John Swift Lost Silver Mine

JOHN SWIFT’S
LOST SILVER MINE
AN APPALACHAIN
MYSTERY
© TIMOTHY D. BELCHER

TIMOTHY D. BELCHER
ATTORNEY AT LAW
135 WEST RUSSELL STREET
P.O. BOX 1195
ELKHORN CITY, KY 41522
(606)754-7150
EMAIL:
timothydbelcher@hotmail.com

The Elkhorn City Area
Heritage Council, Inc.
Past, Present and Future
Experience Your Heritage


ELKHORN CITY CEMETERY PROJECT
POTTER FLATS – PIONEER VILLAGE
ARCHIVES PROJECT AND ORAL HISTORY
RUSSELL FORK CLEANUP PROJECT
ELKHORN CITY AREA HERITAGE CENTER PROJECT
SPEAKERS’ BUREAU PROJECT
THE OLD THEATER PROJECT

THE ELKORN CITY RAILROAD MUSEUM


SWIFT MARKER AT CAMPTON


WHO WAS SHIFT?
“I became a trader amongst the Cherokee in
North Carolina and the Tennessee County, I
went with General Braddock in the attack on
Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio River.
After our defeat in 1755, I returned to
Alexandria and my occupation as a silver-smith
and trader amongst the Indians.”
From Swift’s Journal as Published by Michael
Paul Henson.


Theories of Existence of Mine
 Pirate Theory  Masonic Theory
 Revolution Theory  Actual Silver Mine
 Ancient South Theory
American Theory
 American Indian


Historical Men Who Knew of Swift
 Col. James Harrod, Founder of Harrodsburg,
died while in search of the mines along the 3
forks of the Kentucky River.
 John Filson, Kentucky First Historian Obtained
a land grant which referenced the Swift Silver
Mine. (This grant actually puts the mines near
Pine Mountain Between Pound Gap and the
Breaks.


Filson’s Land Entry
 May 18, 1788 Filson and Breckinridge Land Entry. Copy of
Can be obtain Library of the Kentucky Historical Society in
Frankfort Kentucky
 “Robert Breckinridge and John Filson as tenants in common,
enters 1,000 acres of land upon the balance of a Treasury
Warrant #10117 about sixty or seventy miles North Eastwardly
from Martins Cabin in Powell’s Valley to include a silver mine
which was improved about 17 years ago by a certain man named
Swift at said mine the said Swift reports he has extracted from
the ore a considerable quantity of silver some of which he made
dollars and left at or near the mine. Together with the apparatus
form making the same, the land to be in a square and the lines to
run at the cardinal points of the compass including the mine in
the center as near as maybe.”


Members of Swift’s Group
MUNDAY SAID HE WOULD GUIDE ME TO THE INDIAN SILVER
MINES, THIS WAS IN 1759. I HELD UP THE TRIP UNTIL I
COULD SAIL TO CUBA AND ENLIST THE HELP OF TWO
EXPERIENCED MINERS OF MY ACQUAINTANCE, GUISE AND
JEFFRIES

I CONTACTED SEVERAL FRIENDS IN NORTH CAROLINA AND
VIRGINIA THAT HAD BEEN WITH ME IN THE BRADOCK
CAMPAIGN, JAMES IRELAND, ABRAM FLINT, SAMUAL
BLACKBURN, SHADRACK JEFFERSON, ISSAC CAMPBELL. LED
BY MUNDAY WE PENTERATED TEH WESTERN COUNTY,
LEAVING ALEXANDRIA, JUNE 21 1760. AFTER CROSSING BIG
SANDY CREEK, NEAR ITS HEADWATERS, AND CONTINUING
WEST FOR A CONSIDERABLE DISTANCE, WE LOCATED THREE
OF THE MINES.

Location Quotes from Swift’s Journal

We obtained supplies and proceeded to the headwaters of
Great Wheeling Creek, and thence to the Little Kanawha,
Thence to the Great Kanawha, thence to the Guyandotte,
thence to one of the Forks of Great Sandy Creek, near its
headwaters. We had two “workings”, the company was
divided into two parties, one group went due west for a
considerable distance. The other went southwest along the
great ridge, each party to work the locations selected the
previous year


Where is the Great Ridge?
 Pine Mountain
 "Adjacent to the creek the mine is on, it heads
southwest and runs north east. It abounds with
plenty of laurel and is so clifty; that it is almost
impossible to get a horse near the place."


Upper and Lower Mines
 Upper Mines Near Wolfe County and Red River
Gorge

 Lower Mines – Along the Great Ridge Between
Pound Gap Area and the Breaks


The Lower Mines
Evidence Showing the Pound Gap
Pine Mountain and Breaks Area


Kerr. , History of Kentucky, Vol. I,
1922, p.129
The Pound Gap and Great Cave
Charles Blue-Jacket in his conversations
concerning Kentucky, and particularly Eastern
Kentucky, said that the region about what is
known as Pound Gap and the “Breaks” of the
Sandy River, was ever held in reverence and
sacred remembrances by the Shawnees. The
tradition in the tribe describes a mighty cave there
in which the warriors hid their women and
children while they fought a great battle with a
combination of other tribes, among them the
Cherokees. ….

Kerr, Bluejacket’s description of the
Great Cavern
In his description of the cave he said that it
extended from one side of the mountain to the
other, being many miles in extent, and that it
could be entered at several different points
and on both sides of the great mountain range
under which it lay. Some of the principal
mines worked by Swift and his companions
were in the vicinity of this great cave, and they
finally made it the storehouse for all their
surplus production of silver. They carefully
covered the entrances to the cavern when
they departed from the D. BELCHER
© TIMOTHY country.

Kerr, Secret Society of Shawnee
The Shawnees and the Wyandots often went to
this country to hunt, even after Easter Kentucky
was settled by the white people. Charles Blue-
Jacket’s father went into the cave on more than
one occasion. He had not been with Swift, but his
father had been. There is a secret religious
society among the Shawnees, which
preserves many of the rites of the old
pagan life, and this great cave had some
significance in the ritual of that order.

Found on Pine Mountain


LOST ART OF SHAWNEE
"CORNSTALK" WAS THE RESPECTED CHIEF OF THE
SHAWNEE INDIANS WHO LIVED IN THE OHIO RIVER
VALLEY IN 1777. WHILE VISITING CAPTAIN WILIAM
MCKEE, HE SAID THAT "OHIO AND KENTUCKY HAD
ONCE BEEN SETLED BY A WHITE RACE POSSESSED OF
ARTS OF WHICH THE INDIANS HAD NO KNOWLEDGE,
THAT AFTER MANY SANGUINARY CONTESTS WITH THE
NATIVES THESE INVADERS WERE AT LENGTH
TERMINATED." CORNSTALK ALSO TOLD THEM THAT
"THE GREAT SPIRIT HAD ONCE GIVEN THE INDIANS A
BOOK WHICH TAUGHT THEM ALL THESE ARTS; BUT
THEY HAD LOST IT AND HAD NEVER SINCE REGAINED A
KNOWLEDGE OF THEM."

ABOVE QUOTED FORM, CHEESMAN, ANCIENT
NORTH AMERICAN CULTURES, (1991) P.33 WHICH CITES
TO DRAPER COLLECTION

Kerr, Description of Pound Gap
To the hoof-beats of the horse along the roadway through Pound Gap
the mountain sounds like it was hollow, especially when the solid rock
is trodden. At some points in this mountain gap every step seems
echoed through the underground caverns with which it is certain the
mountain is honeycombed. ….. The Shawnees called all this land
“The Country about the Hollow Mountain.” It is evident that the
Indians lived here in considerable numbers at some time in the past,
for many of the ridge-tops are covered with long heaps of loose
stones, plainly carried there, called by the people of the country
“Indian graves.”
Some parts of the journal of John Swift refer in unmistakable
terms to this region.


Haysi Rock, Haysi Virginia


Imlay’s Map of Kentucky Drawn
around 1790 published in 1793


THE TOWERS – THE BELL?


Tower in Winter - Bell?


ELKHORN CITY AND THE BREAKS


BREAKS CANYON
DANIEL BOONE FIRST STEPS IN KENTUCKY

Was Boone following Swift ??????


The Breaks Gorge


KY 1895 – Ore Knob


Evidence in Records Regarding The
Pound River and Swift
 “One possible location mentioned was South of the Mountain
(near Pound, VA). In Russell Co., VA Land Entry Book, for
November 23, 1816 is listed an entry for Cader Powell in the
amount of 50 acres on a small branch of the Pound Fork of
Sandy River, beginning below a deer lick on the line of an old
lick on the north side of the branch TO INCLUDE A PLACE
OF SILVER ORE WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED THAT
SWIFT AND COMPANY WORKED. As far as can be
ascertained, this is the only official mention of a location for the
mining operation of Jonathan Swift and Company. The exact
location of Cader Powell s property is unknown”
 From The History of The Pound by Rhonda Robertson and
Nancy Clark Brown, pages 28 & 29.


Historical References and Evidence
 From the James Taylor Adams Collection, come the additional references to
Swift s Silver Mine and the probable location of Cader Powell s original
survey. In an interview with Boyd Bolling in 1936, Bolling stated: "The
names Monde, Gufferson (Jefferson?) and Augustus were found carved at
Lick Spring on the South Fork of Pound by Jeremiah Bolling, who also
found a horse s skeleton on the head of Cumberland. Jeremiah Bolling was
the first settler of Flat Gap." Lick Spring probably took its name from the
"deer lick and old lick" referred to in Powell s survey. Bolling further told
Adams: "A charcoal pit had been burnt at Arvil Kiser s place at Dewey,
when Jeremiah Bolling came here. There were also two furnaces on Bad
Branch when he came. There are seven springs in a space of 30 yards on Bad
Branch, each with a different kind of water." Boyd Bolling found the words
"Swift" cut on a rock, set up like a tombstone, on the water of Bad Branch.
Ivory Bolling, Noah Reedy and Pat Mullins were with him when he
found the carving.

 From The History of The Pound by Rhonda Robertson and Nancy Clark
Brown, pages 28 & 29.


Man’s Face – Pine Mt


The Upper Mines
Evidence to Show the Mines in the
Wolfe County, Red River Gorge Area


THE SJM ROCK – Wolfe County


CRAVINGS AND LAND MARKS IN
EXISTANCE TODAY
 HALF‑ MOON CLIFF  INDIAN CHIEF
 SJM ROCK HEAD AND STAR
 COMPASS ROCK BURST
 HAYSI ROCK
 LIGHTHOUSE
 THE LEFT HAND
 MANS FACE
GLOVE
 THE BELL  ANCHOR, DAGGER
IN HEART AND SM
INTIALS


Compass Rock, Wolf County


Dunn Map – Foldup map, Henson


Creek Map


Creek Map and landmarks 1


Creek Map and Landmarks 2


Creek Map Landmarks3


Anchor Rock


The "peculiar looking rock"
 We first left between 25,000 and 30,000
dollars and crowns on a large creek running
near a south course, close to the spot we
marked our names, Swift, Munday, and one
other name on a tree with a compass and
trowel.’


OLD MAN OF THE MOUTAIN
AND JACK MATNEY


ITEMS FOUND BY SWIFT
SEARCHERS


More Treasure of the Cave


Flint Rock Floyd County


Anchor Rock, Wolf County


Rock Craving in Wolfe County
Area


Cravings and Landmarks Wolfe
County Area


My Personal Conclusions
 No “Mine”
 Swift Found an ancient Store house Cave left by South
American Indians
 Pirate Theory Could have some merit
 Filson Land Grant is a Key Document
 Two “workings” Upper and Lower
 Numerous Caches of Silver throughout Eastern
Kentucky and Western Virginia and West Virginia
 Great Cavern is in Pine Mountain but has been flooded
by the Extraction of Limestone along the Ridge
 A treasure does exist – Bill Gibson has the proof

Treasure Net Forum post
swiftsearcher


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