FBI search for legendary Pennsylvania gold cache sparks treasure hunt

The FBI carried out a secret dig to find a lost bounty of US Civil War-era gold and claimed it found nothing. But treasure hunters think there’s a cover-up.

For decades a legendary story has persisted of a massive bounty of US Civil War-era gold, said to be worth millions today, lost somewhere in rural Pennsylvania.

It is believed the gold was lost or stolen as it was taken by horse and cart to the US Mint in Philadelphia in 1863 as the Battle of Gettysburg broke out.

And it’s speculated the buried treasure could be worth about $520 million today.

The tale has inspired generations of bounty hunters to search for the lost loot, with the most promising location believed to be a patch of woodland in Dents Run, about 220km northeast of Pittsburgh.

Now, newly released government documents have revealed the Federal Bureau of Investigation has also joined the hunt for the buried treasure, carrying out a secret overnight dig in the area three years ago.

The FBI said it found nothing – but a father-and-son duo of treasure hunters, who were the first to tip off the FBI about Dents Run, refuse to believe its claims that the dig came up empty.

Father and son Dennis and Kem Parada, who run the lost treasure recovery service Finders Keepers, said they went to the FBI after their metal detector picked up something compelling in Dents Run.

They’d hoped to work with the agency to unearth the buried loot, and secure a finder’s fee in the process.

After the tip-off from the pair, in March 2018 FBI agents swarmed the area and carried out an overnight excavation. The FBI never explained the reason for the dig, except to vaguely refer to “what evidence suggested may have been a cultural heritage site”.

But the Paradas think the FBI found the gold and is covering it up. Even though the lost loot belongs to the US government, they feel they’re being denied a sizeable payout for helping find it.

So they’re suing the US government for information about the mysterious 2018 dig – and their claim is proving a success.

Dennis Parada (pictured) and his son Kem believe the gold was found and say they’re entitled to a finder’s fee.

The Paradas’ lawyer William Cluck is pushing to access about 2400 pages of government documents under a Freedom of Information request to get more information about the mysterious dig.

So far, government emails and other documents in the case confirmed the FBI was indeed looking for the missing gold at Dents Run, despite never having previously confirmed it, the Associated Press reported.

Documents also revealed agents were looking for a “cache” up to 1.5m x 1.5m x 2.4m in size.

Mr Cluck has claimed prior to the dig, the FBI told his clients a geological survey of the site suggested the presence of a large metallic mass with the density of gold.

After the FBI finished their secret dig, the Paradas returned to the Dents Run site, but this time their tests found no evidence of the buried treasure.

The gold is believed to have gone missing, either through loss or hijacking, amid the Battle of Gettysburg.

“Everything pinpointed gold at the exact same location,” Mr Cluck told ABC 27 News. “It’s flabbergasting that they say they didn’t find anything.”

Mr Cluck also pointed out the FBI’s Art Crimes Division had been involved in the investigation, which cast suspicion on its claim to have found nothing.

“They had 50 agents there. We have witnesses that they were there all night with armoured cars,” Mr Cluck told PennLive in January.

“So, what are we supposed to believe? We are convinced that they found gold.”

A spokesperson for the FBI, which has maintained it did not find the lost gold, said the agency “unequivocally rejects any claims or speculation to the contrary”.

Forrest Fenn gave a few clues to the whereabouts of his treasurer with a map and poem called The Thrill Of The Chase.

The promise of untold fortunes have driven many generations of treasure hunters on wild quests over the centuries.

And big-stakes chases have turned dangerous.

In 2010, five people died in the hunt for a treasure chest filled with gold and jewels worth $2.6 million that was hidden in the Rocky Mountains by eccentric millionaire Forrest Fenn.

Mr Fenn, who died in September, aged 90, was an art dealer who offered only a handful of cryptic clues as to the whereabouts of the stash, sparking global interest and a fervent chase.

The years-long hunt ended last year when a 32-year-old medical student found the treasure in Wyoming, just months before Mr Fenn’s death.

“It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago,” Mr Fenn said as he confirmed the treasure had been found in June.

“I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot. I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries. So the search is over.”

Excavations were carried out in Walbrzych, Poland in 2016 to find the fabled Nazi gold train, which may not even exist. Picture: Natalia Dobryszycka/AFP

Another notorious treasure hunt that has captivated the world for years involves a so-called Nazi gold train, thought to be packed with treasures and military secrets.

According to legend, in the closing weeks of World War II, a German train was loaded up with unspecified loot in the eastern Polish city of Wroclaw and was never seen again.

Historians have disputed the train ever existed.

But plenty of treasure hunters are convinced it exists, and claim it is buried under a collapsed tunnel on a stretch of railroad close to the Czech-German border.