Is There a Lost Treasure from 1875 Near Bear Creek in Hannibal?
Did you know there was a train wreck in 1875 near Bear Creek in Hannibal where many jewels and diamonds were lost and never recovered? It's true and thanks to one local researcher, we now can know more about this legend that just happens to be true.
Big thanks to Robert Turek who sent me a note through our radio station Facebook page today to alert me to research he had done for his Quincy from Above (actually Qcy From Above) Facebook page. Robert has done some digging (no treasure pun intended) and found a whopper of a story about a train wreck near Bear Creek in Hannibal dating back to 1875.
The short version of Robert's story is this. On July 31, 1875, heavy rains were responsible for a train wreck that involved a jeweler from McCaffrey & Co. of New York City who survived the wreck, but his cargo was lost. The amount of the jewels and diamonds lost would amount to $406,000 and $2,709,000 in value today.
That jewelry trunk was never recovered and Robert has tracked down newspaper clippings from that era to prove what he says is not legend, but history.
I highly recommend you check out all the details on Robert's Facebook post from Qcy From Above for even more details. I look forward to featuring him on an episode of our On Demand podcast very soon to see if we can figure out if that fortune in jewels is still to be found somewhere near Hannibal today.