Swift Silver??

boomer

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this type of run off can be found on caney creek just below the large mine where the slag was tossed over the side of the cliff down to the drain. back in those days you could walk across the creek. also on big sinking creek, upper part of sandy on the east side where a fire burned along the cliffs. a large silver vein runs where the dam is now and runs down rt. 1496 the road that heads east before the dam. two miles down that road on the left is silver mines branch. at the end of that branch and across the ridge is johns run creek where silver ore and bars where found but no trailing or slag, also around carter caves there are old silver mine openings, but a lot of lead and zinc in the veins. theirs a lot of silver and lead in those to counties, but its all on government land. has for testing of silver, if the acid test shows nothing, than the acid is bad or there is no metal content to register. acid test will shows a light green color its 65-75% silver, 77-90% silver a gray color, 90-100% silver a creamy color.
 

Brushy Bandit

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Thanks for info Boomer, my home place is just off 1496. I'm very familiar with the area. There is a green tint with the acid test on one piece, the other looks creamy to me, maybe grayish. I have nothing to compare it too. Im certain both contain silver, but I'm not an expert with the acid test, or metallurgy at all, unless it comes to welding it.
 

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KY Hiker

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I would like to know hiker, but I think it would be disaster to destroy the pieces themselves. Great information tho. Thank ya

Just putting myself in your shoes. If I said I found a big hunk of metal that has silver in it the first question people will ask after where you found it is...How do you know it has silver in it? Or How much silver is in it? I understand keeping in tact but understand there will always be those with skepticism.
 

Brushy Bandit

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I for sure understand where your comin from, but the quality of the silver really ain't important to me. It's that these prove there has been silver found and smelted in this area in the past. I've always heard the legends and myths, and always thought of them as just that, merely stories. These pieces prove to me ,if only me,that there is silver in them there hills. All the other pieces that would prove this have forever eluded me. Either lost to time, kept in secret, or simply just stories, not saying there isn't some of these pieces out there, but my search for them has always ran into a dead end.
 

KY Hiker

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So did you see any evidence of a furnace above the find location(s). Piles of loose rocks (collapsed furnace) or charred area under overhang/rockhouse?
 

Brushy Bandit

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There has been fires in the rock house in the distant past for sure, you can dig and find flint by the piles, :headbang:and charred pieces but I haven't found any evidence of a smelter yet.
 

EC.Mason

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Bushy after reading Boomer, yours and others posts, I can think of two spots where your pieces may have been found. And again I say may because I don't know. However if its in one of the two places I'm thinking of there is an abundance of loose rocks stung about, and there is a good possibility of a furnace being there but after 200+ or - years things have changed. Rocks have been threw about and people, like myself have looked for clues and other signs of the mine. I think, and again I don't know where you found this, but from your description, I believe that there is enough mining or excavation evidence there to show that a furnace was very possible in the same location you found your samples. Perhaps, the rock house you found them was were the furnace was and not the mine.? However If I was going to smelt silver, why would I carry it down the cliffs and smelt it away from where I was digging it? Makes no sense. I would mine it and smelt it as close as I possibly could. I believe that were you found that metal, whether silver, lead, or whatever was from someone who was looking for those precious metals in that spot.

There has been fires in the rock house in the distant past for sure, you can dig and find flint by the piles, :headbang:and charred pieces but I haven't found any evidence of a smelter yet.
 

Brushy Bandit

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There are loose rocks even s tacked rocks within 500 ft but in the rock house uphill of where I found them. I didn't see anything I thought to be significant, but I'm not claiming to be an expert at all.
The pieces were found in two seperate locations.
I believe that the pieces will speak for themselves, I'll gladly show them to anyone interested. Now the exact locations they came from may be harder to come by.
 

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EC.Mason

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I really think you found something significant Brushy. Its been great texting with you on here as well. You have put a lot of faith in many of us who were starting to doubt the Indian Waybill. Your find is the greatest I've ever seen in the Waybill story. Thanks again for sharing with us.
 

OP
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DSL

DSL

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this type of run off can be found on caney creek just below the large mine where the slag was tossed over the side of the cliff down to the drain. back in those days you could walk across the creek. also on big sinking creek, upper part of sandy on the east side where a fire burned along the cliffs. a large silver vein runs where the dam is now and runs down rt. 1496 the road that heads east before the dam. two miles down that road on the left is silver mines branch. at the end of that branch and across the ridge is johns run creek where silver ore and bars where found but no trailing or slag, also around carter caves there are old silver mine openings, but a lot of lead and zinc in the veins. theirs a lot of silver and lead in those to counties, but its all on government land. has for testing of silver, if the acid test shows nothing, than the acid is bad or there is no metal content to register. acid test will shows a light green color its 65-75% silver, 77-90% silver a gray color, 90-100% silver a creamy color.

If all these pieces have been "found" Boomer I've got some valid questions. Where are they now? Where are the pics of the pieces and bars? If you know Caney Creek is loaded with these type pieces then I'm sure you have found some. Even if on government land when found why were no pictures taken of the pieces and then just leave them where found? Not trying to blow you're post but all things you mention in it are nowhere to be seen or found anywhere. No validation of any kind.
 

swiftfan

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EC isn't Grayson Lake the area Boomer and the others met one year? (I have read all the threads on here and seem to recall it). Seems I recall a thread mentioning the probability of a large vein being found while building the dam? Or am I confusing this with another location?

Yeah we met there one year. I got there kinda late, and they had already went to out to an area we discussed. And it has been mentioned about the silver vein. Now should be a time to look, as a lot of lakes lower their levels in the winter.
 

boomer

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well let me tell you dsl: go to the mine on caney, put on a wet suit, go down into the mine about 50 yards or 100 yards at low pool and you can chip and find ore at the upper left side. go outside the mine walk to the edge of the cliff, dive in the water and go down about 40 feet and you will find wonderful things. you could go west from the mine and find another mine on the edge of the creek, where all the large rock is and rock above that form a dead fall that will wipe out anyone moving the wrong rocks. there are 7 mines in a 4 mile area from the line of rock. don't care about slag or runoff photos, does not help me in finding coins or tugs.
researching and finding where they hide the good stuff is. two many signs of Spanish and French and Indians in this area. the same Spanish carvings I found in Jackson county and around Beattyville and part lead to forks of little sandy and cane creek. breaking down the carvings of the miners and knowing how they relate to the area will break the case. running around and guessing at what some rocks mean does not help. I wasted 3 years running around with that swift book in hand and got no where. so I had to stop an wise up. that's why I say do the research first than go looking. yes I have found many things, but now I help treasure hunters with maps and carvings. has for swift? I have never found a thing that points to him, there are a lot of fake carvings and maps and stories going around. 40 years of this and still nothing to show on swift. hell, there are people in north part of south Carolina looking. if you want to see the key to the hiding places, climb up on the chimney rock in the middle of little sandy river at line of rock and you will see what research is.
 

Brushy Bandit

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Grayson lake is at winter pool way down. I've been almost stuck in the mud up to my knees , both knees, more than once. Hairy situation, but can't let crawling thru the mud be a stopping point. Clothes be froze before ya back to the truck. I've crawled up bluffs a tarpin would roll down, haha, this area is amazin to me, nothin has been able to keep me away.
 

Brushy Bandit

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I think if you saw these pieces you'd be more appreciative of them, Im certain at least one of them and possibly the other is more than Slag. When the petunia is scratched it is bright shiny silver.
Also I'm not saying these pieces were smelted by Swift, maybe but that's not my first assumption. If there's anything left to find, I'm gonna find it. Unless it's buried 223 feet deep like on Oak Island, and if that's the case Im waiting on a call from the history channel. I could go to hunting tomorrow, with no overhead, except a bottle of Pepsi and find more than them fellers have with a multi million dollar budget.
Also Boomer what's a tug?
 

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Brushy Bandit

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14868377817411309108593.jpg Anyone have any ideas what this has been? I have no clue, but it came from that area down the creek a ways under a cliff , I also found quite a few old nails with it the square kind, not modern nails.
 

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boomer

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Brushy B: glad you brought up the mud and getting down and dirty and dam cold. some times so cold you shack better then a rock star. has for the tug. the Spanish would take silver shaped like a cake slice and butt them side by side on a mule so they could carry them easier. myself a small 3 or 4" by 8" by 2" bar would do the same thing. why? I don't know. the franch that mined smokey creek at carter caves state park and carter city did this. rick highs from Ashland was with us just past the lid gap on the caney side, the small mine opening there. he went down inside and found a leather type bag with the bottom of wood, it was more rot than bag. that photo kind of reminds me of that.
 

Brushy Bandit

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How far does the small mine opening go back Boomer, has anyone spelunked it to the end or till ya hit water?
I'm not looking for something from Swift or the KGC or anyone else else. I'm only hunting for what's there, hopefully when I find the coins, bars, tugs or whatever it may be, they have the miners home address cast in them. Although I'm certain anything I find is going to open up more questions.
Thank ya for sharing the Information, ya do have Boomer. It is your posts along with masons, curtis' and a few others that really got me interested in the hunt.
 

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