Treasure Maps of Clarion County                                           Hank Hufnagel
 

 


On Finding Treasure

What did you expect when you first saw the title of this book?

                        Perhaps something like this? 

 
 

                              East Brady Independent

The Catfish Treasure 

February 3, 1888 — On the McClain property on the south-fork of Catfish Run, there is a spot about which many tales have been told. Many years ago, so the story runs, a treasure box containing $3,500 in gold and silver coins were supposed to have been buried by an eccentric old gentleman named Crowley, who enlisted in the Union Army early in the conflict and never returned. Since that time, many attempts have been made to unearth the prize. Not less than 100 cubic yards of earth have been removed by the treasure hunters. Whether the money has ever been found or whether there is any to be found, we cannot say but one fact cannot be disputed: there has been a big lot of earth excavated by the deluded treasure hunters!

 

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 Doesn’t that make you want to put on old clothes, throw a pick and shovel into the trunk of your car and head for the treasure ground?
     Not me, well, at least not the part about the pick and shovel. I did walk down the valley of Catfish Run, along an old road that had not seen traffic in 100 years, past the remains of enormous drift mines where coal was extracted at an early date. As I got close to the Allegheny, I saw where Catfish Furnace used to stand, where dozens of families once lived to mine the ore and fire the furnace to produce pigs of iron. Then, just over the old Allegheny Valley Rail Road right-of-way, I came to a place where Indians and early travelers rested on their journeys to-and-fro on what was then called the Ohio River.
     And, as I began the long steep climb back the way I had come, back toward my car parked at Conneration, I thought of those old coins moldering in the ground. I hadn’t dug a single small hole, and for all I know, the treasure is still there for you to find. I felt richer though; I was as happy as if I had found those coins. I had indeed found the treasures I had been looking for, things dimly recalled in old histories were fresh and clear, and I felt almost as though I had traveled through time to observe the daily life of times long gone. That is my idea of a successful treasure hunt, and the great thing about it is, the treasures I took away are still waiting for you in that long, steep valley — if only you can figure out how to find them.