You see it? Im about 15 miles away, Mr. Getler, Somers said. Teammates called him Professor Brachiopod. Once, during halftime at a playoff game in Ohio, he walked down to a stream and discovered several fossils; he became so absorbed looking for more that he missed the second half. He was 30 feet down in the hole when his shovel gave off a metallic ting. As in his appearances on TV shows, including a guest-star turn alongside Richards on The Curse of Civil War Gold, hes intense and excitablea geyser of detailed explanations filled with rhetorical questions for which he instantly provides answers. But if the Saddle Ridge Hoard discovery is any indication, California is a place where anything can happen when it comes to hidden treasure. The old American West was a wild place. He slips into one passageway and crawls about 50 feet before exiting an opening in the hole that had been dug back in March. Others claim the doctors party never found the site of the gold. He was released from jail in 1894 and is said to have been a law-abiding citizen for the rest of his days. They decide that Sheets will make an angular descent, transecting the hillside. That evening, I ask Getler if he feels a growing sense of anticipation, and he cuts me off midquestion. But in every other meaningful way, hell remain down in that hole until the last shovelful of dirt has been turned over. Getler and others ask him not to risk exploring these crevices, but Somers cant help himself. What could be more traditional than stories of buried pirate treasure? Many of the Wests most desperate outlaws have been credited with hiding the proceeds of their robberies. From that excruciatingly enticing moment, though, nothing goes as planned. Not Chad. Two brothers reported finding some of Sharps loot near modern day Bodie Hills, California, but they estimated that the vast majority of it remained buried throughout the area and beyond. That one that people look at and go, This dude did something really important. And I guess thats probably what means the most.. Related read: Shanghai Kelly: San Franciscos King Crimp. W.C. Jameson must be an eccentric millionaire by now. Bowser wanted him to stay out of the hole. After roaming around for a while, hed taken a break to smoke a cigarette on a slender ledge hard up against a huge old birch tree, situated two-thirds of the way down the steep, several-hundred-foot bluff. And Hope would roll her eyes and say that he was off chasing another one of his obsessive dreams. Sheets makes gradual headway, plowing down saplings and laying them down along the embankment on the downhill side to create a kind of earthen guardrail. Rocks pelted him when he clambered down, and the entire enterprise felt far sketchier than hed left it. Stocklis chainsaw gets stuck, and there is a delay involving the excavators hydraulic line. While the extraordinarily lucky dog walkers kept their identities and the location of the discovery a secret for obvious reasons, an article published by Reuters claims their land is set somewhere in Californias sprawling Gold Country, a famed region in the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains that attracted prospectors from around the world over during the states 1849 Gold Rush. If you read about this stuff, youll hear that these treasures are protected by spirits., Then theres the origin story of Somerss daydream, which led him to believe that this is his lifes mission. After a few weeks he would come back to the villages with a fresh supply of gold. Somerss site is different. His grandfather taught him to play Red River Valley, and he worked relentlessly until he could perform at open mics and shows. Neahkahnie Mountain / via Wikipedia. Somers could never have imagined all that would follow those fistfuls of dirt: the earth-moving machinery and underground scanners; the historian who would join the cause; the rifts, both personal and geological; the way the lens on the entire saga would open wide, then narrow back down, until it once again framed only himhomeless, penniless, but ruthlessly determinedand the hole. Somers stops by to look at the image, and fist-bumps the others. But what if the KGC used a mining operation as a front for a project actually intended to bury gold? The miners returned over and over again, but couldnt track down the source of the gold, leaving many to speculate that the site now called Lost Goose Egg Mine is still brimming with gold. Richards estimates its about eight feet wide and three feet deep, to which Getler barks, Holy shit! At that size, he says, doing quick math, the cache could weigh 7 to 9 tons. And in late 2022, Somers and Getler signed on with Mark Wahlbergs production company to pitch a television series. But I never had no dreams about being a treasure hunter. Yet he needed something to put his mind to. A coyote once approached Somers and ignored his attempts to scare it off. Getler says he was surprised, toohe was packing up when he heard the heavy equipment and hurried back. If you have the same symbology appearingthis kind of gets into Da Vinci Code stuff, right? he says. In 1857, two German immigrants traveling near Mammoth Mountain rested near a stream and saw what they thought were massive chunks of gold cemented together in a rock ledge. The doctor later enlisted the help of a few friends and hired hands and set off on an expedition to recover the remaining gold in 1861. But long after his days of crime came to an end, rumors of buried caches of money, jewels, and gold spread around the American west. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. However, the lawyer claimed specific litigation strategies might help him stake a claim on the gold without legal repercussions. According to .css-3wjtm9{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#1c6a65;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-3wjtm9:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Rebel Gold: One Mans Quest to Crack the Code Behind the Secret Treasure of the Confederacy, a book by Warren Getler and Bob Brewer about the pursuit of KGC treasure, the organization had a central strategy: to maintain a powerful, hidden base of politico-military operations in the American Deep South, no matter the outcome of the Civil War itself, and with ample treasure to finance them.. Finding a cache of lost gold would put so many worries to rest. Incongruous though it might seem, folklore has the galleon swept inland by a freak tidal wave, stranding it and its doomed crewalong with tons of Spanish gold (in some stories, the ship holds a fortune in pearls)on the shifting sands. $7.48 + $11.31 shipping. Bowser returns to renovation work so theyll have some income, but the couples relationship becomes strained, in part because Somers would rather chew on aluminum foil than trade in his quest for painting walls or stocking shelves. While experts say the so-called Saddle Ridge Hoard discovery was exceedingly rare, California is thought to contain other hidden treasures. Other laws made clear that removing or even moving historical objects was not allowed, with penalties as high as $100,000 per day for infringements. According to the story, James had gone to Ohio in 1882, after faking his death, and roamed the countryside as J. Frank Dalton, a lightning rod salesman. This method harvested images that were blotchy and grainy, but intriguing. Warren Getler has always been fascinated by whats hidden underground. I know things that would rock the fucking world if I revealed [them].. .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Death Valley Is the Hottest Place on Earth, Inside the CIAs Quest to Decode Consciousness. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. Patrick Michael McGuire is a writer, songwriter, and interviewer based in northern New Mexico. This Picture of an Atom Is a Scientific Marvel. Its not a coincidence, he says. Like, I asked for help and got it from I dont know where It doesnt make no sense. Its daunting enough that Somers put in fixed ropes. It was driving me insane, he says. WebLost Bonanzas by Harry Sinclair Drago Buried Treasure and Lost Mines in the West. I think that thats what Im supposed to do., But he doesnt stop there. That was right across the road from Cry, he replies. Bradley Richards carries a high-powered metal detector down the hillside. When he gets his mind on something, Hope Bowser says, thats all there is for a while.. He had to admit it sounded far-fetched that such a treasure would be there, and that he would be able to find it. Jones, who was thought to be drunk during the robbery, was promptly killed when a guard returned fire and shot him. Hell cut a diagonal path, building an embankment on the downhill side as he goes. WebAn estimated 500 adventurers have died looking for the mythical treasure, making the search for Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine the most dangerous treasure hunt in the world. The spread covered more than 300 acres in east-central Ohio, encompassing a farm with hayfields and a home, barn, and bunkhouse. When Scofield finally found himself sober, and completely broke, he tried going back to the Clipper Mountains, but was never able to relocate the Spanish camp. Birches can live for more than 300 years, but is that particular specimen old enough to have lorded over a James-led treasure burial? All rights reserved. She told him to keep his eyes open, because Jesse James had buried gold there in the 1800s, and no one had found the treasure. On that visit, Sheets excavates a second, 15-foot hole next to the first, still a few feet short of the exact location shown on various devices. To do this, hed need proof that there was indeed a shipwreck near the sighting of the gold bars. He contends that they provide a series of cluesa story in codeof Jamess activities there. He said, This is where Im gonna bury it. Still to this day, a gold coin or two is occasionally found around the area of Bloody Springs. Into the breeze, he said, This is where Ill dig.. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. Partly to compensate for his lack of a formal education, Somers is an obsessive autodidact. For the uninitiated, diving this deep is incredibly difficult and dangerous, and is only attempted by the worlds most experienced divers. WebAuthor: Thomas Probert Publisher: ISBN: Category : Mines and mineral resources Languages : en Pages : 624 Download Book. After a half hour, hed dug down three feet, and he decided two things. When Getler called an hour later, his first question was: How far are you from Zanesville? His book had documented a Zanesville connection with James. The man paid the doctor with a portion of the gold hed recovered and his map detailing the location of the gold-laden ledge. The Bowser family property was an incredible place to be a child. Something possessed me, he recalls, and I felt I was going to let go and fall into the pit.. And the truth about what lies inside that Ohio hillside will emerge, maybe later this year. His truck breaks down, is impounded, and will cost $2,500 to recovermoney he doesnt have. Or not. Often, there is a map (sometimes called a "waybill") purportedly showing the location of the mine. He rarely saw his biological father, and spent large swaths of time with his grandparents, to avoid his violent stepfather. Out of money and fearing legal consequences for pressing on, Pennisi ultimately gave up his quest to retrieve the gold bars in 2015. All this vertiginous navigation raises a key question: How will the 6,800-pound Takeuchi mini-excavator that Getler has hired for the project navigate such a slope? He sells off some possessions to stay afloat, and for a time stays with a friend about 10 miles from the dig site. $7.48 + $11.31 shipping. WebLost mines are a popular form of lost treasure legend. He would spend all his money in taverns and saloons, and then run off into the wild when he ran out. It is said he kept the gold in a cave in the Warner Mountains, but Holden died in prison without telling a soul about its precise location. web pages Somers was by then morphing into a man who had tasted enough of his own blood. The slope is denser with roots and topsoil than theyd expected. 3. Online, he located a hand-drawn map of unknown provenance that claims to identify the location of a large underground Confederate depository in Tennessee on an 186263 Battle Site. But Somers observed that the lettering of the world Battle was written in a way that it could be read as 13 oHiothe 13 perhaps referring to nearby Ohio Route 13 or a KGC symbol. The forecast calls for an unseasonably warm day. Many times the soldiers were either killed in combat right after they buried the treasure or couldnt locate exactly where they had buried their treasures. He peppers in implausible claims about the sites significance. Bradley straps into a fixed rope for safety on what his father calls the very, very difficult terrain of the steep bluff, and begins scanning a 6-by-18-foot grid above the W tree. I feel like I was led to it. Map to Belle Isle for Treasure image Google Maps link. WebFormer President of the Western Writers of America, he has twice won the Stirrup Award for best magazine article. They began talking regularly, and Getler made the trip to Ohio about two months after that first conversation. She asked him not to mention his project socially; people in town ridiculed the undertaking. He and Bowser were hired to remodel homes in Columbus, an hour away. This book was released on 1956 with total page 276 pages. In the old American West, tensions between European settlers and the Indians ran dangerously high. Within a day or so the hole was more than six feet deep, so he brought in an extension ladder and a generator to run a light down there. He and Brad Richards return, along with Tim Williams, the inventor of the Arc-Geo Logger and a veteran of past KGC searches. That hat is a shaft., Getler openly confesses that nothing is certain, and is acutely aware that few people will take any of this seriously until and unless they uncover KGC treasure. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Wearing a windbreaker and a fraying baseball cap bearing the word WOOF, Getler is a kinetic and youthful man of 61, with a tuft of brown hair. He was pondering his next move when he happened to watch an episode of Beyond Oak Island, a History Channel show about lost treasure that featured Getler. Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Old Wyoming. All of this is alluring, but Somers alone, with no heavy equipment, can hardly push much deeper. For months, they were locked in a disagreement over a fee they were paid by the TV production company. Somers dropped out of school three days into the ninth grade, partly because he had undiagnosed ADHD and couldnt follow the lessons, and partly because he had so many choressplitting wood, chopping hay, cutting down cornthat he would have slept through his classes even if he could focus on the schoolwork. N95 Vs. KN95 Masks: Whats the Difference? It appeared to be a shaft leading into the hillside. For all his backwoods eloquence, its not hard to detect the heavily worn shoulder chip of a man who has something to prove. He found artifacts, including an old harmonica reed and a cigar butt made from a single leaf of tobaccoboth suggestive that someone had been there, perhaps many decades ago. He didnt mind absorbing lumps. With no mining experience to speak of, a group of seasoned miners convinced Jack to file a claim on a plot of land they thought was worthless as a prank. According to one story, in the 1890s, a man robbed a bank in Emporium and ran north, burying the loot within sight of the Kinzua Bridge. Hes investigated several sites purportedly connected to the Confederate organization, including one on public land in Pennsylvania where, Getler says, the FBI was allowed by a federal court to dig, largely based on his research. But rather than give in to the urge to fight, he left. Treasure hunters typically purchase expensive underwater rovers rather than putting divers at risk for missions like these. After a month, he maxed out the 25-foot extension ladder. Thats how Somers connected the dots. Using this grindingly slow method, he reached 15 feet, then 20. Occams razor is a problem-solving principle that dates back to medieval times. They had to force their way to the Pacific Ocean by driving the Native Americans away from their lands. That would be later. On an expedition to prove the existence of the shipwreck and its location, Pennisi discovered what he believed to be a large sunken cannon, but later found his GoPro had run out of memory, so it wasnt recorded. WebAuthor: Thomas Probert Publisher: ISBN: Category : Mines and mineral resources Languages : en Pages : 624 Download Book. Tom Scofield, a wondering railroad worker, was taking a long ride through the Clipper Mountains of northwest California. The hike to the W tree from atop the bluff consists of a harrowing descent of a few hundred feet down a 75-degree slope. Once, hanging out on top of the bluff, I ask what it would mean to him to find Jessie Jamess buried treasure. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. The key, he adds, is pattern recognitionthe symbols found here match imagery found in other parts of the country, such as Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, and KGC records he viewed in the National Archives. So maybe its too early to categorize what befell Somers and Bowser in autumn 2021. Please try your request again later. Here is a handful of folktales of some of the most popular lost fortunes to have tantalized and eluded seekers for generations. Somers in particular was drawn to it. Hes been beaten down, grifted, laughed at. Like a concrete vault 30 feet in the ground marked by a giant arrow at the bottom of a giant J where an alleged gold mine once was. Did the FBI Steal Treasure Hunters Gold? I always told everybody that theres something different about this place, Somers says. Belle Isle Detroit, Michigan. The sheer mass of circumstantial evidence, combined with their fiercely dogmatic beliefs, has a generative power, inspiring enough of a sense of possibility that I postpone my flight home to spend an extra day at the dig. When he finally returned to the dig site, he found his hole partially collapsed. This is my job, he says. On one tree, for example, Getler points to the simple etching of a face under a hat. Ive been burned to the ground, he says, and rebuilt.. Please try again. Be the first one to, Buried treasures of the Rocky Mountain West : legends of lost mines, train robbery gold, caves of forgotten riches, and Indians' buried silver, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Treasure troves -- Rocky Mountains Region, urn:lcp:buriedtreasureso0000jame_e5k2:lcpdf:37350512-5cc8-4c3f-9f99-4c1a4ca6d476, urn:lcp:buriedtreasureso0000jame_e5k2:epub:a0599468-737c-463f-9aa3-647ef82d4485, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). 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