Hunting for burried stolen gold.
by James Stout
(La Porte, Texas)
I was 14 years old. My uncle had talked to a man who found a map that was in the belongings of a deceased uncle. The map fit a story about the uncle. The uncle was H.Tolley. He and several others had robbed a payroll, or mint shipment, and were either shot or captured after hiding the gold.
Tolley spend many years in Ft. Smith prison, but never revealed the location of the gold. He was released from prison, a very old man.
Tolley drew the map, but you had to know northern central Arkansas. My uncle grew up in northern central Arkansas.
My uncle knew the area and we went to look for the gold. Long story short, on the side of a creek, in a cave, in the middle of north central Arkansas, we found that man's name scratched in a wall. "H Tolley".
My uncle and I scanned the cave with a metal detector and found nothing.
After we returned home to Oklahoma, my uncle discovered that his metal detector wasn't working at all.
I went back there once, but was not prepared to excavate anything and did not bring a metal detector.
So, why did a map found in a trunk in Oklahoma, link to a name scratched on a wall in a cave in Arkansas?
You tell me.