Secret Passages

•August 14, 2024•

by Janet Roney

Was my Uncle Cliff’s story about a pot of gold buried along Jonathan Creek true? Supposedly, his father saw the hole it came from.   

True or not, the story triggered a search for a trail coming up from the Old Bend along Jonathan Creek.  The historical society’s “Corps of Discovery” found traces of it south of Mason Point.

   Who buried the gold? Highwaymen? I have never heard of any highwaymen in Moultrie County, but other rural counties in Illinois had them prior to the Civil War. They were bounty hunters looking for run-away slaves who had escaped across the Ohio River into Illinois from Kentucky.  

    Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.