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Kentucky Kache
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Bill Bowlegs' loot (FL.)
A Gulf Coast pirate who operated for almost 30 years and amassed a huge fortune in gold, silver, and jewels was William Billy Bowlegs Rogers. Rogers (nicknamed Billy Bowlegs after the Seminole war chief) was a member of Jean Lafittes Baritarian pirates as early as 1812. When Lafitte shifted operations to Galveston Island in 1818, Billy Bowlegs stayed behind and formed his own pirate fleet. From a secret base somewhere on the north Gulf Coast, Bowlegs and his small pirate fleet continued to prey on Spanish shipping in the Gulf until 1838 when the cartel of aging pirates officially disbanded. By this time, Billy Bowlegs Rogers had amassed a huge fortune which was disposed of in three places.
After several hundred thousand dollars worth of gold and silver was stored in the hold of his personal schooner, Rogers hid a great number of gold and silver ingots on a sandy island on the north Gulf Coast. The general consensus among treasure hunters is that this cache was made on the north shore of Santa Rosa Island, but in reality a large number of islands in the area fit the same description.
A large cache of coins and other valuables was secreted somewhere on the mainland. Possible locations for this cache outnumber the locations for the island cache.
Billy Bowlegs stayed retired for two years. In 1840 he gathered together 27 of his ex-cronies and took up the pirate path again. They found there were still plenty of good prizes in the Gulf but soon ran afoul of a British man o war. The warship chased the pirates back to their base but could not cross the sand bar into the lagoon as the lighter pirate vessel had done. When the British started to lower long boats full of marines, Bowlegs scuttled the treasure-laden ship and took his men into hiding in the forest. When the British gave up the chase and sailed away, Bowlegs left the bulk of his crew to guard the lagoon and set out overland for New Orleans with promises to return with diving equipment to retrieve the treasure.
By the time their captain returned with his personal schooner, the diving equipment, and his family, all but four of the crewmen were dead of fever or Indian attacks. The diving operations did not go well and, when another round of fever claimed Billy Bowlegs wife among its victims, he lost all interest in retrieving the treasure. Across the bay from the lagoon where the treasure ship was sunk near, lay the island with the cache of gold and silver ingots. Captain Bowlegs sailed across the bay and built a cabin on the mainland where he lived the rest of his life watching the treasure, but never spending it. Before he died at age 93 he supposedly gave directions for finding this hoard to a friend, but the landmarks had changed too much in the intervening years for the treasure to be found.
The U.S. Treasure Atlas states that over the years a number of bags of gold coins and bars of silver have been discovered on Santa Rosa Island, lending credence to the general consensus that this is the site of the main cache. But there have been enough finds in other areas on the Choctawatchee Bay and on other sections of the north Gulf Coast to call this assessment into question. Some think that Bowlegs hid the treasure on the mainland in the Fort Walton Beach area; others place the hoard on various smaller islands in the Choctawatchee Bay. Some say the treasure was hidden along the Mullet Creek, while other sources site a secret cavern below Fort San Carlos. Yet another, under a palm tree at Bald Point.
The locations given for Billy's cache of coins run the gamut from the area around Franklin in Franklin County to the Alabama side of the ferry on the Perdido River.
Most sources put the lagoon where the pirate captain scuttled his own treasure ship somewhere on the Choctawatchee Bay. A few name the Apalachicola Bay, and one source moves the whole story south to the mouth of the Swanee River. In this last scenario, the treasure cache is hidden either on Bird Island ten miles northwest of the mouth of the river or Bird Key ten miles south. This last seems awfully far afield; however, the pre-eminence of the Choctawatchee Bay area in most researcher's estimation may have been partially influenced by the fact that, in times past, the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce actively promoted the Billy Bowlegs story as an annual tourist event. The claims that silver bars and bags of gold coins found in the area have not, that I know of, been backed up with names of the lucky finders. Still, the descriptions of the cache site fit Santa Rosa Island quite nicely, and that was where I placed the treasure when I wrote the Bowlegs story for the 1995 Treasure Cache Annual. Incidentally, the sacks of gold coins are said to be buried only six to 12 inches deep, but the silver ingots a good six to eight feet under.
A Gulf Coast pirate who operated for almost 30 years and amassed a huge fortune in gold, silver, and jewels was William Billy Bowlegs Rogers. Rogers (nicknamed Billy Bowlegs after the Seminole war chief) was a member of Jean Lafittes Baritarian pirates as early as 1812. When Lafitte shifted operations to Galveston Island in 1818, Billy Bowlegs stayed behind and formed his own pirate fleet. From a secret base somewhere on the north Gulf Coast, Bowlegs and his small pirate fleet continued to prey on Spanish shipping in the Gulf until 1838 when the cartel of aging pirates officially disbanded. By this time, Billy Bowlegs Rogers had amassed a huge fortune which was disposed of in three places.
After several hundred thousand dollars worth of gold and silver was stored in the hold of his personal schooner, Rogers hid a great number of gold and silver ingots on a sandy island on the north Gulf Coast. The general consensus among treasure hunters is that this cache was made on the north shore of Santa Rosa Island, but in reality a large number of islands in the area fit the same description.
A large cache of coins and other valuables was secreted somewhere on the mainland. Possible locations for this cache outnumber the locations for the island cache.
Billy Bowlegs stayed retired for two years. In 1840 he gathered together 27 of his ex-cronies and took up the pirate path again. They found there were still plenty of good prizes in the Gulf but soon ran afoul of a British man o war. The warship chased the pirates back to their base but could not cross the sand bar into the lagoon as the lighter pirate vessel had done. When the British started to lower long boats full of marines, Bowlegs scuttled the treasure-laden ship and took his men into hiding in the forest. When the British gave up the chase and sailed away, Bowlegs left the bulk of his crew to guard the lagoon and set out overland for New Orleans with promises to return with diving equipment to retrieve the treasure.
By the time their captain returned with his personal schooner, the diving equipment, and his family, all but four of the crewmen were dead of fever or Indian attacks. The diving operations did not go well and, when another round of fever claimed Billy Bowlegs wife among its victims, he lost all interest in retrieving the treasure. Across the bay from the lagoon where the treasure ship was sunk near, lay the island with the cache of gold and silver ingots. Captain Bowlegs sailed across the bay and built a cabin on the mainland where he lived the rest of his life watching the treasure, but never spending it. Before he died at age 93 he supposedly gave directions for finding this hoard to a friend, but the landmarks had changed too much in the intervening years for the treasure to be found.
The U.S. Treasure Atlas states that over the years a number of bags of gold coins and bars of silver have been discovered on Santa Rosa Island, lending credence to the general consensus that this is the site of the main cache. But there have been enough finds in other areas on the Choctawatchee Bay and on other sections of the north Gulf Coast to call this assessment into question. Some think that Bowlegs hid the treasure on the mainland in the Fort Walton Beach area; others place the hoard on various smaller islands in the Choctawatchee Bay. Some say the treasure was hidden along the Mullet Creek, while other sources site a secret cavern below Fort San Carlos. Yet another, under a palm tree at Bald Point.
The locations given for Billy's cache of coins run the gamut from the area around Franklin in Franklin County to the Alabama side of the ferry on the Perdido River.
Most sources put the lagoon where the pirate captain scuttled his own treasure ship somewhere on the Choctawatchee Bay. A few name the Apalachicola Bay, and one source moves the whole story south to the mouth of the Swanee River. In this last scenario, the treasure cache is hidden either on Bird Island ten miles northwest of the mouth of the river or Bird Key ten miles south. This last seems awfully far afield; however, the pre-eminence of the Choctawatchee Bay area in most researcher's estimation may have been partially influenced by the fact that, in times past, the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce actively promoted the Billy Bowlegs story as an annual tourist event. The claims that silver bars and bags of gold coins found in the area have not, that I know of, been backed up with names of the lucky finders. Still, the descriptions of the cache site fit Santa Rosa Island quite nicely, and that was where I placed the treasure when I wrote the Bowlegs story for the 1995 Treasure Cache Annual. Incidentally, the sacks of gold coins are said to be buried only six to 12 inches deep, but the silver ingots a good six to eight feet under.
It's cool!
![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
