For decades, Civil War buffs and assorted fortune seekers have combed the hills and forests of northwestern Pennsylvania, looking for a Union shipment of gold that reportedly was lost near tiny Dents Run in June 1863. Depending on which account you believe, the Union wagon train was carrying up to 52 bars of gold weighing 50 pounds each -- a haul worth some $54 million in today's market. The mystery so far has yielded little beyond a few vague historical artifacts and a whole lot of stories. The memo also says the state sent Parada's artifacts to an expert who found they were not from the Civil War era but were merely "hunting camp debris." "There was a tremendous amount of gold that went missing during the Civil War," added author William Rawlings, who has written about a rumored Confederate treasure of gold and silver that went missing in 1865, near the end of the war.

Source: CNN March 20, 2018 00:00 UTC