

A 155-year-old legend about federal gold buried in a forest during the American civil war appears to have caught the attention of the FBI.

Dozens of FBI agents, along with Pennsylvania state officials and members of a treasure-hunting group, trekked this week to a remote site where local lore has it that a civil war gold shipment was lost or hidden during the battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

The treasure-hunting group Finders Keepers has long insisted it found the gold buried in a state forest at Dents Run, about 135 miles (217km) north-east of Pittsburgh, but said the state wouldn’t allow it to dig.

The FBI has refused to say why it was at the site on Tuesday, revealing only that it was conducting court-authorised law enforcement activity. Finders Keepers owner Dennis Parada said on Friday he was under orders from the FBI not to talk.



Legend has it that one and a half tons of gold was ordered to be shipped from West Virginia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to pay the wages of federal troops.

The troops carrying the gold went missing, along with the loot, giving rise to generations of speculation about what happened to it, although historians have cast doubt on the claim, pointing to the lack of any records of the shipment.



Account differ as to the amount of gold in the shipment. Some reports say it was 26 gold bars, others 52. Each would have weighed 23kg (50lb), meaning it would be worth about $55m today.

In an older post on the Finders Keepers website, Parada said his group found the likely burial site using a high-powered metal detector. But he said the state conservation department refused to allow the group to dig.

A department spokesman said on Friday that the group previously asked to excavate the site but elected not to pay a required $15,000 bond. The spokesman referred comment on Tuesday’s activity to the FBI.