Swamp Gold

[Bigcypresshunter]

Im sorry Big, I havent had a chance to read it in its entirety. Im concentrating all my time now trying to research and sell my collectables on eBay. You know I have no permanent residence because the county kicked me off my own property and fined me because Im not up to code. My property is way out in the country with no deed restrictions and my nearest neighbor has hogs but I have to abide by some very restrictive county building codes.

I have 2 months before I head back to the swamp and Im paying rent for my room, storage on a warehouse and storage for my camper. EBay is my only source of income and its not easy but Im surviving. I read TN in between my eBay work and I use TN to identify my items before I sell.. Im like a man without a country Big. I wish I was Indian. I hate to move out of South Florida because I love the Everglades but I may have no choice. Too many rules and regulations. I like the New Hampshire motto. "Live Free or Die." A man in South Florida is no longer free to do what he wants with his own land. Maybe someday I will have time to read it.

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

Just so there is no misunderstanding, I love my country. I just dont like all the rules and regulations of big government. I hear some states have little or no building codes. I may have no choice but to move away from my beloved Everglades.

 

[Bigdogdad]

There are a lot of things about Florida that I am not happy with either. Treasure hunting laws for one. The grass may be greener in other states but I will probably stay here. Sorry things are not going well for you. Good luck.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

There are a lot of things about Florida that I am not happy with either. Treasure hunting laws for one. The grass may be greener in other states but I will probably stay here. Sorry things are not going well for you. Good luck.

I dont want to leave either. I am presently trying to work with city hall but they are tough and unforgiving. It all about money.

Treasure hunting laws are probably the worst in Florida than any other state. Did you know that Florida has a new law you cannot keep anything over 50 years old on state lands?

 

[Salvor6]

Bigcypresshunter, Texas has the worst treasure hunting laws. Over there you can not even look. The Texas Historical Commission owns EVERYTHING underground or underwater! PERIOD! So they say, don't even bother to look.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Bigcypresshunter, Texas has the worst treasure hunting laws. Over there you can not even look. The Texas Historical Commission owns EVERYTHING underground or underwater! PERIOD! So they say, don't even bother to look.

I forgot about Texas.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

It appears someone has purchased a Charter Membership for me.

In the past I have done a lot of work in the What Is It Forum to deserve the membership and I think I have had a hand making the forum what it is today but lately I havent helped much and I dont think Im deserving of this. But I will say thanks.

 

[GMD52]

Couldn't have happened to a more helpful, and deserving individual. I have spent some of my winter vacation time in the swamp, and know how relaxing it can be. Hope you have good luck this season!

 

[releventchair]

Swamp has no voice. Those who know it by living it are best representatives. As it suffers from invasion and its makeup changes due to human influence the choice(and who will make it?) Of how to "manage" it decides what it becomes. A jewel preserved to a point for native specie or a hodgepodge of accelerated altered evolution. The powers deciding need to spend time in it and act more or write it off.
Write of your times and the swamp then get it out in hopes of saving a fraction of its life down the road. What other hope does it have?. In the 70s a book titled forever island told of modern times and the Seminoles with swamp. Todays wetland preservation leaves much to be desired but it is better than the previous drain it all mentality. Exchanges can be made yet in doing so the site being altered and the life in it is still lost. Besides its original function.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Swamp has no voice. Those who know it by living it are best representatives. As it suffers from invasion and its makeup changes due to human influence the choice(and who will make it?) Of how to "manage" it decides what it becomes. A jewel preserved to a point for native specie or a hodgepodge of accelerated altered evolution. The powers deciding need to spend time in it and act more or write it off.
Write of your times and the swamp then get it out in hopes of saving a fraction of its life down the road. What other hope does it have?. In the 70s a book titled forever island told of modern times and the Seminoles with swamp. Todays wetland preservation leaves much to be desired but it is better than the previous drain it all mentality. Exchanges can be made yet in doing so the site being altered and the life in it is still lost. Besides its original function.

AGREE!

 

[GMD52]

I am a firm believer that your soul, and much of your personality is taken from the natural environment that you choose to surround yourself with, whether it be the mountains, the seacoast, the lakeshore or the Swamp. Mother Nature has the sole rule of her domains, and as she cleanses her environments, she also keeps strong those that reside with her.

BCH, as said before, you are lucky to have such a sweeping environment to retreat into, and it should recharge the batteries, and provide all you need to carry on with your research and compliations of data that have us all interested.

 

[releventchair]

I am a firm believer that your soul, and much of your personality is taken from the natural environment that you choose to surround yourself with, whether it be the mountains, the seacoast, the lakeshore or the Swamp. Mother Nature has the sole rule of her domains, and as she cleanses her environments, she also keeps strong those that reside with her.

BCH, as said before, you are lucky to have such a sweeping environment to retreat into, and it should recharge the batteries, and provide all you need to carry on with your research and compliations of data that have us all interested.

spot on GMD52. Cement and glass jungles with fouled waters and plastic dirt trying to compete with heaps of garbage make my heart shrink like a raisin.Then there is the incessant noise.

 

[ECS]

Maybe there is no legend, it's just a bunch of gold buried in the ground. Maybe somebody forgot to file the paperwork on it.

There are several legends of Confederate gold in various locations in Florida.Most stem from Davis trying to escape to Yulee's Cottonwood Plantation in Archer and what the Union forces captured there,and Benjamin and Breckinridge's escape through Ocala with the remaining portion of the CSA Treasury.Benjamin escaped on the west coast of Florida to the Bahamas and Breckinridge on the east coast to Cuba,and the lost cattle payment.
Spanish and Cuban gold coins were abundant in south Florida as payment for cattle,and CSA Capt James McKay,Commissary Agent(aka "paymaster") of Fort Meade kept very good records(files) which survived the War of Northern Agression.
There exist NO RECORDS of the Confederates carrying gold across the Everglades outside of treasure books and magazines.This tale first appeared in the 1940's,and has be repeted many times with embellishments like "where two rivers meet","camel hump","pursued by Union forces","ship gold to England","fought like devils",and the name of a well known CSA blockade runner,Capt John Riley-just vaguge references,nothing substanial.
A good story,but not supported by the historical record.

 

[Bigdogdad]

ECS-You continue to miss the point I am trying to make. There are many treasures buried throughout Florida that have no written historical record attached to them. Of course this is hard to prove as there is no record of them. The gold that I believe is buried at the site that I refer to as "Cloud Mountain" could have come from a number of known or unknown sources. If you believe that all the buried treasure in Florida can be found in some written historical records, you are wrong. You keep reading and I will keep digging, guess who is most likely to find treasure.

 

[Salvor6]

Bob Marlis found a pirate treasure chest on Sanibel Island back in the 70's. It was filled with gold and silver coins. He showed me pictures of the chest and showed me some coins. There was no record of this chest and archaeologists say that pirates never buried chests of gold. The archies are wrong. Bob sold the coins and opened a restaurant in St. Petersburg. He was a cook in the Army.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

The topic of this thread was Confederate gold buried by Capt Riley. We found out that Capt Riley was a blockade runner and he smuggled cattle out of Punta Rassa during the Civil War and he was paid in gold. Further research from war diaries revealed that one of the transactions went bad and about 40 pounds of Spanish and Cuban gold coins were indeed buried in the Everglades by the Confederates and were never retreived as the soldier who buried it died 2 weeks later.. I dont understand ECS why you are now denying all this research, most of it done by yourself? Did the Feds get to you too?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Bob Marlis found a pirate treasure chest on Sanibel Island back in the 70's. It was filled with gold and silver coins. He showed me pictures of the chest and showed me some coins. There was no record of this chest and archaeologists say that pirates never buried chests of gold. The archies are wrong. Bob sold the coins and opened a restaurant in St. Petersburg. He was a cook in the Army.

Is Sanibel Island near Punta Rassa? Were any of the Spanish coins Civil War era? http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/puntarassa.html

 

[Salvor6]

Sanibel Island is near Ft. Myers. The coins were from the 17th century.

 

[ECS]

The topic of this thread was Confederate gold buried by Capt Riley. We found out that Capt Riley was a blockade runner and he smuggled cattle out of Punta Rassa during the Civil War and he was paid in gold. Further research from war diaries revealed that one of the transactions went bad and about 40 pounds of Spanish and Cuban gold coins were indeed buried in the Everglades by the Confederates and were never retreived as the soldier who buried it died 2 weeks later.. I dont understand ECS why you are now denying all this research, most of it done by yourself?...

I am not denying the lost 600 oz of Spanish and Cuban gold coins that CSA Pvt Lanier hid in the northen portion of the Everglades,its seems that the other legends,ie,1/2 ton in the Everglades,$250,000 gold payment in the Suwanne River,a similar tale on the Steinhatchee River,were derived from this and the other events I have noted.From my research,and in my opinion,these other legends of large amounts of gold lost by the Confederates were concieved in the 1940's.

 

[Bigdogdad]

I have noted.From my research,and in my opinion,

From what you have found to read you have formed your own opinion, and it is just that, and we all know about "opinions". You are just guessing. Florida is a big place. There is hundreds upon hundreds of years, actually thousands of years of human activity that has taken place. To think that you can read diaries and war records and be able to claim that the stories of possible buried gold are just figments of some ones imagination is kind of ludicrous. Get real and get over yourself ECS. You have a very, very limited knowledge of what may have occurred in the past. There is gold to be found in many, many places, who is to say how it got there?

We may have veered away from the original intent of this thread. Of course seeing as how this thread is extremely long and old, it is to be expected. It has gone off on many tangents. If it somehow is the cause of the "Swamp Gold" to be found, great. It is my intent to dig up the gold in the Everglades, and hopefully do it with the cameras rolling.