The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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A STORY OF HIDDEN GOLD AND SILVER IN THE VICINITY OF
BEE CREEK
By S. C. Turnbo
The following account was written to me from Arlington Washington, by Mr. J. D. Row on the llth of August 1907. "When I got in Carroll County, Ark. on my way from Oklahoma territory to Boone County, Ark. in the year 1900, I stopped and visited with my cousin George W. Barnes of Maple Post Office. He told me a story as follows. His brother Jasper Barnes had been over in the north part of Boone County, and in a conversation with Mat Boothe who lived on Bee Creek, he heard of a train of three wagons having been burned by the guerrillas in time of the war. He did not get many particulars about the occasion. Soon after this his step son come home from the Indian territory and he told Jasper a story he got from a Cherokee Indian, while he was in the Indian territory. The Indian said that during the war himself and 3 or 4 other Indians were coming through Missouri with three wagons, and they had a large amount of gold and silver coins that they were conveying from Southeast Missouri to their homes in the territory. They had been observed by some white men to have a lot. of money and they had followed the Indians, presumably to rob them. They had observed the white men stealthily following them for 2 or 3 days. In the vicinity of Bee Creek the men had become more bold and the Indians feared an attack during the night while in camp. They held a consultation and decided to bury their treasure, burn their wagons, and ride their ponies home. Afterwards they would come back and secure their money. When the war was over and times were peacable enough, the Indians were all dead but this one. He had made two trips back to Bee Creek to get the hidden money, but each time failed to find the place. The country had changed, farms had been opened up, houses built and he could not even locate the road they were on when they burned their wagons. This Indian and another one had taken the coins in two camp kettles a little ways from the road, to a sink hole and buried them in the sink hole while the rest of the crowd had run the wagons together and set them on fire, then they all jumped on their ponies and rode away in the darkness of early morning.
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