Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Bluff City News

Have you ever heard the story of the lost gold believed to be buried near Bluff City? It seems that back in the Civil War, some Confederate soldiers were camped on what later became the farm of Mr. Hildre Griffith a few miles from Bluff City. This was just before the battle of Poison Springs. According to the story, one of the soldiers buried a considerable amount of gold or silver near the camp in a churn and marked the spot with an iron marker near the surface of the ground. The soldier lost his life a few days later and only one other soldier knew of his buried treasure. This soldier is said to have returned to the area each year for many years after the war looking for the gold until finally he got too old to make the trip.

Mr. Griffith had bought this farm from a Dr. Rooks in 1926. Somehow the news leaked out about the buried treasure and people began to search for it.

According to the story, Mr. Griffith plowed up the iron marker, but did not know of the significance of it. He kept it along with other items he had found in that part of his field.

People would come into his field at night and dig for the buried treasure. Mr. Griffith never saw them, but saw signs of their digging up until about 1932.

Today the field lies silent from cultivation and has grown up in pine trees. As far as we know the treasure was never found. I once worked for Mr. Griffith. I wish I had known of this story back then so I could have asked him to show me the spot on his farm where the campsite was.