FBI applied for warrant to dig up a fabled cache of gold stolen during the Civil War worth an estimated $400 million out of fear Pennsylvania officials would take gold for themselves - but claims search came up empty
- The FBI got caught up in the search for a fabled cache of gold bars stolen during the civil war worth an estimated $400 million but came up empty
- According to legend, the cache of gold was either lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1863
- FBI agent Jacob Archer applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize the gold out of fear the state might take the gold for itself if the feds asked for permission
- Archer told the judge he feared that if the federal government sought permission to excavate the site, the state would claim the gold for itself
- The FBI based its request for a seizure warrant partly on work done by Dennis and Kem Parada, a father-son pair of treasure hunters
The FBI pursued a fabled cache of stolen Civil War-era gold buried in Pennsylvania worth an estimated $400 million, but came up empty handed, according to newly unsealed court documents.
The court files reveal that an FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize U.S. government gold he said was 'stolen during the civil war' and hidden in an Elk County cave.
The agent applied for the warrant out of fear the state might claim the gold if the feds sought permission, rather than the warrant. The Associated Press reported the government had been looking for the gold at the site, but federal authorities had long refused to confirm the search.
An FBI tent is seen behind police tape at the base of a hill where investigators conducted an excavation for Civil War-era gold in 2018. The FBI says the dig came up empty
FBI Agent Jacob Archer said he believed a significant cache of gold is secreted in the underground cave' in Dent´s Run, holding 'one or more tons' belonging to the U.S. government'
'I have probable cause to believe that a significant cache of gold is secreted in the underground cave' in Dent´s Run, holding 'one or more tons' belonging to the U.S. government,' Jacob Archer, a member of the FBI's art crime team in Philadelphia, wrote in his seizure warrant application.
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Archer wrote that he feared that if the federal government sought permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to excavate the site, the state would claim the gold for itself, setting up a costly legal battle.
'I am concerned that, even if DCNR gave initial consent for the FBI to excavate the cache of gold secreted at the Dent's Run Site, that consent could be revoked before the FBI recovered the United States property, with the result of DCNR unlawfully claiming that that cache of gold is abandoned property and, thus, belongs to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,' the affidavit said.
The FBI based its request for a seizure warrant partly on work done by Dennis and Kem Parada, a father-son pair of treasure hunters who had made hundreds of trips to the area
According to legend, the gold was either lost or stolen on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1863.
The gold was sent by President Abraham Lincoln to pay Union soldiers and was last spotted in St Marys, Pennsylvania, travelling northeast toward the capital.
When the wagon train didn't arrive at the Mint, searchers were sent out and discovered only empty wagons and the bodies of dead soldiers.
Various accounts said the lieutenant charged with leading the wagon got sick and feverish and divulged the secret of their cargo to lower ranking soldiers. Rogues within the squadron then killed the rest and made off with the treasure.
Legend says the gold was buried at Dents Run.
After meeting with the treasure hunters in early 2018, the FBI brought in a contractor with more sophisticated instruments. The contractor detected an underground mass that weighed up to nine tons and had the density of gold, the affidavit said.
That amount would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars now.
The AP and The Philadelphia Inquirer petitioned a federal judge to unseal the case, a petition federal prosecutors did not oppose, leading to the release of the documents.
Archer wrote in the request for the warrant that in 2013, a legislative staffer acting on behalf of others in state government met with treasure hunters who had identified the likely site, then 'corruptly' offered to get them a state permit to dig 'in return for three bars of gold or ten percent' of whatever the treasure hunters recovered.
No one has been charged in connection with the case, and federal prosecutors said they consider the matter closed, AP reported.
The FBI had long refused to explain exactly why it went digging with the contractor on state-owned land in Elk County in March 2018, saying only in written statements over the years that agents were there for a court-authorized excavation of 'what evidence suggested may have been a cultural heritage site.'
The FBI request for seizure was partly based on work done by Dennis and Kem Parada, a father-son pair of treasure hunters who made hundreds of trips to the area, the affidavit said.
The duo told authorities they believed they found the location of the fabled Union gold.
Archer wrote that he also spoke with Warren Getler, a journalist who had done extensive research on a Civil War-era group called the Knights of the Golden Circle, which Archer said was a secret society of Confederate sympathizers that had purportedly buried secret caches of weapons, coins and gold in Southern, Western and Northern states.
The FBI apparently did not indicate to the judge, in writing, what it found at the site, but a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia told the AP that no such document was filed with the court because the dig came up empty.
The Paradas, who are co-owners of the treasure-hunting outfit Finders Keepers, have said they believe the FBI found gold at the site and the two have pursued legal action to get more information.
The unsealed court documents simply raise more questions, their attorney Bill Cluck told AP.
Cluck said the warrant granted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Lloret gave FBI agents permission to dig from 6 a.m to 10 p.m. but residents reported hearing a backhoe and jackhammer overnight - when the excavation was supposed to have been paused - and seeing a convoy of FBI vehicles, including large armored trucks.
Getler told the AP that it is telling that the FBI never checked back with the contractor whose sensitive instruments had indicated the possible presence of gold.
'Did the science really go wrong? I am not so sure about that,' Getler said. 'Why did they send four or five armored cars after the fact? Why did they work under cover of darkness? Why did they kick us off the mountain at 3 p.m. that day when we were supposed to be working as partners?'
The FBI assertion of an empty hole is 'insulting all the credible people who did this kind of work,' Dennis Parada previously told the AP.
'It was a slap in the face, really, to think all these people could make that kind of mistake,' he said.
