Confederate Gold-Stories of others and any Help with this one

[mindspark]

I don't have any actual documentation on this or any of the KGC caches in the Everglades. I tried to locate the records once back in the 80's. The University of Miami Library has the complete official records of the War Between the States. It is over 100 volumes. I spent a whole day and got burnt out trying to sort through it all and ended up getting locked in at closing time. They shut the lights off and I was on the 7th floor (I think it was the 7th) and ended up having to be escorted out.

All of this cache is rumor and speculation. I would really like to see the official records.
But you never know what you will find in the search. For instance I was following a lead about a guy who found a sword on a hammock. The guys son worked with my friend. So I drove to Davie, Fl from Miami and talked with him. A Cuban fellow who had a 5 acre spread up there and was using the sword to cut off chicken heads. My friend annealed it and brought the blade back to almost perfect condition. Then he kept it in the house. It was dated 1716 with a brass handle. I offered to purchase it but he refused. Handling that sword got my blood pumping. He couldn't recall where he was but he was out hunting with friends and he sat down on an oak limb in some unknown hammock, shuffled his feet in the leaves and uncovered the blade. Why can't I be that lucky?

 

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[Oroblanco]

HOLA amigos,

The complete Official Records of the Civil War are now online at the "Making of America" website (Cornell University) it is searchable too, here is the linkee
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html

Quite a few documents do support the stories of Confederate gold being hidden in Florida, pretty interesting reading!
Oroblanco

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I know someone that found a fortification wall and brought back the rusted remains of a flintlock. We believe he has dicovered one of the lost Seminole Indian War forts. Problem is, he cant find it again. I have a vague general idea of the location and am looking for a partner to search for this fort. I believe the best way now would be to work upstream from saltwater by canoe. Anyone interested let me know. The Everglades/Big Cypress is a wild and crazy place. Im glad some of it is being preserved.




Its easy to give up on this or dismiss anything faintly related to KGC as being fantasy. Its much harder to do the research. I have decided to keep looking and Im enjoying the ride. Like you say, you dont know what else you may discover accidentaly.

 

[mindspark]

I'm on a roll here, more stories are popping into my head. I have a deer hunter friend who has a camp out in the Everglades. He's in his late 60's and goes out by himself all the time. About 7 miles in from Tamiami Trail. He was telling me that back in the 1960's he came across an Indian burial hammock and found an Indian in a coffin with the lid off on the side of a hammock buried in his WWII uniform with medals and his rifle. He didn't touch it. I am sure over the years someone else did.

The humorous story I was thinking about right after I did my last post was about another deer and hog hunter friend of mine who was out swamping around looking for game and came upon an Indian burial hammock in the Big Cypress. They are not buried but put in a wooden coffin type box above ground. The thing that cracked him up was that someone wrote on the coffin " Do Not Shoot Into Box" This burial mound is behind the Indian village at the 20 mile bend. North side of the Trail. Nice to know about but unless you want to have your own personal box, I wouldn't attempt to locate it.

 

[Oroblanco]

BigCy wrote

Its easy to give up on this or dismiss it as being fantasy. Its much harder to do the research. I have decided to keep looking and Im enjoying the ride.

My mother had a saying, "Nothing worthwhile comes easy" and it is especially true when it comes to treasure hunting. The folks who have never done it have a very distorted idea of what is involved. They don't realize that the real treasure is in the searching and finding.

There are some other good resources online too, I may have posted them in another thread but the story of the escape of Sec of War Breckinridge is one, another is he biography of President Davis as written by his wife. The documentation is there amigos, and I hope that some day one of you WILL find this treasure!

Got to sign off for a bit, quite a fascinating thread I must say - please do continue amigos!
Oroblanco

 

[ivan salis]

note to everglades hunters --bring GPS unit. -- that way you can return to the "spot" later

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Im familiar with the 20 mile bend. The Indians have some huge parties out there now. There was a big one this past Christmas.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

note to everglades hunters --bring GPS unit. -- that way you can return to the "spot" later

I found an old loggers camp back in the 80's near Roberts Lakes back in the day. Now that I have a GPS, I cant find it. GPS is a terrific tool.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I don't have any actual documentation on this or any of the KGC caches in the Everglades.

I was hoping you had.
I enjoyed your posts and I will put it all together with what I have and keep my ears open.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

A friend of mine told me he knows where 2 huge dugout cypress canoes are laying right now. Problem is, its in the Everglades National Park and I dont fool there much. You ever try to pick up one of those? Pretty heavy.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: Confederate Gold-Stories & Everglades Lost Gold

Flying closer he saw the remnants of cabins. It took him 3 days by airboat to find the place and when he did, he found Confederate stamped "CSA" items left behind. This was supposedly the last camping place.

Its possible that the relics found were that of deserters. I would like to see them first hand some day. I talked to a fellow whose father was a game officer in those days and says his mother still has some of them.

 

[mindspark]

Concerning the 20 mile bend. The Indians have their Green Corn Dance out there on the full moon in May. That is where they spend a week feasting, fasting and rituals. No white people are allowed unless "invited" It is the celebration of when they were forced into the Everglades by the Army during the Seminole wars. They were being hunted, so they traveled by night on a full moon. They couldn't start fires at risk of being found, so they ate green corn. That is what it is all about. They take panther claws and scratch their shoulders. This lets out the bad blood. If you ever see a Miccosoukee, check out his shoulder for the scratches. It is a rite of passage.

I was invited back in the 80's to go to one by my friend who was white and lived with them. Had a few Indian wives and a bunch of kids. He lived at 20 mile bend for awhile. So he says for me and an English friend of mine to meet him out there. So I go out and walk into about 700 drunk Indians dancing around a huge fire. I kept asking if anyone had seen my friend. They didn't even know who I was taking about. (A lot of the Indians came from upstate for this) It started to get real uncomfortable. Two white guys and 700 drunk Indians remembering what the white man did to them, forcing them into the swamps to eat green corn and suffer. Just when I was thinking of what I would look like without hair I recognized one of the Indians I used to drink with and he told me that my friend went back to the reservation to sleep because he drank too much. He told me we could join them and offered me a beer. So we did; drinking out of quart budweiser bottles all night. But, even in spite of being with a friend, it was quite uncomfortable, so we left after many beers.

The hammock they hold this on is called Hunter's Hammock. It is inside loop road on the left just before 20 mi. bend. You can google it and see the line of hammocks that run from the SW to the NE inside loop road. Hunters Hammock is in the NE section of the loop. Those hammocks have been used as villages, camps and celebration grounds for years. Just better keep an eye out... rumor has it that the Skunk Ape is around in that area.... and that is another story for another post.

 

[mindspark]

Man, the stories are just popping into my head tonight. Here is another one. About 4 years ago I was visiting my in-laws in Okeechobee, Fl. My brother in law needed me to help me move some furniture. So he gets one of his friends and we go driving to do the move. So this guy is a resident, dumber than a stick, good ol' country boy. So I start questioning him about Fort Drum. And he just starts off rambling on about when he was 17 back int the 70's he had a metal detector and found a case of Confederate money. The only way he found the money he says was that he detected the metal handle that was all rusted. He says he got a big stack of Confederate bills and took them home. He asked his mother about them and she told them they weren't worth anything and wasn't real money, so he threw them away. Someone shoot me please....

The location is on private property, somewhere east of 441 at Fort Drum. He was detecting around a dead oak tree. A big one all rotted out he said. It is stuff like this that keeps me going. Because one day I am going to stub my toe on the corner of a big box full of gold coins.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Was your friends name Wally? I know Corn Dance and Hunters Hammock. I have walked the whole line of hammocks stretched down the Loop. I just got confused about 20 mile bend. I thought that was the first bend closer to Miami. The 40 mile bend is Loop Road.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Man, the stories are just popping into my head tonight. Here is another one. About 4 years ago I was visiting my in-laws in Okeechobee, Fl. My brother in law needed me to help me move some furniture. So he gets one of his friends and we go driving to do the move. So this guy is a resident, dumber than a stick, good ol' country boy. So I start questioning him about Fort Drum. And he just starts off rambling on about when he was 17 back int the 70's he had a metal detector and found a case of Confederate money. The only way he found the money he says was that he detected the metal handle that was all rusted. He says he got a big stack of Confederate bills and took them home. He asked his mother about them and she told them they weren't worth anything and wasn't real money, so he threw them away. Someone shoot me please....

The location is on private property, somewhere east of 441 at Fort Drum. He was detecting around a dead oak tree. A big one all rotted out he said. It is stuff like this that keeps me going. Because one day I am going to stub my toe on the corner of a big box full of gold coins.

That sounds like cattle money. Fort Drum is big cattle country. The Confederates bought almost all their beef from Florida. When the war was over the ranchers sold their beef to Cuba and where paid in Gold doubloons. They often buried them next to oak trees.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Try convincing SWR!

Dont even try because SWR has already made up his mind. He is entitled to his opinion, but he will not be of any help in this quest.



Ask and you shall receive! This is a good example of not giving up. These posts are readily available on Google and the other search forums. You never know who is lurking incognito and may decide to help if you keep asking. Its a small world. TN is about sharing and this is a good example.

Not any help?

No, I will not take you by the hand and lead you to the treasure. However, If something has the discusting taste of a poorly conceived fantasy treasure, tightly wound around skewed history and illogical thinking, I'll toss a yellow flag upon the field of play.

There should be a five yard penalty for failing to recognize fantasy treasure tales.

I am not saying I believe you nor am I saying I dont believe you. I am letting it play out. I want to hear what anyone and everyone has to say about this old legend while they are still alive. Many of the original treasure writers of this story are dead. Most of the participants of the "last campsite" discovery are dead. Sabre will leave this post and I my Swamp Gold post active and see what will become of it. There are some interesting finds and stories that may or may not be connected with a gold shipment or maybe it has been exaggerated which is not uncommon.



I enjoyed reading your posts mindspark. One thing Im curious about. Do you still have the map photo and have you considered selling it on ebay.

 

[mindspark]

Big Cypress Hunter - You are right Hunter's Hammock is just north 40 mile bend. I don't know what I was thinking.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I once read an interesting story but I would have to search for it. Its was about the last remaining pirate alive. He was about 100 or so living on an Everglades island when a writer went to interview him and write his story. He went on to confess many murders and how he captured a Spanish princess and held her captive on a deserted island until she died. He hid all her jewels but never could find them again. Something like that. He even named the location. If I could find my map I would remember the island. Have you heard this one? You never know what you can find poking around in those mangroves at very low tide or after a hurricane. When a tree gets uprooted, it pulls up a lot of dirt.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Have you read the book Flight into Oblivion?

OK Ill check it out. But I dont care if they were transporting a ton of gold or a bag of coins. I want to find out all I can about what the Confederates were doing in the Everglades.

 

[Bridge End Farm]

Have you read the book Flight into Oblivion?

OK Ill check it out. But I dont care if they were transporting a ton of gold or a bag of coins. I want to find out all I can about what the Confederates were doing in the Everglades.

they were hiding silly sorry couldn't resist that lol