Archeodeb
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- Joined
- Nov 3, 2012
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- Location
- SW Missouri
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- All Treasure Hunting
- #1
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I was searching through the archives here for something on the Yocum family, and of course, the famous Yocum silver dollars, and came across this post from 2007. I would have posted my response there, but since it got no replies first time around and has not been visited much since, I thought this needed to be re-posted as a new topic. (I hope that is okay. I do have some things to say about under this old post, if you keep reading.)
This is something I have long been interested in, but unfortunately the only information I can find is like this -- folk tradition and "...my pappy used to say..." kind of stuff. Not that that is not valuable too, but after hearing these legends repeated over and over with an addition here and a new twist there, given a few generations, it is hard to tell fact from fiction. For example, I think a lot of folks lose sight of the fact that Missouri is just not known for silver or gold deposits. (Lead, iron and a few other important things, but not precious metals.) Silver mines are just plain NOT likely in these parts.
However, what Missouri is known for (particularly in this area down near the Arkansas border) is a little thing called the Civil War. And the Civil War produced something Missouri did not naturally have -- gold and silver. Not mines or raw products, but finished bullion and coinage. (It's a funny thing about war -- it tends to require a lot of that stuff.)
Anyway, I started thinking about those old stories -- particularly those that said things along the lines of - "...whenever they needed money ...they [the Yocums] would go off for a few days [presumably to their mine] and come back with some new-made silver dollars..." I know just enough about mining, extracting and creating silver objects from raw material to know that you don't just go off for 'a few days' to dig ore and then come back with pure silver coins in a few days. (Well, not PURE silver, but very high quality -- by some accounts higher quality than the US government was producing at the time.) So, I'm guessing that contrary to the silver-mine legend, the Yocums probably had a stash of high-quality silver (coins, possibly, or good silver bullion, jewelry, housewares -- who knows) and that rather than mining, they were probably melting. If they had the rest of the process down pat, it is possible they could have turned out a good supply of coins in a few days that way. Where they got the silver is up for another debate -- stolen goods from army payloads on either side is a good bet, or just general looting of homes and travelers in the chaos of war. It could even have been fairly traded for through friendly natives who accumulated it over the years. That isn't the point here though.
My point is that instead of looking for a mine, we probably ought to be looking for a cave. (Another thing Missouri has plenty of.) I even have a couple in mind. The problem is that the "literature" on the subject is confusing. In one story we hear about a spot seemingly on the James River, in another its the White River; in one it may be Christian, Stone or some other county, then in another it's Taney Co. The stories have just enough common thread to make them convincing as a real tale that has been distorted by time, but not enough common details to pinpoint the location.
While researching our property title a few years back I came across a couple of interesting things:
#1, the courthouse records in Forsyth, MO (Taney County) only go back to the 1870s or so because the courthouse (as an institution -- not the same building or even the same location) was burned three times during the Civil War years. (Apparently by both sides -- one after the other, each time it was rebuilt.) I'm not sure what they had against it, but records were destroyed in each case. Most of the oldest records of settlement in this area are just plain gone, and only a few from the Civil War era remain as hand-written records (which I have seen).
#2, During my title research, I found to my great surprise, that our property was once owned by the Yocum family. This interested me a lot (for obvious reasons) at the time, but even more so in later years when I discovered a couple of other things on the property. One is a very old, and apparently bottom-less dump at an elevation of about 940' and in what looks like a small tributary of a larger creek running perpendicular to it. That alone is not significant, but at, or within 20' elevation higher or lower, we also discovered several year-round springs and a filled in cave. (Additionally, there are several unexplored, but known caves within a mile of our place on National Forest property -- all of which openings are within the same elevation.) We have spent the last 15 years digging out the cave (a sinkhole type -- typical of this area) but haven't had much time for that and have only managed to get down 20' or so, where it appears to branch off from the central well in 3 directions. That it connects to other subterranean chambers is obvious from the number of cave salamanders we have found in it, and from the fact that when we get heavy rains, it fills to the top with water, then drains away within 24 hours.
Now, I am not really expecting to come upon a horde of Yocum silver dollars or even a big stash of stolen silver jewelry, but it is intriguing to say the least. If I thought it was likely that our cave -- or one of the others nearby -- might be THE Yocum cave, I think I would suddenly find I had more time available to dig
, but as it is, I would need a bit more to go on before dropping everything to remove the mountains of dirt (or the huge dump) on the place. I don't exactly own heavy equipment (and I am too much an environmentalist/archaeologist to do it that way anyway), so it would likely take years. So... with all that in mind...
I would like to know if anyone here knows anything about the Yocum (or Yokum, Yoachum, Yoachim, Yoacum, Joachim -- all variants) family in SW Missouri, or if they have personal recollections of having been told stories about these silver dollars or a lost mine/cave etc. I would really like to collect these anecdotes to see if I can find any commonalities. (And anything to make me run for a pick and shovel.
)
Anyone?
This is something I have long been interested in, but unfortunately the only information I can find is like this -- folk tradition and "...my pappy used to say..." kind of stuff. Not that that is not valuable too, but after hearing these legends repeated over and over with an addition here and a new twist there, given a few generations, it is hard to tell fact from fiction. For example, I think a lot of folks lose sight of the fact that Missouri is just not known for silver or gold deposits. (Lead, iron and a few other important things, but not precious metals.) Silver mines are just plain NOT likely in these parts.
However, what Missouri is known for (particularly in this area down near the Arkansas border) is a little thing called the Civil War. And the Civil War produced something Missouri did not naturally have -- gold and silver. Not mines or raw products, but finished bullion and coinage. (It's a funny thing about war -- it tends to require a lot of that stuff.)
Anyway, I started thinking about those old stories -- particularly those that said things along the lines of - "...whenever they needed money ...they [the Yocums] would go off for a few days [presumably to their mine] and come back with some new-made silver dollars..." I know just enough about mining, extracting and creating silver objects from raw material to know that you don't just go off for 'a few days' to dig ore and then come back with pure silver coins in a few days. (Well, not PURE silver, but very high quality -- by some accounts higher quality than the US government was producing at the time.) So, I'm guessing that contrary to the silver-mine legend, the Yocums probably had a stash of high-quality silver (coins, possibly, or good silver bullion, jewelry, housewares -- who knows) and that rather than mining, they were probably melting. If they had the rest of the process down pat, it is possible they could have turned out a good supply of coins in a few days that way. Where they got the silver is up for another debate -- stolen goods from army payloads on either side is a good bet, or just general looting of homes and travelers in the chaos of war. It could even have been fairly traded for through friendly natives who accumulated it over the years. That isn't the point here though.
My point is that instead of looking for a mine, we probably ought to be looking for a cave. (Another thing Missouri has plenty of.) I even have a couple in mind. The problem is that the "literature" on the subject is confusing. In one story we hear about a spot seemingly on the James River, in another its the White River; in one it may be Christian, Stone or some other county, then in another it's Taney Co. The stories have just enough common thread to make them convincing as a real tale that has been distorted by time, but not enough common details to pinpoint the location.
While researching our property title a few years back I came across a couple of interesting things:
#1, the courthouse records in Forsyth, MO (Taney County) only go back to the 1870s or so because the courthouse (as an institution -- not the same building or even the same location) was burned three times during the Civil War years. (Apparently by both sides -- one after the other, each time it was rebuilt.) I'm not sure what they had against it, but records were destroyed in each case. Most of the oldest records of settlement in this area are just plain gone, and only a few from the Civil War era remain as hand-written records (which I have seen).
#2, During my title research, I found to my great surprise, that our property was once owned by the Yocum family. This interested me a lot (for obvious reasons) at the time, but even more so in later years when I discovered a couple of other things on the property. One is a very old, and apparently bottom-less dump at an elevation of about 940' and in what looks like a small tributary of a larger creek running perpendicular to it. That alone is not significant, but at, or within 20' elevation higher or lower, we also discovered several year-round springs and a filled in cave. (Additionally, there are several unexplored, but known caves within a mile of our place on National Forest property -- all of which openings are within the same elevation.) We have spent the last 15 years digging out the cave (a sinkhole type -- typical of this area) but haven't had much time for that and have only managed to get down 20' or so, where it appears to branch off from the central well in 3 directions. That it connects to other subterranean chambers is obvious from the number of cave salamanders we have found in it, and from the fact that when we get heavy rains, it fills to the top with water, then drains away within 24 hours.
Now, I am not really expecting to come upon a horde of Yocum silver dollars or even a big stash of stolen silver jewelry, but it is intriguing to say the least. If I thought it was likely that our cave -- or one of the others nearby -- might be THE Yocum cave, I think I would suddenly find I had more time available to dig
, but as it is, I would need a bit more to go on before dropping everything to remove the mountains of dirt (or the huge dump) on the place. I don't exactly own heavy equipment (and I am too much an environmentalist/archaeologist to do it that way anyway), so it would likely take years. So... with all that in mind...I would like to know if anyone here knows anything about the Yocum (or Yokum, Yoachum, Yoachim, Yoacum, Joachim -- all variants) family in SW Missouri, or if they have personal recollections of having been told stories about these silver dollars or a lost mine/cave etc. I would really like to collect these anecdotes to see if I can find any commonalities. (And anything to make me run for a pick and shovel.
)Anyone?
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