$30,000.00 Gold Payroll in DELAWARE WATER GAP

[jeff of pa]

$30K in gold is sure not pocket change in 1915.
I really feel sorry for this guy, he was the assistant paymaster
and I see him doing everything on his own? He seemed like
a real good employee in going above and beyond the call of duty,
and his fate could have been prevented if his boss had an inkling of responsibility
in charge of the money and over the welfare of his asst.

Anyway, the guy is exhausted and faint already and then he has to haul
the money and hide it somewhere. Someone here mentioned that the story
goes that he hauled it over the other side of the tracks and buried it.
The only landmark unfortunately is a cliff, but I think he was smart enough
to bury it near a tree or big rock possibly?

Figure out what $30.000 dollars worth of Gold coins
today, Would have cost you in general Gold coins
in 1915 & That is probably what he was Carrying.

Probably all in a Small payroll Coin Box

My guess the first person to Come accross this story,
& Publish it, used the Value the day he researched it.

Of course Value has increased since then even,
But so does Exageration.

But still would love to find it

 

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[kudo623]

I figured they were all $20 gold pieces
so 30,000/20 = 1500 1oz coins or
1500/16 = 93.75 pounds
plus the copper strong box.
But to set the stage, here are a bunch of
burly RR workers waiting for their pay and
all they get is the asst. paymaster with no gold.
They may have been a little upset by such a cocammamie
story as the one he gave them? a man traveling by canoe?
But on the other side of the coin, here's a guy in need of immediate hospitalization
and it sounds like he dies in the camp? Why?
If it were today, there would be a full scale
investigation and lawsuits by the surviving family.
Lets note that the exact location
was never given by him and why?
It my have been that they disregarded his hard and dedicated work
and were more interested in the gold than getting him help?
This in part is probably why it has been lost to this day?

 

[jeff of pa]

well that would mean about 300 workers
being paid $100.00 ?

of course alot depends on was it a weeks pay, months pay or ?
When I Got my first job in 1973 take home was about $120
a week

I Still find a workforce that high
in the turn of the century hard to believe

I'm still guessing the box weighed under 50 lbs.

but

 

[kudo623]

Yeah that does sound like a lot?
But it seemed as though they were in a big hurry to get that
to them, in light of the fact that the rail system operations
more than likely had been somewhat suspended due to the hurricane floods?
The payroll may have been for the clearing/repairing/replacing track--it
was more than likely a big project.
Hurricane Diane in 1955 washed out track and caused a suspension in operations
of the Deleware Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) Railroad for one month.
They could not recover and it lead to their downfall and subsequent merger with
their Rival Erie RR.

Also, PA RR dubbed itself the Standard Railroad of the world, touting a bigger budget than
the US government and employing over 250,000 workers. I'm sure they didn't want any bad press.

It seemed like an emergency shipment of funds, due to the nature of risk involved.

After reviewing rail line maps, the PA RR didn't even own or operate on the PA side of the Gap.
This was run by the DL&W RR. The PA RR only went as far North as Manunka Chunk in NJ.
Something doesn't make sense here?

 

[kudo623]

OK so I found an old NJ map from 1903 which shows the NY Susquehanna and Western Railroad on the New Jersey side of the Gap where Rte 80 now is. I was at the gap yesterday and the river was up to the banks big time. I saw the cliff in question and there's really nothing but rock below, and large rocks at that which I80 abuts to. There are no remains whatsoever of the old railway at all and the landscape has undoubtedly changed in a major way after I80. Unless this gold was buried outside the I80 then in my opinion it is buried for good. Also to note that the PA RR had no tracks on either side of the River (the PA side served by Lackawanna RR) and I could come up with no info at all about the PA RR operating near the gap? I read that the Railroads back then were involved with not only transporting coal but involved in the actual mining as well. Does anyone here have any info regarding what business the PA RR had at teh gap? Thanks.

 

[spelunk68]

I get so mad at this national forest here. They wont let you do anything, pan for gold, metal detect, even ride horses. Yet they have entire villages, farmsteads, houses, etc that sit there and have gone from livable condition to now in extreme stages of rot and collapse. It is another case of do as I say not as I do, its crazy here and I am afraid to sneeze without a ranger coming up to me and issuing me a fine for bio-hazard contamination of their sacred space. I have done a lot of diving in the park, specifically right up river of where this location is (just up river of the old cement railroad arch bridge at the exit of the Gap right after the cliffs), If you are a diver, and it is still there after the recent flood, there is a neat old train wreck to dive in about 20 feet of water, if you park at the first parking lot (indian head?) right after 611 south exits the cliffs and go straight down one of the paths, and just north of the little beach there you will find it. An old box car full of miller bottles with the old foil labels, another train car as well, that looks like maybe it had a truck on it? all that's left is a big old dualie axle and tires on it. There is supposed to be a mail car too which must be under the muck as I never have found it. Word to anyone who dives it, do not bring anything up, there will be a ranger boat waiting for your return to the service, I can almost guarantee it, I think there was a ranger boat waiting every time I have ever returned to the surface, they are very bored rangers here.
My opinion on this safe is that if anything, one of the contractors that worked on the highway system when they built 80 had to have found it. They removed the lines and built the highway right up to the side of the river, if it is still there its probably buried under many feet of heavy riff raff.
This is how bad they are here, one time I found a spanking new golf ball that washed down from Shawnee golf course right upriver of this spot, so I grabbed it to give it to the dog on the boat awaiting our return to play with. I surfaced, brand spanking new looking golf ball in hand and there is a ranger boat there. Before I give it to the dog he grabs it from me. I now sit through a 30 minute reprimand of how I should not have brought this up from the bottom, now he has to go file hours of historical find paperwork because I broke the rules and brought something up from the bottom. He was so mad about this golf ball, I did all I could not to burst out laughing. Just a word to everyone, never get caught bringing anything up to the surface within park boundaries. I imagine if a pair of rangers saw me with a metal detector in the park one would keel over dead from a heart attack and the other would pull his gun and shoot me. This is a shame as there are so many good detecting spots littered throughout the entire park. The indians used to mine copper here so who knows what kind of neat artifacts you could find.
I also wanted to add, if the safe did get washed out into the river somehow, it gets very wide and straight from this point so it may not be too far away.

 

[kudo623]

Wow interesting reply spelunk.
You know the more times I read this story over again, I always find something new.
For one, the story tells that they were just below the gap when they encountered the
washed out track area. Then it says that they would travel the remaining few miles
by canoe.
Lets say the asst paymaster hid the gold near where he beached the canoe.
He would then have to walk the remaining few miles to the camp.
This had always been my thought, but I'm not so certain anymore?
The story says that he stumbled into the camp exhausted.
I'm thinking that he carried the box as far as he could hoping he could
bring it to the camp? (the story says hid it while he was walking to the camp).
I know he had heart problems but to me this seemed like a man who always
got the job done. Unfortunately he could not physically do it.
If the value was 30,000 back then, it would have weighed close to 100lbs.
and so he probably would have made some stops to rest.
How many stops before he hid it who knows? It was a long day.
That's just my theory, but it may not hold any weight because
allegedly near the canoe was found the key to the lock.
If this is true it tells me that he opened the box after getting it out of the canoe--
possibly to make it easier to carry the gold in several trips to its
final hiding place? This would disprove the idea that he did not carry the whole
box up any part of the hill. But he sure could have in several trips.

 

[victhedog]

Jeff is there anywhere in the state you don't have info on....LOL!!

Hey Mike, how 'bout finding out who owns the Buck Hill Inn, I'll make the permission call and me and Jeff will pick you up to hunt that treasure holder!!



Dave

I Know a few people that run this site but can't get premission to work this site

 

[njcommercialdiver]

the newspaper article said he beached the canoe on the right side of the river, isn't that the NJ side? where was the train camp located? ive seen a station like building on the PA side