The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-09


 A hole by the side of Spratling' s Spring in Chambers County, holds the seed of an engaging mystery story; l. was the grave of d treasure tfoTe, put in Chambers County knows. But some thing was taken from that role ana 70 do It no little money and no ntLlee trouble was spent. The contents or the hole were dug up by men who made the trip from Indiana for that purpose. Care and caution were manifested in their every moment. They were sue eessful treasure hunters-these men who made a midnight visit 10 the spring.
 Their location and exploration of the hole was made at the. midnigLt hour. And that which the hole contained Was slipped away in the night by the part of four men who did the digging ana who had disappeared from the hills of Chambers before the east turned ruddy with the coming of the dawn:
 They left a hole in the hard clay soil near the spring. And at the bottom of that hole cleanly modelled in the clay was the perfect mark ot a pot
 Some three years ago party or four in the afternoon left the Central Rail road station of Gold Hill. The sun party was composed of two white men and two negroes. The white men and the negroes were all unknown to the people of Gold HI. HI Apart ,,S from ,,6ns dme until the sun had descended and night A little after midnight negro ny ing near Spratling's Spring was awak- ened by the furious barkings of his dogs. He cracked open the door Of his cabin and peeped out. In the star road to Gold Hnl. two of them carry ing something heavy between them as they walked.
 On going to the spring, tho; the :, nekt ext hole had been dug in the ground, about ten feet northeast of the spring. They hurriedly summoned the white people. had been dug to a depth of -four or nVe feet and at the bottom the darkened and hardened dirt showed the pertccI outlines of an iron pot. The thing was a nine days wonder to tho country people round about, but in time IL came to De forgotten.
 In due time a letter was received by a prominent citizen of that neighbor- hood. The letter bore an Indians postmark and the name signed was Strange and unfamiliar It informed people living about the spring had no doubt found the hole and had specuIat- ed on what the pot coptatned Ine writer was member of the parry tho [ dug the hole and carried away the pot, so he said. The pot he said was more than rich enough in treasure 10 pay them for the trouble and expense or Journey from Indiana to Alabama. The value of it they knew, however, before they started to Alabama and SC. accu- rate were the figures and the inforiiIL- ton, telling of the location Of the buried treasure that they felt confident there would be no trouble m locatlnS and securing the pot Nor did tney e~- perience any trouble in so doing.
 The writer went on to say that even d richer treasure was buried in cer- tain neighborhood in Tallapoosa Coun- ", neighborhood that was indefi- nitely outlined. It was proposed In the letter that the Chambers county man and such others as he chose to associate with him should buy from the land owners the treasure rights, whereupon the writer and his Indiana comrade would come down and imme- diately located this treasure buried be- meath the soil of Tallapoosa County.
 The letter created local excitement. no less acute than did the finding or the empty hole. Efforts were made to buy the treasure search rights in Tallapoosa County. The people of the neighborhood in which the treasure was supposed to be buried heard of the letter and 1t is said innumerable holes were dug in the search for buried gold and silver, but nothing of value was ever found. nor has anything since been heard of the Indiana man, who wrote the letter.
 In the meanw,.lle no light has ever been thrown upon the hole and the missing pot Did it contain gold or silver buried by one of the wealthy families that lived near there during the fearsome days of the war? Was 1t the booty won by some dark and awful crime buried to wait the time when 1t would be resurrected without danger?
 NObodY knows,