In
the early 1700s Thomas Paine buried his fortune at a spot now called
Pirate's Cave on the southern tip of
Conanicut Island.
A
large number of stagecoach robberies took place at a spot called
Robber's Corner on Hwy 2 near Wickford Junction. Caches of loot
were buried in the immediate area and not recovered.
During
the Revolution, the Overings were one of the richest families in
New England and owned the present Prescott farm near Union Street in
Portsmouth on Hwy 14, as well as some of the buildings which are
restored today. The place was occupied by the British during the
Revolution and legends tell that British General Prescott buried a
substantial quantity of gold coins somewhere on this farm before being
captured by patriots during a raid.
In
the late 1600s pirate Captain Thomas Tew hid $100,000 in treasure
near Newport.
During
the French and Indian Wars pirates used Block Island as a base
of operations and stories tell of left-behind treasures.
Connecticut
A
heavy ironbound pirate chest was buried in the sand at Stratford
Point in 1699. A Negro fisherman witnessed the treasure burial,
but was afraid to tell anyone about the incident until many years
later. It is believed that the chest was never recovered.
A
prisoner, sentenced to a life term in Sing Sing in 1916, admitted to
another prisoner that he had buried a cache of stolen loot amounting to
$150,000 south of the upper bridge ,near a rock, in Bruce Park at
Greenwich. $50,000 of the cache was alleged to be in gold coins.
In
the early 1800s a Spaniard named DeGrau searched for a lost cave,
supposedly containing a huge fortune in silver, in the rocky area known
as Hell's Half Acre outside of Bristol. He claimed that his
father and a group of Spaniards had found a rich vein of silver and had
melted the ore into bars, hiding them in a cave for later
recovery. He left the area without finding the cave.
A
pirate treasure is reported to be buried on Money Island off Stoney
Brook in the Thimble Island group. One report has it that it is
in a crevice of a large rock formation that is underwater at high
tide. Some sources attribute this hoard to Captain Kidd who is
said to have used Thimble Island as a hideout.
During
the French and Indian War, in 1758, the residents of Windham had
to flee for their lives and bury their money and valuables before
leaving. The town was burned to the ground and many of the
treasure caches were never recovered.
Recluse
J.O. Maloney died in 1887. It was well known that the
miser possessed large sums of currency and gold and silver coins.
After his death, numerous searches were made around and in his old
house near Morris, but nothing was ever found.
A
prisoner sentenced to a life term in Sing Sing in 1916 admitted to
another prisoner that he had buried a cache of stolen loot amounting to
$150,000 S of the upper bridge near a rock in Bruce Park at
Greenwich. $50,000 of the cache was alleged to be in gold
coins.
In the late 1600s, the pirate Captain Kidd anchored
off
Oyster Bay on Long Island, then sailed to the mouth
of the Connecticut River and continued upstream. On a small
peninsula jutting out into the river, near what is now the town of
Wethersfield on the west bank, and the town of Naubuc on the East bank,
at a place called Tyron's Landing, he went ashore. He selected a
hillside and buried 2 chests of gold, silver and jewels.
The pirate Captain Kidd buried 2 chests containing
$450,000 worth of treasure at Clarke's
Island in the Connecticut River.
Pirate's Cove, on the southern tip of
Conanicut Island, is supposed to be the hiding place
of pirate treasure attributed to Captain Kidd.
Mass
A
large cache of $170,000 in British gold coins was buried in the early
1800s along the banks of the Parker River, and within sight of a large
boulder marked by a chiseled "A" six inches high, in Byfield.
In
the 1960s a former German claimed that he was dropped off at
Plum Island in 1943 to perform sabotage in the U.S. Due to bad
weather and other foul-ups he was the lone survivor on the beach where
he hid a box,containing $200,000 in U.S. currency, on the Atlantic side
of the island. He then abandoned his Nazi-laid plans and took up
residence in Wisconsin, later becoming a U.S. citizen. He made
one attempt many years later to recover the cache, but it was never
located.
A
crate of Revolutionary-War-era rifles were stolen by American
Patriots and hidden somewhere on the north shore of Thompson Island in
Boston Bay. The 15 rare English sharpshooter carbines are worth
well over $5,000 each to collectors today and are known as the Ferguson
Breech-loader. The crate of antiques, packed in thick grease,
should be well-preserved and still await today's treasure hunter.
Dungeon
Rock, located at the mouth of the Saugus River near Lynn, was
used as a resting place by a band of pirates and they often brought
treasure chests ashore for safe keeping. One pirate lived in the
cave and an earthquake caused a rock to fall across the entrance,
sealing the pirate inside. The treasure, believed to be buried
in, or near, the cave was never recovered.
In
1720 a number of men stayed at the Thomas Smith house in Maynard on
the Assabet River, about 20 miles west of Boston, and buried a large
cache of gold and silver coins in the woods north of the cabin.
The strangers never returned for the treasure and it was later learned
that they were pirates. The site of the old Smith house has been
lost, but it was established 1880 that it stood near the A.S. Thompson
house.
