Adams County Pa. Related Historical Articles
The "Treasure" of Mont
Alto
Elwood W. Christ
Although teased by flea
market tales of
purchasing a priceless
object for pennies,
reality dictates that
these moments are rare.
Perhaps our Don
Quixote-like inclination
to quest for instant
riches was shaped in
adolescence by romantic
tales such as Ali Baba
and the Forty Thieves
and Treasure Island.
Prologue …
During the summer of
1863, the bulk of
Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's army
marched up the
Cumberland Valley and
through South Mountain
passes to Gettysburg.
Like a plague of locust,
foraging expeditions
scoured the countryside
looking for food and
water to feed an army.
The cool spring waters
of the Mont Alto region
just across the county
line would be tempting.
Although Lee's soldiers
were not to make war on
the civilian population,
they did destroy
Thaddeus Stevens'
Caledonia Furnace and
several other commercial
properties that might
directly aid the Union
army.
Generally, most Southern
soldiers behaved
themselves, but some did
not. During the retreat,
one Confederate stole a
silver tea service from
the Charles P. Krauth
family who lived on the
Gettysburg seminary
campus. Union troopers
later captured the thief
and eventually the
service was returned.
(It is now part of the
historical society's
collections.)
Sixty-five years later,
as the first cool
evenings promised the
approach of autumn, the
people of the South
Mountain area, enduring
the sluggish economy of
the Great Depression,
curiously watched a
"stranger." On September
2, 1931, this stranger,
"who arrived in an
automobile bearing
District of Columbia
tags began to pace off
distances and marking
trees" near the "Pearl
of the Park spring in
the Mont Alto State
Park". According to the
September 5 Compiler,
the stranger's actions
"revived the legends of
hidden gold." Allegedly,
"Confederate troops
advancing through the
Cumberland Valley
plundered and sacked
towns on their route …
The story tells that
some Confederate
soldiers [during the
retreat] were so hard
pressed that they buried
loot in the wild wooded
hills which now form the
Mont Alto state forest."
The stranger's actions
resulted in "a number of
persons…digging
promiscuously so
that…there are many
small holes in the state
forest." As the reader
may have already
guessed, "none of the
treasure seekers [were]
rewarded."
The following week's
Compiler explained two
coincidences that had
sparked the fire of gold
fever. "The end of the
search came when the
state forest research
institute at Mont Alto
announced that the
original holes…were dug
by members of the
institute hunting
samples of soil." A
resident, Oscar Bumbaugh,
had driven onto one of
the grave-sized holes
with his horse-drawn
wagon, which promptly
sunk into the freshly-
dug earth. He called the
Mont Alto police, whose
chief expected to find a
body buried there. None
was. However, the
occupants of the
DC-licensed car remained
a mystery. The stranger
had been replaced by a
"man and a woman who
were seen in the woods
examining trees and
grounds, with the aid of
what appeared to be
maps."
Foresters retrieving
soil samples were not
very mysterious or a
romantic story, but a
couple burying a DC
murder victim or seeking
buried treasure were;
and their presence
"prompted long hours of
hard labor by Mont Alto
people" in vein attempts
to hit it big.
Read other articles
on the civil war
Read More articles by Elwood Christ
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