Legend of Someplace Special
A look at the Legend
Local legend has it that the native people that lived in these hills had a love for beautiful stones and when ever possible either picked them up out of streams and rivers in the area,or traded with other tribes to obtain these colorful rocks.
Over the years these local tribes collected a treasure trove of valuable gemstones and stockpiled them in the most out of the way places they could find for safe keeping.
As the white man moved into the area , they showed the native people new " Treasures" in the form of colorful beads, fancy mirrors and other trinkets.
The natives were so attracted to these items , that they forgot all about the massive cache of gemstones they had hidden away . As the years went by , the exact location of these treasures was lost and remained so till recently.
As a boy , I stumbled upon this lost cache while playing behind my home here on the family farm . When I came home with my pockets full of these stones, my father told me this story . As I listened in amazement, I could hardly contain my excitement. Here was all this lost treasure and all I had to do was simply pick it up.
After my father passed away , I came home to live here and came across some paper work that belonged to my Great, Great Grandfather.
I had heard , as a kid, a story of how he spent his time digging gold here on the farm. Here was proof. This paperwork was a journal of sorts and described his time in the Union army in the Civil War.
From what I can piece together from the stories I heard as a kid and what the old journal revealed, Col. Daniel Rakes ,My Great, Great Grandfather, "liberated" some Confederate gold that was intended for use as payment to the southern troops toward the end of the war.
He was cornered here on this old farm and rather than give back the gold nuggets, he instead loaded them into his cannon and shot them all over the woods and fields here. Col Rakes was captured and spent time in prison till the war ended. He settled here on this old farm and looked for the lost gold till he died in 1903.
I found ,in his papers, receipts from a bank for deposits of gold nuggets and an assayers mark on a few receipts as well, telling of the purity of the gold.
I bought a detector and started locating small gold nuggets and soon realized that there is far more treasure here than I can possibly ever locate alone.
Below is from part of the old journal...
" As my troops were tending to the wounded and buying the dead, one of my men made a grim discovery. One of the supply wagons used by the southern army was being used as a hearse of sorts. When the young man opened the canvas covering the wagon, he saw 2 plain pine caskets inside. This wagon was carrying the remains of 2 troops that had given their lives in a battle somewhere, This struck the man as odd, as most casualties where laid to rest on the ground that they lost their lives on. Most of the time ,when remains were moved ,it was a case where officers were struck down in battle and moved to larger cemeteries to be interred.
In these cases, the caskets would be adorned with gold gilding and had fancy carvings and would be covered in the flag of what country that the officer had served in. These were just plain pine caskets ,with wooden crosses on lids.that were simply nailed shut . They had ropes running underneath to carry them to their final resting place. Still these boxes contained soldiers and needed to be laid to rest, so I called for a detail to dig holes underneath a majestic oak tree at the edge of a small field. The least I could do for these men was give them a shady resting place at the edge of the woodland.
2 nice deep holes were dug in short order and I had a detail lined up on either side of the wagon to slide the casket off and begin the final journey for these 2 soldiers.
As the first pine casket slid from the wagon ,a groan came from the burial detail. Six strapping young men were carrying this pine box and it was nearly all they could do to keep it from touching the ground. Suddenly , one of the ropes used to carry the casket snapped and the pine box hit the ground and broke apart.
There before our eyes, was a site that drew a gasp from every man present. The plain casket that they had just been carrying held ,in its pine walls, small cloth bags. Inside one bag that had broken open was a fortune in Confedrate gold. Each tiny nugget sparkled in the evening sun like a pretty yellow diamond.
I quickly had the men gather all the small bags and place them back in the casket .
I then had them load this box. along with the other casket , on a wagon. I then wrote a letter to the Commanding General telling him of this find.
I sent a lone rider ahead with the letter to tell the command the good news of both the outcome of the battle and also of the discovery of gold in the casket. The man rode out towards his destination.,but we never saw him again. I doubt word ever got to the Command ,as no detail was sent to retrieve the treasure.
I knew had no choice but to try and move the Gold north, so I gave the order and started My men along the trail towards the Ohio Valley. All went fine for a few days till we were ambushed by Rebel troops . Battle raged all around the wagon and all seemed lost.
Sadly, I lost a lot of good men.
After nearly 24 hours of battle , My men were nearly spent. Most were injured and a great many were dead. It was at this point that I decided to surrender my command. But almost as an after thought, I decided not to let the Rebels recapture the gold. I had my men load the sacks in the cannon and I fired one to the north and the other west ,each into the fields near an old barn. I then surrendered my self and my men, trusting the Rebels to provide us safe passage to a prison.
I spent the rest of the war in a Garrison near the town in Georgia , where we captured the Gold.
By about 1870, I was well enough to travel and decided to settle down and start a family. The memory of all that lost gold weighed heavy on my mind , so I made my way back to that old farm in western Virginia to try and find a bit of gold.
It was here where I met my dear wife Lydia ( Little Fawn ) and stayed to raise a family"
Dan Rakes July 19th 1899