Knights of the Golden Circle Cache ???

This is a true story of an attempt to retrieve a cache supposedly buried in Missouri towards the end of the Civil War. The article was published in the late 70's in one of the treasure magazines of the time by someone who was directly involved in the recovery effort. The details have become fuzzy over time but I will attempt to recall everything I know about the story.

In the late 1950's -- a group of men located the site of a campground that was supposedly used by some confederate soldiers who were in the process of moving silver and gold bullion up the Black river towards an unknown destination. Everything at the site gave them reason to believe this was the original campsite as described by an unknown person. They applied for a recieved a permit from the Forest Service in that district to start an excavation project. The Gov doesn't give permits like this unless there's plenty of evidence to support the claims that something was buried in the area.  The permit was granted.

to be continued.

Steve

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Can't wait to read the rest. 

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Stringfrenzy

The only reason I'm recalling this story is because it happened in my home state and it supposedly involved the Knights of the Golden Circle. I am try to remember as many details as I can but time has perhaps faded some of them.

Towards the end of the Civil War- a raft slowly moved up the Mississippi River - then went up the Black River. Here the facts about how the raft sunk become murky- I think they said it was sunk by a blowout and the raft capsized with it's load of silver and gold bullion. Anyway- they couldn't retrieve it and over time the site became lost until nearly 90 years later when a group of men showed up looking for the lost campsite. In the magazine they showed pictures of the campsite itself - the area  where it was thought the treasure sank as well as a number of artifacts from the era.

Somehow the men managed to procur a permit for an excavation. they brought in all kinds of heavy equipment like a bulldozer- clamshell crane and others. Right from the beginning they encountered all kinds of problems. Caving ins- water seepage- ground instability, etc.They also had all kinds of problems with outsiders since the word got around that something secret was going in the forest.  They kept going in spite of all the technical problems they encountered until a
thunderstorm stuck and wiped out whatever work had been done up to
that point. Someone made a decision to pull the plug on the project and give up. A few years later - the site was covered up by the rising waters of the Black River when they dammed it upstream  to create either Table Rock Lake or Lake Taneycamo(sic) I can't remember which one it was.

It's kind of a sad story but a true one as all the information is  a matter of public record.  Who knows? Perhaps one day in the future- someone will make another attempt at it in spite of the fact buried under a lake. The technology exists to retrieve it.

Steve

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I think the biggest problem is getting the word out on this. It's been about fifty years when the attempt was made. No doubt the there's people (or their relatives) who know about the story. I think the biggest problem would be trying to get a permit to dredge the site. Missouri is something of a conservation minded state so I'm not sure how that would go.

Steve

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Since there has to be people with first hand knowledge of what they were digging for- I would try and locate them first since they could save a lot of time with research,etc.

Steve

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