North Ga Treasure

[rebelfirefighter07]

I have heard 2 seperate stories about lost treasure in North Ga. One is of the Waterhouse Treasure that is supposed to be a cave with Cherokee gold hidden inside. The other is of Confederate money and supplies that were placed in a cave then the mouth destroyed as the Confederates moved south towards Resaca, Ga during the Atlanta Campaign. I have personally searched with no luck for the one that holds the Confederate treasure. I know an older man whose family has lived in the same area since before the Civil War. His great great uncle was very old when this man was a boy but told him how they used to play around the cave before the Confederates destroyed it. By this time he was too old to go up the mountain and show him. The family has never been able to find the cave. I find this reasonable as this area is extremely rocky as this was the area stones were cut to build a nearby railroad tunnel before the war. It all looks the same, rocky. Regarding the other treasure I recently had a friend tell me that a guy he works with found a cave on his family's property that we now have permission to check out. This could reasonably be the cave. I just would like to know what others have heard about these two legends.

 

[CaptJohn]

I sent you a PM, you need to log-on to get to it. The WaterHouse story is difficult to believe and/or believe it would still be there. in 1890, A fellow named WaterHouse said he and some other fellows found a cave that had 1000 bars , most six ft long 9 inches wide 9 inches thick, a few were smaller. Gold , all covered with 1/4 inch of copper. He said he needed to raise money for an expedition back to the cave with equip. needed to haul it out. All this was put in a Tn. Newspaper. Humm.... he may have gottern bushwacked. Also he was a farmer but family had a hotel in Cohutta GA. Maybe he wanted to fill it up? Its guessed he found the cave on Rocky Face Mt. a few miles below Keith Ga.
I don't know how or why anyone would want to coat the gold with copper, or be able to lift it to do so. I don't guess Waterhouse was able to lift it either, so maybe they were not complety covered with copper. Not sure how much that would weigh. Most likely beyond the amt 2 men could litf or move any great distance.

 

[CaptJohn]

I found another small bit of info. It was believed that Indians stole 1000 bars of gold from a wagon train of the Dalonaga Mint. (either taking to or from....) Question, would it have been a practice of a Mint to coat these big bars with copper? maybe to keep them from chaffing gold off during transport or to keep people from whittling gold off of them...? But how many gaurds would YOU use to gaurd YOUR 1000 bars of gold? How could a robbery have taken place, I guess its possible..... It sure took several strong guys to place 1000 bars in a cave. But then why was it left there for Waterhouse to find decades later? But again, maybe Mr. Waterhouse made up this part of the story also. Remember his family had a Hotel.
ButIts been said that the Indian had less of a desire to own or trade with gold, then he had to just hide it or keep it from the Whiteman, since the Whites loved it so.
But 1000 bars that size, how many wagons would it have taken to transport it all? I think a wagon has room to hold more gold than its axles would support, so maybe 100 wagons, 10 bars each , 50 wagons.. 20 bars each? There is no way you could do a 'hold up' on 100, or even 50 wagons!.
AW!!! maybe it WAS 1000 gold bars (but small ones) 'stacked" in several piles 6 foot long and 9 inches high and wide !!!!

 

[SomeGuy]

Somebody correct my math...I figure one of those 6' bars would contain over 3800 lbs of gold, plus the weight of the copper.

 

[Seabee]

Somebody correct my math...I figure one of those 6' bars would contain over 3800 lbs of gold, plus the weight of the copper.

Iagree. This sounds more logical then 6 foot bars

 

[CaptJohn]

Yep, I understand that the Chattanooge Tn. newspaper in 1890 reported that Mr. Waterhouse found 1000 bars of gold 6 foot long by 9 niches wide by nine inches tall. But every time i read something in a newspaper THAT I KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT, they usually have parts of it wrong. So I'll go with a lot of small bars stacked in 6 foot piles....
NOW, Does anyone think it is still there

 

[amos316]

just my 2 cents and what i know of the story

"William Waterhouse, a young white farmer of Keith, Georgia...claims to have found a cave in the fastness of the mountains.." Ernest Andrews, who wrote "Georgia's Fabulous Treasure Hoards" claims to have found a Waterhouse family who owned a hotel in Cohutta, Georgia, a few miles east of Keith. He guesses that the cave would be located on Rocky Face, based on earlier research. This, by the way, would put it almost exactly in the middle of the old Cherokee gold fields.
have other bits and peices but yall get the idea

now as far as covering them with copper
in those days copper wasnt worth a whole lot
so wouldnt it make sence if you didnt want someone to steal your gold to make them think it was somehting else
just my 2 cents but maby they were trying to fool someone and make them think it wasnt gold

 

[CaptJohn]

I have that book and a few others. I am going thru them trying to deterime the most possible treasure sites that may still be there between the Cartersville Acworth area, and in general to the east and northeast all the way to Toccoa. Then later this year I plan to visit each area and put some special equipment to use. I don't plan to go to this WaterHouse site area. Not yet, I may some day. I would be interested in meeting several of you from those areas. I have a place to stay in Acworth and in Clayton.

 

[jeremeysmom23]

20 years ago I saw the cave with my own eyes it is on Rocky Face. The opening is the size of a basketball.So busy hunting for relics that i didnt hunt it.but i do know where its at.then moved back to Mississippi and then
still wonder bout it.learned bout Gold there years later.Today still could go to it its burned its image in my
brain.

 

[ryn8a]

I will have my MD here this week. I'm ready willing and able to spend some time out there.

 

[TwT]

the only one I ever heard about that happened around here has a book written about it

Legend of the Lost Gold of the Confederacy The main house of Chennault Plantation.

One of Georgia's most lingering and possibly lucrative mysteries is that of the lost Confederate gold. Worth roughly $100,000 in 1865, when it disappeared, it would be a small fortune in today's dollars--around one million dollars.

On the night of May 24, 1865, two wagon trains filled with gold, one containing the last of the Confederate treasury and the other money from Virginia banks, were robbed at Chennault Crossroads in Lincoln County.

Chennault Plantation, owned by Dionysius Chennault who was an elderly planter and Methodist minister, played a significant role in the story. The gold was to be returned to France who had loaned the money to support the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis had given his word that the gold would be returned regardless of the outcome of the war. Towards the end of the war, Captain Parker of the Navy and a group of other volunteers brought the gold from Richmond, Virginia, to Anderson, South Carolina, by train and from there by wagon hoping to get to Savannah to load it on a waiting ship.

here a video below, just click "Watch" beside the title
http://www.gpb.org/georgiatraveler/202-legend

book
http://www.rebelandtherose.com/book.html

 

[rebelfirefighter07]

I will have my MD here this week. I'm ready willing and able to spend some time out there.

we may have to hook up and hunt together sometime.

 

[Slingshot]

On the Waterhouse treasure I have a few items to add to the story. I'm at work and doing this from memory, and don't have acess to my files at the moment. White men have been in this part of the country since before Columbus as the Moors were here mining and trading, also the Spanish were here mining up until just before the Cherokee were robbed of all their land by the state of Georgia and Federal Government. There is a Spanish style arastra near Cohutta Ga., and it was there when the first white English speaking people setteled in the area after forcing the rightful owners out. This is a primitive ore crusher used for extracting gold and silver from native rock. If memory serves me right there is a Ga. state historical marker at the arastra site. Where is the mine? There was a lot of placer gold found in one of the bends of the coosa river during a 1950's river dredging operation, and the source of the gold was never located, this is close to this area. Rocky Face is too far North and West for someone to hunting on from Keith, but there is a range of three ridges that are just south and west from Keith, and this is where I would personally begin to search. The Spanish used to pour molton gold into copper sheaths to disguise the gold as copper. This was a practice that they used in the 1500's - 1600's because of the dangers of transporting open gold on land and at sea, kind of a camoflage. I have long felt that there is truth to this treasure story, and I understand that the original family still spends time searching for the location of the cave. I've been hunting on a foggy wet day in a ridgy area and ended up on the wrong ridge, but I would have sworn I was on the ridge I originally intended to hunt on, and maybe this is what happend to this guy, and could possibly be why he never could relocate the cave hole. By the way, the only reason he found the cave was because his hunting dog chased something into it, and he went in to get his dog out. There are hundreds of caves in these limestone ridges, and care should be taken when entering them. My Uncle crawled into one once looking for Indian artifacts, and as his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light at the mouth of the cave he discovered he was sitting in the middle of a snake den, he made it back out without being injured but is very reluctant to enter any small cave holes anymore. By the way, these three ridges are in a National Forest, take care!

 

[ryn8a]

That's good info, thanks! Do you still make it out to GA?

 

[rebelfirefighter07]

where abouts is the arastra located. I live around here and all you've said is new info to me. I'm interested in hearing more.

 

[Slingshot]

I looked for my notes on the Waterhouse Treasure, and can locate no info on my statement about the arastra, although I am apparently incorrect about there being a historical marker at the site as I checked all the Whitfield markers on the net and see nothing mentioned. I did refresh myself with some of the notes that I had taken over twenty years ago when I was researching this treasure. The Chattanooga newspapers ran this story on 8/8/1890 according to my notes. If someone in Hamilton County TN could do some research at their historical society, then more light might be shed on this story. Most believe Rocky Face is the location of the lost cave. This mountain has been scoured by Civil War relic hunters for the past 50 years looking for relics from the battle that took place there in 1864. Dalton was the 1863 - 1864 winter camp of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, and they were all over the ridge preparing defensive positions, and scouting during this time. I am just saying that a lot of people have been all over this mountain in historical times, and that I believe the Waterhouse party used Rocky Face as a diversion to steer people away from where they had actually located the cave containing the treasure. Look at a topo map and I believe you will agree that Rocky Face is quite a distance from Keith, and in 1890 Dalton was a bustling community on the railroad, and quite built up for those times. So why would you spend a whole day traveling over to Dalton to hunt on Rocky Face when there were some very good hunting grounds in your local vicinity, and with less hunting pressure from the higher population in Dalton?

 

[rebelfirefighter07]

A hard truth of noth georgia is that its covered in caves so it'd be nearly impossble to find it. Some of them have openings that a person couldn't squeeze in then open on up inside. I seen what your saying about distance. The first part of rockyface ridge is a good ways from dalton walking wise. Its a very long ridge. Theres no telling

 

[ok2raise]

i am new in here . i have lived in the dalton area most of my life. i have been in 1 cave north of dalton about 25 years ago in the dawnville . just explorring it. the other guy i was with has been it several times. but never coverd every inch. but i do remember my father telling me about 10 miles south of there they use to be a iron ore mine. i have deer hunted that area many times and also checked out the area a few times with my metal detector but all i found was a stillllll i did read in the dalton archives that indians took a settler that lived in spring place to a silver mine they blind folded him and rode several miles before they entered the cave.
some of you older hunter on here might know me . in the one that was trying to tune my white machine standing over a breast plate. good thing i desited to dig i was about to wrap it aruond a treeand also found 8 artilery shells in one hole. anyways maybe this will help anyoneyou never know about rumours
one more thing might be of interest my father told me him and his brother use to shoot flips with mini ball in them that they found in a field near here so i checked it out . me and my kids went out and welll i filled my pockets ,my kids pocket ,my knap sack they also both their hand full.also a lot of good stuff came out of that field.
i guess my point is that it never hurt to check anything out

 

[rebelfirefighter07]

Do you live around the dalton area?

 

[ok2raise]

Do you live around the dalton area?

yes i lve in this area and resaca for about 45 years