Written by one who knows Oct 1894

1320

1320

Silver Member
Dec 10, 2004
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East Central Kentucky
That article is more right than anything I have ever read before. Thank you. We did learn that Guest name was William and not Nathaniel.
 

1320 said:
Makes me ponder why the author remained anonymous.....trying to mislead others?
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He signed his name at the end of the article on the second part as R.P. Timmons. Don't know who that is but it seems he talked to some people in the know.
 

franklin said:
He signed his name at the end of the article on the second part as R.P. Timmons. Don't know who that is but it seems he talked to some people in the know.
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Looks like it says R.P. Timmins not Timmons.
Timmons both Mr and Mrs spent much time and money searching the Red River Gorge. Particularly in the Swift Camp Creek area, North of Campton. Would not surprise me that one of them wrote this article. I do not remember the period that they searched though I think it was around 1900. There is an arch named after Mrs. Timmons that sits way above the creek on the East bank about 3-4 miles South of where the creek meets the Red River. She is buried not far from there due East in the Calaboose area. I have been told there is a shaft dug in this area as well, but I have never found it. Rock Bridge is about 3 miles further South from Timmon's Arch. Rock Bridge actually bridges the creek as told in many accounts of the journal. There is a Turtle Back arch up on a ridge above the same creek just North of Rock Bridge. This area is smack dab in the middle of the legend, and if you ever hike the Swift Camp Creek Trail you would know there is no way you would take a horse into this area. It doesn't get much more 'Clifty' than this in the Red River Gorge Geologic Area.

https://www.gaiagps.com/map/Timmons Arch/?lat=37.7913&lon=-83.5680&zoom=14&layer=GaiaTopoRasterFeet
https://toredrivergorge.com/top-10-day-hikes/red-byrd-arch-area/timmons-arch-4-5-miles-unmarked/

https://www.topoquest.com/map.php?l...3&zoom=8&map=auto&coord=d&mode=zoomout&size=m
 

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You know to me if the story is true there has got to be a paper trail or money trail. And we have not found it. If the story is true then there would almost definitely have to be land transactions to purchase the grounds where the silver mines was located? I have found ten of the Swift's party's homesites in North Carolina. I have endeavored to find the almost sixty tons of silver and gold hidden by Flint and Fletcher. I have also searched all of the old stories in Kentucky by Filson, Breckenridge, Cleveland, Morton, Henderson, Patterson and others. All that I could find out is that about all of them were land speculators. By getting settlers interested in silver or gold mines is the best way to get land settled, it sure helped to open up the West Coast after the gold discovery at Sutter's Mill.

According to King George no settler was to move west of the Allegheny Mountains. After Indian uprisings and a trading post of the Transylvania Company being burned in Pennsylvania the Transylvania company was given millions of acres of Indian Land for single small trading post. Seemed fair to Governor Henderson of North Carolina as well as Benjamin Franklin and others that took possession of this land but now the problem to keep this land they had to get settlers and surveyors in to the wild so they could sale the land and make fortunes---------which they did. I sometimes believe the story fostered to sale and settle the lands of Kentucky. I have found where several obtained upwards of 100.000 acres of land and some over five Land Warranties or Grants of upwards of 200,000 and even 500,000 acres. And Jonathan Swift of Alexandria, Fairfax County was one of those.
 

I have found at least three tracks of land owned by Jonathan Swift in Kentucky. Well one of them is in West Virginia today. But he owned well over 100,000 acres. As a matter of fact I laid out one track today that was for one hundred thousand acres. It encompasses about 13 miles of river or creek frontage and is right interesting as it is well within the area being searched for the Swift Silver mines. It has a turn around area for their corral and all. Worst yet it is right out in the open where no one thought to look and is in the opposite direction of the story told by JS. I have always heard of locals in the area talking about the Indian riding through with gold horseshoes and telling the white men about all of the gold and silver if they only knew where to look. There may not be as much as JS said but there is enough making it worth while to look for.

When I was younger, I saw mountain breaks in the mountains that were sometimes over one hundred feet deep and three feet wide. There was red sandstone on top of gray or blue sandstone even in our family cemetery and the ridges ran on into Kentucky. All of the old timers and their wives told of the Swift Treasure stories when they grew up about a Saddle in the mountains and carvings by JS and others of their party. I know there is silver in Kentucky whether in paying quantities, I don't know. I know the French mined silver on a branch South of the Cumberland River. Clear creek I believe. I know that John Singleton Mosby's ancestors received land grants on Clear Creek. I know long hunters found silver in Kentucky in 1776. I know an Indian Princess and an Indian Warrior that knew where a silver mine was lived out a story like Romeo and Juliet. Also the tale of Lover's Leap comes into play also.

When I was younger and dumber I saw silver like candles running out of the rocks in fire scowled. I even picked it up and looked at it. It was about one half inch to three quarters inch in diameter and some two to four feet long. There was about one hundred of them. I was searching for ginseng at the time and was having a rough time getting through the area in the heat of the day about 100 degrees in the shade. I have tried for over twenty years to remember where I was on that particular day but I can not remember. I covered the mountains for fifty miles in every direction from my home in search of ginseng. I have a topo-map I marked all of the areas on and it was about 300 square miles or over 192,000 acres. I will keep looking and keep thinking about days gone by and sometimes how I was ignorant in my youth. And very well may be so today.
 

What you state has long been a theory to counter the legend. Since I personally have found nothing, I cannot say your theory is correct or incorrect. I can only state that there are dozens of claims for almost 200 years of found silver coinage and tugs in both rock houses and creek beds. Even silver stashes found in caves. A spear point and axe blade made of silver have been found. Accounts of silver coin counterfiters through the years as well. All of these things can be plotted on a map with tacks or ink dots. Some in Southern Ohio, most in South Eastern Kentucky, far western Virginia and western West Virginia. Now I know that you can't poop silver, and it doesn't grow in trees! So it had to have came from somewhere out of the Earth, probably in Eastern Ky.
 

KY Hiker said:
What you state has long been a theory to counter the legend. Since I personally have found nothing, I cannot say your theory is correct or incorrect. I can only state that there are dozens of claims for almost 200 years of found silver coinage and tugs in both rock houses and creek beds. Even silver stashes found in caves. A spear point and axe blade made of silver have been found. Accounts of silver coin counterfiters through the years as well. All of these things can be plotted on a map with tacks or ink dots. Some in Southern Ohio, most in South Eastern Kentucky, far western Virginia and western West Virginia. Now I know that you can't poop silver, and it doesn't grow in trees! So it had to have came from somewhere out of the Earth, probably in Eastern Ky.
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Was not there a rumor of a silver vein on Newman's Ridge that was twenty silver dollars thick? About two and one half inches. Then there was a counterfeiter in the Tazewell Virginia area. I have heard rumors of an underground cave from Bishop Virginia to Pocahontas Virginia. Then there is the Bluestone Towers near Bluefield, Va on the old maps showed it as a "Remarkable Rock" There is a possibility of silver mines being out there. I have rumors of four silver mines here in Virginia that ran through Ingles Ferry near Radford, Va and on into Kentucky. So there is silver along this route. By the time it gets to Ohio they say it gets eight feet thick.
 

The video I posted about a presentation in Prestonburg talks about land ownership, I still need to buy that book!
 

The thing is about silver, at $20 ounce, your going to work for your money! Getting rich off of silver mining is probably a thing of the past, unlike gold mining.
 

I rather like to look at it as $640,000 a ton than $20 an ounce. I can live with a little over 3,000 pounds making one a millionaire.
 

That is the information given in Jonathan Swift's Journal and other sources so he went a considerable distance west of the forks of the Sandy River. It don't even say which fork as there are seven of them. And it don't say how far a considerable distance is maybe a weeks travel maybe a couple days? Sometimes you can search for a treasure but when they tell you where to search most of the time it is misdirection. JS did purchase some land west of the Big Sandy but that was in later years and before he went back to England again. Why would he go to England a second time to sell his property for silver recovery if he was blind?
 

1320 said:
So why did this guy publish these articles? He must have concluded his search before doing so...right?
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I found this article by Mrs. Timmins (not Timmons). She says she is 63 years old and still searching in March of 1891. She claims to have found the location on Swift Camp Creek but not any ore. Here read for yourselves. Same newspaper as your first link in this thread.

The Hazel Green herald. (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, March 20, 1891, Image 3 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
 

Do you have any contracts or know anyone that owns the land where Mrs. Timmons lived and owned? Is it still owned by the family? It sounds to me like she was an honest woman and she knew what she was talking about how come no one has opened any mines in this area to find out? Thanks for the articles.
 

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