Buried Treasure: Captain Kidd’s Lost Danville Treasure

In the fall of 1884, Frank Lewis and Jacob Gearhart, men recently thrown out of steady employment by an economic recession, were earning a living by exploring the banks of the Susquehanna River in Augusta Township, Northumberland County, digging for roots. At the time, locally sourced plants were in high demand by pharmacists for medicinal purposes.

Several miles south of Danville, in the middle of the river, lay the island of Crook’s Riffles. It had attracted Lewis’s attention earlier that summer. The uninhabited and uncultivated island was covered with a luxurious growth of thick vegetation.

Lewis surmised that the island, with its various shades of green, hosted an unusual variety of plants, and he suggested they dig for roots there.

Gearhart consented, and on Saturday, November 22, 1884, the duo rented a rowboat and went to work. While digging up fern roots on the island, they unearthed an iron box covered with rust.

Eagerly, they broke it open with their pickaxes. To their utter astonishment, they found it filled with Spanish gold doubloons and Mexican silver dollars of a very ancient date.

They took the hoard to Mr. Kinter, a railway agent, who took charge of counting the treasure. After 10 hours of steady work, he had the money counted out in $1,000 piles, totaling $47,000 (approximately $1,541,719 in today’s money).

Legend whispers that this trove was none other than the lost bounty of Captain Kidd, a pirate whose name stirred fear across the seas. In the 16th century, fleeing the relentless pursuit of rival pirates along the Chesapeake Bay, Kidd sought refuge in the Susquehanna’s waters. He navigated its shallow water in a canoe, eventually finding solace in Crook’s Riffles, which then formed part of the island. Kidd buried his ill-gotten gains here, choosing an island as his vault. But fate, cruel and unyielding, decreed that he would never return to reclaim his treasure, meeting his end before he could return.

Although the story is likely a hoax, the thought of pirates and buried riches on the Susquehanna makes for a fun tale of adventure. However, there is a treasure (of the historical variety) hidden in plain sight beneath the waters of the ancient river near Danville—Native American eel weirs.

Ancient Native American eel weirs slumber beneath the waters of the Susquehanna

Before the Egyptians built the Pyramids of Giza, Native Americans were possibly constructing giant stone structures on the Susquehanna. One of the largest—found near Danville, PA—is 1/4th of a mile in linear length but as close as the Harrisburg area. These mysterious masonry V-shaped weirs were used to catch the adult fish as they swam to and from the ocean. Click the link to read about the ancient Native American eel weirs slumbering beneath the waters of the Susquehanna and exactly where to find some.

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Resources

• Pennsylvania has its share of lost-treasure legends
• The Treasure Island of Pennsylvania
• When Captain Kidds Treasure Wasn’t Found in Danville – The 1884 Hoax
• The Great Danville Treasure Hoax