The Mystery of the Civil War Gold: Treasure hunter accuses FBI of stealing $500M treasure
DENTS RUN, PENNSYLVANIA: A treasure hunter has reportedly accused the FBI of a 'major cover-up,' claiming the agency made off with $500 million worth of buried Civil War-era gold. Dennis Parada claims to have discovered a mound filled with Civil War treasure halfway up a mountain in western Pennsylvania during his previous excavations.
The prospector stated that he notified authorities about the potential finding after ground tests indicated that the Dents Run location was laden with gold. The FBI soon ordered its testing, which revealed that there may be enormous amounts of the precious metal below the surface. The agency claims that when officials dredged up the burial site in 2018, they found nothing. But Parada claims that authorities surely found something during the nocturnal excavation and they are just trying to cover it up. Warren Getler, a former reporter who helped Parada discover the location, told Wall Street that he had "come to the unavoidable conclusion that the FBI did take the treasure under cover of darkness."
How Dennis Parada found the burial site?
Last year, Parada and his son Kem sued the FBI to receive enforcement of a Freedom of Information Act request. In their complaint, the father-son alleged that the FBI withheld several specific records and altered pictures to cover up the nighttime excavation. Parada claimed a psychic led him to a spot in Dents Run, and since then, he has visited the site more than 400 times. The detectorist said near the location he found a cave with what looked to be man-made walls, as well as a 19th-century bullet shell, whisky bottle, and bones scattered nearby. In 2017, he started working with Getler, who that him that he believe the gold was most likely stolen and hidden at the site by members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a mysterious organization with Confederate sympathies.
After gathering enough evidence to support their claims, Getler told the FBI that government gold had been buried at the site in 1863. The agency then recruited more than 50 agents and excavated 12 feet underground, but reportedly the dug was a flop. After receiving the FBI’s report, Parada spoke to a resident who informed him that she had noticed lights and heard the FBI working in the area late at night. Meanwhile, other residents claimed to have spotted armored vehicles near the site. Following Parada’s complaint last year, the FBI was compelled to hand over a vast collection of dig-related documents to the family, according to Daily Mail.
‘No gold or other items of evidence were located or collected’
The records reportedly featured nearly 1000 black-and-white pictures that showed what the FBI was excavating at the site. The documents also showed how the agency's scientific tests indicated the potential existence of gold. Gelter asserted that most of the pictures were unrelated as they included hundreds of images of random trees and a woodland road leading to the dig site. Getler and Parada claim that a senior FBI agent told them the hole was filled with water on the morning of day two, but the blurry photographs only appear to show a small puddle or maybe some snow. They also noted that the same agent spent most of the next day at base camp, where they spent the majority of the day confined to their vehicle.
Parada claims it all points to a clandestine overnight dig and a second-day excavation that was just for show. "I think we were expecting a couple of hundred photos of the night dig, and I think we were expecting pictures of metal coins or bars," Parada said, adding, "I think there were pictures, but they disappeared." The FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit but denied it kept digging at night. The agency stated that although geophysical research "had suggested a potential cultural heritage site at Dents Run that possibility was not borne out by the excavation." "No gold or other items of evidence were located or collected. The only items the FBI removed from the site were the equipment and supplies brought in for the dig," it added.