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Any Truth To This Story/ Rumor ?
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I read this today over at Hot Air and am curious if anyone here has heard of it . The supposed 1863 trainload of gold buried in Dent’s Run in Pennsylvania. 
 

Here is a quoted initial synopsis of the write up :

“For more than a year now, we’ve been following the story of two treasure-hunters who claimed to have found the location of a huge cache of civil war-era gold buried in rural western Pennsylvania. The men from Finders Keepers sought help from the FBI in their efforts to gain permission to dig for the buried treasure but were kept away by federal agents while the FBI excavated the site themselves. The two men were later shown an empty hole and told there was nothing there, but they suspected that the FBI had simply taken the gold for themselves. A legal battle to get the Bureau to release its records of the dig dragged on for most of a year until a judge ordered the agency to turn over the records last month.”

 

 

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On 5/29/2022 at 9:14 PM, Dave1384 said:

I read this today over at Hot Air and am curious if anyone here has heard of it . The supposed 1863 trainload of gold buried in Dent’s Run in Pennsylvania. 
 

Here is a quoted initial synopsis of the write up :

“For more than a year now, we’ve been following the story of two treasure-hunters who claimed to have found the location of a huge cache of civil war-era gold buried in rural western Pennsylvania. The men from Finders Keepers sought help from the FBI in their efforts to gain permission to dig for the buried treasure but were kept away by federal agents while the FBI excavated the site themselves. The two men were later shown an empty hole and told there was nothing there, but they suspected that the FBI had simply taken the gold for themselves. A legal battle to get the Bureau to release its records of the dig dragged on for most of a year until a judge ordered the agency to turn over the records last month.”

 

 

BS.

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Haven't hear or read anything on this myself, sounds rather bogus to me.   Correct me if I'm wrong but I do not think it would fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI.

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On 5/29/2022 at 9:50 PM, Coinbuf said:

Haven't hear or read anything on this myself, sounds rather bogus to me.   Correct me if I'm wrong but I do not think it would fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI.

USSS and Treasury. Not Justice.

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Where in tarnation, is Dent's Run? I know PA., but where?  I don't know who would have "jurisdiction" or why, but if a "tip" is called in they might be obliged to check it out. They're certainly not going to share this with state or local law enforcement. [And why wouldn't there have been an official record somewhere of a boatload of missing gold?] Then again, I don't recall exactly what it was that prompted Mel Fisher to search for the Atocha.

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On 5/29/2022 at 9:14 PM, Dave1384 said:

The supposed 1863 trainload of gold buried in Dent’s Run in Pennsylvania. 
 

I've been hearing about that since I was a kid.  I believe they have dug up not on Dent but all the area from the New York border to Philadelphia looking for the 'Lost Gold'.

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FWIW, in 1974 a group of local treasure/scavenger hunters, "acting on local lore," located the long-forgotten wreck of the French frigate Prince de Conty which had sunk in 1746 in a storm off the coast of a small French island, in 30' of water. Roughly 100 Chinese gold ingots--the ship was returning from Nanjing, China--were illegally scavenged from the wreck and an attempt made to sell five on eBay. This brought DHS into the investigation (stolen cultural items which the Chinese laid claim to) and the matter was finally resolved only three months ago with the return of five of the gold ingots to France. It is believed the rest were surreptitiously melted.

[Ref:  "Gold ingots from 18th Century Shipwreck Returned to France," New York Times, Mar. 2, 2022.]

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The first sign that the whole story is hogwash is the description of the place. The AP story said it was an unincorporated place about 135 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Bull! There is NO unincorporated land in Pennsylvania. There’s no such thing!!! Every square millimeter of Pennsylvania is part of a county, and a municipality - either a city, a borough, or a township, plus one incorporated town. And this has been true since before the Civil War. Pennsylvania has no unincorporated land. Referring to the site as such merely serves to obfuscate. 

Edited by VKurtB
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I remember of few of my grandfather's friends one time talking about this.  hey were drinking beer and laughing as I remember it.  

"The government has long claimed its dig was a bust. But a father-son pair of treasure hunters who spent years hunting for the fabled Civil War-era gold — and who led agents to the woodland site, hoping for a finder’s fee — suspect the FBI double-crossed them and made off with a cache that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

The FBI - Buried Treasure - Two Treasure Hunters - FBI Double Cross...........mover over Oak Island - there's a new fantasy coming.  BTW:  Internet ADs saying 'Visit Pennsylvania's Great Outdoors at Dent's Run."   :roflmao:

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On 5/30/2022 at 10:41 AM, Alex in PA. said:

I remember of few of my grandfather's friends one time talking about this.  hey were drinking beer and laughing as I remember it.  

"The government has long claimed its dig was a bust. But a father-son pair of treasure hunters who spent years hunting for the fabled Civil War-era gold — and who led agents to the woodland site, hoping for a finder’s fee — suspect the FBI double-crossed them and made off with a cache that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

The FBI - Buried Treasure - Two Treasure Hunters - FBI Double Cross...........mover over Oak Island - there's a new fantasy coming.  BTW:  Internet ADs saying 'Visit Pennsylvania's Great Outdoors at Dent's Run."   :roflmao:

No need for Oak Island to move over; they’re doing this one concurrently. “The Learning Channel”, “History”, all these channels that cable cast this . They should just all be renamed “We Embarrass Ourselves #1” through how many other numbers they need. THIS is why we’re so dumb as a nation. 

Edited by VKurtB
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A VERY significant portion of Elk County’s population were guests of the Department of Corrections at SCI Ridgway. I believe it recently closed and the inmates moved to a more secure facility. 

Edited by VKurtB
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On 5/30/2022 at 11:55 AM, VKurtB said:

“We Embarrass Ourselves #1”

Totally agree.  But they have these 'sponsors' who just keep throwing money at them.

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Note to the story:  1.  When in 1863?  2.  Wells Fargo calimed no wagons ship what much by rail.  3.  Conestoga wagons carrying, each carrying approx 12,000 pounds, not in Winter of Spring.  4.  from late in 1861 when the US Government had started to print up a first batch of treasury notes for payment to contractors, as specie in the form of US coins, especially gold, was already being pulled out of circulation. The article recommended to soldiers that they should now accept, even prefer these new notes to specie coin, because they were convenient to carry and especially easy to return by mail to their homes.    By early 1862 state chartered banks had ceased all specie payments

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Lol. Well, at least it sounded intriguing. 
The comment section from that piece has 95 percent blistering the FBI as thieves and liars, as a result of the last few years of corruption. 
 

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On 5/30/2022 at 2:57 PM, Dave1384 said:

Lol. Well, at least it sounded intriguing. 
The comment section from that piece has 95 percent blistering the FBI as thieves and liars, as a result of the last few years of corruption. 
 

Of course it does. M-o-r-o-n-s gonna m-o-r-o-n. Not that I’d trust today’s FBI with a half dead mouse, but still… I was interviewed by the FBI for the security clearance for my stepson, who’s an Air Force “spook” in Deutschland, but I’m not sure I’d give the FBI the  sweat off my ——- today. 

Edited by VKurtB
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On 5/30/2022 at 3:57 PM, Dave1384 said:

Lol. Well, at least it sounded intriguing. 
The comment section from that piece has 95 percent blistering the FBI as thieves and liars, as a result of the last few years of corruption. 
 

Yet the liars and corrupt are the jerks spreading this nonsense, or who are unable to separate reality from their own sad dementia.

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On 5/30/2022 at 5:07 PM, RWB said:

Yet the liars and corrupt are the jerks spreading this nonsense, or who are unable to separate reality from their own sad dementia.

Umm some Roger but not all.  I heard this when I was a kid and, it sounded exciting then and I don't believe any of the olders believed it either.  You see, the are several versions of this tale.  I like this one best:

The year was 1863 and General Lee was leading the Confederate Army up the Shenandoah Valley and into Pennsylvania. In early June of that year, two freight wagons – each being pulled by four mules – and a group of mounted cavalrymen made their way northward into the wilds of Central Pennsylvania. Supposedly the party was to take twenty-six gold bars northward from Wheeling to Driftwood and then raft the gold down river to Harrisburg, followed by overland to Washington, D.C. to avoid the Confederate army. The group was led by a young lieutenant who was sick at the time.

 

At some point along the journey, they hired a civilian guide who led the group up the Clarion River to Ridgeway and then across the mountains to St. Marys. By the time the party arrived in St. Marys the young lieutenant was running a fever and was delirious. At some point he blurted out to his men that the wagons held a fortune in gold in a false bottom. They were carrying twenty-six bars of gold.

 

With the truth exposed, there was a fear among the men that locals would try to steal the gold, so they set out eastward and were never heard from again.

 

Except for the civilian guide.

 

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Now the tale continues in a very close scenario.  Well, what happened to that lone survivor, the guide, and what was his story?  What meaning has Lock Haven have to the writer?

Some time later he wandered into Lock Haven weak from the time he spent wandering about the mountains. While being cared for he told the story about being a guide for a secret mission he had guided through the mountains.

The guide claimed that after leaving St. Marys the wagons made it through the mountains and were traveling near present-day Hicks Run when they decided to bury the gold and flee the region. After burying the gold, they started for civilization and only the guide managed to make it out alive. He wandered into Lock Haven where he was cared for by residents. In his delirious state, he told of the buried treasure.

A search party left Lock Haven to search for the murdered men and the lost gold, but failed to discover any signs of the massacre. Meanwhile the army began to question the guide whose story changed in each telling. First the group had been ambushed. Later the men turned on each other as each wanted the gold they were carrying. Then he conveniently lost his memory. He was taken by the army out west were they could watch him, but he claimed he had no memory of the event, except when he was drunk and then he claimed he knew where the gold had been buried.

Edited by Alex in PA.
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Oh don't leave yet.  There is the Grand Finale:

Take note of this:  The army got the Pinkerton Detective Agency involved and a group of men were sent into the mountains to search for clues about the missing treasure, but failed to discover the treasure. They did discover a couple of dead mules that had an army brand on them. A couple years later some skeletons, believed to be some of the murdered soldiers, were discovered near Dents Run.

 According to word of mouth, the army never closed the case and still sends people from time to time into the wilderness of Elk and Cameron Counties to search for the lost treasure. According to most versions, two and a half bars of gold were recovered in 1865.

The simple story I had heard as a child has changed over the years. The young officer in charge has become Lieutenant Castleton. The guide is now referred to as Conners. The second in charge of the party has been given the name Sergeant O’Rourke. Even the treasure itself has grown in each retelling as the twenty-six gold bars has increased to the size of fifty-two in each telling.

Now I just spent a couple hours researching the archives of the Clinton (Lock Haven, PA  1863-1923) *  And can find NOTHING to support any of this.  During the period of publishing it had various names.  The Clinton , Lock Haven Express.  Tomorrow I will contact Ross Library, keeper of our records, and will let all know the results.  Adieu.

Edited by Alex in PA.
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Skeletons are not made of gold and they rarely have much to say.

Following the humiliating loss at Bull Run, Treasury kept only limited amounts of specie in Washington - it was too vulnerable to attack from the north across the Potomac River at Edwards Ferry, White's Ferry, and Seneca Creek farm wagon crossing. Gold from California went to New York, then to Philadelphia for coinage, or London for payments. Even after the victory at Gettysburg, Washington was considered unsafe due to spies, saboteurs, and southern agents.

 

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