bill crane
Greenie
- Feb 26, 2014
- 18
- 17
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I picked my user name for a reason, here it is a treasure story that I doubt anyone has ever heard and is 100% true. Written in my own words for the book I am working on, I'll share it with you folks at this nice forum.
It is amazing what one can run across reading various books dealing with local history which one would assume have nothing to do with lost treasure or the potential of possible lost treasure. This story surfaced for Sheridan County and makes our list because it is claimed that coins still surface every now and then along the shores of Medicine Lake. Appearing in an out of print book entitled, “Next Year Country” by author Don Baker is a story about a fellow named Bill Crane. Crane was said to have been a hermit and lived on Bruces Island in the middle of Medicine Lake. There have been many hermits in the past and there are even a few around today. They shun contact with normal folks and the reasons for doing so are greatly varied. If crane was up to illegally manufacturing money it is very understandable as to why he live on his island. His home was said to have been a simple dugout during his time spent in this section of Montana. According to what I learned he had everything he needed to make his own gold and silver coins inside his home! His methods of moving his money was to wrap each heavy package and give this to the rural mail carrier who traveled thru the area picking up and delivering the mail. Looking into what communities had post offices prior to 1905 the year of his death, I came to the conclusion that the mail went thru either Bainville (1904) or Culbertson (1892). A common practice and a wise one as well if one is involved in counterfeiting currency is not using them in your own area, which would explain shipping them off to Chicago as claimed in the story. Supposedly every package was sent to the same location somewhere in Chicago where it is believed that the coins were passed off at various businesses and folks who were naive. Eventually it was noticed that Crane was living better than his visible means would account for. A local tough guy named Ed Milton from Culbertson suspected that he could profit by visiting Crane. Milton was unable to get what he wanted from Crane and killed him then disposed of his body in the waters of the lake. Milton was put on trial shortly afterwards and received a life sentence to be served at Deer Lodge. Our story would have ended there, but years later somehow it was discovered that Crane was making counterfeit coins and Milton’s case was given a review. The results were a surprise to me because Milton was released because of Crane’s crimes. Over time locals came across coins along the lake shore and passed them off in area businesses. This seems to be why they were found to be fakes. Although the coins looked real when dropped they sounded different. Having metal detected and found old silver coins I can vouch for the fact that when dropped onto a table they have a ring to them, while our modern coins do not, simply because there is no silver in our modern clad coins. So it appears Crane did not have a source of silver for making some of his coins, but I do wonder about the gold coins? Could Crane have a hidden stash of gold for those larger denominations? If one wonders how money which isn’t real could be a treasure worth finding, it is known that even counterfeit coins have value to collectors, plus the dies that Crane used for making his money were never found, these too would bring a nice price from someone wanting to add them to their collection.
Even more material surfaced in yet another rare book which I was lucky to have found and purchased. In volume I Sheridan’s Daybreak on page 390 is the story of Bill Crane. Everything above was validated and it even tells one where to dig to find the fake silver coins! How can things get any better than this? According to this source the hermit’s name was Bill Crane Sr. and the year was once again 1905. He was known locally as “the goose man” and the packages were one foot square that he mail to Chicago. It is also claimed that the mail came thru Culbertson which was one of the two possible towns I determine handled the mail for this region. Word got around that the hermit was rich and this was the cause for Milton to pay him a visit. It went on to say that for years after Crane’s death coins were found along the lake shore between land owned by locals named Morin and Brien. The first to find any money were two women who for whatever reason were digging in the sand, their names are given as Mrs. Andrew Marian and a Mrs. J.L. Marian. They supposedly hit something hard and dug further and found around $100 in silver coins! This caused even larger numbers to arrive and search for money. Soon it was learned the money was fake and resulted in a second trial for Milton resulting in his gaining his freedom. Still some folks tried to use the money knowing full well that it was worthless. Some were claimed to have been caught and others became fearful of trying to pass the bogus money. Eventually an inspector from the Government came and took the money and left with it. As for the reported gold coins, it is said that there were both $10 and $20 gold pieces, but they were only painted gold. Still even this source does mention that the dies used were never found. Looking over the story detailing the hermit and the counterfeited coins it appears quite a few people found them, but I would suspect that there are more still out there that haven’t been located after all this was long before the invention of the metal detector. Also of note is the fact that all of the names mentioned above in this account are to be found in Sheridan’s Daybreak Volume I. Not mention in any of the versions and I suspect that there could very well be a cache or caches of real money hidden by Crane. This would have been the payments he received for the counterfeited money he shipped to Chicago. It is very doubtful that he was taking the risk with nothing in return! If one can gain permission to access the property with any metal detector the chances are pretty good one could relive the excitement of the folks who were in on the first big rush to the shores of the lake!
It is amazing what one can run across reading various books dealing with local history which one would assume have nothing to do with lost treasure or the potential of possible lost treasure. This story surfaced for Sheridan County and makes our list because it is claimed that coins still surface every now and then along the shores of Medicine Lake. Appearing in an out of print book entitled, “Next Year Country” by author Don Baker is a story about a fellow named Bill Crane. Crane was said to have been a hermit and lived on Bruces Island in the middle of Medicine Lake. There have been many hermits in the past and there are even a few around today. They shun contact with normal folks and the reasons for doing so are greatly varied. If crane was up to illegally manufacturing money it is very understandable as to why he live on his island. His home was said to have been a simple dugout during his time spent in this section of Montana. According to what I learned he had everything he needed to make his own gold and silver coins inside his home! His methods of moving his money was to wrap each heavy package and give this to the rural mail carrier who traveled thru the area picking up and delivering the mail. Looking into what communities had post offices prior to 1905 the year of his death, I came to the conclusion that the mail went thru either Bainville (1904) or Culbertson (1892). A common practice and a wise one as well if one is involved in counterfeiting currency is not using them in your own area, which would explain shipping them off to Chicago as claimed in the story. Supposedly every package was sent to the same location somewhere in Chicago where it is believed that the coins were passed off at various businesses and folks who were naive. Eventually it was noticed that Crane was living better than his visible means would account for. A local tough guy named Ed Milton from Culbertson suspected that he could profit by visiting Crane. Milton was unable to get what he wanted from Crane and killed him then disposed of his body in the waters of the lake. Milton was put on trial shortly afterwards and received a life sentence to be served at Deer Lodge. Our story would have ended there, but years later somehow it was discovered that Crane was making counterfeit coins and Milton’s case was given a review. The results were a surprise to me because Milton was released because of Crane’s crimes. Over time locals came across coins along the lake shore and passed them off in area businesses. This seems to be why they were found to be fakes. Although the coins looked real when dropped they sounded different. Having metal detected and found old silver coins I can vouch for the fact that when dropped onto a table they have a ring to them, while our modern coins do not, simply because there is no silver in our modern clad coins. So it appears Crane did not have a source of silver for making some of his coins, but I do wonder about the gold coins? Could Crane have a hidden stash of gold for those larger denominations? If one wonders how money which isn’t real could be a treasure worth finding, it is known that even counterfeit coins have value to collectors, plus the dies that Crane used for making his money were never found, these too would bring a nice price from someone wanting to add them to their collection.
Even more material surfaced in yet another rare book which I was lucky to have found and purchased. In volume I Sheridan’s Daybreak on page 390 is the story of Bill Crane. Everything above was validated and it even tells one where to dig to find the fake silver coins! How can things get any better than this? According to this source the hermit’s name was Bill Crane Sr. and the year was once again 1905. He was known locally as “the goose man” and the packages were one foot square that he mail to Chicago. It is also claimed that the mail came thru Culbertson which was one of the two possible towns I determine handled the mail for this region. Word got around that the hermit was rich and this was the cause for Milton to pay him a visit. It went on to say that for years after Crane’s death coins were found along the lake shore between land owned by locals named Morin and Brien. The first to find any money were two women who for whatever reason were digging in the sand, their names are given as Mrs. Andrew Marian and a Mrs. J.L. Marian. They supposedly hit something hard and dug further and found around $100 in silver coins! This caused even larger numbers to arrive and search for money. Soon it was learned the money was fake and resulted in a second trial for Milton resulting in his gaining his freedom. Still some folks tried to use the money knowing full well that it was worthless. Some were claimed to have been caught and others became fearful of trying to pass the bogus money. Eventually an inspector from the Government came and took the money and left with it. As for the reported gold coins, it is said that there were both $10 and $20 gold pieces, but they were only painted gold. Still even this source does mention that the dies used were never found. Looking over the story detailing the hermit and the counterfeited coins it appears quite a few people found them, but I would suspect that there are more still out there that haven’t been located after all this was long before the invention of the metal detector. Also of note is the fact that all of the names mentioned above in this account are to be found in Sheridan’s Daybreak Volume I. Not mention in any of the versions and I suspect that there could very well be a cache or caches of real money hidden by Crane. This would have been the payments he received for the counterfeited money he shipped to Chicago. It is very doubtful that he was taking the risk with nothing in return! If one can gain permission to access the property with any metal detector the chances are pretty good one could relive the excitement of the folks who were in on the first big rush to the shores of the lake!
