Guys, I'll post this article and if the webmaster doesn't cull it you can read it. This was published in Paul Tainter's Treasure Hunter's Express in Jan 1995. It was the first in a series of articles about Golden Circle Research's work on the KGC investigation. At the time I wrote this I had worked on outlaw sites for many years and already had become suspicious of the many caches being found in strange patterns within a certain region. WE had researched the KGC for some time and like many of you I could not bring myself to believe there could be as much treasure as there appeared to be. In the summer of 1995, my wife and I discovered the location of a safe supposedly holding 200,000 gold buried along an old Cattle trail in OK. (We never sat foot on the property but used a topo map and symbols found on a high hill facing the private ranch to pinpoint the cache. This treasure was on private property that we didn't have access to it. Our partner in this treasure search lived only about 75 miles from the site and we allowed him to try to obtain permission to attempt a recovery. Instead of asking permission he trespassed on the ranch and dug up the safe without our knowledge. The rest is history and well documented. Never mind that the treasure was worth several million, the fact is it was found after I deciphered a KGC treasure map that told me exactly where the cache was buried. That proved to me that most of the treasure we had found previous to that had also been KGC. It was only then that I realized that some of my old family members I had always thought we just outlaws were in fact KGC agents. The Story is not re-edited it was just scanned into a OCR and placed here.....

Published in Trreasure Hunter's Express Winter 1995

By Bob (Hillbilly Bob) Brewer

Lately, it seems that every conversation between treasure hunters quickly becomes a discussion about the KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN' CIRCLE (KGC). My perception is that the majority of TH'ers are prone to disbelieve most of what has been written about this organization and its rumored Confederate treasures. Today's treasure magazine columnists tantalize their readers by printing bits and pieces of information claimed to have come from informants inside the KGC organization. All of these writers insist those diehard Confederates buried tons of fabulous treasures throughout the United States and even in some foreign countries. To further complicate the KGC rhetoric, we are led to believe the horseback outlaws that made the west wild were agents of the KGC. The proceeds from their robberies became the billions we know as the Confederate treasures! There is even a small, but persistent, group of treasure hunters roaming America in search of Rebel Treasure, which they say positively exists.

TRUTH IN THESE TALES? Is there any possibility of these stories being true? The answer to that question may soon come from a team of researchers working full time on the KGC allegory. When the KGC hypothesis first hit the presses several years ago, a certain professional treasure hunter solicited the help of a historian to research certain treasure leads he thought might be related to the KGC treasures. In two years of hard work, many documents containing information about the Golden Circle were uncovered. None of these even hinted that the KGC survived the Civil War. Some documents, however, do mention attempts by Confederate veterans to organize into groups to resist the Union's Reconstruction policy. The most famous of those groups is known as the Klu Klux Klan. Try as they might, the two scholars working on the project could find nothing concrete that linked any of the western outlaws to the KKK or the supposedly defunct KGC. Strangely, however, it was discovered that all of these brotherhoods had things in common that no amount of scrutinizing Could elucidate. Following the old adage of "where there's smoke, there's fire!", the investigators decided additional help was needed for their project. Two years ago, more members were added to the team in order to accelerate the research project. Those recruited brought to the group expertise in genealogy, cryptology, archeology, geology and electronics. In addition, some of the group are also experienced treasure hunters. To reduce expenditures, a dozen or so interested researchers and historians, strategically located throughout the country, aid the team by obtaining requested documents from archives in their area. This work began in earnest with three full time members and others working every spare moment.

GOALS OF THE INVESTIGATIVE TEAM Several goals have been set by the team to aid their work. These are: 1. Detemlining if an organized group of exConfederates existed after the war and what the purpose of such an organization might have been. 2. Investigating the genealogy, life,die, career, and demise of every western outlaw turned tip in the investigation. 3. Visiting every rumored or actual outlaw gang hangout or hideout possible and searching for signs or other evidence indicating their presence there. 4. Collecting every available document found that mentions a robbery, burglary or theft committed in the U.S. from 1860 until 1925. 5. Continuing the research on the KGC, KKK, and other fraternal organizations active alter the Civil War operated in the post Civil War era for the purpose of obtaining and burying money, regardless of reason After several years of work, this joint venture has discovered a wealth of previously unpublished westem history and uncovered some startling facts about the horseback outlaws. Thus far, hundreds of documents have been collected, many of which still await cataloging and interpretation. However, a few months ago, a small paper was found that proved to be the "Rosette Stone" for the researchers. Since finding that key, some real headway has been made in accomplishing some of the team's goals. In upcoming months, we will share with the public some of the more exciting discoveries resulting from our work. DOES REBEL TREASURE EXIST? It is understandable that not everyone will believe that Rebe[ treasure exists. Think about it this way! What if you met someone for the first time in your life and "right off the bat" he began telling you about $150 billion dollars in treasure that is buried in the backyards of America, etc. What would your reaction be? After all, most Americans are pretty well educated. We've all studied history. How could these stories about all this Rebel money be true and no one know about it? Let me answer that question with some questions. Why were we taught that the Civil War was fought to end slavery? Why did it take over a hundred years to learn that President Lincoln's murder was a well planned conspiracy involving the Rebel Underground and leaders of the Confederacy? if history like this has been suppressed, what else could have happened that we might not learn about for another century? In 1969 or 1970, when I first read that a large amolmt of treasure had been buried by someone or some group after the Civil War, I wasn~ really surprised. Oh, well, 1'11 admit I was a little taken back because of the staggering amount of treasure mentioned. But as a historian and researcher, I've associated most of my life with people who have been searching for treasure. I also know people who have found treasure. In fact, I've even found a little bit myselfl We hillbillies have an old saying that goes, "even a blind hog can find an acorn every now and then." So, what's the big deal about who buried the treasure as long as its there and we can dig it up, right? Wrong! There are those that would only be interested in the treasure, but the fact that the treasure is there is a historical "A bomb!" In order to have obtained and properly hidden as much treasure as there seems to be, it would have taken a large and very efficient organization. I actually believe it would have taken twenty men, twenty years to have carved all of the waybills and symbols ! have seen in my life. That does not include the time it took to work out the treasure layouts or design and construct the depositories. The signs and clues we have collected range from Maine to California and from Montana to Georgia, and most states in between!WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE? Enter! The Knights of the Golden Circle? or the Knights of Quantre!l's Raiders? or tho Knights of Western Bad Men? Regardless of what they called themselves, someone (or group) buried a lot of treasure out there. A WHOLE LOT! Of.course, honors have already been awarded to the Knights of the Golden Circle as being those who buried this treasure. In order for us to be accepted into the circle of semi-intelligent writers we, too, must say the KGC. Now let me tell you something that several years and thousands of hours of research on the KGC has proven to us. In addition to the research, we have spent countless days in the field following the clues and signs left by the group that buried these "rumored" caches. I might also add that money isn't all that they appeared to have buried. Try guns, ammo, bars of lead, bars of brass, soap, dynamite, clothing, books, and bodies. Yes! I mean dead people! it seems that murder was frequent in their operations. Many of the leads that we have chased down ended with a killing in the story. In most cases, the people murdered were likely members of the group that constructed the tunnels, vaults or shafts where the treasure is hidden. We haven't gotten all our ducks in a row on this yet, but they are beginning to line up. Let me state here, as of now ..... We have not found one iota of proof that the outfit responsible for this treasure flap (at least in any evidence we have turned up) is or ever was called the KGC. The only shred of hard evidence we have uncovered that mentions any name used by this group indicates they may have called themselves the Confederate Club (CC) Or the Knights of the Confederacy (KC) We have even turned up a date for when the Confederate Club was formed, March 1872. There are no names of members listed and the only clue as to who may have written the message are carvings ora cowboy boot and a capital "J". For what it is worth, in my experience with outlaw treasure symbols, the boot and "J" or "J J" means just what you think it does. At least that should make all of the KGC affectionatos happy. (NOTE: For you that are curious, the above information was found in a western state, carved into a stone monument. It is written in Confederate code and until it was deciphered you would never guess what it said Later in this series for the Express we will reveal some of the Rebel codes and ciphers.) After we found this little message, a great deal of time was spent reviewing the details of Jesse James' career. Possibly, the message we found is authentic for this reason. The year 1872 appears to be significant in the history of outlaw gangs. Jesse James and his gang of ex-guerrillas definitely increased their activity that year. The James-Younger gang(s) were accused of only, seven robberies in the first five years after the~ Civil War. All of those crimes were committed in Missouri except for one in Kentucky. In the next four years, beginning April 29, 1872 (a month after March 1872) the Missouri outlaws were credited with twelve robberies. More interesting is that the latter robberies covered an area more than five times as large asbefore. The James gang also expanded its activities to include train robbery. Outlaw historians claim the gang used inside information to know which trains were carrying large amounts of money. To me, that fact indicates they were well organized. In a study of the Janles family's genealogy, a second set of James brothers named Frank and Jesse tumed up. These boys,, about the same age as their Missouri counterparts, were from Tennessee and also had a reputation of riding the outlaw trail. The two sets of James brothers were distant cousins but evidently did not frequently socialize. This is another area that should be investigated more thoroughly. !t is possible that the Tennessee James boys pulled some of the robberies that the Missouri boys were accused of. Coincidental or not, about the time that the CC was formed, a great increase in outlaw activity occurred throughout the country. Lesser known outlaw gangs were becoming bolder and kept lawmen on the alert across America. In the southwest Sam Bass, Belle Starr, Jim Reed, among others, made it difficult for banks to transfer money through the territory sandwiched between the Arkansas and Red rivers. Frequently federal Indian paymasters in Indian Territory were fair game for Belle's band of desperadoes. Later, the Starr gang used a place called Younger's Bend on file Canadian River as an assembly area. Strangely, this very area was used by Quantrell's guerrillas for the same purpose during the war. The more we search for a secret Rebel society, the more inclined we are to believe a group of this sort did exist after the Civil War. Evidence indicates members of the group may have continued to exist well into the 1900's. Also, depending on how other data is interpreted, there is reason to suspect that a small organization of descendants from Confederate veterans may still be active today. Whether this group has anything to do with the Confederate Treasure is anyone's guess.

• Re: KGC and Golden Circle Research article Nevada Charlie 01:20:42 11/21/99 (0)
• Re: KGC and Golden Circle Research article Richard Walburn 10:52:38 10/12/99 (3)
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