The Robert and Sarah Morriss Story

Rebel - KGC

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Boots on the ground. I have been in some of those vent shafts. They go down at about a 30 degree angle, large enough to walk down. The chiggers from the bears will eat you up. The shafts at the bottom always turn back to the left towards Sharp Top Mountain. Unless you are further North of the Peaks of Otter then they always turn South towards the Peaks of Otter. There are marvels in those mountains some men have never seen and never will unless they put on their hiking boots. But be careful about the bears.
Putting on my Hiking Boots... call me "Daniel Boone". WHERE do we start...?
 

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franklin

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Putting on my Hiking Boots... call me "Daniel Boone". WHERE do we start...?

Go up to the overlook of Upper Goose Creek Valley which is on your right as you go North. Park there. then walk up the road a couple hundred yards and go down a ridge there to your left on the Botetourt County side. If you bare to the right as you go about a hundred yards or so down this ridge, you will see one of the vents to your right just under the ridge. Be careful in that area as there are faults, cracks and even holes everywhere down in there. On down a little towards the hollow is a large cavern and inside of it further down in another cavern is where the Cheyenne Indian from Montana found a silver bar, photographed it and left it as the law requires only to have the Park Ranger with him to come back and steal the silver bar. He had a contract to excavate and they even brought in heavy equipment, but when the rangers considered the area dangerous with the fault lines the excavating had been ordered to be scrapped.

Please be careful of the bears. There is a copper mine on the other side of this hollow with timbers and all. You can see the sides and roof where pine torches has scorched them black. Find you some copper ore then get the H--- out of there.

One other thing the place is called Purgatory Mountain so you have to decide whether you want to check it out or not. It is fun and the mountain is steep. The old road ran down near there in the old days before the CC Camps built the Parkway Road. Be careful.
 

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Rebel - KGC

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LOL! Joe found some stuff... Bobblet's Gap...? PV has him mentioned @ 3 times; THE BEALE TREASURE: NEW History of a MYSTERY.
 

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franklin

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LOL! Joe found some stuff...?

He sure did. I wish I could get a copy of his book. I think he copyrighted a book but did not publish. I do not know if he is still living or not. He is a good man. I enjoyed working with him and my brother as CHY/PIC HOLT. We followed that old road all the way to Apple Orchard Overlook about four miles north of the Peaks of Otter. Indian Joe as we called him of course you know his real name. But that was not his given name. The name he gave my brother and I, we told him with that name he could never be Chief. I will tell you why some day.

We were up there one day searching, a storm was coming up, we could see it in the distance and hear the thunder. Joe told us he knew a short-cut back to the truck. He went down across a hollow, through a laurel thicket, crossing a branch. We then went further and again crossed the same branch. My brother and I asked him are we not going back in the same direction. He said oh no I know my way around in the woods. We had removed a small sapling out of our line of work that day and my brother pointing out the same sapling. Indian Joe said well what do you know that is the first time I have gone full circle. I have another story or two of our exploits. I will post later if you want to hear them.

Joe's book was called something with the name of "Chair Rock Ridge" can not remember the full name.
 

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Rebel - KGC

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Go up to the overlook of Upper Goose Creek Valley which is on your right as you go North. Park there. then walk up the road a couple hundred yards and go down a ridge there to your left on the Botetourt County side. If you bare to the right as you go about a hundred yards or so down this ridge, you will see one of the vents to your right just under the ridge. Be careful in that area as there are faults, cracks and even holes everywhere down in there. On down a little towards the hollow is a large cavern and inside of it further down in another cavern is where the Cheyenne Indian from Montana found a silver bar, photographed it and left it as the law requires only to have the Park Ranger with him to come back and steal the silver bar. He had a contract to excavate and they even brought in heavy equipment, but when the rangers considered the area dangerous with the fault lines the excavating had been ordered to be scrapped.

Please be careful of the bears. There is a copper mine on the other side of this hollow with timbers and all. You can see the sides and roof where pine torches has scorched them black. Find you some copper ore then get the H--- out of there.

One other thing the place is called Purgatory Mountain so you have to decide whether you want to check it out or not. It is fun and the mountain is steep. The old road ran down near there in the old days before the CC Camps built the Parkway Road. Be careful.
UGCV is north on the BRP from Rt. 460, near Roanoke/Vinton... past Montvale. I know of MANY Iron Ore Mines in Roanoke County (West side - BRP); Iron Mines Hollow IS "of Interest". Purgatory Mountain is in Botetourt County, near Buchanan, Va.; at the base, along the River was the "General" area of the Beale Family Plantation - "Blue Fountain" (I think)... AND! If TJB knew of this "old" volcano, he PROBABLY knew of lava tube "tunnels"; WOULD be a nice place to hide stuff; TOO steep for us to drive up to the top. "Google" Purgatory Mountain Look Out.
 

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franklin

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UGCV is north on the BRP from Rt. 460, near Roanoke/Vinton... past Montvale. I know of MANY Iron Ore Mines in Roanoke County (West side - BRP); Iron Mines Hollow IS "of Interest". Purgatory Mountain is in Botetourt County, near Buchanan, Va.; at the base, along the River was the "General" area of the Beale Family Plantation - "Blue Fountain" (I think)... AND! If TJB knew of this "old" volcano, he PROBABLY knew of lava tube "tunnels"; WOULD be a nice place to hide stuff; TOO steep for us to drive up to the top. "Google" Purgatory Mountain Look Out.

That particular TJB we have with research ruled out as being on any treasure expedition as he was dead in NO. But anyway he was in those areas when he was a young man. He also loved to fox hunt and bear hunt. So he knew a lot of caves and tunnels. Those tunnels from the volcano would be perfect. You can walk down by barely ducking your head and about ten or twelve feet wide. They go down for 60 to 100 feet and then open up into a larger chamber running the length of the mountains.
 

Rebel - KGC

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He sure did. I wish I could get a copy of his book. I think he copyrighted a book but did not publish. I do not know if he is still living or not. He is a good man. I enjoyed working with him and my brother as CHY/PIC HOLT. We followed that old road all the way to Apple Orchard Overlook about four miles north of the Peaks of Otter. Indian Joe as we called him of course you know his real name. But that was not his given name. The name he gave my brother and I, we told him with that name he could never be Chief. I will tell you why some day.

We were up there one day searching, a storm was coming up, we could see it in the distance and hear the thunder. Joe told us he knew a short-cut back to the truck. He went down across a hollow, through a laurel thicket, crossing a branch. We then went further and again crossed the same branch. My brother and I asked him are we not going back in the same direction. He said oh no I know my way around in the woods. We had removed a small sapling out of our line of work that day and my brother pointing out the same sapling. Indian Joe said well what do you know that is the first time I have gone full circle. I have another story or two of our exploits. I will post later if you want to hear them.

Joe's book was called something with the name of "Chair Rock Ridge" can not remember the full name.
Chair Rock Ridge IS familiar... MORE "Joe stories" would be nice...
 

Rebel - KGC

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That particular TJB we have with research ruled out as being on any treasure expedition as he was dead in NO. But anyway he was in those areas when he was a young man. He also loved to fox hunt and bear hunt. So he knew a lot of caves and tunnels. Those tunnels from the volcano would be perfect. You can walk down by barely ducking your head and about ten or twelve feet wide. They go down for 60 to 100 feet and then open up into a larger chamber running the length of the mountains.
"TJB" died in N.O.?!!! You mean Thomas Beale, Sr./Jr. don't you...? Thomas Beale,Sr. could have been of "Blue Fountain", I reckon; read the Beale Family History at the library in Buchanan, Va. years ago. Was to talk with an "expert" from the "Chamber's Office", on the Beale Family & Purgatory Mountain... he was "out to lunch", so I left. "Out to lunch" usually means, GONE FOR THE DAY, in small towns...
 

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franklin

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Sorry about that. Why don't you start another thread about hunts around the Parway or Montvale.

See if the MOD'S can take our last few post and start a new thread?
 

ECS

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... That is the Robert Morriss of Lynchburg, Va. of the Beale Papers and his sisters and their husbands. Up to 1812 and they never mentioned Robert Morriss' wife, Sarah Mitchell. You notice that Leana did marry a John Dawson. After John's death she married William Warwick first Mayor of Lynchburg, Va. Their two daughters Anzoletta that married David Saunders Jr. at whose home Robert Morriss died in 1863. Also Maria that married Thomas Leftwich of Franklin County. I posted the Deed where Robert Morris gave all his furniture and appliances to Maria his niece. This in itself proves that Leanna Dawson that married William Warwick was Robert Morriss sister.

And this disproves for me the research and newspapers I had of the genealogy was wrong about Thomas Morris the half brother of Robert Morriss Jr., Signer of the DOI. For in these papers we find the Will of John Morris, Robert Morriss' true father.
Thank you cw0909 you have found the Loundon County Court Records that historians tell us were destroyed during the Civil War. Thank you very much.
...and thank you cw0909 for proving once and for all that the Robert Morris Jr, signer of the Declaration of Independence was NOT related to the Robert Morriss of the Beale Papers that has become misinformed lore.
What also needs to be corrected is that the Academy of Fine Arts building located at 600 Main Street in Lynchburg was NOT the home of Robert Morriss of the Beale Papers who died in 1863, for this building was built in 1905.
 

ECS

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Note on page 15 in the BEDFORD SENTINEL notice the court clerk was R D Buford, son of Pascal and Francis Buford of Buford's Inn, who, after being contacted by Vincent Witcher talked to Ward about removing the Beale Papers from sale...
The BEDFORD SENTINEL was a weekly newspaper in Liberty, Virginia.
 

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