Col Welcome
Stories of chests and cannons being dredged up then falling back in the water are very common. Off the top of my head I can think of 6 or 8 stories along them lines within 10 miles of my house. May just be a good tale but here is one that is documented that I would look into if I was closer.
It happened on the morning of February 5, 1887. Detective Harmon Sears slouched in his seat in the trains fourth passenger car, staring absently through his window at the whirling snow flurries obscuring the Vermont countryside.
Propped on the seat beside him was a hardwood box, entrusted to his care. The box measured three and one-half by five by thirteen and one-half inches. Tucked inside was a small fortune in solid silver coins arranged in two neat rows of ten stacks each, with 50 coins to the stack.
Slightly larger than a modern fiftycent piece, the medallions had been struck to commemorate the Winter Carnival, then being held in Montral, Canada. Privately minted in America at the request of the fairs officials to save money, the coins were to be sold to help defray the carnivals public expense. Now it was Sears task to transport them safely to their destination by train.
The train rapidly trundled up the approach to the 650-foot-long trestle bridge spanning Vermonts White River, not far from the hamlet of West Hartford. When the engine rolled onto the first trestle proper there was still no hint of trouble. But, suddenly, one of the cast-iron rails, made brittle by the cold, snapped under the trains weight, a scant 60 yards from the bridge.
The tailing car hit the break, skipped the rails, and skirted along at an awkward scant onto the bridge. Lurching sideways, the car pitched from its perch and yanked the three preceding cars away with it. All four cars plunged 60 feet into the rushing, frigid river below. Thirtytwo people perished, Harmon Sears among them.
The chest crammed with the cache of commemorative Canadian coins was among the baggage, freight, and other debris thrown into the river. When the wreck was cleared away, piece by piece, the coins were never found.
It is believed that the box was washed a few hundred feet downstream, where it became lodged in the silt. Today valued at $75 each by collectors, the coins are a tempting lure for the treasure hunter with a metal detector who is interested in finding a $75,000 fortune.
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If you believe everything you read you are reading to much.
Treasure is a Harsh Mistress
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