FBI hunt for Civil War gold detailed in unsealed affidavit – by Chris Dolmetsch (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2021)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Was a ton of vanished Union gold stolen by a secret group of Confederate sympathizers and hidden in a rural Pennsylvania cave at the height of the Civil War?

That’s what an FBI agent was seeking to find out in 2018 when he applied for a search warrant to dig at the site in Elk County, northeast of Pittsburgh, according to a court filing unsealed on Thursday.

In an accompanying 30-page affidavit, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jacob Archer cites tips from treasure hunters, old newspaper clippings and magazine articles as “probable cause” that a ton or more of gold mined in California and destined for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia when it disappeared in 1863 was buried in cave located inside a 217,000-acre state forest.

According to Archer, the gold may have been stolen by a shadowy group called the Knights of the Golden Circle. Archer got his warrant, but the FBI later said it didn’t find anything. The treasure hunters cited by Archer aren’t so sure.

Father-and-son team Dennis and Kem Parada think the government may have found the gold and kept it quiet to avoid having to give them a cut of the find.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-25/fbi-hunt-for-lost-civil-war-gold-detailed-in-unsealed-affidavit