Swift's silver mine

Last updated January 28, 2024

Swift's silver mine is an alleged silver mine whose existence is part of the folklore of the Appalachian Mountains. The mine was supposedly discovered in 1760 by an Englishman named Jonathan Swift.^[1] The uncertainty of its location is part of the folklore of its existence, with locations ascribed to eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia or eastern Tennessee.

Legend

The legend of Swift's silver mine is based on accounts given in the journal of an Englishman named Jonathan Swift. Swift claimed to have preceded Daniel Boone into Kentucky, coming to the region in 1760 on a series of mining expeditions.^[2] The journal recounts how a wounded bear led Swift to a vein of silver ore in a cave, and how that for the next nine years, he made annual treks back to the site of the mine, carrying out "silver bars and minted coins."^[2] An article in an 1886 edition of Harper's Magazine tells how Swift supposedly buried a good deal of the treasure at various locations:

John Swift said he made silver in large quantities, burying some thirty thousand dollars and crowns on a large creek; fifteen thousand dollars a little way off, near some trees, which were duly marked; a prize of six thousand dollars close by the fork of a white oak; and three thousand dollars in the rocks of a rock house: all which, in the light of these notes, it is allowed any one who will to hunt for.^[3]

Later, amid numerous obstacles that included Indian attacks, and a mutiny by his crew, Swift walled up the cave and discontinued his mining operation.^[2] He left his journal in the possession of a Mrs. Renfro, the widow of one Joseph Renfro of Bean's Station, Tennessee, in whom he was purported to have a romantic interest.^[4] Before Swift could return to the mine, he was stricken blind and was unable to locate it again.^[2]

Variations

Settlers in Wise County, Virginia, believed that the mine was located on or around Stone Mountain, and that local Indians knew the location of the mine. According to the settlers, an Indian chief named Benge once said that "if the pale face knew what he knew they could shoe their horses cheaper with silver than with iron." They maintain that a captured settler named Hans G. Frenchman was taken to the mine by the Indians. He marked its location, and later escaped his captors and revealed the location of the mine to Swift. In this version of the story, Swift and Frenchman took only enough silver to buy two horses, and on a return trip, were unable to locate the mine.^[5]

Another variation along these lines holds that Swift was taken to the mine by a Frenchman named "Monday" or "Monde". In this version, Swift and Monde are driven from the mine by an Indian attack, and Swift kills Monde for fear that he will reveal the location of the mine to others. Later, when Swift attempts to return to the mine, Monde's hand covers the compass so he cannot tell which direction to proceed.^[6]

Solomon Mullins, or "Money-making Sol" (born 1782, died 1858) was rumored to have discovered Swift's mines near Pine Mountain in Southwest Virginia. Solomon lived in what was then known as Holly Creek, but is now Clintwood, Virginia. Solomon melted the silver down and used one of his slaves to "strike" for him (striking: the head of a hammer is heated until it is a plastic state and struck over a good coin. The coin, being harder than the softened head of the hammer is, therefore, imprinted. The hammer is then allowed to cool thus producing the die). To finish the process, or to imprint the counterfeit coins with official markings, Sol and his slave would relocate to the privacy afforded by caves located on cliffs adjacent Sol's farm. To this day, the cliffs are known as "Sol's Cliffs".

According to local legend, Solomon's "counterfeit" money used more silver, and was worth more, than the official currency at the time. Apparently, Sol mixed the pure silver with other lesser metals to make his money. Solomon never disclosed where he obtained the pure silver, but many people speculated that he found the silver in one of the many caves on Pine Mountain close to his farm.

Once, Solomon was caught by a U.S. detective while at work in the cliffs. Reportedly, realizing his predicament, he ordered the man to help with his work, saying "Grab a hammer and strike this." He hoped the action, if taken, would make the detective complicit; regardless of the story's veracity, it did not do Sol any good. In early 1837, Solomon and two of his 10 children, Peter and Spencer, were brought to trial and were charged with making counterfeit coins. Solomon was found guilty, but fled Virginia before being sentenced. He reportedly died in 1858 and never revealed the location of his source of silver.

Each year in Wolfe County, Kentucky, there is a Swift Silver mine festival in the county seat of Campton, where locals believe the mine may be located near Swift Creek.

Expeditions

John Filson is the first person known to have referenced the mine following Swift's death. In 1788, Filson claimed a tract of land supposed to have included a silver mine worked by "a certain man named Swift." Filson disappeared, taking with him any knowledge he may have had as to the mine's location.^[2]

Kentucky pioneer James Harrod may also have believed in Swift's silver mine. According to Harrod's wife, a man named Bridges said he had found the mine, and asked Harrod for his help in developing it. Despite the fact that Harrod and Bridges had a dispute over land some years previous, these two and another man entered the wilderness of Kentucky in 1792,^[7] purportedly in search of the mine. Harrod did not return from the trip, and although his body was never found, his wife maintained that Bridges had used the story of the mine to lure him into the woods to murder him.^[4]

When Judge John Haywood was working on a history of the area around Clear Creek in Kentucky, he observed two "ancient" furnaces that he believed may have been used by Swift.^[4]

In 1854, Professor David Dale Owen was dispatched to Bell County, Kentucky, as part of a geological survey of the state. As part of the survey, Owen examined a location reputed by the locals to be the site of Swift's silver mine. Guided by an explorer named Benjamin Herndon, Owen examined the area and found that it contained "some accidental minerals sparingly disseminated, such as sulphuret of zinc and lead – which proved on examination to be hydrated silicate of alumina." Owen's survey did not find any significant deposits of silver ore in the area.^[4]

Skepticism

Geological evidence casts doubt on the existence of Swift's silver mine. In two centuries, subsequent mining and excavation of the area said to have contained the mine have not yielded a single vein of silver ore.^[2]

Regarding the journal

Skeptical writer Joe Nickell pointed out that there are numerous versions of the journal upon which the legend of Swift's Silver Mine is based. The best known and most complete of these contains portions plagiarized from a history of Kentucky dating later than the supposed time frame of the journal itself. Because this version is filled with references to Freemasonry and moral allusions, some historians dismiss the entire tale as an allegory.^[2]

Regarding Swift

There is the question of Swift himself. No proof exists that there ever was a John or Jonathan Swift who mined silver in Kentucky.^[2] (James Dougherty gives alternative first names of "George", "William", and "Tom".)^[8] The man many considered to be the Jonathan Swift of legend is known to have been alive many years after the purported death of the fabled miner.^[2] Nothing is known of this man's ancestry, and what little is known about him personally has been handed down through tradition.^[4] If the birth date given in Swift's journal is to be believed, the known Swift would have been an incredible 112 years old at the time of his death.^[2]

If there was an actual Jonathan Swift, there is some disagreement as to his character. Tradition holds that he was an established Indian trader, but some historians came to believe he was a pirate who preyed on Spanish merchants and made his frequent trips into the wilderness not to retrieve his treasure, but to hide and coin it. A resident of Laurel County, Kentucky, named William Reams held that following Swift's visit to the mine in 1769 – the last trip recorded in the journal – he and his accomplices agreed not to claim any of the treasure they had hidden in the area until 1790. When they did return, Swift was overcome by the sight of the wealth and killed the other members of the party while they slept. Following this action, he was struck blind and unable to recover the treasure.^[4]

Nickell contends that the pirate theory raises more questions than it answers. He contends that a journey into Kentucky was a dangerous undertaking, and that Swift could just as easily set up a clandestine coining operation in the backwoods of Virginia or aboard his ship. He also questions why Swift would take the time to produce such a detailed journal to cover his story.^[9]

Notes

↑ Not to be confused with the Anglo-Irish writer of the same name (1667-1745).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kleber, "Swift's Silver Mines" pp. 863–864
↑ Allen, p. 57
1 2 3 4 5 6 Hamilton, Emory (August 1940). "Swift's Silver Mine". Daily News (Middlesboro, Kentucky). Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
↑ Smith, Grant Jennings. "Swift's Silver Mines". Archived from the original on 2007-08-05. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
↑ Bozarth, Clara. "The Legend of Swift's Silver Mine". Archived from the original on 2007-08-15. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
↑ While Hamilton gives the date as 1793, most other historians give 1792.
↑ Dougherty, James. "The Legend of Swift's Silver Mine". Archived from the original on 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
↑ Nickell, Joe. "Uncovered – The Fabulous Silver Mines of Swift and Filson". Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2007-08-07.

Related Research Articles

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from American Indians, for whom the area was a traditional hunting ground. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.

Wolfe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,562. Its county seat is Campton. The county is named for Nathaniel Wolfe.

Campton is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Wolfe County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 441 at the 2010 census.

The Beale ciphers are a set of three ciphertexts, one of which allegedly states the location of a buried treasure of gold, silver and jewels estimated to be worth over US$43 million as of January 2018. Comprising three ciphertexts, the first (unsolved) text describes the location, the second (solved) ciphertext accounts the content of the treasure, and the third (unsolved) lists the names of the treasure's owners and their next of kin.

The history of Louisville, Kentucky spans nearly two-and-a-half centuries since its founding in the late 18th century. The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids midway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. The town of Louisville, Kentucky was chartered there in 1780. From its early days on the frontier, it quickly grew to be a major trading and distribution center in the mid-19th century and an important industrial city in the early 20th. The city declined in the mid-20th century, but by the late 20th, it was revitalized as a culturally-focused mid-sized American city.

Joe Nickell is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.

William Whitley, was an American pioneer in what became Kentucky, in the colonial and early Federal period. Born in Virginia, he was the son of Scottish Presbyterian immigrants from northern Ireland, then the Ulster Plantation. He was important to the early settlement of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky, where he moved with his family from Virginia. He served with the Kentucky militia during the Northwest Indian War.

Abraham Lincoln was the paternal grandfather of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a military captain during the American Revolution, and a pioneer settler of Kentucky. Some historical sources attest his last name as Linkhorn, although neither Abraham nor his children ever signed themselves as such.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treasure map</span> Map to find treasure

A treasure map is a map that marks the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a valuable secret or a hidden locale. More common in fiction than in reality, "pirate treasure maps" are often depicted in works of fiction as hand drawn and containing arcane clues for the characters to follow. Regardless of the term's literary use, anything that meets the broad definition of a "map" that describes the location of a "treasure" could appropriately be called a "treasure map."

Fincastle County, Virginia, was created by act of the Virginia General Assembly April 8, 1772 from Botetourt County. As colonial government considered Virginia's western extent to be the Mississippi River, that became Fincastle's western limit. Its eastern boundary was essentially the New River, thus dividing Botetourt County from north to south. The new county encompassed all of present-day Kentucky, plus southwestern West Virginia and a slice of Virginia's western "tail". Although no county seat was designated by the act creating the county, the colonial governor ordered it to be placed at the "Lead Mines" of present-day Wythe County; the community of Austinville later developed there.

The prehistory and history of Kentucky span thousands of years, and have been influenced by the state's diverse geography and central location. Archaeological evidence of human occupation in Kentucky begins approximately 9,500 BCE. A gradual transition began from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculture c. 1800 BCE. Around 900 CE, the Mississippian culture took root in western and central Kentucky; the Fort Ancient culture appeared in eastern Kentucky. Although they had many similarities, the Fort Ancient culture lacked the Mississippian's distinctive, ceremonial earthen mounds.

The Lost Adams Diggings are the subject of a Southwestern treasure story, dating to the early 1860s, that refers to the existence of a canyon rich in gold deposits somewhere in western New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Harrod</span> American pioneer

James Harrod was a pioneer, soldier, and hunter who helped explore and settle the area west of the Allegheny Mountains. Little is known about Harrod's early life, including the exact date of his birth. He was possibly underage when he served in the French and Indian War, and later participated in Lord Dunmore's War. He also rose to the rank of colonel in the local militia.

James John Floyd (1750–1783) was an early settler of St. Matthews, Kentucky, and helped lay out Louisville. In Kentucky he served as a Colonel of the Kentucky Militia in which he participated in raids with George Rogers Clark and later became one of the first judges of Kentucky.

Edward Worthington was an Irish-born American frontiersman, hunter, surveyor and soldier who explored and later helped settle the Kentucky frontier. A veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the American Indian Wars, he also served as a paymaster under George Rogers Clark during the Illinois campaign. His grandson, William H. Worthington, was an officer with the 5th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Historian and author, Kathleen L. Lodwick is a direct descendant of Edward Worthington.

In West Virginian folklore, the Mothman is a humanoid creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register, dated November 16, 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something". The national press soon picked up the reports and helped spread the story across the United States. The source of the legend is believed to have originated from sightings of out-of-migration sandhill cranes or herons.

A cliché coin forgery is a type of counterfeit coin produced using a genuine coin to impress a design into silver foil. Evidence of the probable manufacturing technique are finds of small lead sheets with multiple coin impressions and also fragments of impressed foils or complete 'coins'. The process seems to have involved the following steps. First, sandwiching a genuine coin between a fold of foil, generally silver, with a thickness of 50-100 microns. This was then placed between lead sheets and the pile struck with a hammer. This resulted in the foils taking an impression of each face of the coin simultaeously, also incidentally transferred to the lead sheets. The folded foil was then removed and the resulting obverse and reverse impressions were then simply soldered together, usually with tin-lead solder. The final sandwich was then trimmed to size, possibly with a 'pastry cutter' type tool, forming a circular coin.

David Glenn was of Irish descent and was born in 1753, likely in Pennsylvania but possibly in Virginia. He was one of the early settlers of Kentucky having accompanied James Harrod in founding Harrodstown in 1774, along with his older brother, Thomas. Today, Harrodsburg is considered the oldest permanent white settlement in Kentucky, being it was settled almost a full year before Boonesborough.

References

Allen, James Lane (1886). "Through the Cumberland on Horseback". Harper's Magazine.
Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.