Lost Confederate Treasure Announcement

Michael Karpovage · May 24, 2022

Hello history lovers,

Attached is a PDF article released from the Washington Historical Museum of our discovery of treasure and relics from the May 24, 1865 gold wagon train robbery on the Moss plantation in the Graball, Georgia area. Today is the 157th anniversary of the robbery – the most famous in the state of Georgia. Our relic hunting team had been at this for almost two years and finally we can go public with the finds. Enjoy the thrill, it's one helluva story!

Best,
Michael Karpovage

Michael Karpovage · May 24, 2022

Here is the 1862 coin and M1858 revolver that we found. Photographed inside a lightbox by Michael Grafton Photography.

GDub62 · May 24, 2022

Wow that's determination! Great story

Michael Karpovage · Jul 15, 2025

5 years ago today! One of the most thrilling, exciting, interesting, and angriest times in my life – the latter because of the disgusting character flaws that was revealed in people once greed set in. It was a true test of personal character for myself and thank God I stepped away at the right time or I would have been lost literally at the bottom of a well.

Michael Karpovage · Jul 15, 2026

I very rarely make 1-Star Amazon reviews, but this is of one of the most horrible movies ever made about the Lost Confederate Treasure. This is the robbery that pertains to the discoveries we made per this announcement.

Amazon Link to Review.

Review:
"Congratulations on making history as the absolute worst low budget rendition of this epic true story. It's a legendary treasure that I had the opportunity of a lifetime to hunt for on the actual Moss Plantation finding several Mexican silver coins and relics in 2020 and again in 2026. Our team researched this robbery deep in the dusty archives of history based on actual eyewitness testimony. So, I was especially excited to see this movie hit Prime and how the producers would tell this classic tale.

But lo and behold, this movie is just a jaw-dropping horrible production. Utterly embarrassing that it was even released. Even the AI-generated cover artwork was wrong showing a locomotive robbery. It was a wagon train robbery in a camp. It's not a Western genre movie either. I mean, who even wrote the script, a 10-year old or an AI engine drunk on Civil War history? The question/answer interrogation type dialogue to try and tell such a complex story to the viewer was horrendous. Hell, there wasn't even a suspenseful plot, let alone a main character.

So many things were wrong in the twisting of real history and real people, the descendants of whom live today. That's what makes me angry as a historian. Who thought this garbage would be appealing for an entertaining historical drama? The pacing, the editing, the camera work, and holy crap – the acting – was all just abysmal. One guy was even reading from a cue card you could so blatantly tell. And a gender-swapped Union private? Unreal. Let alone the overweight, old soldiers who were clearly amateurs recruited to fill roles they should have never been in. But that was the only good thing about this movie – the uniforms and equipment. I'm so sorry for the reenactors who probably thought they'd be part of something special in cinema. They weren't even allowed to point their guns directly at the other soldiers in battle!

Please do watch it for the humor of how bad it is. And give it the 1-star it deserves so history will never forget the hacks that mess it all up for a quick buck (pun intended)."

Michael Karpovage · Aug 17, 2026

This legendary robbery site keeps on producing! This time it's 2026. I recently appeared on Josh Gates's Expedition Unknown show on The Discovery Channel: Season 17, Episode 8: Chasing Civil War Gold. It originally aired on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. And we found yet ANOTHER silver Mexican 8-Reale coin (dated 1861), not too far from where our previous team in 2020 found the revolver and Mexican 1862 coin (with hole) in the ravine – per my original post.

Troy McCormick-Josh Gates silver 8-Reale April 2026 discovery Moss plantation with Karpovage ...webp

Treasure Hunter Troy McCormick dug this baby out and it was a thrill of a lifetime for him. His hands were shaking when he pulled that silver out. Said to me it was the greatest discovery in his career. And just like back in 2020, that silver looked in fine condition – not blackened – because the clay packed Georgia soil sealed that puppy in place for 160 years looking the same as it went in. I walked up on them right after they extracted it and damn, there were some Holy (bleeps) coming out of my mouth. Just simply amazing seeing a brand new (albeit quite old) coin yet again some six years later!! WhoooHoo!

Prior to that we found half of a pocket watch, axe head, and horse bridle piece among other farming implements and lots of garbage. And then a uniform button from Union NY Infantry that had me perplexed as I only knew of Union Iowa Cavalry in this area at the time of the robbery (they were the escorts of the bank treasure wagon train). You can see how I speculate on the show one possibility is that the Ex-Confederate Tenn. Cavalry who committed the robbery were known to have worn Yankee blue coats – perhaps at the time deliberately in disguise. The bank clerk who was being robbed even thought they were Union that night because the leader of the robbery kept shouting "Rebel Lies!" when the pleading bank clerk said repeatedly he had a Union passport to travel back to Richmond, VA. So, this speculatively fits as a scenario to tie the clue to the scene.

If you've got a subscription, check this Episode out. Here's a link to ROKU. Josh Gates really told the story of this robbery quite well given the constraints of squeezing so much information, narrative, guests, animation, drama, action, robbery re-enactors, metal detecting, ATVing, SkiDooing, etc., etc. into just 40 minutes – because of commercials. Was really cool to see how the show gets produced while literally in the field. I thank Gates, the film crew, McCormick, and Cliff Adams and his Relic Rats team for having me on as their guest to show off the pistol we found back in 2020 on his very popular TV show. What a fun time and great experience it was to have so many history and treasure hunters all in one place! Especially with my good buddy Michael Grafton. And it wouldn't have taken place if not for the permission of the descendants of the Moss family. A thrill to hunt side by side with Tom G. again. Now his family has a souvenir keepsake that will forever live in their family's history.