Although the hills and meadows sloping down from the Blue Ridge toward Montvale look peaceful and tranquil in the sunshine, thousands of searchers, hoping to unearth the hoard, have swept the area with metal detectors, dug it up, turned it over and sifted through it using every sort of excavation tool from garden trowels to bulldozers—and have come up empty.
The legend of the Beale Treasure began in 1885 with the publication of the "Beale Papers" in Lynchburg, Virginia, by J.B. Ward. In his application for a copyright, Ward named himself as agent for the unnamed author, though most students of the mystery believe Ward to be the author of the pamphlet.
The author (Ward or another) in his introduction to the "Beale Papers" explains how they came into his possession and how he became so intrigued with unlocking the mystery that he spent more than 20 fruitless years in the quest, reducing him "to absolute penury.” He published the information in the hope that "someone, through fortune or accident, will speedily solve their mystery and secure the prize.”
The pamphlet explains how Robert Morriss of Lynchburg, a well-respected hotel owner, originally came into possession of the papers. Morriss first made the acquaintance of Thomas Beale in 1820 when Beale spent the winter at Morriss' Hotel Washington in Lynchburg. Beale left the hotel in the spring and then returned two years later to spend another winter. This time, before leaving, he entrusted the hotel keeper with a locked iron box, asking Morriss to keep it safe for him.
A few months later, in May of 1822, Morriss received a letter from Thomas Beale. In the letter, mailed from St. Louis, Missouri, Beale told Morriss that the box contained important papers and asked that Morriss break the lock and open the box if Beale had not returned for the box after 10 years. The letter explained that the box contained letters to Morriss and three other papers which would be unintelligible without a "key,” and that Beale had left such a "key" in the hands of a friend in St. Louis who would mail it to Morriss in 1832. The "key" would explain everything.
Morriss never saw or heard from Thomas Beale again—and the "key" never arrived. Even after 10 years had passed, he was reluctant to open the box. Finally, after 23 years, Morriss had the lock broken on the strong iron box. Inside he found letters addressed to him, some receipts and three sheets of paper covered with figures which were totally incomprehensible.
Beale went on to explain that he and a party of 29 friends had gone West in 1817 to the Great Plains. On an excursion into Mexican territory, Beale and his party discovered gold in a crack in a rock. Further digging unearthed a great deal of gold. With Beale in command, they commenced digging in earnest. An agreement was drawn up that each member would share equally in the rewards.
After 18 months of effort, a large amount of gold and silver had been accumulated. The men decided that the treasure must be put somewhere safe, hidden away, far from the wilds of Santa Fe. The consensus was that somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia, near Bufords (now Montvale) there were caves which would make an ideal repository. Beale and 10 men were chosen to make the trip to Virginia and hide the gold. It was also decided that while in Virginia, Beale should seek out a dependable person to whom their secret could be entrusted and who would carry out the party's wishes in case any harm should ever befall the gold hunters.
Beale wrote that he and his companions returned to Bufords in Bedford County and located a safe place to store their treasure. Then Beale settled into the hotel of Robert Morriss in Lynchburg. The men scattered to their respective homes and families and, in the spring, all returned to Santa Fe.
He explained that on his second return trip to Bufords, loaded with more gold, he added to the hidden hoard and then spent another winter at Morriss' hotel. This time, before he left, he had entrusted the iron box to Morriss and asked that it be held until called for by Beale. At that time, he had not divulged the contents of the box to Morriss, but the letter explained that the box contained ciphers numbered 1. which disclosed the location of the treasure; number 2. the contents and number; 3. the names of those who would share the wealth.
The letter further stated that the contents of the ciphers could not be understood without a "key" which would be mailed to Morriss "in time.”
Then, the letter added "as 10 years must elapse before you will see this letter, you may well conclude by that time that the worst has happened and that none of us are to be numbered among the living. In such an event, you will please visit the place of deposit and secure its contents which you will divide into 31 equal parts. One of these parts, you are to retain as your own, freely given for your services. The other shares to be distributed to the parties named in the accompanying paper.”
Though unable to extract any intelligence from the coded papers, Morriss still did not disclose their existence until 1862, 40 years after he received the box from Beale. Finally, with ill health plaguing him. he entrusted the papers and the story to the author of the pamphlet called the "Beale Papers" (be it J. P. Ward or another) who, on receiving the enciphered sheets, set to work to try to break the ciphers.
After 20 years of almost unceasing effort, the recipient of the papers had only succeeded in breaking one cipher, that of the document labeled "2,” which described the contents of the vault.
The ciphers are what cryptanalysts call "multiple substitution ciphers.” The cipher "key" is a document or a book. The author of the "Beale Papers" eventually discovered that the key for document 2 was the Declaration of Independence.
His deciphering procedure yielded up the following text: "I have deposited in the County of Bedford about four miles from Bufords in an excavation or vault six feet below the surface of the ground the following articles belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number 3 herewith:"
He then described the hidden treasure as 2,981 pounds of gold, 5,092 pounds of silver, plus jewels.
The letter continued: "Paper number 1 describes the exact locality of the vault so that no difficulty will be had in finding it."
Since the publication of the "Beale Papers" by Ward in 1885, all attempts to break the two remaining ciphers have been unsuccessful, though many professionals have tried their hand at it.
In the 1960s, the Beale Cypher Association was formed to study the codes and share information on the mystery. Among its approximately 100 members are included some of the country's most renowned computer experts.
An article in Colliers Magazine in 1919 sparked some public interest in the hunt, but the story in Argosy Magazine written by Pauline B. Innis in 1964 brought out her readers in force as did the book she and her husband, Walter Innis, wrote in 1973 titled "Gold in the Blue Ridge.”
In 1981 Smithsonian magazine published an in-depth article by Ruth Daniloff which greatly renewed interest.
NBC and CBS TV have produced programs on the story and innumerable newspaper and magazine stories have kept the tale alive so people have come from all over the country (and even from overseas after the story was printed in a German magazine in 1985) to try their luck.
The most recent and most famous searcher is Mel Fisher, who has recovered one million dollars from a sunken Spanish galleon.
Armed with new ideas about the location of the Beale treasure, he bought five and a half acres of land including the old mill and dam on Goose Creek in Montvale.
After weeks of fruitless searching in the fall of 1989, Fisher at first vowed to return and then apparently abandoned his search.
So, the question remains: Is there gold in them thar hills?
If you believe there is, why not take your shot at breaking the Beale ciphers? The treasure's current worth is estimated to be about $21 million! Certainly worth a try—If it really does exist.
Some politely seek the owners' permission to dig on a specific piece of land while others come under cover of darkness to dig their holes. Some work by hand while others hire local residents with machinery. The whole area has been likened to a bombed-out war zone, with huge, machine-made holes in the land.
Kenneth Dooley of Montvale gets a lot of business because he owns a backhoe. He'll dig for a fee at the spot you specify if you have permission from the property owner. He averages a couple of requests a month.
Has anyone ever unearthed any treasure?
"Not in my presence,” he chuckles.
Maybe the most famous searcher in recent years was a Pennsylvania woman named Marilyn Parsons. She had been studying the information available for years and thought she knew where the treasure was buried. She hired a driver in Pennsylvania, Joseph Jancik, and, accompanied by her dog, Muffin, headed for Montvale, Virginia. There she employed backhoe operator Johnny E. Long of Montvale. Her destination was the cemetery of the Mountain View Church in Wiggington Knob on Porters Mountain near Montvale, where there is now a modern cemetery.
Gold she didn't find, but she did unearth what seemed to be a piece of a human bone and a coffin handle. Meanwhile, neighbors who heard the noise of the work in progress had called the sheriff’s office, and two deputies from Bedford County stopped the digging and arrested Parsons and Jancik. They were jailed in Bedford County and Muffin was incarcerated by the dog pound.
Parsons and Jancik were charged with felony for unearthing a human body from its grave and, at a trial a month later, Parsons was fined $500 plus court costs and Jancik $100 plus court costs. (No charges were placed against Muffin.)
Jessie Richards says that in the 20 years she has been Postmistress in Montvale, she has received many letters from people outside the area who have heard the stories about buried gold and want to visit the town. She answers each letter politely, providing whatever answers she can to their questions.
Debbie Meador, the librarian at the Montvale Branch Library (which is housed in what was originally a bank in the old center of town) says that she has regular visits from two elderly searchers, one of whom moved to the town from Maryland specifically so that he could be near the treasure.
Robert Scott Carr Jr. of Blue Ridge has guided several people to a cave at Ironville near Villamont. He assumes that this could have been the first cave inspected and rejected by Beale as it had been used as a root cellar by locals. He tells his clients that—but still they want to see it.
All in all, the locals are mostly tolerant and somewhat amused at the antics (unless, of course, someone tries to dig on their land without permission). Many believe that the story is true but that the treasure has already been found.
Or maybe there never was a treasure. So thinks Richard H. Greaves of Roanoke. After four and a half years of meticulous research, he says "there is no treasure; there never was a treasure. The story involving secret codes that give the location of buried gold and silver is fiction." His 10-page paper entitled "Pursuit" is on file in the reference room of the Roanoke City Library.
Peter Viemeister in his definitive book, “The Beale Treasure-A History of a Mystery,” goes to great lengths to prove why the story might be true and then, in a turnaround, explains why it cannot be true. He maintains this ambivalence when interviewed stating only "It might be possible.” He refers one to the final page of his book where he cautions against getting too involved and ends the book with a play on words: "Beale. Leave it or not?"
Treasure?
For more than a century, treasure hunters have been scouring the region in search of a horde of gold, silver and jewels purported to have been buried by one Thomas J. Beale.
Millions have learned of the story from hundreds of articles and from specials on FoxTV, History Channel, BBC, Travel Channel, SBS of Korea and as recently as April, on WTTG TV-5 of Washington, D.C.
Interest is keen not just in the U.S. Howard Woodcock of Britain keeps his copy of the book "The Beale Treasure: History of a Mystery" on the shelf next to Sherlock Holmes.
The legend began when a pamphlet titled "The Beale Papers" went on sale in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1885. It told of a treasure buried in Bedford County in 1819 and 1821, with the location described by a page of ciphers. Untold numbers of good minds have been stymied by the ciphers and prevented from unearthing the treasure.
Is there a treasure? Was there ever? The full truth is elusive.
Unlike the recorded manifest of a sunken, gold-laden galleon, there is no documentation that this treasure existed.
There were, however, actual persons named Thomas J. Beale. One of them once lived in Fincastle, Virginia—just up the road from Bedford—before he moved to New Orleans. There, in the early 1800s, he and his son operated a hotel, just a few blocks from an establishment owned by the legendary privateer Jean Laffite. This fact led one author to suggest that "Thomas Beale" was Laffite himself.
Another idea is that the "treasure" was part of the Confederate States of America treasury, secretly brought from Richmond in late days of the Civil War and then hidden in Bedford until the South could turn the tide of battle.
Plotters issued the pamphlet story as a coverup, to allow them to "find" it later.
One popular belief is that the story was concocted by master storyteller Edgar Allen Poe.
Still another explanation is that the compelling 1885 "Papers" were composed by a Lynchburg newspaperman.
Beale's stash, if indeed it exists as described, would today be valued at more than $10 million.
Hovering over any treasure is the tax man who, at worst, would claim it as a government asset or, at best, will grab a big share as income tax. No wonder serious hunters work quietly and keep a low profile as they explore the history and the terrain of Bedford County. Watch for out-of-state cars prowling Goose Creek Valley.
Will anyone find the it? The family motto of the Duke of Bedford, for whom the county was named in 1754, was "Che sera, sera" (the Italian spelling).
Singer-actress Doris Day popularized the song "Que Sera, Sera" (the Spanish spelling), which taught us that these words mean "whatever will be, will be."
Beale Treasure - "Que sera, sera"? While they wait, residents and visitors savor the scenery and agree that a real treasure is Bedford itself.