History & local legend
On October 11, 1924, a Cambria and Indiana Railroad train was carrying $33,054 in payroll money to the Ebensburg Coal Company’s miners at Colver. Near Belsano, a man posing as a passenger flagged it down at the Concrete Bridge stop. Armed accomplices already aboard helped seize control of the train.
James Garman was killed during the robbery. The gang removed the safe and took it away in a waiting car. Two men, Michelo “Michael” Bassi and Anthony “Tony” Pezzi, were later convicted and executed in 1925, but investigators recovered only part of the stolen payroll.
The missing money became the basis of a local treasure story. According to the tradition recounted by the Pennsylvania Rambler, a safe containing much of the payroll was buried near the railroad and never retrieved.
Sources
- WPSU, The Pennsylvania Game, oral history feature on the October 1924 Cambria and Indiana train robbery at the Concrete Bridge flagstop
- The Pennsylvania Rambler, The Belsano Train Robbery (2023), grave visit, contemporary press and buried-safe tradition
- Cambria County Pennsylvania Railroad Stations, Concrete Bridge flagstop listing (mile 6.5 from Colver Heights)
- Lloyd Cemetery, Cambria Township, OpenStreetMap way 62769064
