There’s Gold in Them Thar’ Hills!

When I was twelve I wanted to be an archeologist so badly I read every lost treasure, lost civilization, and dinosaur book in the Hardin Northern School Library. And this was a time in the 60’s before Indiana Jones made archeology cool. Still I think treasure hunting is a big part of everyone’s dream things to do. So I was amazed to discover that the small and perhaps poorest of West Virginia’s counties has not one, but two lost gold stories.

Treasure of Summer’s Mountain

I have to thank my buddy Leo Gray for telling me this story. The old man is gone now, but in the late 1970’s he and I both worked for the WV-DOH. More often than not on opposite ends of the same road being worked on as flag men. He swore every word of this was true. And admitted he spent more time than most in the hunt for this treasure. He had easy access to it, as he was living at the time up White Pilgrim at Wallback. The story starts on Summer’s Mountain, largely visible from the Wallback exit of I-79. Next time, or every time, you head up to Morgantown for a blue and gold game and you get on the interstate at, or pass the Wallback exit, remember you are passing REAL gold. At least, according to Leo, you are.

A Mistrusting Midas

The mountain was named after the man who settled on it. According to Leo he came from England. An easy-to-anger and first to answer-with-a-fist kind of guy. He spent much of his time in England hiding out in the highlands as a wanted criminal. He immigrated to America the only way he could: “He had himself nailed into a hog crate with three or four other hogs. He came over with the livestock by schooner. His only food and water was what they slopped the hogs with.” Leo said, “He didn’t have a choice. He had to stay hid; he was a wanted criminal.” Once in America he wandered far into the interior to the remote wilds, far away from the prying eyes of men, claiming the mountain for his own. In fact in his dealings with men, he dealt only with REAL money, the silver and gold of early American currency. He accepted no paper money, nor copper or nickel coins. If it wasn’t silver or gold you went home without the purchase. Like Midas the only money he touched was gold. And he trusted banks like he trusted men. Fearing men’s hearts to be like his own, he did not dare keep it at the house where thieves could break in and steal it. Nope. He had a special hiding place on the mountain. Once or twice a month he would take his booty collected for the month and leave the house an hour before dark and head up the mountain. He came back after dark. When he died, the secret of its location went to the grave with him. He had a number of children. Why did they not know where his spot was? “He trusted his wife and kids like he trusted banks. None of them were ever allowed to go with him or know it’s location.” Leo insisted. That is not to say they didn’t search.

A Hundred Years or a Millennium

His children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren spent years digging up the mountain. Since then many others tried. The typical spots were checked: hollow trees, large rocks, creek banks, rock overhangs and more. Needless to say, the mountain today bears little resemblance to the mountain then. Trees from that time might actually be open areas, or creeks, dry or grass covered. The mountain has been searched by modern metal detectors. Perhaps the technology to recover this treasure has yet to be discovered many years from now.

Golden Fleece Or Fleeced?

Or maybe, you might say, the treasure is just a modern myth. The old man spent the money or gambled it away or somebody found it years ago and just never admitted it. That is possible. But in 1977, Leo Gray was thoroughly convinced the treasure was never found. On the conservative side, he believed there was four times the weight of a grown man in gold and silver coins buried over the course of sixty years. A find of that kind is impossible to hide from the world. People talk, especially when it might involve hundreds, maybe thousands of gold coins. Moreover, who could hide that kind of money in today’s market. Millions in bullion, perhaps billions in collectable value. I tend to agree. Someday, perhaps we will know. Probably not anytime soon.

The South May Rise Again

The second gold story comes courtesy of Jerry Stover and his compiled oral history books, Hickory and Lady Slippers. This series, subtitled the Life and Legend of Clay County People is an oral history of Clay County documenting its history and genealogy of its residents. Complied by Jerry Stover and the Clay County Art Department. A special book in the series about ghosts, wives’ tales, superstitions and remedies, called Scared Stiff, I had the pleasure of illustrating back in 1977. I also did the pen and ink wash cover for the black and white publication. One of the stories I illustrated was a tale recounted by Henry Bird who says the tale was told to him by Jessie Sizemore about a lost Confederate payroll in gold coins.

The Treasure of Scott Legg Hollow

(The following is the story as it was printed in Scared Stiff and used by permission. This book and all of the others in the Hickory and Lady Slipper series can be ordered online. Go to: http://www.hiswv.com)

“A group of Confederate soldiers had encamped near the present site of Carnifax Ferry. After buying beefs from farmers of the community, they built fires and prepared the meat much in the manner of an open barbecue. Since it was late in the evening and no sign of the Yankees was apparent, security measures became lax. The jug was passed around and many of the men became more than partially intoxicated.

“Suddenly, firing broke out on the surprised camp. Due to the arms being stacked in rows during the rests, resistance was slow in forming. Darkness closed in, however, and stopped what was a riot. By morning the Rebels had regrouped and were planning a retreat. In the meantime the Yankees ate their meal. “Four-hundred men were scheduled to be sent to Clarksburg to reinforce the cause there, and Jessie Sizemore was chosen as a guide because he knew the territory of the march.

“The men crossed the mountain into Twenty-Mile, crossed again into Big Sycamore, and then started down to the mouth of Big Sycamore. Pursuit was close upon them so they decided to stash the payroll they carried. Someone in Scott Legg Ridge said that the gold for two month’s pay for four hundred men was concealed by moving a large flat rock, digging a hole under the rock, and placing the rock in its original position. To anyone’s knowledge, this hoard of some $32,000 has never been found.

“This is the story exactly as it was related to me by Henry Bird. He said that Jesse Sizemore told him the story himself.” By Henry Bird

And the treasure stories continue

Jerry Stover told me only yesterday of an unpublished Clay County treasure story. “You have no idea what is buried out there,” he said. “There is gold and silver in the Clay County mountains. The Indians used to taunt the white settlers that, ‘if you knew what we know, you could shoe your horses with gold.’ He told me something I did not know. Between 1850 and 1920 the Savage Brothers mined silver at Strange Creek. He said they would send it by barge on the Elk River to Charleston. They would hide it as inserts in pig iron shells and stacked on the barge, hiding it to discourage piracy on their journey. One year, waiting on the Elk to rise, they sent the load down river at the same time as loggers sent trees down to the mill. The combination caused an accident and the barge sank into the Elk River “at Elkhurst near the rapids” (there are at least two there now, but who knows if there were others a hundred years ago). It was never recovered, still concealed in the rusted and perhaps crusted pig iron somewhere on the bottom of the Elk. Jerry did not know this till I told him, but my house and property at Elkhurst are on the site of the old sawmill. Great concrete blocks that once anchored great saws rise all over my property.

A Disclaimer, If Not an Outright Warning

Before you go out and buy a metal detector or take time off from work to go treasure hunting, remember this: more serious people than you have already attempted this treasure hunt. Leo spent a half a lifetime in his search. Your odds of finding any treasure are greater than winning the lottery. And your investment would be more than a $1 ticket. Let’s just leave these as the great entertaining stories they are, and leave the real work for the future adventure/investor who has more money and tech than they have sense. Perhaps a future version of Indiana Jones. Then, maybe, Clay County will have some real FOUND treasure stories to tell the world.