More interesting reading.

The Real Swift

Jr. Member
Aug 31, 2011
43
19
Manchester, KY
Detector(s) used
Whites Spectra V3i, White's Coinmaster Pro,Whites 5500/D Series 3
Spring Creek
Mystery Silver Mine
CLAY COUNTY – Could a long abandoned silver mine discovered by treasure hunters in 1900 be the fabled lost mine of Englishman Jonathan Swift? That was the question posed to the readers of Treasure World magazine in 1970 in a letter written by Raymond Dellh of Converse, Indiana.
Dellh told of a mysterious mine discovered by his father, grandfather and uncle, 70 years after-the-fact, where ore samples from the mine assayed at 70% silver with some nickel.
According to Dellh, his father told him that a number of human skeletons were found inside the abandoned mine when they first discovered it and recovered the ore samples that were assayed later.
Though the skeletons did disturb the three Dellh men, they decided to make a second trip to the mine. It was on their second trip that the three discovered they were being followed. This caused them to avoid the mine and to return home empty handed; it would also be their last trip to visit the old mine.
Raymond explained that a Knoxville man had considered re-opening the mine with his father and possibly uncle as partners. But he died shortly after the Dellh men had returned from their second trip, which killed the deal.
Raymond’s father had a map to the mine, which was lost when he later moved to Virginia. But Raymond’s description and location is good enough for any treasure hunter to begin a search.
Raymond described the mine as being “in Clay County, on Spring Creek off of Red Bird River.” According to his letter, Raymond had thought about trying to search for the old mine himself, but states a number of personal issues prevented him from doing so.
As far as anyone knows, Raymond never did get the opportunity to return to southeastern Kentucky to look for the abandoned mine found by his father 70 years earlier.
The confluence of Spring Creek and the Red Bird River mentioned in Raymond’s letter can be found on the county line separating Clay and Leslie counties on State Highway 66 at Lower Spring Creek Road. By following Lower Spring Creek Road roughly 2.6/10ths of a mile you should come to a driveway leading to a cemetery. It is in this vicinity where the Dellh men discovered the old mine.


State Treasure - Kentucky | Lost Treasure Online - Official Website of Lost Treasure Magazine
 


This rock is very near the place mentioned above. Its only 5 or 6 miles from where I live.




605224d1332731473t-turtleback-rock-turtleback-rock.jpg
 

Full text of "The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796, including the boundaries of the state"

Haywood's history of Tennessee. 47

tliese furnaces are. He had with him a journal of his former
transactions, by which it appeared that in 1761, 1762, and 1763,
and afterward in 1767, he, two Frenchmen, and some few others
had a furnace somewhere about the Red Bird Fork of the Ken-
tiicky Kiver,
which runs toward the Cumberland River and
Mountain, north-east of the mouth of Clear Creek. He and his
associates made silver in large quantities at the last-mentioned
furnaces. They got the ore from a cave about three miles from
the place where his furnace stood. The Indians becoming
troublesome, he went ofp, and the Frenchmen who were with
him went toward the place now called Nashville. Swift was de-
terred from the prosecution of his last journey by the reports
he heard of Indian hostility, and returned home, leaving his
journal in the possession of Mrs. Renfro. The furnaces on
Clear Creek, and those on the South Fork of the Cumberland,
were made either before or since the time when Swift worked
his. The walls of these furnaces, and horn buttons of Euro-
pean manufacture found in a rock house, prove that Europeans
erected them. It is probable, therefore, that the French, when
they claimed the country to the Alleghanies in 1754 and prior
to that time, and afterward up to 1758, erected these works. A
rock house is a cavity beneath a rock jutted out from the side
of a mountain, affording a cover from the weather to those who
are below it. In one of these was found a furnace and human
bones and horn buttons, supposed to have been a part of the
dress which had been buried with the body to which the bones
belonged. It is probable that the French who were with Swift
showed him the place where the ore was.
 

I've looked some and found the rock in the picture above. There is another piece of the same rock standing on its end about 50 feet below this. I believe this to be "turtle rock". There are two cemetaries on Spring Creek or so I've been told. I've found one but haven't found the other yet. From what I've been told the other is a much older cemetary than the one I've found. I've tried to track down relatives of the guy in the article but so far no luck. This falls well within the area of the Filson/Breckinridge treasure warrant and Judge John Haywoods description as you can see. There are carvings galore, turkey tracks and masonic in the vicinity.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top