Burried lead plates

[deepskyal]

Here's one for you guys i gave up on.

It is well documented so it is true, I found the records at the Pittsburgh Historical Society which confirmed their existance.

My memory isnt what it used to be but it goes something like this.

Back about 1690, whoever the King of France was, sent men on a mission to mark off territory in Pennsylvania for France.
These markers were lead plates with the declaration that this property belongs to King so and so...etc. and so forth.

I believe it was 4 plates burried along the Allegheny river. One was found near Aliquippa I think, which used to be an Indian Village. The guy was actually melting it down for fishing sinkers, not knowing what it was or it's historical value.

I can't think of 2 of the other places, you'd have to go back to the historical society for that.

One was burried by the Indian God Rock. That, the rock, is up towards Franklin, Oil City area.

It's a pretty big rock with all kinds of neat Indian signs chiseled into it, and lots of older engravings from people over the years. It seems to have been a very popular swimming hole. The Indian signs are better visable when the rock is wet, viewed from a canoe.

I'm assuming..and you know what happens when you assume,..that the Indian God Rock probably shifted some over several hundred years.

I bought my very first metal detector with this in mind. The value of that lead plate today would be priceless.
I bought snorkeling equipment, extended my Md cord to go under water so I could explore the base of the rock.

First off....the current in the river there is very strong. Not very deep though. I was lucky to be able to stand in waiste deep water without getting pushed down stream.

Second is the railroad, or where the railroad used to be. How much of that has eroded down over the hill to bury the lead plate on the land side of the rock?

And lastly...maybe someone found it and just never said a word. I don't recall the dimensions of the lead plate but it has to be somewhat significant if the King intended them to stay as his property markers.

I used to camp along the river back then but the last time I was in the area I saw they now have the old rail bed blocked off to cars and it's part of a hiking/biking trail I think. Probably a few expensive cabins jammed in there for good measure.

I don't know how anyone would go about recovering such a relic....but there's that chance it could still be there. The God Rock still is there.

Al

 

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[deepskyal]

I just did a google on the rock.....http://www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/RandomPictures/godrock1.jpg

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1491821

The artical says 1749 as the date the plate was burried.

Maybe it can't be detected anymore. I was unaware of the historical designation.

Al

 

[jeff of pa]

It's here in these Threads somewhere also. Pics of
the found plates & Map of where they are & Were
& Story.


In 1749 the French sent Celoron de Blainville down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers as a show of force to the British. Blainville buried lead plates at major river junctures along the way as proof of French ownership. Bonnecamps accompanied the expedition and prepared this manuscript map that is now at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. It shows 'Lac' Ontario and Erie and the route down the Allegheny, the Ohio, up the Great Miami River and then down the Maumee back to Lake Erie. Bonnecamps' journal and map appear in the Jesuit Relations and the map is reproduced in Smith's Mapping of Ohio and in Hanna, which is the image shown here.

Map route of Celoron de Blainville in 1749

http://www.mapsofpa.com/18thcentury/1749bonnecamp.jpg

 

[jeff of pa]

This lead plaque was placed at the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers in 1749 by Captain Pierre Joseph Céleron de Blainville. Five other plates were laid along other tributaries of the Ohio River to assert France's claims to all the lands watered by those rivers. Under its 1609 charter, Virginia claimed those lands, too. News of the lead plates reached Williamsburg and young George Washington was sent west to expel the French. This is the only plaque that survives intact.

http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/celeron.htm


Translation of the Lead Plate Buried at Point Pleasant

In the year 1749, reign of Louis XV., King of France, We, Celeron, commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, Commandant General of New France, to re-establish tranquillity in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at the mouth of the river Chinodashichetha, the 18th August, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possessions, which we have taken of the said river Ohio, and of all those which fall into it, and of all the lands on both sides, as far as to the sources of said rivers; the same as were enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed, by the preceding Kings of France, and that they have maintained it by their arms and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la- Chapelle.

 

[Pennrungold]

I just finished reading about the plates in J.A. Caldwell's History of Indiana County 1745-1880. From what I gathered, the one at Franklin was the second plate to be buried. Hart's Rock was regarded by the natives attached to the expedition as an "Indian God," and held superstitious reverence. It states, "At the time of Celoron's visit it was entirely uncovered". It also states "the deposit to have been made under a large rock".
From what I've read in the book(dated 1880), three plates have been found. The first was aquired by the Seneca's, it wasn't buried. Another was found(plate #4) in 1798 at Muskingum(where the Ohio enters W. Va. by two boys that used part of it for bullets. The third in 1846, (plate #5), at Point Pleasant.
If there are mistakes or I got it wrong.....sorry. This is a tough book to read.

 

[colonial relic hunter]

Very interesting lead plates! I have video on a copy of the original plate that was found. A friend of mines from Erie,pa and a few of his friends went looking for one of the plates in the early 90's but we never found it. But what I did learn that the river actually moved maybe a hundred or more yards either way. The rive is always moving. So their could be chance it could be anywhere in the river all the way to the Mississippi by now. OR MAYBE NOT! I am thinking on trying it again in the near future. Can you imagine how much it would be worth? Millions, Millions,Millions. We did find the rock they mentioned with an x on it. Well it looked like an X in our minds anyways. I have the same map Jeff posted but mines in color. But anyways thanks for posting about the 1749 lead plates. Our Dreams Are Just Around The Corner!

Bill(pa)

Here's one for you guys i gave up on.

It is well documented so it is true, I found the records at the Pittsburgh Historical Society which confirmed their existance.

My memory isnt what it used to be but it goes something like this.

Back about 1690, whoever the King of France was, sent men on a mission to mark off territory in Pennsylvania for France.
These markers were lead plates with the declaration that this property belongs to King so and so...etc. and so forth.

I believe it was 4 plates burried along the Allegheny river. One was found near Aliquippa I think, which used to be an Indian Village. The guy was actually melting it down for fishing sinkers, not knowing what it was or it's historical value.

I can't think of 2 of the other places, you'd have to go back to the historical society for that.

One was burried by the Indian God Rock. That, the rock, is up towards Franklin, Oil City area.

It's a pretty big rock with all kinds of neat Indian signs chiseled into it, and lots of older engravings from people over the years. It seems to have been a very popular swimming hole. The Indian signs are better visable when the rock is wet, viewed from a canoe.

I'm assuming..and you know what happens when you assume,..that the Indian God Rock probably shifted some over several hundred years.

I bought my very first metal detector with this in mind. The value of that lead plate today would be priceless.
I bought snorkeling equipment, extended my Md cord to go under water so I could explore the base of the rock.

First off....the current in the river there is very strong. Not very deep though. I was lucky to be able to stand in waiste deep water without getting pushed down stream.

Second is the railroad, or where the railroad used to be. How much of that has eroded down over the hill to bury the lead plate on the land side of the rock?

And lastly...maybe someone found it and just never said a word. I don't recall the dimensions of the lead plate but it has to be somewhat significant if the King intended them to stay as his property markers.

I used to camp along the river back then but the last time I was in the area I saw they now have the old rail bed blocked off to cars and it's part of a hiking/biking trail I think. Probably a few expensive cabins jammed in there for good measure.

I don't know how anyone would go about recovering such a relic....but there's that chance it could still be there. The God Rock still is there.

Al