The Portland daily press., 1897-07-05
BURIED TREASURE.
For almost Century the Search Has Been
Going On.
New York Herald. }

printed in the Herald early last week,
probably interested all who read it. 1t
stated in substance that on Oak Island,
off the village of Chester, Nova Scotia, q
regularly Incorporated company with q
capital of 100000 had been digging for
many years for the buried treasures OF
Captain Kidd; that at last strong oaken
chest had been unearthed at the bottom
of deep pit, and that, alas! as the
workmen were about to pry it open, the
sea rushed in and filled the pit. That is
all there was to the news story, but to the
few New Workers who spend their sum-
mers in Chester it had special interest.
Adams A. Topper was the superintend-
ent few years ago. had been taking
a look at the pits, and Mr. Upper and |
were seated in front Of his "shanty," and
/ said to him:
''Mr. Upper, do you confidently expect
to find Captain Kidd's buried millionsP"
For moment he pulled his pipe. Then
he said, in measured way:
"That requires a qualified answer. You
see, am not going to say that it was
Captain Kidd's treasure that is buried
here. He was not the only pirate in the
business in those days. What the COM
pany believe-and honestly believe-is
that certain pirates, presumably Captain
Kidd and his associates, did bury a vast
sum of money and jewels on this island.
We believe that it is still here and we in
tend to get it. I'll tell you why this is not
an idle dream.
"The story takes us back to 1875. AT
that time. as you can well imagine, the
country hereabouts was very sparsely set
tied. There were few English, French
and Dutch colonists and quite number
of royalists who had left the States at the
close of the Revolution. Three of these
settlers come into the story at this point.
Their names were Smith, Maginnis and
Vaughn. One day they visited Oak Is
land and while rambling over the eastern
end came to spot which held their atten-
ton. Vaughn was lad of sixteen. He
described the events later in life to Robert
Creelman. Mr.. Creelman lives in Upper
Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, today. He is q
reliable citizen, and so we do not have to
depend upon fiction for this part-the be-
ginning of the search for the treasure.
"Smith, Maginnis- and Vaughn were at
tracted by a depressed spot at the eastern
end of the island, that had been, appar-
emily, cleared of timber years before.
Nearby was an oak. On this oak were
peculiar marks and figures. One of the
lower and larger branches extended over
the circular depression in the land. The
men returned the next day and began
digging.
"a few feet below the surface of the
earth was a wellssdefned shaft, with,hard
solid walls, and in these walls could be
seen the marks Of picks, while within the
space between the walls the earth was
loose and easily shovelled. At depth oil
ten feet they came to a covering of oak
the thirty foot depth was reached, and al
each ten feet they found markings. AT
this point they abandoned the work
There were two reasons for this-the first
that the work proved too heavy for them,
and the second that they were unable tc
procure assistance, owing to the supersti-
tious beliefs of that day.
THE FIRST TREASURE COMPANY.
Six or seven years later DR.. Lynds, a
young physician of Truro, met Smith,
Maginnis and Vaughn. They told him
of their search for the treasure, and he
became enthusiastic. Returning to
Truro, the doctor organized company
and raised funds to prosecute the search.
A gang of men went to work. 1t would
take too much time to go into the details
of their prospecting, but in word il
was this: They excavated a shaft to a
depth of ninety-five feet, finding marks al
every ten feet, as before. At the ninety
foot point they struck fiat stone, about
three feet long and sixteen inches wide.
On this there were engraved certain
characters. An expert from Halifax de.
ciphered those characters, and his reading
of the in .cription was:
"TEN FEET BELOW ARE e2,OOO,O DOC
BURIED.
81 do not claim that his Interpretation