Copeland Gang Article from Kiln Library

[muerte33]

I was doing some research at the Kiln library today and found this gem.
I have no idea what newspaper it came out of, or the date of publication.
It came out of a homemade document that could not be checked out.

 

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[Slad74]

Thanks for posting this man; I really enjoyed reading it. So neat reading history and imagining bygone eras.

Plus, there still may be treasure out there!

 

[redbronco]

That is some cool stuff. I think with all the time that has passed and all the people who have hunted the money, someone has to have found some of it. Don't think anyone will ever say, IRS would want their share. Would be fun to at least hunt some of the sites, never can tell what might still be in the ground.

 

[muerte33]

When I was in 7th or 8th grade, our class at Stanislaus took a weekend camping trip.
We went off Texas Flat Road in the Kiln to a place called "Red Bluff" on the Catahoula creek.
We made mud slides going into the creek on the slick clay bank, but eventually a monsoon set in and we got trapped.
The national guard had to come and get us out using amphibious ducks.
Looks like MS State is managing several 100 acres on this very site:
Natural Areas | Crosby Arboretum
This could have been some territory roamed by the Copeland Gang.

 

[Normsel]

I know this is an old post but I followed some leads on so called buried cash etc by gangsters in the St Louis MO area and I had some good leads and along with my metal detector after extensive research I went looking. I found an old farm and woods they talked about. When I hunted the area I found an old still site and some copper parts that were part of a still. I dug every target in the woods I could find. It was said that one gangster buried money in mason jars. He would have his driver take him to the woods then tell his driver to stay in the car while he went into the woods with a shovel to bury the loot. Well he was murdered and supposedly no one ever found the loot. After digging no less than 400 targets in the woods I came to the conclusion the driver went back to the woods after his gangster boss was murdered. I did a bit of research on the driver and he lived in a pretty nice place for having such a menial job. I did find tops to mason jars but nothing I could put a pattern to which would have gave me a clue I was on to something.

A far as other legends i have followed and so many seem to be about gold. If it was gold it would have to be gold coin and it's not likely a gang would leave it buried for very long. They liked to live good and would spend until broke and if one was captured it is highly likely someone else would retrieve the gold. I followed a lead about Indian gold in S. IL. Well there is no gold in S. IL anyway not any appreciable amount to be panned . Indians never traveled out of their local tribal area and would not have had a use for gold until the white man came and even then they wouldn't know it had any worth unless they wore gold trinkets. If they went to trade or buy anything with gold I am pretty sure the white man would try and screw them out of it anyway the could.

In a nutshell I think if you think the legend through and use common sense most legends are just that a legend. I enjoy chasing legends but in most cases I see holes in the legend which makes me back off. Whenever i start research on a legend I get kind of a gold fever euphoria and follow every lead i can. In many cases the stories are started by a journalist writing for a newspaper on the East coast and that is usually a big clue the story is made up of 10% fact and 90% fiction. With the internet it is quite easy to track down a legend.

I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. I have been told i am full of BS and every other thing but believe me if I think there is a thread of truth I chase it. Even if a treasure was buried 100 yrs ago it is likely it would have been buried in a jar or metal box which you can pic up with a detector. It wouldn't be very deep either because if they want to retrieve it they don't want to spend much time doing it. Many people look for markers on trees but they forget trees grow and also die in a 100 year span. so unless the tree is 2-1/2 to 3' in diameter it wouldn't have been there 100 yrs ago and not likely to have any kind of visible mark anyway.

One last note it is more likely that any kind of marker used for buried treasure it would be stones laid in a pattern on the ground or a pie of stones to look like a property marker.

 

[muerte33]

I love a good buried treasure story, I just cannot help myself.

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