History & local legend
A lost-silver legend near Gardeau in McKean County centers on a British captain called Blackbeard. In the version retold by Francis X. Scully, he recovered silver bars from a Spanish wreck and needed to transport them to Canada. With privateers threatening a voyage by sea, he chose an overland route from Baltimore.
The silver was concealed beneath false bottoms in wagons carrying hay and straw. The party followed the Susquehanna and its tributaries into northern Pennsylvania, but the journey proved harder than expected. Near an old salt lick around Gardeau, they buried the boxes and planned to return.
Blackbeard entrusted the secret to Colonel Noah Parker, who kept other treasure seekers away but maintained that he had never found the silver. Scully's Blackbeard is a figure in local treasure lore, distinct from the famous pirate Edward Teach.
Sources
- Francis X. Scully, “Pennsylvania’s Lost Silver Treasure,” complete retelling
- Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Sinnemahoning Creek Watershed Conservation Plan, chapter 5, “Pennsylvania Folklore of Buried Treasure”
- History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, 1890, Norwich Township, Gardeau mineral spring and elk lick
- USGS station metadata, Parker Run at Gardeau, McKean County
- Library of Congress, historical photograph of Gardeau
