Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-10-11
AN INGENIOUS YARN.
FINDING OF GOLD SOVeR=IGNS AT
CARVER'S FALLS A CARNARD.


the Same Region.
Last week the REGISTER published
dispatch from Bennington, heading same
"Poultney Prevaricator 2" That our
suspicion concerning the truthfulness of
the story were we'll founded is indicated
by the following from the Boston
Herald:
A tale of the finding of 10000 English
sovereigns in an old hulk at the bottom
of East Bay, Lake Champlain, which was
sent out from Bennington, VT, Sunday
and published in newspapers all over the
American continent on Monday, origin
ated in the mind of dreamer.
There is not particle of truth In it,
and the people of Carver's Falls, where
the gold was said to have been dis
covered, and the officials of the Allen
National Bank of Fair Haven, VT, where
the story said the sovereigns were de-
posted, are seeking to discover the iden-
tity of the person who sent the creation
to the newspapers.
He is supposed to be young man who
a few months ago furnished the news
papers with weird tale of the finding of
the skeleton of murdered French Cana
dian girl under the walls of an ancient
building at Carver's Falls, where, 1t was
related, it had remained bound in chains
for almost a century, and If the suspi-
cions some Of the bank officials have are
correct, the young man may have ride
to the limits of Vermont on a rail.
There is a tradition among the older
inhabitants of Carver's Falls. small
village four miles from Fair Haven, that
in l777 vessel laden with gold for the
English army was lost somewhere in
Lake Champlain. But no one about
Carver's Falls has ever lost any sleep
looking for the treasure.
"Ten thousand English sovereigns,
after lying for nearly century and
quarter in an old hulk at the bottom of
East bay, Lake Champlain," wrote the
Bennington man with the imaginative
brain, "have been recovered and are now
Deposited in the Allen National Bank at
Fair Haven"
The gold, he says, was shipped from
Quebec in small sloop, with a crew and
a guard of ten men, the expedition being
under command of Capt. johnson, and
was to have been delivered to Gen. Bur-
goyne at Ticonderoga, to pay the soldiers
of the English army. AT Ticonderoga,
the story goes on, Capt. johnson found
that the American forces had been de-
feated at Hubbardton and he went to
Caryer's Falls, where he thought he
would meet Gen. Burgoyne and his men.
on their way to SkeenesDO American
soldiers fired on the sloop at Carver's
Falls, Capt. johnson saw there was no
chance to escape, the story said, and
rather than let the sovereigns fall into
the hands of the enemy, he scuttled his
craft and he and his men were shot TO
death as they swan toward the shore.
During all these 124 years the treasure
has lain at the bottom of the bay, the
Bennington tale went on, until it was
found few days before Sunday by Geo.
B. West, civil engineer, and deposited
in the Allen National Bank.
George B. West, or George B. West,
as he really signs his name, is an en-
gineer at the Carver's Falls electric
power plant, and short time before the
alleged sovereign discovery went to New
Jersey, where his wife was passing a
vacation. He had never even thought
seriously of the traditions about gold at
the bottom of East bay, and he had
never seen the portions of the geld laden
hulk, (which the rapid currents of a
freshet of last spring had exposed to
yiew."
in fact" said Mr.. Albert futile,
president of the Carver's Falls Electric
Power company and a director of the
Allen National bank, where the money,
according to the Bennington story, was
deposited, to a Herald reporter at the
Adams House yesterday afternoon, "ao
one has ever seen an old hulk, such as
the story describes, at Carver's Falls,
and no efforts have ever been made by
Mr.. West to find any gold. He has
been working for my company for some
time, and he has never had anything to
do with efforts to find the traditional
gold in East bay"
Mr.. Tuttle was positive, he told the
reporter, that no English sovereigns,
which have been found under the waters
at Carver's Falls, have been placed in
the Allen National bank, and the bank
officials told The Herald over the tele-
phone yesterday AFTERNOON all ihey KNOW
about the treasure is what they have
read about it in the newspapers.
"The story was made out of whole
cloth by person who has done similar
things before" one of the bank officials
said.
This sovereign dream, since Monday,
has been published in newspapers in
every part of the world. On Monday it
was cabled to London, and authorities
on international law have given their
opinions as to its ownership. England,
1t was generally conceded, had no claim
on the treasure, as international law
plainly says that 1t belongs to the king
or sovereign of the state or country In
which it was found, and so it was
agreed that Vermont could keep the
gold.
The Is muskets, "much the worse for
their Immersion and N few other val