if I die, my kid’s going to be around and make sure it’s going to be dug up. Date of the Civil War.
“There’s something in there and I’m not giving up.”
I’m not going to quit until it’s dug up, and if I die, my kid’s going to be around and make sure it’s going to be dug up. There’s something in there and I’m not giving up.
Based on different stories, the shipment was composed of either 26 or 52 gold bars, each weighing 50 pounds, meaning it would be worth $27 million to $55 million today.
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Local lore that the federal gold might be buried at the Dents Run site in Benezette Township, Pa., about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, caught the FBI’s attention.
President Abraham Lincoln reportedly ordered a gold shipment to be made to Philadelphia, for payment to Union Army soldiers. (AP)
So earlier this week agents from the bureau and officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) set up a search area off Route 555, the Courier-Express reported.
The site is west of Driftwood, where a crew delivering the gold was attacked in an ambush, lone survivor Sgt. Jim Connors reportedly told his Army superiors at the time, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. But the Army reportedly doubted his story and Connors died in a “western outpost,” leaving the loot unfound.
This week the FBI wouldn’t say why it was at the site, revealing only that it was conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity.”
Historians have cast doubt that the shipment of gold was lost on its way to Philadelphia. Finders Keepers also said Pennsylvania’s Historical and Museum Commission claims the legend of the lost gold is a myth, the Inquirer reported.
But the lost treasure recovery group has insisted for years that it discovered buried gold in a state forest at Dents Run (within the township) using a high-powered metal detector, but federal law wouldn’t allow it to conduct a dig in search of more, the Courier-Express reported.
A spokesman from the Pennsylvania DCNR said that the group previously asked to excavate the site, but elected not to pay a required $15,000 bond.
The spokesman also referred questions on Tuesday’s activity to the FBI, and Parada said he was under FBI orders not to discuss the site.
The article was originally published here.
Has the lost Civil War gold bound for Philly been found?
When Sgt. Jim Connors tipped back a few too many, he’d talk about the legend of lost Civil War gold, and boast about its whereabouts deep in the hills of Western Pennsylvania.
Connors, according to a 1978 United Press International article in the Pittsburgh Press, was part of a special Union detachment tasked with transporting 26 gold bars, each weighing 50 pounds, from West Virginia to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in the summer of 1863.
According to one version of the story, Connors staggered into Lock Haven, in north-central Pennsylvania, as the lone survivor of an ambush.
The gold was gone, waiting to become a plotline worthy of an Indiana Jones flick, but the tall tale may have inched closer to reality Tuesday when the FBI, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DNCR), and some frustrated treasure hunters converged in an Elk County forest and started to dig.
According to WJAC-TV in Johnstown, the crews were set up off Route 555 in the Dents Run section of Benezette Township. That’s nine miles from Driftwood, where Connors said the shipment was attacked.
Based on today’s value of an ounce of gold, the lost load would be worth $27,381,120.
FBI spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski told the station that agents were conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity. Finders Keepers, a treasure-hunting firm that claimed it had located the gold, was on the scene as well, the station reported, but members said they weren’t allowed to comment.
Neither the agencies nor the treasure hunters returned requests for comment Thursday, but Finders Keepers has detailed the controversy over the claim on the firm’s website.
It all began when someone gave someone else a map, back in 1975.
“We believe that we found the gold at the Dents Run site and that the state is doing everything that they can to stop us from telling our story,” the firm wrote.
Finder Keepers said it searched for years and found artifacts on state land, but officials were never interested. The group contended that Pennsylvania’s Historical and Museum Commission said the legend of the lost gold was a myth. Finders Keepers owner, Dennis Parada, said high-powered metal detectors proved the story was true.
Finders Keepers’ site also includes a letter from DCNR addressed to the district forester at Elk State Forest in 2005, where Parada, of Clearfield County, had apparently been digging. The letter stated that Parada could not dig on state land.
In 2008, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiled Parada’s “obsession.”
“I told DCNR I’m not going to quit until it’s dug up and if I die, my kid’s going to be around and make sure it’s going to be dug up,” Parada told the newspaper. “There’s something in there and I’m not giving up.”
Parada wouldn’t disclose all the details, particularly about the map, saying he was saving the “good parts” for the movies.
The Post-Gazette interviewed a Civil War historian at the time, who dismissed the legend and also, perhaps, Parada.
“Legends tend to be formulated around wishful thinking,” the college professor said. “You don’t want to be a citizen of an area where nothing ever happened.”
According to the Post-Gazette, the Army doubted Connors’ story and interrogated him, and sent “Pinkerton detectives to find the gold,” but they came up empty. Connors died in a “western outpost.” Date of the Civil War.
Now, approximately 155 years later, the feds may have found their loot.
The article was originally published here.
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