History & local legend
A treasure story from the wetlands north of Eldred concerns Cyrus Cole, a man who picked berries, trapped muskrats and lived in a shack. Neighbors wondered how someone living so simply always seemed to have cash, while counterfeit silver and gold coins circulated in the area.
The story places a Secret Service investigation in 1912. Agents searched Cole's shack and the swamp for the equipment used to make the money. Treasure hunters later claimed he had hidden both counterfeits and genuine earnings on higher ground.
The tale's claim that investigators found no equipment is complicated by a contemporary newspaper report reproduced in a local discussion: it says Cole was jailed in November 1912 and that molds and dies were reportedly found. The location and existence of a buried fortune remain the treasure tradition's unanswered questions.
Sources
- h2g2, Lost Treasures of Pennsylvania, The Counterfeiter’s Gold, 2001
- TreasureNet readers, Buried Evidence in Eldred, local discussion of the marsh and variants
- Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program, McKean County Natural Heritage Inventory, Eldred and its Allegheny wetland complex
- USGS, river gauge half a mile north of Eldred, near the Route 346 bridge
