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Cacher coins golf story9/28/2023 I looked for neighbors of the Ohio site who might have family lore about James, in addition to the gold rumors Somers had heard. Results of my tree-measuring test: ambiguous. Aker cast doubt on this method because it doesn’t account for local growing conditions the trees could easily be older - or younger. But the tree where Getler saw the signature would be only about 110 years old. By that method, three of the key trees range in age from about 130 to 170 years old, which would date them to the mid- to late 19th century. However, one way some arborists estimate a beech tree’s age is to divide a tree’s circumference in inches by 3.14 (or pi) and multiply by six. Unfortunately, the surest ways to tell a tree’s age is to cut it down, or bore a hole into it, and count the rings. He told me that, indeed, beech trees can grow to be hundreds of years old. National Arboretum in Washington, for a briefing on the age of trees. Earlier I had called Scott Aker, head of horticulture and education at the U.S. While the treasure hunters were taking metal-detector readings and exploring related sites, I measured the circumference of the trees that were pillars of their story. Could they really be that old? I had brought a tape measure with me. But before I could become a true believer, I needed to see if their narrative could withstand attempts to poke holes in it.įirst, the beech trees. It would be a more interesting world if they were, and it would give others the courage to challenge conventional wisdom. ![]() I was pulling for Somers, Getler and Richards to be right about all this, despite what the historians said. But I also found that I was invested, too. The risk of confirmation bias - fitting the signs to a desired meaning - seemed enormous. The treasure hunters, says Stiles, leap “ahead of the evidence” when they extend James’s political program to include burying gold to support a Confederate resurrection or some other mysterious power grab. He decried the postwar Republican party of Lincoln and advocated against the reelection of Ulysses S. James was part of a band that targeted banks connected to Unionists and harassed election officials during the midterms of 1866. He and his gang “weren’t modern terrorists, but what distinguishes him from all the other criminals in the 19th century is the way he would use his notoriety to promote a political cause” - namely, the Lost Cause of the South and the maintenance of white supremacy. “With Jesse, it was crime plus politics,” Stiles says. Stiles, author of the groundbreaking biography “ Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War,” told me that the treasure hunters get at least one important thing right about the outlaw: He was a much more significant political figure than standard accounts portray. Whether we found gold or not, we were plunging deep into American mythologies of one sort or another: outlaw legends, fables of rebellion, beguiling notions of hidden historical hands operating behind the scenes. It seemed fitting that this hunt was in a secluded forest about 30 miles northwest of Zanesville, the birthplace of Zane Grey, the prolific popularizer of the Old West in scores of novels. The claim that he buried some of the loot he stole, as well as gold from other sources, was a part of the myth that the treasure hunters hoped to verify. He came to be seen as a noble Robin Hood who was so slick he may have faked his own death. During his unusually long career for an outlaw, James cultivated his own mystique, teasing the lawmen on his trail in cheeky letters to newspapers and staging robberies as spectacular, bloody public spectacles. History books say he and his brother, Frank, marauded farther west, from the 1860s until 1882, when James Gang traitor Robert Ford shot him in the back of the head in Missouri. But Ohio is one of the last places I would have chosen to dig for treasure buried by Jesse James. I wanted to believe there was gold in them thar hills. My disbelief was suspended as shakily as my body on the hillside. He was joined by Brad Richards, a retired high school history teacher from Michigan who had appeared in two seasons of the History channel series “The Curse of Civil War Gold,” and Warren Getler, a former journalist and longtime investigator of Confederate treasure claims who had been a consultant on Disney’s 2007 treasure-hunting blockbuster “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.” Somers had invited Getler for his prominence in the field Getler brought in Richards, a friend from previous historical treasure investigations. This is a treasure recovery,” declared Chad Somers, a wiry former rodeo bull rider who had discovered the site. ![]() The FBI found Dorothy’s stolen ruby slippers.
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