Relic Hunting Team Announces Major Discovery From The “Lost Confederate Treasure” in North Georgia.
The following article was passed on to me by my friend and subscriber Michael Karpovage.
Grab your favorite beverage, mine is bourbon, neat, and sit back to read Mike’s treasure-hunting story.
Mike’s treasure hunt is one that most people in the hobby can dream about but will never experience. Mike took part in an exciting treasure hunt that had all of the usual issues that many times arise when participating in an adventure like this one. His story begins as follows.
“In the summer of 2020, as pandemic lockdowns shut down business and confined people to their homes, a group of historical researchers and relic hunters formed a team out of sheer boredom. Not knowing one another other than through social media and their love of history, Michael Karpovage, Kaaren Tramonte, Julia Preast, and Lee Dowdy decided to go after the most enduring legend in American history: the famed gold wagon train robbery of 1865.
They soon gained permission to explore private property near Graball, Georgia where local historians believed the crime took place. The team’s ultimate prize: a $20 Liberty Head ‘Double Eagle’ gold coin. Its provenance to the legend could fetch millions for just one coin, they speculated – a true treasure worth going after. It’s also one of rarest coins in American numismatics. Even more incredible is the history behind this legendary crime, the people involved, the conspiracy, betrayal, retribution, torture and imprisonment – not to mention a test of character for the team as they tried to keep the allure of finding treasure from consuming their personal lives.
“You guys have found more than the Oak Island guys have in 10 years.” – Jim S., landowner.
The War Between the States, better known as the American Civil War, raged between 1861 and 1865, taking the lives of 600,000 Americans. It was the greatest rebellion the world had ever known. With brother fighting brother, our country was ravaged as the USA fought the Confederate States of America (CSA). The ramifications still divide our nation some 157 years later.
In the lawless weeks after the fighting ended, what would come to be one of the Civil War’s greatest mysteries was unfolding on a remote Georgia farm owned by a sickly widow named Susan Moss. It was the May 24, 1865 midnight raid of a wagon train that carried the CSA treasure specie of six private banks from Richmond, Virginia which had escaped the decimated capital of the Confederacy not a month before. The bank officials that accompanied the wagon train, along with their Union escorts, were on their way from Washington, GA back to Richmond, VA by way of a pontoon bridge over the Savannah River.
After traveling 18 miles from Washington, GA, darkness and exhaustion set in. But they were still 3 miles short of the river crossing. The last home on the road was the late David Mims Moss plantation house, occupied by his widow Susan Moss, her three children, her father Leiston House and sisters. It was Susan’s sister Mary F. (House) Lane who gave notarized eyewitness testimony in 1925 at the age of 80 to the events that unfolded in the summer of 1865. These events were also corroborated under oath by several of the bank officials involved.”
To give the proper credit to Mike, for the full story, his illustrations and pictures, and to the Washington Historical Museum in Georgia, where this story was first posted, click this link to finish reading about Mike’s epic journey and what occurs with his treasure hunt.
Visit talented, author, designer, and cartographer, Michael Karpovage.