North Dakota Treasure Wreck

It is an old saying, but nonetheless true: Let the difficult be accomplished today; The impossible takes a little longer.

Treasure wreck

1. In the summer of 1863, a party of miners returning from the gold fields in Montana were traveling down the Missouri River in a Mackinaw boat. Inside the boat, in money belts, pouches and in holes drilled into the planking, was at least $100,000 worth of gold dust.

At Fort Berthold a trader named Gerard warned the miners that the Indians down river were hostile, but they dismissed the warning as an attempt to entice them to remain at the fort and spend their hard wrought treasure at the trading post. In any case, the miners felt the small cabin mounted on the deck of their Mackinaw would be sufficient to fend off any Indian threat. With cannon loaded and in a heightened state of awareness, the miners continued their journey.

At the mouth of Burnt Creek they came upon an old Indian fishing on a sand bar. When the old man began waving his arms (probably to chase them from his fishing spot), the miners assumed he was signaling to warriors hidden on the bank and shot him dead. Several Indian women bathing along the river bank witnessed the incident and ran back to camp with tale of wanton murder. The warriors grabbed their rifles and headed for the river to exact retribution.

The miner? much-vaunted cannon proved to be their undoing. On its second shot, the cannon? recoil punched a hole in the boat. Partially sunk in shallow water, the Mackinaw grounded on the sand bar where the Indians had little trouble cutting them to pieces. The entire party ·including a woman and her baby ·were massacred. The Indians looted the boat but had no use for the money belts or gold pouches which were then scattered about the sand bar.

When word of this incident reached Fort Berthold, Gerard dispatched a party of friendly Mandan Indians down river to recover the gold. The Mandans brought back $70,000 worth of gold dust. Gerald presented the leader with a good horse and treated the rest of the party to a lavish feast ·a financial arrangement which everyone considered satisfactory. By the time it was discovered that the Mandan had neglected to remove the gold from the holes drilled into the planks of the boat, it had drifted away.

Although searched for it has not, to my knowledge, ever been found. There is no telling how far the wrecked Mackinaw drifted before it was covered by silt. Subsequent dam construction changed the course of the Missouri, so it is possible that the treasure wreck is now buried 100s of yards from the current bank of the river.

Ghost Town

2. The late Thomas Penfield said that buried treasure ?x- ists everywhere.· I have no way of knowing if this statement is true or not, though I suspect that it is because it seems as though treasure leads, at least, do exist everywhere.

The October 9, 1997, issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer carried an article on 90 year old Ed Tranby and North Dakota? newest ghost town. On September 7, 1997, Mr. Tranby became the last resident to leave Blabon, N.D.

When a very young Edward Tranby moved to Blabon in 1916, it was a thriving railroad town of 3,200 people; but in 1995, Tranby was the only resident left. Loss of power for three days during a 1996, blizzard helped convince Tranby to follow his children? advice and relocate to an apartment in nearby Cooperstown.

According to the article, ?labon is now home mostly to pheasants and deer.· Pheasants, deer, and ghosts, one might add, and if permission to search could be obtained, there may be a fair amount of relics, coins, and caches. One of the reasons Ed Tranby gave for Blabon? eventual demise was, simply, ·..we had a lot of old people.·

There is treasure everywhere, or so they say ·maybe even the ghost town of Blabon, 75 miles northwest of Fargo.

Payroll cache

3. A small detachment carrying an Army payroll from Fort Meade in southwest North Dakota to Fort Koegh in Montana disappeared in 1879. Much later the ruins of an Army wagon and three rusted revolvers were discovered near Sunset Butte a few miles south of Amidon. Local legend states that the soldiers were attacked by Indians at that location but managed to hastily bury the treasure before they were killed. Later one of the attacking Indians rediscovered it and cached it for himself somewhere near White Butte. In later years he would periodically be observed heading off in the direction of White Butte and returning with a pocketful of gold coins. Several attempts were made at following the old man, but none were ever successful; and after his death, a general search for his cache proved fruitless.

Big Butte

4. In the late 1890s the Hudson? Bay Company paymaster making the circuit of the Company? scattered posts in Saskatchewan was ambushed and robbed. The bandit got away with $40,000 in gold and headed south into North Dakota. He was apprehended near a large grassy hill about seven miles south of Lignite in Burke County, but he had already hidden the loot. The outlaw was taken to Portal where he died under torture without revealing the location of the cache.

After his death, a crude chart was found in the tanned side of his fur coat which everyone assumed was a map leading to the treasure. The Calgary Mounted Police sent a party of men to search for it, but they were unable to locate any sign of the gold. Since then many people have attempted to find this treasure, but as far as is known, no one has succeeded to date.

The area where the outlaw was captured is known as Big Butte, and the treasure is commonly referred to as ?he Big Butte Cache.·There was a cave about half way up the hill known as ?obber? Cave·where legend has it the money was hidden, but there is no hard evidence of the fact. Most of the reference sources I have seen make only a passing reference to this relatively minor treasure, and none of them contain a copy of the alleged treasure map. Perhaps a search of the records of the Hudson? Bay Company could shed some light on this elusive treasure cache.

Missing well cache

5. No one knows how Gustav Halverson acquired his for tune. He was already a wealthy man when he arrived at Grand Forks, N.D., from his native Sweden. It is known that Halverson took little interest in the day-to-day operations of the large wheat farm that he owned and operated in the Nelson County countryside.

Halverson was not a total recluse. By all reports he was quite pleasant and outgoing when entertaining visitors, but his employees rarely saw him leave the main house. It is said that he had a fantastic library and preferred to spend his time reading, trusting his employees to make sure that work around the farm was proceeding apace ·except for his well. Halverson had excavated the 60 foot well single-handedly, carrying rocks from a mile away to line the walls. He was understandable proud of this accomplishment and took great interest in the maintenance of the lone testament to his manual prowess. It is said that he was quite fond of re-telling the details of this Herculean labor to his visitors.

Eventually Halverson stayed indoors for what was, even for Gustav, an inordinately long time; and his employees took it upon themselves to investigate. The found him dead on the floor of his library. Halverson left no will, and authorities were unable to locate any living relatives. Even more disturbing from the authorities·standpoint, they were unable to locate a bank account or safe deposit box. Eventually it came to light that Halverson had converted his entire savings to gold coins (over a million dollar? worth) and had withdrawn them years ago. The implication was obvious, and the entire farm was searched under government supervision ·but no money was found.

Years later a journal reportedly written by Halverson was found in a trunk purchased at auction in Minnesota. The contents of the journal portrayed Halverson? life and personality accurately enough to convince those who knew from the story that the journal had probably been written by Halverson and it told the story of a missing hoard of gold coins. According to this journal, Halverson had hidden his cache in his favorite place ·the rock-lined well he had built with his own hands. Unfortunately, by that time, Halverson? house had been razed and the well filled in. The current owners of the farm had only the vaguest idea where the old well had been located and, although a search was conducted, no sign of it was found. There is no evidence that has ever been located.

Please Note: It is the responsibility of the treasure hunter to gain permission before detecting.

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SOURCES:

Henson, Michael Paul. ?enson? Favorite Sites.·Treasure Cache magazine, 1993.

Marx, Robert F. Buried Treasure of the United States. David McKay Co., 1978.

Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1997.

Terry, Thomas P. U.S. Treasure Atlas, Specialty Publications, 1985.

Vestal, Stanley. The Missouri. Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1945.