Gold, Pennsylvania

I posted some info about Potter county PA that seemed to generate some interest.

Here is some more old tales.


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roadsidethoughts.com...

Adding Gold to Our Gazetteer ...
We originally found mention of Gold in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.
In addition, our notes show that the earliest dated mention that we've found for Gold was in the Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895).
We also found Gold on a map titled Rand McNally Map of Pennsylvania (1911).
For more details about the above, see References and Mentions for Gold on our Genealogy Page.

Hidden gold in PA - Potter County

[url=https://www.therockerbox.com/potter_county_pa_lost_treasures.htm]Link

a reply to: Havamal

Extra long about PA and Potter:

The Lost Treasure of the Voyageurs

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Almost immediately after posting the article about Halfway Hollow, I received an email from Jon about the mysterious hollow. “Hello I just read your blog about Halfway Hollow. You say Dabold Hare buried a small fortune in gold coins near his home. I’ve heard the treasure buried in Halfway Hollow is a lost treasure buried by Frenchmen.”
Note: more about the history of Halfway Hollow can be found here: Halfway Hollow
The story of the Lost Gold of the Voyageurs is one I grew up hearing and often crosses my mind when I explore Pennsylvania’s northern tier. Despite being familiar with the story, I had never heard the name Halfway Hollow attached to the legend. After browsing through a number of newspaper articles and treasure forum sites, I discovered that the treasure has become intertwined with the history of the mysterious Halfway Hollow.
According to legend, somewhere near the headwaters of the Allegheny River is a fortune in gold worth between $350,000 and $500,000. To find it, all one has to do is find a large stone with a cross chiseled into it – the treasure is buried at its base.
The legend of the Lost Gold of the Voyageurs takes place in the late 1600s, when a group of Frenchmen arrived in Potter County. The group had rafted up the Mississippi River from New Orleans with the goal of reaching Montreal and turning a small fortune in gold over to the French Governor of Montreal. Their journey would take them up the Mississippi to the Ohio River. They would follow the Allegheny River to the Conewango Creek, then to Chautauqua Lake, and finally go overland to Lake Erie.
Note: If this journey sounds similar, it should – the second half of the journey is the same route planned on being used by Captain Blackbeard’s men before they buried their treasure near Gardeau, a legend I’ve written about before. Blackbeard’s men planned on following the West Branch of the Susquehanna, then the Sinnemahoning before going overland to the Allegheny River. They would float downriver to the Conewango Creek, follow it to Chautauqua Lake then overland to Lake Erie. The legend of Blackbeard’s Treasure can be found here: Blackbeard’s Treasure.
The Frenchmen had packed the gold coins in small kegs and covered them with gunpowder to hide the fortune they carried. The group was instructed to protect their valuable cargo at all cost. They were not to let it be taken by the English colonists.
The party consisted of voyageurs,, a couple Jesuits priests and a number of Native American guides. The group poled their way up the rivers and finally arrived at present-day Warren. By the time they arrived at the mouth of the Conewango Creek, they had heard rumors of the Seneca attacking French settlements to the north.
The decision was made to continue up the Allegheny River. The new plan was to continue up the river then make portage over the hills to the Genesee River near present-day Wellville. From there they would continue their journey to Montreal.
They made it to the Coudersport region before once again they changed their plans. Since leaving Conewango Creek, the group had been harassed by the Seneca, who fired upon them from the wooded shoreline. They decided to bury the treasure and return for it at a later date. The treasure was buried at the base of a large rock and the priests chiseled a large cross on it to mark its location.
With the treasure hidden, they set out for the safety of French controlled lands. They never came back for the treasure which remains to be discovered.
While the tale of the lost treasure is a popular one that has been searched for by many, the questions to be asked are: “Does this treasure actually exist?” and “If it does exist is it near Coudersport?”
Note: the following are my thoughts, observations and personal opinions.
First, the most popular version of the legend claims it was buried “north of Coudersport near Borie.” Borie is not north of Coudersport, but instead south/southeast Coudersport. The Borie Branch follows from a spot east of Coudersport and a few miles west of Cherry Springs State Park and flows southward to join the First Branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek.
In my mind, this seems strange – why would they go out of their way to bury the treasure? Borie is in an almost opposite direction than they needed to go to reach safety. The Frenchmen would have had to carry the treasure overland for a distance to bury it in this locale.
The second issue with this legend is how far could they have rafted up the Allegheny River? Unless the river was much deeper in the late 1600s than it is now – which is a possibility – I doubt the voyageurs made it as far up the Allegheny as thought. Some versions of the story state the reason the voyageurs managed to get as far as they did was due to the river being at the flood stage.
Along with this, I questioned the ability to paddle/pole the distance from New Orleans to Coudersport. Voyageurs were known to paddle canoes or pole rafts for twelve to sixteen hours a day. While the distance was great, this would not have been out of the range of possibility for them to accomplish.
The final issue I have with the legend is where did the gold coins come from? Most lost treasure stories have an origin of the treasure, but none of the versions of the Lost Gold of Voyageurs has an origin of the treasure they were tasked with taking to Montreal.
Despite my doubts, I have to admit I’ve ventured out a time or two to search for the lost treasure. The one thing I quickly discovered was – when you are searching for one large rock, all the rocks seem to be large. Despite searching a number of places, I have yet to find the large rock with a cross chiseled into it – maybe it has been weathered away or possibly destroyed over the years.
While I don’t have an answer to where the treasure was buried by the voyageurs, the hollow I believe is Halfway Hollow would be an ideal place for them to bury the treasure. If they were being harassed by the Seneca, they would want to bury the treasure quickly and at a point that was along their journey, not in some out-of-the-way place. The hollow is on the north side of the river. The Allegheny River is deep enough they could have possibly arrived at this location, but would have had a hard time going much farther upriver. The hollow is close to the river, so they would not have to haul it very far to hide it.
Maybe the lost kegs of gold are hidden in Halfway Hollow, either buried under present-day Route 6 or possibly hidden somewhere else within the hollow. Or Maybe it is buried in the mountains south of Coudersport in a remote place picked out by the group, waiting to be recovered.
All you have to do is find a large rock with a cross chiseled into it and – trust me – there are a lot of large rocks to be examined.

a reply to: Havamal
I have been down to this hollow. Saw a chipmonk.

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There are many tales of lost treasure in the hills, mountains and caves of Pennsylvania.

Late in the 1690s, a group of French Canadians, led by Louis Frontenac, left New Orleans for Montreal. They sailed up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River and on to the site of present-day Pittsburgh, taking the left fork up the Allegheny River. On their rafts were kegs filled with gold coins destined for the Royal Governor of Canada’s treasury. Upon reaching present-day Potter County, they started overland, but the heavy kegs made the going slow. Fearing an English or Indian attack, they buried the treasure north of present-day Coudersport, marking the spot with a cross chipped into a rock. Indians saw the cross, but left it alone fearing it had mystical significance. In time, the marker wore away and the Indians couldn’t remember where it was located. The French never returned.


During the Civil War, Confederate raiders captured a Union convoy heading from West Virginia to the Philadelphia Mint. The convoy’s treasure — 15 tons of silver bars — was hidden in a cave north of Uniontown. The rebels never returned.

David “Robber” Lewis made a reputation for himself in the early 1800s, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. He was captured in 1820 and, on his deathbed, told his jailers of three caches of gold. One, containing $10,000, was concealed in a small cave along the Juniata River near Lewistown. A second was buried along Conodoguinett Creek near the caves he used as a hideout. The third, containing $20,000, was buried in the hills outside Bellefonte. During his last imprisonment, Lewis is said to have taunted his jailers by telling them he could see the cache from the cell. None of the loot was ever found.

In the 1890s, a man robbed a bank in Emporium, making off with $40,000 in cash. He got lost and ended up in the village of Hazel Hurst where he collapsed and died of “exhaustion” — but not before confessing he had buried the money northeast of Kushequa within sight of the Kinzua railroad bridge.

On Oct. 11, 1924, a train carrying a safe with a $33,000 payroll inside was robbed outside the Cambria County town of Belsano. During the holdup, one of the men guarding the safe was killed. Police caught up with Michelo Bassi and Anthony Pezzi two weeks later in Terre Haute, Ind. Each had a gun and $3,000 in cash. Convicted of first-degree murder, the men were executed. The safe and most of the money were never recovered. Legend has it that it may be hidden near the holdup site.

Somewhere in the Allegheny National Forest to the west of Tionesta is a cave reputed to be full of silver. In the late 1700s, a settler named Hill got lost and sought shelter in a cave for the night. Inside, he found veins of silver along the walls and ceiling and, in the floor, a pit filled with pure silver. He made his way home, but was unable to retrace his route to the cave. Hill’s story was backed up by an early entrepreneur who traded liquor with the American Indians in exchange for furs and silver. When asked where they got all their silver, legend has it that they blindfolded him and took him to a cave matching the one described in Hill’s story. Pure silver was found in Indian burial grounds near Irvine in Warren County, about 15 miles upstream from Tionesta. The cave has never been found.

Other lost-treasure tales include that of an airplane carrying $250,000 in cash that crashed near Mount Carmel in 1948. The money was thrown from the plane just before the crash and was never found.

Bandit Michael Rizzalo stole a $12,000 payroll in 1888 and was said to have buried it in a tin box on Laurel Run Mountain outside of Wilkes-Barre.
In 1775, a gang of Tories hid $100,000 in gold coins in the Wernersville area. The loot was never found.

When we were little kids and would go play in dirt piles and stuff, we'd find chunks of coal and collect them thinking they were worth some money lol

a reply to: Havamal

Heh, the other day I read about some Polish farmer who recently found a half-mil of banknotes under a haystack.

Unfortunately, there were all from the World War II era and of historical interest only.

Cheers

db

a reply to: TXRabbit


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Most People Don’t Know These 7 Treasures Are Hiding In Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania isn’t anywhere near the “high seas” trafficked by legendary swashbuckling pirates, but what kid didn’t grow up with dreams of finding mysterious maps and buried chests of gold? We probably won’t find a sunken Spanish galleon in the Allegheny River anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t hidden treasure out there to keep our childhood imaginations alive.

In fact, Pennsylvania has several tales of lost loot throughout history. Even if you aren’t ready to grab a pickaxe and comb the forests for robbers’ gold, the state has plenty of other small treasures to uncover…American Indian artifacts and arrowheads, Ice Age fossils, gemstones, and Civil War bullets are discovered quite frequently…but we couldn’t help but indulge our imagination with some of the more colorful legends. Here are 7 great ones that might just lead you to a fantastic fortune…or at least inspire some excellent bedtime stories.

I have a friend that is an attorney in Kerrville. We were best friends as young boys, and I was at his house just about everyday. They had this rugby football sized block of gold ore that they used as a door stop. The kids (friend had a brother and a sister) took turns each year taking it for show and tell day at school. It was a jet black lump with little strips of gold peeking out here and there.

One time, the mom dropped it from about 3 inches above the ground and a thumb sized piece broke off. There seemed to be quite a bit of gold in that big chunk of ore.

Anyway, the point of this story....he and I bonded initially over our shared family background of Pennsylvania. His grandparents lived there, my grandfather came from there, both in the same general area. That ore was taken from a mine on family land back in the 30's.