The Kingbolt

[Tiredman]

Currently I am working on that old familiar story about a treasure of $40,000 buried and marked by a kingbolt. There are three versions I know of off the top of my head. Now suppose you the reader want to find this one or are thinking about possibly looking for it. First before running out and swinging a coil, you have to determine if it could be real or not. One big problem with a story making sense is a good reason to look for another possible cache. Generally folks have several research projects going at once in a certain area. This is to save travel time and expenses. So the versions are from Thomas Penfield, Thomas Terry and Jameson. There are some big differences to them. One gives no year, another gives a year and the last an even different year of the robbery. One claims a stage holdup, another a bank robbery. There are even claims the kingbolt that marked the cache was found and by who. One source provides a name for the robber. I will try to solve where this story came from.

 

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[Tiredman]

The starting points to finding more information about this possible lost treasure is the keywords contain in the various accounts. Supposedly this is in Albany County.
First Penfield: From A Guide To Treasure Montana-Wyoming if you got a copy.
Sometime in the 1800’s (which is not good enough), lone bandit, stagecoach, old Fort Laramie, $40,000, marked with kingbolt, 1928 farmer finds kingbolt.
Now from Thomas P. Terry from United States Treasure Atlas volume 10 if you got one of those handy. 1882, 4 outlaws rob bank in Laramie, $20,000 in gold coins and two bags of silver dollars, ran to the Mummy Range, 3 outlaws killed, both sacks of silver recovered, last bandit is David Rascombe, was on trial and later hung, remaining loot never found.
Third source W.C. Jameson from Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Old Wyoming. This book is about 25 years newer than Terry’s which brings up an important point down the road that someone might notice. Details: Year 1885, Stage from Cheyenne to Fort Laramie, $40,000 in gold coins in strongbox, lone robber, ruse of laying on road on bend along road, buried box marked with kingbolt, Fischer caught confessed and while being roughed up fought back and was shot and killed, 1928 trader named Artie Callahan camping stumbled on kingbolt and tossed it, 1933 Callahan learns story and tried to locate site and fails. East side of road leading to Fort Laramie coming from the south.
I believe these are the basic facts from all three accounts and they have differences with dates and Jameson includes names even. So if someone wants to join the search into this lost treasure story to find out the real facts or if nothing turns up could the story be not true?
Where to look? The best places are not books they are known for human error. We need to go to old newspapers, Wyoming Newspaper Project is one, Chronicles of America if another and there is a third that I can’t think of at this time.
If the event happened it will be there somewhere. This can be a lengthy time consuming search.

 

[Tiredman]

So far the names have failed to score a hit, but I have found a link to some other stage robberies with some detailed accounts that I am excited about. The old Fort Laramie was ordered closed in 1890, since it was involved in the versions, it would seem the stage holdup was prior to that, unless it was a bank robbery as Terry stated.
One odd item is the $40,000 in loot does match another robbery for amount stolen which also involved 4 gang members in another portion of the state. This is the one around Glenrock, said to be an army payroll. That story is in the book "Campfires Along The Treasure Trail," by Wayne Winters 1963.

 

[Tiredman]

I also ordered a used copy of another book on amazon with a Wyoming section to see what might be in that. Either way I will have another book to enjoy.

 

[Tiredman]

Checking our mainly completed book on this section of Wyoming where this happened, we do have the story with historical background information. But at that time neither of us had found any newspaper accounts to validate any names attached to this event or that it actually happened. We will be taking another run at finding it and will update any results. Still Penfield had the story and he used newspapers, he was the earliest of the three authors, so I expect there should be an account (source) that he used and that is what we will be looking for.

 

[Tiredman]

Still nothing in the old newspapers to validate the crime.

 

[Tiredman]

Now a few days ago on a Facebook page someone asked a question about a treasure in another state. I told them I had a bunch of books for that state, mostly in storage. But here I had one on the shelf and reading before getting a nap for work, I find the one they inquire about is so similar. I will have to later present it. It could explain not finding anything on this one.

 

[Tiredman]

The Kingbolt A Wyoming Lost Treasure Story
Jan 23 2019:
The Kingbolt
Currently I am working on that old familiar story about a treasure of $40,000 buried and marked by a kingbolt. There are three versions I know of off the top of my head. Now suppose you the reader want to find this one or are thinking about possibly looking for it. First before running out and swinging a coil, you have to determine if it could be real or not. One big problem with a story making sense is a good reason to look for another possible cache. Generally folks have several research projects going at once in a certain area. This is to save travel time and expenses. So the versions are from Thomas Penfield, Thomas Terry and Jameson. There are some big differences to them. One gives no year, another gives a year and the last an even different year of the robbery. One claims a stage holdup, another a bank robbery. There are even claims the kingbolt that marked the cache was found and by who. One source provides a name for the robber. I will try to solve where this story came from.

Jan 24:
The starting points to finding more information about this possible lost treasure is the keywords contain in the various accounts. Supposedly this is in Albany County.
First Penfield: From A Guide To Treasure Montana-Wyoming if you got a copy.
Sometime in the 1800’s (which is not good enough), lone bandit, stagecoach, old Fort Laramie, $40,000, marked with kingbolt, 1928 farmer finds kingbolt.
Now from Thomas P. Terry from United States Treasure Atlas volume 10 if you got one of those handy. 1882, 4 outlaws rob bank in Laramie, $20,000 in gold coins and two bags of silver dollars, ran to the Mummy Range, 3 outlaws killed, both sacks of silver recovered, last bandit is David Rascombe, was on trial and later hung, remaining loot never found.
Third source W.C. Jameson from Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of Old Wyoming. This book is about 25 years newer than Terry’s which brings up an important point down the road that someone might notice. Details: Year 1885, Stage from Cheyenne to Fort Laramie, $40,000 in gold coins in strongbox, lone robber, ruse of laying on road on bend along road, buried box marked with kingbolt, Fischer caught confessed and while being roughed up fought back and was shot and killed, 1928 trader named Artie Callahan camping stumbled on kingbolt and tossed it, 1933 Callahan learns story and tried to locate site and fails. East side of road leading to Fort Laramie coming from the south.
I believe these are the basic facts from all three accounts and they have differences with dates and Jameson includes names even. So if someone wants to join the search into this lost treasure story to find out the real facts or if nothing turns up could the story be not true?
Where to look? The best places are not books they are known for human error. We need to go to old newspapers, Wyoming Newspaper Project is one, Chronicles of America if another and there is a third that I can’t think of at this time.
If the event happened it will be there somewhere. This can be a lengthy time consuming search.
Jan 24:
So far the names have failed to score a hit, but I have found a link to some other stage robberies with some detailed accounts that I am excited about. The old Fort Laramie was ordered closed in 1890, since it was involved in the versions, it would seem the stage holdup was prior to that, unless it was a bank robbery as Terry stated.
One odd item is the $40,000 in loot does match another robbery for amount stolen which also involved 4 gang members in another portion of the state. This is the one around Glenrock, said to be an army payroll. That story is in the book "Campfires Along The Treasure Trail," by Wayne Winters 1963.
Jan 24:
I also ordered a used copy of another book on amazon with a Wyoming section to see what might be in that. Either way I will have another book to enjoy.
Jan 25:
Checking our mainly completed book on this section of Wyoming where this happened, we do have the story with historical background information. But at that time neither of us had found any newspaper accounts to validate any names attached to this event or that it actually happened. We will be taking another run at finding it and will update any results. Still Penfield had the story and he used newspapers, he was the earliest of the three authors, so I expect there should be an account (source) that he used and that is what we will be looking for.
Feb 11:
Still nothing in the old newspapers to validate the crime.
Feb 12:
Now a few days ago on a Facebook page someone asked a question about a treasure in another state. I told them I had a bunch of books for that state, mostly in storage. But here I had one on the shelf and reading before getting a nap for work, I find the one they inquire about is so similar. I will have to later present it. It could explain not finding anything on this one.
Feb 13:
The Buried Burlington Treasure;
From the book I quoted, (Treasure Tales of the Rockies by Perry Eberhart) the story for Kit Carson County, Colorado is two brothers were traveling and one was killed by Indians. The survivor buried his brother and their money and made his way to Denver. He had marked the money with a kingbolt from an old wagon. The land ended up becoming the Shaal Homestead. Shaal found the kingbolt and removed it but did not know about the treasure. This version claims that folks over the years hunted with metal detectors but failed to find the money.
So the different versions by Penfield, Thomas Terry, Jameson and now Eberhart a fourth author are involved. It is possible that this Lost Treasure story is a Colorado one and that it made an old newspaper in Wyoming. The quality of the scanned preserved newspapers was poor and hard to read and the article was thought to involve Wyoming. So if you are into researching old newspapers you will know exactly how this could have happened.
I have gone over thousands of Wyoming newspaper pages and so far failed to find this Kingbolt story, a bank or stage robbery involving this much money or any of the names involved. It might turn up searching in Colorado events.
I think the Burlington treasure sounds like the same treasure written about by the previous other authors. But still it hasn’t been proved 100 percent that it is.
Prior to the Jan 23, entry several years went into researching as many lost treasures of Wyoming as possible. So this one has been a project!

 

[Tiredman]

Need to update the story:
Another update to the kingbolt story! I was reading a copy of "More Doubloons & Other Buried Treasure," 1970 Thomas P Terry and on page 24 there it was. In a letter in the Washington D.C. Treasury Dept. In what I call the treasure trove files, in 1928 from W.A. Fleming mailed from Slayer, Wyoming it tells of $40,000 from a stage robbery buried 200 feet from the trail and marked with a kingpin. Years later robbers son plowed up the bolt and wants someone to come help retrieve the treasure.