Buried Treasure in the Tri-State?
In July 2023, a remarkable hoard of 700 Civil War-era gold coins was unearthed in a Kentucky cornfield. Could this discovery be an isolated incident, or might southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky hold more buried treasures waiting to be found? Join me as I explore the possibilities of hidden fortunes that could be lying just beneath our feet.
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This is more than just a
discovery of rare coins.
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It is a compelling mystery from
desperate times over a century
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and a half ago.
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There are more than seven
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hundred rare U.S. gold coins
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dating from eighteen forty to
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eighteen sixty two, and they’ve
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become one of the greatest coin
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collecting finds of the twenty
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first century, unearthed
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recently in a Kentucky
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cornfield.
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These coins are estimated at a
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value exceeding two million
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dollars.
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An extremely rare find as buried
treasures go rarer still to find
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them in such good condition.
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You’re listening to River City
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Mystery Podcast, the show that
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delves into the Evansville and
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surrounding Tri-State area’s
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mysteries, including unsolved
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crimes, murders, and
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disappearances.
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A show that isn’t afraid to jump
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down the rabbit hole to
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investigate reports of local
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hauntings, sightings of UFOs and
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cryptids, among other paranormal
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phenomena.
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With your host, co-founder of
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the Humans of Evansville
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Facebook page.
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Law office worker by day.
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Insomniac researcher of the
unknown.
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By night.
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Matt.
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Deig.
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Welcome to episode twelve.
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We’re going to be talking about
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buried treasure in the
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Tri-State.
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I don’t typically think of
buried treasure when I think of
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southern Illinois, southern
Indiana, Western Kentucky.
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I think of more out west, you
know, prospectors going out west
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digging for gold or pirates on a
beach, pulling out treasure
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chests or whatever.
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But it wasn’t that long ago that
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we didn’t have the FDIC insuring
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banks.
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So people didn’t always trust
banks with all of their money.
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Say there was a robbery at a
bank prior to the FDIC.
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You lost your money.
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If the bank had everything was
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taken out of the bank, you’d
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lose everything Unless you had a
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wealthy banker who wanted to,
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you know, make up for everyone
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who had lost all of their
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deposits.
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So that was it wasn’t uncommon
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for people to put everything
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under a mattress or to bury it
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in a field or somewhere safe, or
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somewhere where they thought was
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safe versus depositing it into a
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bank.
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And if people did that and they
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passed away without telling
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anyone where they buried it,
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it’s possible there are tons of
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valuables buried all over the
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place.
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And in the intro, you heard
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David Mattingly at a Wave News
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in Louisville.
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His report on the hoard that was
found in a Kentucky cornfield in
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July of twenty twenty three.
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So very recently, as of well as
of this recording, these things
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are being found.
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It’s just a matter of where are
they?
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And, you know, doing a little
research to figure out where
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they are and obviously having
permission to dig or to, to
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search on people’s private
property, if that’s where you
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think things are.
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And I’m not sure if that
particular hoard was found
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locally because the the article
went on or his story went on to
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say that the person has not come
forward, so they’ve remained
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anonymous and also the location
has remained undisclosed.
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So we just know that it’s a
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Kentucky cornfield, which is
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pretty vague.
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But I mean, who knows, maybe
it’s a local cornfield that this
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was found in.
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And so this got me thinking.
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I was wondering, you know, are
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there stories of local buried
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treasure that, you know, maybe,
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maybe not very far from where we
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are.
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There’s buried gold or coins or
silver or whatever.
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And as it turns out, there are
quite a few stories of hidden
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treasure all over the tri state.
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It’s there’s too many stories to
actually go into each one, but
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there, there are tons.
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The Indiana State University
website has a folklore archive
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that was started in the sixties,
and basically they would take
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voice recordings of people
telling stories or talking about
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family legends or things that
they had heard throughout the
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generations that had been passed
down to them.
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And these were transcribed and
put on this archive on the
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website, which you can kind of
search and look for various
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topics and things like that.
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So I came across a report or a
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transcription from a Lauren
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Drake who was seventy years old
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from Farmersburg, Indiana, and
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this was dated November
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fifteenth, nineteen eighty
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seven.
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And his report goes on to say a
long time ago.
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No one is sure of exactly when a
group of soldiers were moving
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across the Farmersburg area.
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They were moving a variety of
items, one of which was gold.
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In fact, they had a whole wagon
full of it.
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Well, as they were moving this
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gold, a report came to the head
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officer that there would be
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trouble ahead.
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The officer figured that bandits
wanted the gold.
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The officer decided to hide the
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gold and come back for it later,
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after taking care of the
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bandits.
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The soldiers then buried the
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gold in a hidden place near the
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wagon trail.
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Then they left.
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When they finally reached the
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bandits, all the soldiers were
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killed and didn’t tell where the
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gold was.
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Now no one knows where it’s
hidden.
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It’s hidden somewhere in the
area near channel thirty eight
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TV tower, because there used to
be an old dirt road running east
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and west there.
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And that’s the end of the
report.
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The skeptic in me immediately
jumps in and says, well, how?
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If all of the soldiers were
killed, how do they know that?
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How do they know that they
buried the treasure before
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finding the bandits?
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Because they were all dead and
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no one was alive to tell that
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story.
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Unless you have a ridiculously
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long death scene where the
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soldier spills his guts as he’s
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being killed by a bandit and
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saying, oh, we buried the
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treasure and you’re never gonna
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find it.
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And the bandits, of course,
again, the skeptic in me knows
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that the bandits, if they
actually were told that,
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probably would not have stopped
searching for the gold until
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they found it.
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So I don’t know.
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That’s how my head works, but
you never know.
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Maybe they looked for it and
couldn’t find it.
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Maybe it was buried so well that
the bandits never did find it.
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So I did some searching and the
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channel thirty eight TV tower is
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still there, actually off
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highway forty one near
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Farmersburg.
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And I found a map from the
eighteen seventies.
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And that area where the TV tower
now is did have some dirt roads
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or I guess all the roads at that
time were dirt paths.
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So there were dirt paths in that
area going east to west.
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So it does make you wonder if
maybe there’s some truth to
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this, that maybe there is some
buried gold or coins or
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something along the way in, uh,
just south of Farmersburg.
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Now in southern Illinois, we
have a little village called
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Cave-in-rock, and that area has
quite a history.
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There’s all kinds of lore of
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pirates and robbers and serial
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killers.
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Actually, the The first serial
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killers in the United States,
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the Harpe brothers and one of
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the more infamous outlaws that
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was tied to Cave-in-rock was a
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Revolutionary War soldier named
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Samuel Mason.
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He formed a gang of river
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pirates and made the cave at
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Cave-in-rock.
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His.
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Actually, it used to be called
Rock and cave, but now it’s
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called cave in Rock.
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But he made that cave his base
of operations, and that cave was
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a tavern and kind of a hideout,
and basically just full of
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lawless lawlessness and kind of
bad people, notorious figures.
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And legend has it that there is
two hundred thousand dollars in
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gold and silver coins somewhere
in that area.
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It’s said to have been buried by
stagecoach outlaws.
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It was reported that the
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treasure was hidden inside a
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cave located near the western
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bank of the Ohio River, close to
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the town.
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Staying in southern Illinois, we
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have stories of treasure in
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Golconda, Illinois.
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It’s believed that along the
western banks of the Ohio River
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near Golconda, there are
hundreds of American silver
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dollars from the eighteen
hundreds, and it’s believed that
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these coins might be from a
wrecked riverboat that went down
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in the Ohio River.
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But that’s an unconfirmed story.
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That’s another story that, you
know, it’s lore, legend or
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whatever, and not confirmed.
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But these stories are out there.
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And a lot of times stories might
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get embellished over the years,
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but sometimes there’s often some
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sort of element of truth to
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these stories.
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Like something might have
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happened a long time ago and
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it’s turned into this massive,
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you know, treasure trove that’s
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hidden somewhere.
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But maybe there was a boat that
went down that had some money on
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it or whatever.
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And over the years, it just kind
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of developed into this, this
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law.
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I had mentioned the Harpe
brothers earlier, the America’s
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first serial killers.
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They hung out in cave in Rock
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for a while, but at towards the
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end of their serial killing
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spree, they ended up just
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outside of Henderson, Kentucky,
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And the Dixon, Kentucky, area,
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which is about ten miles south
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of Henderson.
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Speaker:
And they were actually Micah
Harp and Wiley Harp.
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The.
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They were known as the serial
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killing brothers, but they were
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more likely first cousins,
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according to whatever they were
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known as Big Harpe and Little
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Harp.
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And over the course of nine
years, they supposedly killed
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thirty nine people.
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But maybe up to fifty.
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Just depends on what report
you’re reading.
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And they also not only murdered
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people, but they stole from
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them.
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So they kind of amassed a small
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fortune over that nine year
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period.
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And towards the end of their
murder spree, they left Illinois
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and they ended up near
Henderson, Kentucky, and they
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killed a mother and child
outside of Henderson.
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The people of Henderson ended up
chasing Big Harp and shot and
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killed him, and they cut his
head off and displayed it as a
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warning to other outlaws.
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And apparently little harp met
the same fate.
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And apparently just north of a
couple miles north of Dixon,
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Kentucky, there’s a road still
known as Harpe’s Head Road,
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which is kind of morbid, but I’m
guessing that kind of left an
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imprint on those people.
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And it’s rumored that they had
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amassed gold coins amounting to
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about three hundred thousand
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Speaker:
dollars, and no one really knows
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Speaker:
where they might have hidden
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Speaker:
that.
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Some maybe near Cave-in-rock,
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Speaker:
Illinois, but they ended up
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Speaker:
outside of Kentucky, near Dixon,
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Kentucky.
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So it might make sense that they
brought that with them.
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Speaker:
So there are rumors that the
hoard was buried in a cave near
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Speaker:
Dixon, Kentucky, about ten miles
south of Henderson, like I said.
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And it’s said that the cave
rests above a stream near
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Speaker:
Harpe’s Head Road.
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Speaker:
Who knows, maybe someday
somebody’s going to be metal
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detecting and will come across a
giant hoard of gold coins from
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America’s first serial killers.
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And I know I haven’t gone into
every single report of buried
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Speaker:
treasure in the Tri-State.
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I just hit on the stories that
piqued my interest.
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Speaker:
There are tons of stories of
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Speaker:
riverboats sinking in the Ohio
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Speaker:
River along Henderson or
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Speaker:
Evansville and southern
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Speaker:
Illinois, and every time it
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Speaker:
floods they say that coins wash
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Speaker:
ashore.
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Speaker:
Kind of sparking more interest
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Speaker:
in these legends, and I have no
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00:11:36.200 –> 00:11:38.379
Speaker:
doubt that there’s buried
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Speaker:
treasure in the Tri-State and
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Speaker:
sunken treasure in the Ohio
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Speaker:
River and creeks and just
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Speaker:
everywhere.
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Speaker:
It’s just a matter of finding
it.
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Speaker:
Look, last the last month alone,
in July of twenty twenty three,
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Speaker:
they found seven hundred gold
coins in a Kentucky cornfield.
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00:11:54.480 –> 00:11:58.320
Speaker:
So I have no doubt at all that
there’s something out there in
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Speaker:
the Tri-State area just waiting
to be found.
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Speaker:
Just please be sure to get
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Speaker:
permission if you’re going to be
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Speaker:
searching on people’s private
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Speaker:
property.
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00:12:07.480 –> 00:12:10.539
Speaker:
You don’t want to get yourself
shot or beheaded and end up
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Speaker:
having a road named after you.
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Speaker:
So anyway, hope you all enjoyed
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Speaker:
this episode and thank you for
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00:12:16.759 –> 00:12:17.240
Speaker:
joining me.
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Speaker:
And until next time, take care.
https://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/folklore/id/3872/rec/10
https://www.wymt.com/2023/07/12/millions-rare-gold-coins-unearthed-kentucky-cornfield/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpe_brothers

Here’s a map of Sullivan County, Indiana in 1876 (Farmersburg can be found at the top of the map – right of center)

