Buried Treasure
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Buried Treasure in the Tri-State?
When most people picture buried treasure, they think of pirates on a tropical beach or old West gold prospectors out in California. But buried loot might be a lot closer to home than you think. Before the FDIC came along to insure bank accounts, plenty of folks simply didn't trust banks with their hard-earned cash. It was pretty common to bury savings in a field or hide them somewhere safe. When people passed away without telling anyone where their stash was, those valuables stayed right where they were put. Just look at what happened in July 2023, when over 700 rare Civil War-era gold coins worth millions were unearthed right in a Kentucky cornfield.
In this episode, we dig into several local treasure legends scattered across the Tri-State area.
Over in Farmersburg, Indiana, a recording from 1987 tells the story of a wagon full of gold buried by soldiers near an old dirt trail. They hid the stash before heading off to confront a group of bandits, but since none of the soldiers survived the fight, the location was lost to time.
Moving over to Southern Illinois, the area around Cave-in-Rock has a wild history of river pirates and outlaws. Rumor has it that stagecoach robbers hid around $200,000 in gold and silver coins inside a cave along the Ohio River. Not far down the river in Golconda, local stories talk about hundreds of 1800s silver dollars occasionally washing ashore, possibly coming from an old wrecked riverboat.
Down near Dixon, Kentucky, America's first serial killers, the Harpe brothers, built up a massive fortune by robbing their victims over a nine-year spree. After they were tracked down and killed just outside Henderson, rumors spread that their hidden stash of around $300,000 in gold coins remains buried in a cave above a stream near what is now Harpes Head Road.
Whether these stories are completely true or just heavily embellished over the generations, there is almost always a grain of truth behind local folklore. Just remember, if you decide to grab a metal detector and go hunting for long-lost gold yourself, always get permission from the property owner first.