There are many incredible legends and stories about buried treasure that can be found in Iowa. Featuring stories involving outlaw hideouts, ghost towns, mining folklore, and Native American hoards. Some of these legends have been written down, discussed and recorded for centuries.
Here, we will only delve into a few of these stories. Perhaps one of these will pique your interest in finding lost treasure. It took a lot of time and research to determine the exact location of the lost treasure. Even with all the available evidence, they are sometimes nearly impossible to identify. All one can do is get as close as possible and start metal detecting in hopes of finding it.
Iowa’s earliest settlers
To begin, let’s first find out exactly what sets Iowa apart from many other states in terms of why it’s such a rich region for treasure hunters to explore. Of course, Native Americans were the first inhabitants of Iowa and existed there for 13,000 years before the first European settlers arrived. Some of the earliest written histories of Iowa begin with Native American accounts from early explorers such as Joliet and Marquette dating back to the 1680s.
Until the early 1800s, Iowa was practically occupied only by Native Americans and by only a few select European traders.
With thousands of years of occupation, it’s no surprise that countless Native American artifacts can be found throughout Iowa. It will be productive to search along creek and river banks, ancient campsites and newly plowed fields. Some arrowheads can be quite valuable if they are found intact.
White people come to modern metal
In the 1830s, European and American settlements began to appear in the Iowa Territory. For most treasure hunters, this is a time of concern because this is when the metal comes in! White settlers brought with them coins and relics made from iron, silver, gold, etc. All the good stuff we can find with our metal detectors!
It was some of these early agricultural settlements that also led directly to stories of treasure in so many areas of Iowa. If you’re looking to start your own adventure, here are some of the top places you might want to check out, along with the stories behind them!
Most of the lost treasures in Iowa are unrelated to any treasure story. There are coins scattered throughout the houses and old town areas. People sometimes store coins and precious metals in tin cans buried on their property. Many times the people who buried them died, and knowledge died with them.
Legendary treasure in Iowa
Coins and relics are fun to find, but if you’re looking for something bigger… a once-in-a-lifetime discovery… then you’re in luck! Iowa is full of stories of lost and buried treasure that are worthy of further research. Here are just a few of them:
Bellevue: Back in the 1880s, in a cave near the southern edge of town, Mississippi River pirates were said to have buried their loot before being hunted down by vigilantes.
Buffalo:
According to legend, approximately $35,000 – $50,000 in gold was taken in a train robbery that occurred just west of Davenport in Buffalo, right along the Mississippi River. The gold is believed to have been buried in a 3-acre plot near train tracks and a highway near a creek in the area.
Cerro Gordo District:
Thomas Nelson claimed that he buried a trove of personal property and countless gold coins in the Winnebago River somewhere between Horseshoe Bend and Wheeler Ranch in a 3-foot deep hole and could never find the location. that too.
Council Bluffs: According to local legend, Jesse James is said to have buried $35,000 worth of gold coins on a farm a few miles north of Council Bluffs.
Dallas County: About three miles north of Dexter, in a wooded area overlooking the Raccoon River, Bonnie and Clyde are said to have buried about $4,000 in stolen money during the 1930s.
Eddyville: Somewhere north of the cemetery near Eddyville (located on the Des Moines River remain 3 one-gallon ceramic pots filled with gold nuggets. According to local folklore, three prospectors returning from the Black Hills of the South Dakota camped at a turnpike about a mile north of Eddyville, one of the men was killed, his body burned and buried in the center of the burial ground, where the urns were.
