Anyone here from Pa? Story about what I think is part of Jake Swanson's cache
Looking for detecting buddies in south central PA - pm me
Personal experience:
Back about 1990 or so they were redoing one of the local sports fields/parks. Part of the job entailed dumping fresh clean fill on top of the old stuff, then grating and replanting grass. While they were doing this a friend of mine was assisting on the ground crew. One evening he called me and asked me to "please come over right away." I asked why, and he told me he had found some real old silver dollars from the 1800's. Well, i put my shoes back on and went right over. He had 4 Morgans, all in very nice condition. He told me that the guys were standing near the truck and after it had dumped a partial load of fill he and another guy were raking /grating by hand to smooth out the area before they moved to the next area. during the raking he saw something shiny and reached for it, finding it was a Morgan dollar. He found 3 other coins this way and told me the other guy had a few as well. The coins were all found in the fresh fill.
The next day I was working the PM shift at my job, so I decided to go over during the day and investigate. They happened to be going along one of the ends of the field for part of the time, so I was able to stand along the outside fence and get a close look at what was going on. During one of the dumps I saw something shiny, at which point I watched it and told him that there was something on the right side of the dump pile. He found 2 coins (morgans!!!!) when he grated it out. This amazed me....where was the fill coming from?
Well, i believe i figured it out within a day or two after that. I knew what company was doing the grating/filling as my friend was working for them. The same company was also clearing out the side of a hill, then cutting into rock for the purpose of putting a strip mall in. I also knew from my research on possible caches in the area a few years prior that the land where the strip mall was being put in belonged to a pig farmer by the name of Jake Swanson (it has been said that his last name was Schooley, but I haven't researched it enough). For a bit of background, Jake was a customer of the West End Bank (I think that's the correct bank name, but it's been awhile) in Scranton. Jake had a disagreement with bank officials, so he withdrew all of his money. One of the clerks said that it was nearly a full oil drum of silver dollars, but this has not been proven. BTW, oil drums @ that time were more like 20-25 gallons, not 55 like we have today. All we know is that Jake had a lot of money in there, because it seems that the argument started because Jake was asked to become the bank president since he had more money in there than any other depositor at that time, to which he refused. Anyway, Jake loaded all of his money onto his cart, mostly in silver dollars (IIRC this occurred sometime in the late 20's), and went home with it. He died in the 30's, and there is no record of a recovery, so many believe that the $$ was never found by anyone.
Now here's the clincher - once again, my opinion, but I know the Morgans were coming from the fill, and I know the same company was clearing out the area for the strip mall, and that area is on the lower end of Bell Mountain in Scranton/Dickson City, so it was my conclusion that at least part of the cache was unearthed by the company and was included in the fill that was, of course, coming from the strip mall location. A discussion with one of the dump truck drivers a few days later confirmed my guess about where the fill was coming from.
Now if the morgans were coming from an area that had never been built on and there were a bunch of them, it is my opinion that they were part of his buried cache.
My friend ended up with 9 Morgans and the other guy had 7, I think, when they got done with the job. I am somewhat certain they did not find all of the coins that were in the fill, thus there should be more there. Some of the coins were partially caked with dirt, so they were probably missed.
Point is, I know where this field is and despite my best efforts, was always bumped somehow and never got over there, figuring that since it was close by, I could get it anytime. And they were very picky when the field was freshly done so I'd have gotten chased and blackballed for sure. It is also my opinion that since they did not find many coins that only part of the cache was located in the fill they were extracting-again, my opinion, but it makes sense (at least to me).
I'm going to get back up there this summer one way or the other.
Looking for detecting buddies in south central PA - pm me
Personal experience:
Back about 1990 or so they were redoing one of the local sports fields/parks. Part of the job entailed dumping fresh clean fill on top of the old stuff, then grating and replanting grass. While they were doing this a friend of mine was assisting on the ground crew. One evening he called me and asked me to "please come over right away." I asked why, and he told me he had found some real old silver dollars from the 1800's. Well, i put my shoes back on and went right over. He had 4 Morgans, all in very nice condition. He told me that the guys were standing near the truck and after it had dumped a partial load of fill he and another guy were raking /grating by hand to smooth out the area before they moved to the next area. during the raking he saw something shiny and reached for it, finding it was a Morgan dollar. He found 3 other coins this way and told me the other guy had a few as well. The coins were all found in the fresh fill.
The next day I was working the PM shift at my job, so I decided to go over during the day and investigate. They happened to be going along one of the ends of the field for part of the time, so I was able to stand along the outside fence and get a close look at what was going on. During one of the dumps I saw something shiny, at which point I watched it and told him that there was something on the right side of the dump pile. He found 2 coins (morgans!!!!) when he grated it out. This amazed me....where was the fill coming from?
Well, i believe i figured it out within a day or two after that. I knew what company was doing the grating/filling as my friend was working for them. The same company was also clearing out the side of a hill, then cutting into rock for the purpose of putting a strip mall in. I also knew from my research on possible caches in the area a few years prior that the land where the strip mall was being put in belonged to a pig farmer by the name of Jake Swanson (it has been said that his last name was Schooley, but I haven't researched it enough). For a bit of background, Jake was a customer of the West End Bank (I think that's the correct bank name, but it's been awhile) in Scranton. Jake had a disagreement with bank officials, so he withdrew all of his money. One of the clerks said that it was nearly a full oil drum of silver dollars, but this has not been proven. BTW, oil drums @ that time were more like 20-25 gallons, not 55 like we have today. All we know is that Jake had a lot of money in there, because it seems that the argument started because Jake was asked to become the bank president since he had more money in there than any other depositor at that time, to which he refused. Anyway, Jake loaded all of his money onto his cart, mostly in silver dollars (IIRC this occurred sometime in the late 20's), and went home with it. He died in the 30's, and there is no record of a recovery, so many believe that the $$ was never found by anyone.
Now here's the clincher - once again, my opinion, but I know the Morgans were coming from the fill, and I know the same company was clearing out the area for the strip mall, and that area is on the lower end of Bell Mountain in Scranton/Dickson City, so it was my conclusion that at least part of the cache was unearthed by the company and was included in the fill that was, of course, coming from the strip mall location. A discussion with one of the dump truck drivers a few days later confirmed my guess about where the fill was coming from.
Now if the morgans were coming from an area that had never been built on and there were a bunch of them, it is my opinion that they were part of his buried cache.
My friend ended up with 9 Morgans and the other guy had 7, I think, when they got done with the job. I am somewhat certain they did not find all of the coins that were in the fill, thus there should be more there. Some of the coins were partially caked with dirt, so they were probably missed.
Point is, I know where this field is and despite my best efforts, was always bumped somehow and never got over there, figuring that since it was close by, I could get it anytime. And they were very picky when the field was freshly done so I'd have gotten chased and blackballed for sure. It is also my opinion that since they did not find many coins that only part of the cache was located in the fill they were extracting-again, my opinion, but it makes sense (at least to me).
I'm going to get back up there this summer one way or the other.
