The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-04
TRADITION OF TREASURES.
WHITE MEN HAVE HUNTED FOR
THEM IN VAIN.
Cave Piled Full of Gems and Mug
gets Which Belonged to An In
dian Chief.

IF l could find an entrance to a cave
which the old residents believe lies I'M
der the mountain somewhere between
the head and foot of Shohola Glen
said man from that interesting corner
of Pike. county, Pennsylvania, Il
wouldn't ask to be a Gould or a Van
derbilt, for, according to the tradition,
that cave is Storehouse of untold
riches. We have from time to time
found many promising openings in the
rocky lodges that tower above the
creek on both sides of the glen for a
mile or more, but. somehow, none of
them taps that cave. The Helm fam
lily, the founder of which was the first
! white man to come into that region,
has charge of the tradition. The story
| is that the family's pioneer ancestor
| had occasion to do a kindness to an In
dian chief, and was rewarded by being
blindfolded and led to the entrance of
the cave and into it. When he was well
| within the cave, the bandage was re-
moved from his eyes, and the Indians,
flashing a pine knot torch on the walls,
led Helm through almost endless gal
lerieS and chambers, stored in heaps in
all of which were glittering chunks of
gold and silver and other things, the
nature of which he did not know. At
ter permitting him to feast his eyes on
all this hidden treasure, the Indian
blindfolded Helm again and led him
out of the cave, out not by the way
they had come in.
Helm, blindfolded as he was, knew
by the sound of the waters that he had
entered from the wild Shohola ravine.
When the bandage was taken from his
eyes, after leaving the cave, he saw
that they were in the vale, a mile north
of the Shohola; in fact, in what is now
Panther Brook Glen, showing that the
through the mountain. Helm tried to
find the entrance or exit to that cave
for years, on the sneak, but couldn't,
and he even married a squaw of the
tribe, thinking that she might give him
the tip, but she was afraid to do so
until she was on her deathbed Then
she started in to tell him how TO find
the treasure trove, but he had grown
little hard of hearing by that time, and
in her efforts 10 make him hear she
had exhausted herself and died before
she could give him the proper steer.
This was a great disappointment to
Helm, and his descendants to this day
declare that If the cave is ever found
they will put in claim for a share of
its contents, on the fround that their
ancestor saw ii first.
down by early white settlers of how
the Indians of that part of the Della
ware valley used bullets and arrow
heads made of silver in their battles
with the whites and their raids on the
settlements. There used to be a great
many of these silver bullets and arrow
heads in old families, preserved as
relics of those stirring days. There
are many descendants of the settlers
cit Twin enough
member having seen plenty of them,
but the relics seem to have got away
somef ow. as there is none of them left.
The silver came from the Shnhola Glen
cave. The hoard was never all used
up. If it had been, descendants of the
aboriginal custodianS wouldn't to this
day be coming among us from Canada
every once in a while and acting so
mysteriously that We got on to them
long ago. They came to find the en-
trance to that cave-that's what they
do. But we keeping an eye on 'em.
we'll marked Indian path may be seen
to this day leading through the woods
parallel with the Delamare river, and
crossing the Shohola creek at the en-
trance to the glen within a quarter of
a mile of the Erie railroad. Now, what
keeps that old path open? The inhab-
itants around there have no use for it.
Hunters and fishers? Some folks pre-
tend to think so. But that isn't it at
all. It's Indians that keep that old
path from growing over-descendants
of the original people treading it Sc
cretly and stealthily. What for?
Searching for that treasure cave. The
instructions that their forefathers
handed down as to the location of that
cave and how to find it, have slipped
a cog somehow, and they've lost the
clew So these present day Indians
are sliding down there every little
while, following the old Indian path
and keeping it open.
Some folks up there pooh-pooh and
say Fudge but why doesn't that old
path disappear, then? And what did
the Indian say the time he stopped at
Valentine Hipsman'S tavern and or
dered nine hard boiled eggs. ate them,
and said he wanted to get train No. 6,
going east? Why, he said that an an
cestor of his was in the battle of Min
isink under Brant the famous Indian
chief. That battle was fought in 1873,
three miles up the Delaware from Sho-
hoIa, on the York state side. Although
the Indians were successful in the bat
tie, this ancestor of the reminiscent In
dian saw that the days of the red man
in the valley were numbered. He was
one of few who knew of the existence
of a cave in the Shohola ravine, this
Indian said, and after the battle he fol-
lowed the old Indian trail to the Sho-
hoIa entered the cave at that side,
walled the entrance up from within,
then passed through to Panther Brook,
came out of the cave at that side, and
walled up the entrance there. This was
to destroy all probability of the white
settlers stumbling upon the cave and
securing the treasure it contained. This
thoughtful warrior subsequently went
to Canada, where all the Indians went.
when they were driven from the re-
gion. He died shortly afterward, and
left only meager directions TO his fam
lily as to the finding of the hidden caves
so meager, said the Indian who ate
the nine hard boiled eggs at Hipsman's,
that none of them had any hope of ever
finding it. That's what the Indian said
But did he leave on train No. that
day? No. sir, he didn't And he has
never been seen since. Some folks say
that he found the cave, got into it, got
lost there, couldn't find his way out
again and died. l don't know about
that, but he was only trying to throw
us off by what he said and wasn't there
for any other purpose than to hunt for
that cave. That's what And it's In
dams like him that are keeping that old
Indian path open, and what we want
to do up in that corner of Pike county
is to watch out. A fellow from New
York came near throwing US all into
fits last summer by advancing a the