A swath of federal agents descended upon a spot inside a Pennsylvania state forest late last week to look for signs of a legendary lost Civil War treasure!
For over 150 years, historians and armchair treasure hunters have speculated about a story surrounding the purported disappearance of a cache of federally-owned gold bars said to have gone missing while traveling through Pennsylvania in the chaos of the Civil War.
Although academics have debated the veracity of the tale, numerous independent researchers have attempted to track down the lost riches over the years and one group, known as Finders Keepers, thought they had cracked the case in 2004.
However, when it came to actually retrieving the treasure, their efforts were stymied because the organization determined that it was buried at a location within a state forest and, thus, they were legally forbidden from doing any digging at the site.
The case remained stuck at this standstill for well over a decade until this past weekend when, to the shock of many, the FBI suddenly showed up at the park and began digging where Finders Keepers said that the treasure was located.
Although largely quiet about what exactly they were doing at the park, the remote and very specific location of the dig clearly indicated that they were looking for the lost Civil War treasure.
A law enforcement official seemed to confirm these suspicions to NBC News, saying that they were acting on a tip that there was "federal gold at the site."
Unfortunately, as so often happens when it comes to modern day searches for legendary treasure, it appears that the endeavor proved to be unsuccessful as the dig reportedly failed to unearth any gold bars.
That said, it did serve to spawn something a new mystery as one is left to wonder why the FBI suddenly decided to act on the treasure hunters' findings after all these years.
Source: Washington Post