Rays123
Senior Member
has anyone on here heard the old story about the hidden indian gold on the etowah river? just wondering if theres any truth to it?
Oh yeah! Ive hunted arrowheads all over the Etowah and am always keeping the stolen Cherokee gold in the back of my mind. Read the book "Cry of the eagle". It is about the Cherokees in the Etowah region.
There are lost treasure stories, all over this country.
For sure, and I would dearly love to find some!
Ive heard and read lots of stories about the cherokee collecting gold also. Also there was a wagon load of gold stolen by the cherokees and hidden in the area along the etowah. The eagles beak you refer to is in the area around Old Federal rd off of hwy 9. Ive speant many summer days between there and pooles mill "hunting". I have a friend that lives on setting down creek not too far from there and he has monsterous beech trees with many "signs" on them way up the tree. Not sure just how long those trees live but its intresting to see.
These "Cherokee gold" stories have some basis for fact, that is for sure. The Etowah washes down from the Dahlonega area, which turned out to have a pretty rich deposit eventually exploited by white miners. Up until the emergence of the white man in this area of Georgia, the Cherokees are now known to have mined gold themselves for years, maybe centuries. But I don't believe they valued it as currency, instead they used it ornamentally and used it for trade purposes. I'm pretty sure that the Cherokees mined at Sixes, near where the Etowah and the Little River tributary meet in the upper Allatoona Lake waters.
Thus, over the years, the Cherokees had privately built up some nice collections of gold. Once they realized the value it held to the white man, I am sure they naturally began to hoard it, if for no other reason than to use as a bargaining chip in their constant negotiations with the white man for land cessions, etc.
Once relations hit bottom, and the Cherokees resigned themselves to be relocated in Oklahoma territory, many of them "hid" their gold before leaving. I have no reason to doubt that this could well be true, it sounds very plausible. It is what I would do with my valuables if I knew I would soon be taken to a stockade to await relocation.
There is a fascinating book in the Cherokee county library system that examines this idea of hidden Cherokee gold. The book goes into quite a bit of detail about the "sign" that the Cherokees used to mark the location of their treasure so that it might be found should he ever come back to the area. Things like if you find a small rabbit pictograph etched into a rock, that there is gold nearby, and in the direction the rabbit is facing. Many other "signs" like this are described. A "must read" if you have an interest in this. It will make you want to hit the trail looking for sign !!
Oh yeah! Ive hunted arrowheads all over the Etowah and am always keeping the stolen Cherokee gold in the back of my mind. Read the book "Cry of the eagle". It is about the Cherokees in the Etowah region.
Oh yeah! Ive hunted arrowheads all over the Etowah and am always keeping the stolen Cherokee gold in the back of my mind. Read the book "Cry of the eagle". It is about the Cherokees in the Etowah region.
My mother grew up in southeast Bartow County along the Etowah in the 1930s. She can recall Indians visiting the community for a few days at a time. It was speculated that they were Cherokees from Oklahoma, but they would not talk about where they were from or what they were doing. Sometimes, they would eat with the family, pay for their meals, and sleep in the barn. People would follow them, but they were wary and no one was able to determine what they were doing. After several years, they stopped coming.
In 1932, two farm boys deciphered a Cherokee inscription on a rock in Forsyth County and dug up 37 pounds of gold bullion. The problem was that the gold was found on another man's property, and he took them to court to recover the treasure. The case ended up in the Georgia Court of Appeals, who ruled in favor of the defendants. Legally, the gold should have belonged to the plaintiff, but the plaintiff's lawyer botched the case.