We are in for a wild ride this week! It’s a gold rush in rural western Pennsylvania! A historian who has dedicated decades to researching Civil War era gold that has been lost in Benezette, PA (about 30 minutes from DuBois) says that he is worried about the FBI stealing his thunder. This week the FBI has established a search base in the rural hills of Benezette to search for mysterious gold that was hidden during the Civil War. The story tells of a Union wagon traveling from Wheeling, WV carrying 52 gold bars, each weighing 50 pounds, was headed northeast through Pennsylvania to Ridgway, and then to Harrisburg. The gold was for the payment of Union soldiers fighting in the war. However, the wagon as well as dead soldiers were found in St. Mary’s, but no gold. A privately operating group claimed to have discovered where the gold is buried in 2012, but federal kept them from digging up the buried treasure.

According to market value today, the gold would be worth approximately $55 million. Sheesh…

Jim Burke, a member of the Mt. Zion Historical Society, has been after this gold for some time now. He is not entirely confident that all of the original 52 bars are still together, but rather a majority. He has worked with a private investigator from Washington, D.C. to go through archives at the historical society in order to discover more about this possible loot. According to their findings, 3 men came out of the trip alive. Legend has it that 3 men walked out before the wagon train met its final stop. One man, known as Connors, was said to have gotten drunk on many occasions after the war and ramble on about him knowing where gold was buried in the hills of Pennsylvania. He ultimately died in California building roads.

A second part of the story that was discovered by Burke was the finding of 7 skeletons near a tributary by a company that was surveying land in the area. At that time, around the early 1900’s, the Pinkerton Detective Agency came to the area and is said to have found 3.5 gold bars. After this finding some of the detectives left the agency and dedicated their lives to the search for the rest of the bars.

Getting into the 1990’s, a man named Jack Shaw of North Carolina came to the area to study elevation for the government. During his time here he met a man at a bar that claimed to have a gold bar under his bed. Shaw was able to see the bar, and began to travel the area lecturing about the rest of the lost gold.

A partner of Burke’s that was in on the search talked to a soothsayer in New York. He didn’t tell her anything about gold, but she knew it. She said, “You’re looking for gold buried in Pennsylvania.” She also spoke of a man who fit the character of a particular soldier on the trip who spoke of being buried down a hole and had a bobcat licking his face.

Burke doesn’t have much faith in the FBI finding the whole loot of gold, if any at all. He believes that it has been broken up into multiple piles in different spots in the area. He believes that somebody left that wagon carrying some gold with them. He is also hesitant of what he would do if he eventually did discover the gold. It would surely bring legal battles regarding who had the rights to it, most likely being won over by the federal government due to it being public land.

What a wild ride. We have buried treasure, the FBI on the hunt, soothsayers, bobcats, drunken speeches, and mystery survivors. This story was charged straight from an electric factory, and I love it. Do I think there is gold in the hills of where I live? You bet I do. Is it all of the bars? Probably not. If I was to give my best crack at the story I would say that the Lieutenant got sick, as records show, and the crew panicked as to what to do. They decided to bury the gold to protect it and report it to a commanding officer. They knew they were in trouble, and either were attacked or got sick and passed away. 3 men happened to endure this, and decided to keep some gold for themselves and get out of the mess. But, the rest of the gold is still around there somewhere. It would be a bummer if the FBI did come up with it. The government would win again. I’m rooting for the common man in this fight. I hope the government comes up empty and the local heroes swoop in and hit it big. How cool would that be? This inspires me to go home and dust off the metal detector I bought when I was 12 and see if I could hit it big myself.