Update on Pigeon Water Cave.

[swiftsearcher]

I didn't get to go hunting Sat. with the two members I was suppose to b/c of a babysitter not showing.

However, my better half was at home yesterday and with it being a beautiful day, I decided to go out. I drove over KY to Lower Pigeon Water Creek. I knew from a map I had that there is an old dirt road that goes to the top of the mountain and Pigeon Water Cave. About a mile from the turn off, up the road, there is now a gate blocking the road with Private Property and No Trespassing signs.

Seems that someone must have bought the property and might have found other treasures? Anyone have any update on anything being found. I know there is no way to get there now, but would love to hear what all was found in the cave, if anything, other than the silver statue and coins.

 

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[grizzly bare]

That cave has been on private property for years. Back about 10-12 years ago some treasure hunters from Florida heard the story of the silver coins and came to search WITHOUT PERMISSION. They were looking for the larger cave where Swift allegedly killed the two Indians and walled up much silver coinage. Surprise! They were looking in the wrong area because they had assumed that the two treasure tales had some connection. They dynamited around the area for a few days but found nothing interesting (to them!!) The owner of the property was informed of what was happening and came to see for himself. He was appalled at the damage and asked them to leave. One of the TH'ers got lippy with the owner. who drove to Jenkins and had the sheriff come out and tell the guys to leave. That's when the signs were posted.
(stage directions, music starts low in the background. Drums, flutes, NA voices in song)
The Florida group had caused so much damage that the water in the caves had gone crazy. What had been an accessible cave became impassable because the mouth was filled with water. An intrepid TH'er who was a sort-of kin to the owner's wife took some black plastic pipe to the cave, He put 5 siphons in the water and left. When he came back a week later, the water had not dropped appreciably. He asked the smart folks on here about a hookah system for getting into the cave and was told that cave diving was nuts and that a hookah wasn't his best bet. He MD'd around the mouth of the cave (In water and in mud where original coins had been found.) He found several old silver coins that were hand-struck. Dates were from the right time period to be Swifts . He figured out another way to get in the cave and found two kegs of silver coins and silver cobs. Standing in a niche in the cave was a strange statue made of silver. He attempted to lift it but it was far too heavy. He asked on here for some ideas and help. The majority of posters thought he was making it up and responded with truly asinine replies. Eventually he recovered roughly one hundred sixty pounds of silver (not pure). As far as I know, the statue is still standing in the cave about 30 feet underground.
Makes a Hell of a story, but I'm pretty sure it was all made up.

grizzly bare

 

[grizzly bare]

swiftsearcher,
In that county, the land owner owns the land but not the creek bed. You can walk up Lower Pigeon and see the rock where Chief Cornstalk carved his avatar. (Oddly enough, a cornstalk) you can also see the damage done by the dynamite. Oh, yeah, you can see the silver cave. But if you walk out of the creek onto the land, you are trespassing.
Standing there, less than 50 feet from a historically significant treasure and you can't do a thing about it!
Oh, the horror!

gb

 

[swiftsearcher]

Nice to hear the details of what happened. I knew about the FL TH's, but didn't know the entire story until now.

I was checking the area while I was driving towards Lower Pigeon. That area is a little too far east to be the site of the Great Shawnee Cave in my opinion.

I have an older map from the early 1900's that shows where the indian grave site Swift passed is located. I keep thinking this might be a good area to start searching for the Great Shawnee Cave - what do you think?

Although, I probably will not be able to get to this area until next fall. Right now, I have almost pinpointed one of Swift's mines in another area. So, I am sticking to the hot spot until I have searched the entire area. I had to take a day off today, as my back and legs are killing me from yesterday.

I did make one good find yesterday however (and got pictures, but have to get them developed). At the head of a creek, I found three rock houses. The last one I searched had a spring in one end of it (like Swift mentioned). There were no beeps from my MD in the rock house or near the spring. I made it a point to check the right side of the rock house extremely well. Then, I found out why nothing was in there. At the mouth of the rockhouse, I got a beep of iron. I found the rusted out metal rings of an ancient keg (got pics of these as well as taking the two biggest pieces home). Looks like someone found the keg of coins and cleaned it out years ago - leaving the keg there to rot in front of the rockhouse.

One other anomaly I took pics of was a tree marker to the right front of the rockhouse. In the middle of the tree, the tree was the shape of a deer's head pointing to the rockhouse. The head of the deer even had a hole in it that looked like an eye! I have a few pics left in the camera and will try and take those my next time out, so I can get the film developed and post scans of the rockhouse, tree and metal I found, as it is very intersting!

 

[grizzly bare]

searcher,
I've never been there myself, but would love to see where all this happened. From looking at maps of the area, it doesn't seem that this is too far from the Breaks Park, another site that keeps popping up in Swift legends. If we could get permission to visit the site (either with or without detectors) would you be interested in a visit? I'm fairly sure that I can find the guy that brought out the two kegs of silver . He should have opened a door for all of us because he split evenly with the cave owner. Nothing like cold hard cash (12,000) to make people nicer!
Even if I can't get to the cave, I would like to see the seven mineral springs on Jenkins Mountain and the pointer rocks that point toward the Pigeon Water Cave.

grizzly bare

 

[swiftsearcher]

Grizzly,

I would love to go see the site with you! Even without detectors, it would be nice to take some pics and go in the cave where the loot was found. I would especially like to see the statue if it is still there and at least get a pic or two of it. Or, at the very least, inspect it. I believe it to be a melungeon statue from the descriptions I have heard of it. If it is, I believe the silver to be Sol Mullins' cache and not related to Swift.

Also, these old rock and tree markers are very exciting to me! I didn't see the "deer head" tree marker with eye hole until after I came out of the rock house and was several feet away. I decided to take some pics of the rock house, as it was half-moon shaped like Swift stated. That is when I noticed the "deer head" tree - with its nose pointing right to the rockhouse! I stood in awe for at least five minutes looking at the tree!

The tree was very old - wish I had the pics developed (maybe I will get out this weekend and get to take some more pics and have the film developed to post on here. I know the area I was in has seen a lot of activity from the Indians to the Spanish to Swift to The Civil War to recent times. The tree might have been a KGC marker?? I have no idea. The rotted keg that I found the metal bands from might have been a KGC or Swift cache. Or, even an old moonshiner's stash (as on down the creek was a rusted out still (that I also took pics of).

Plenty of bear signs around the area as well. What I need to do is track the bear signs and look for some larger caves, as there is suppose to be one hell of a Swift cache in the area (from what I have researched, should be a truck load, if it is still there).