Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-02-14
STRANGE s srORlEs
OF Old Mines and Treasure in
Mississippi.
Washington letter to Mobile Chronicle by
Colonel Dupree.l

WASHINGTON letter to Mobile Chronicle b.
Colonel Dupree.l
The story current in Mississippi
papers that DR.. Kern has discovered
rich mines of silver and gold in the
hills along the Noxubee, above Macon,
was hardly credited. And yet it is
true. More than thirty-fve years ago
one Stephen Badger, from Maine, then
citizen of Macon, the capitol of
Noxubee county, devoted several years
to thorough explorations of the valley
OF the unclean Noxubee river. He had
been told by Choctaw Indians that
there were rich ores to be found along
the bed of the river, and to this he
confined his search. He said that he
found old crucibles and retorts and
furnaces, but failed to discover the
lead whence the ores were taken. Old
citizens of Noxubee will remember
these facts and how current was the
story that the Indians had concealed
the entrance to the vein of gold that
once was open to the banks of the
stream. Badgers persistency in the
search Induced people to declare that
he was insane. Death interposed. He
went into a shallow pit and himself
became, long ago, heap of yellow
dust. Another strange story was told
that artesian wells were bored on sew
eral plantations in Lowndes county in
1867 and 3, west of Columbus. One
of these was on the banks of the Tom
bigbee river. When the augers were
withdrawn one evening, after the
depth of three er four hundred feet
had been reached, there came forth
stream of black oderiferous liquid, of
which the artesian borer and planter
knew nothing. They could not stop
its steady current and the we'll was
abandoned. To this stream from
the well a torched was applied, and the
story spread that the river was on
fire. But the aperture in Mother
Earth's exurberant bosom was closed,
and nobody seemed to remember, in
our time, said the story teller, where
that oil was opened. There is coat
ing of oil, said another, every morning
over the surface of the Chalybeate
spring and over the pond beside it
just above Louisville in Winston
county, and wherever coal and oil are
found there are such springs, and vice
versa.
1t is also true, said the man. who
told Of Stephen Badger as a gold mine
crank, that people used to believe that
in the Round Hole" wherever that
may be, in the Tombigbee, there is
deposited the army chest of the first
French Governor Of Louisiana. He
was defeated by the Chiekasaws in a
desperate battle near Tupelo, and
threw his guns and treasure chest into
the river. When | was little boy,
said my gray-b bearded interlocutor,
people used to search for those guns
and that treasure chest of Bienville,
but failure begat forgetfulness. The
Indians West went, and the tradition
al loss OF the adventurous Frenchman |
was forgotten. | have heard it said !
that twenty-five or three years ago
two Frenchmen having maps and
copies from papers from the archives
of France came to Columbus and went
to Barton, little village few miles
above, on the west bank OF the Tom
bigbee where there is plimeval cross
ing as shown by the deep roadway
followed out by the river banks. In
this vicinity the Frenchmen spent
several weeks. They had the least
possible intercourse with the people, |
refusing to tell why they were there.
They suddenly and mysteriously dis |
and then it was that the
tavern keeper at Barton, 7 believe
his name was Hanks, said that the !
strangers hired wagon and had
big heavy box, which they did not
bring with them. when they first came
to Hanks tavern, conveyed to steam ,
boat at Columbus. The Frenchmen
we're heard of no more. Did they re-
cover Bienville's treasure chest?