Re the “Dents Run Gold”: Apart from the objections already made - lack of any documentary evidence on mission, soldiers or loss of gold, use of new names on the supposedly old map, no need for gold coins when soldiers were being paid in greenbacks, honesty of the treasure hunters, etc. - it’s worth considering the claimed route. Ignoring the obvious benefits of shipment by a more heavily guarded train, perhaps through New York State, anyone reaching Ridgeway with a wagon headed towards central or southeastern PA would have taken the Milesburg - Smethport Pike, which had been in operation as a stage and wagon route since 1830. Another option, by mid 1863, was the rail bed of the Philadelphia (or Sunbury) and Erie Railroad, which was finished from Saint Marys through Emporium and on to southern Cameron Co., where track laying was progressing. Col. Thomas Kane had used this as a carriage road in 1862. Those two towns were established twenty years earlier, and were doubtless connected by a wagon road as well. The suspiciously detailed fable from the 1970’s seems to draft on the departure of the Bucktail Regiment companies from Driftwood in April 1861, when the railroad hadn’t gone much past Lock Haven. And, BTW, the supposed convoy had already reached the headwaters of Sinnemahoning Creek in St. Marys, and would have been following them along West Creek down to the Truman area. The whole story is a yarn that turned into a hoax, perhaps sucking in the FBI before they had a chance to evaluate how sketchy it was.
