Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Civil War Gold...

Isn't it great to be back in Georgia again?

BRAD: There were six wagons full of gold.

GARY: And it was stolen at this site?

Once the robbery got underway, it was just a free-for-all.

GARY: If you was running

with gold in your pockets,

this is the type of place you'd hide it.

-What is that? -I don't know.

I've never seen anything like it.

-GARY: Wow! -AL: Wow!

Nice!

It's time to go down and see if that's real gold.

♪

NARRATOR: While waiting for a permit

that would allow him and his team to search Lake Michigan

for a sunken train car full of lost Confederate gold,

treasure hunter Kevin Dykstra

has been researching other places

where additional gold could have been taken

during the chaotic last days of the Civil War.

We're meeting a lady by the name of Carlene.

Unbelievably, she's got some very interesting insight

into missing gold from the Confederacy.

-Wow. -And talking with her on the phone, she's legit.

I can tell you that.

NARRATOR: According to Kevin Dykstra's research,

the gold that he believes lies buried at the bottom

of Lake Michigan was once part of the Confederate treasury.

It was confiscated by members of the 4th Michigan Cavalry

during their arrest of President Jefferson Davis

in Irwinville, Georgia on May 10, 1865.

Although many mainstream historians insist

that the Confederacy was nearly bankrupt

at the end of the Civil War

and that Davis had no gold with him at the time of his arrest,

Kevin and his team have recently uncovered

important information.

Well, I understand you've got a lot to show us here today.

This is only a small amount of what I've got.

NARRATOR: Four weeks ago,

they were shown compelling evidence

that not only was Davis fleeing the South

with millions in Confederate gold,

but that the gold captured with him

may have been only a portion of a much larger cache.

Here I have a letter written by a Confederate veteran.

"We crossed the Savanna River, arriving at Washington, Georgia.

"It was there that the Confederate treasury

was divided."

So those six wagons that were Davis,

that wasn't the only bit of gold.

-That's correct. -Wow.

-There was a lot of missing gold. -Mm-hmm.

-[laughs] -Well.

KEVIN: You know, we know there's gold missing all over the place.

-Mm-hmm. -Here we get a chance

to get some oral history, handed down from generation

-to generation. -Yep.

Something tells me

that she's been itching to talk to somebody

about what she knows.

I just have a feeling she's gonna blow the lid

off from this.

Excited to talk to her.

-Oh, I can't wait. -I know.

KEVIN: I believe all that gold was with Jefferson Davis,

and I think they split it off and then started

to take different directions with different portions of it.

Here's Brad's house.

So there's no telling how many Confederate gold treasures

can be out there, and you could see

traces of it surface in the most unlikely places.

-Hey, guys. -KEVIN: Hey, Brad.

-Come on in. -How are you?

-Big Al. -How's it going?

Good. Well, our guests are already here.

-Hello. -Hello. -Hi.

AL: Hello.

-I'm Kevin. -Hi, I'm Carlene.

NARRATOR: Carlene Ingram is the great-great-granddaughter

of John Chennault, the owner of a large plantation

located near the town of Washington, Georgia.

Based on stories passed down within her family,

Carlene believes that not only was a large portion

of stolen Confederate gold hidden years ago

on the family property, but that remnants of that gold

might still remain buried there,

even after more than 150 years.

So nice to meet you in person.

KEVIN: So when Carlene Ingram said that she wanted to share

her family history, I was really excited

because I always look at information handed down

from families as kind of a window

into what actually happened.

You are a descendant of the Chennaults

from the Chennault Plantation.

Yes, my great-grandmother, Ginny Chennault,

was born in Washington, Georgia,

and John Nelson Chennault was the slave master.

Ginny was the slave. [laughs]

He committed the unpardonable sin at that time.

He not only fell in love with his slave, he married her.

-AL: Oh! -[laughs]

-Wow. -BRAD: Fascinating.

BRAD: It's a real social commentary on the...

-Yeah. -...the time period. -CARLENE: Right.

-Right. -KEVIN: And a good story.

CARLENE: [chuckles] Yes.

It is. I mean, our family history, it is.

BRAD: So, the story goes

that when the Confederacy government

left Richmond, Virginia,

five banks emptied their gold and silver coins onto wagons,

and made their way down to eventually Washington, Georgia.

Well, I know what happened

to, if not all, at least most of the gold

that was dumped at or near the Chennault Plantation

in Washington, Georgia.

Wow.

[indistinct shouting]

NARRATOR: On the night of May 24, 1865,

a group of some 20 ex-Confederate soldiers

stormed a camp on the Chennault Plantation grounds

in response to rumors that a portion

of the Confederate treasury had been taken there.

According to published reports, the thieves made off

with some $251,000 worth of gold, silver and jewelry,

nearly $4 million worth in today's dollars.

But there are many who believe that a portion of it

may still remain somewhere on or near

the Chennault Plantation.

There's only a few of us still living today

that knows about this.

So either we die out with it or we preserve it

for generations to come.

And I felt like it's time to get it out there.

Sure.

My Aunt Janie had explained to me

about my great-great-grandfather.

He was a slave on the Chennault Plantation.

He had found some gold.

Okay.

In a creek. She said it was in a creek.

Can you show us where this creek is at?

No. My Aunt Janie just told me that he found it.

All I know, it was somewhere around the plantation.

You know, after it rains, every now and then,

somebody would find a gold coin

here and there on the plantation.

That's what my Aunt Janie told me.

KEVIN: She said that coins would just

surface after a rain?

-Well... So he didn't... -No kidding.

-they did not get it all. -BRAD: They didn't get it all.

-They didn't get it all. -That's right.

Do you think that there's still coins buried there today?

The gold was dumped in the 1800s, so it's a possibility

it could still be some gold there.

So that gold could really be laying anywhere?

-AL: Anywhere. -And I'd like to go down there

after a rain and find a few.

[laughter]

AL: Is this, like, a family secret?

Nobody outside of your family has heard this?

-Right. -ALL: Really? -BRAD: Wow.

I feel like we are extremely fortunate

to hear this information that's never been published,

it's never been shared outside the family.

But I feel it's drawing me down

-to the Chennault Plantation. -Me, too.

KEVIN: I can think of nothing better to do

while we're waiting for this permit

than to head down to Washington, Georgia and see if we can find

some of that gold or jewelry

where Carlene's great-great-grandfather

said he saw it.

I can't thank you guys enough for making the trip.

Well, always a pleasure to meet history buffs.

-You guys, too. Thank you. -Pleasure to meet you all.

Thank you for having us.

NARRATOR: One day before heading south

to Washington, Georgia,

Kevin Dykstra, along with his brother Darren,

travels to the marina in Frankfort.

-JEFF: Hey, all right. -KEVIN: Gentlemen!

-There he is. -How are you?

Good to see you, man. I'm glad you made it.

-Man. Here you go. -Thank you.

-Hey, Darren. -Darren.

NARRATOR: While waiting for official permission

to thoroughly explore an area at the bottom of Lake Michigan,

where Kevin believes a large portion

of stolen Confederate gold

was deliberately dumped back in the late 1800s...

This is Brian Abbott.

...Kevin has arranged

for underwater imaging expert Brian Abbott

to conduct additional sonar scans of the area.

If additional search sites can be identified,

Kevin might still have time to amend

his permits to include them.

Al, myself and Brad are gonna be down in Georgia.

Uh, we got some terrific leads

-to follow down there. -All right.

So with Darren coming aboard-- Darren is just as good

a diver as Al and I, so he's gonna take our place.

-Sure. -We're gonna really ramp up the search.

-Okay. -I've got a map here,

and what I'd like to do is outline

where I think we need to start searching.

We've covered a lot of this area to the south.

If we can focus a little bit more north,

and really scour that.

-Really scour it hard. -Gotcha.

-Yeah. -KEVIN: If you guys come up

with an interesting target--

-Brian, it's gonna kind of be up to you. -Yeah.

If you see a target you feel they need to dive on,

-put those guys in the water. -All right. Will do.

Jeff, you'll do the video, but we take our lead from Brian.

-Yep. -Fred, you're gonna keep an eye on these guys.

-I'll keep them alive. -Just do what you've always done.

-It'll be done. -Good.

I think if we can find multiple sites of interest

to present to the state, that would be huge.

-Yeah. -Yeah, for sure.

All right. Well, guys, I got to get down to Georgia.

We got a lot of work to do down there.

DARREN: Have a safe trip.

KEVIN: Isn't it great

-to be back in Georgia again? -Sure is.

NARRATOR: Having traveled more than 900 miles southeast

from Muskegon, Michigan, Kevin Dykstra,

along with his brother Al, Brad Richards

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

arrive in Washington, Georgia to search for evidence

of Confederate treasure that could still be found

on the historic Chennault Plantation.

And joining the team for this trip is Alex Lagina,

the son of Kevin's investor,

Oak Island treasure hunter, Marty Lagina.

So, this is maybe a separate cache of gold?

BRAD: Yeah. There were six wagons full of gold

that went with Jefferson Davis.

This is unrelated to that.

Yeah, this-this is totally separate,

and I think what we're looking at here

is one other example of Confederate gold

that traveled all over the South.

Right.

NARRATOR: If Kevin can find evidence

of Confederate treasure

on what was once the plantation grounds,

it could further support his theory

that Jefferson Davis had a large amount of gold,

silver, and jewelry with him at the time of his arrest.

You know, to be searching for the gold

at the bottom of Lake Michigan for eight years

is exciting in its own right.

Cool property up here.

KEVIN: But to find out that there's other caches of gold

that were moving around the South is huge.

You know, history records that there was wagons of gold.

There was also some jewelry.

If we can find some of that,

it definitely means we're on the right track.

How big of an area are we looking?

The Chennault Plantation was over 1,000 acres

and a fellow by the name of Dan O'Leary

owns 300 of those original acres.

So we have permission to go

where the-the wagons of gold were.

But he's also given us permission to use a backhoe

-if we need to dig further. -Wow.

NARRATOR: Because the historic Chennault mansion

is undergoing a major renovation...

KEVIN: Oh! Here they are right here, guys.

-Yeah. -NARRATOR: ...Kevin and his team

have chosen to focus their search

on a 300-acre area of the plantation property

where they believe the incident

involving the Confederate gold originally took place.

Nice to meet you, Dan. I'm Alex.

Hey, Alex. Good to see you. Yes, sir.

KEVIN: This is amazing.

So how long have you been researching

this property, Bob?

Uh, I've been hearing about this whole business

with the gold robbery all my life,

and about ten years ago,

I did some more research on it, and wrote a book about it.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Bob Young is the former mayor

of Augusta, Georgia

and the author of The Treasure Train,

a historical novel detailing a number of Civil War events

including the infamous Chennault Plantation robbery.

Now this road that you drove down to get down here to us,

that was a main superhighway

for troops coming back at the end of the war.

There was a tremendous amount of traffic,

ex-Confederate soldiers trying to get home,

and so there were a lot of troops

that were hanging around this area.

Around Eastertime, April of 1865,

the Union forces were pressing on Richmond.

And so the banks pooled their gold and silver reserves

to escape the advancing Union troops,

about $450,000 worth all total.

Interesting.

BOB: Then on May 24th,

a train of five wagons

with a light escort

and the clerks from the bank came up

what we know now as Graball Road,

and they camped for the night up here,

and that's when it was robbed.

And everybody who got something

in the robbery would've fled by way of Graball Road.

And that's why this is named Graball Road, out here,

because they were grabbing all that they could.

Mm-hmm.

And, it sounds like it was all gold coins.

It was a mix of gold and silver

and the jewelry that was collected from the people

across the Confederacy to support the war effort.

Okay.

NARRATOR: Because the robbery

on the plantation was committed in the middle of the night,

and not all the gold and treasure was recovered

after the robbery,

there are many who believe that portions

of the Confederate gold might still be found

on the Chennault property.

It is a theory that gained further credibility

after Kevin's meeting with Chennault descendant

Carlene Ingram.

Al and I met with a direct descendent

from the Chennault Plantation

and she gave us a story about some gold

being found by one of her forefathers in a creek.

BOTH: Mm-hmm.

AL: Now, we were told they are still finding gold coins

around here. Have you, have you heard of that?

That's an excellent question.

-It's very possible. -Mm-hmm.

It's possible that there's money placed in many places.

So it could be on the ground or it could be with the looters?

It could be. Let me give you the numbers.

Okay, th-th-there was $450,000 total,

$159,000 was not taken.

-Wow. -$111,000 was recovered.

$40,000 on the ground and $70,000 from robbers.

So that leaves unaccounted, $179,000.

-Oh, man. -[laughter]

You know, I believe Carlene's story is totally legit.

We'll do a thorough search

of the property and we'll find out.

Are there any creeks on your property?

As a matter of fact, one is just right back here,

which would be extremely close to

where I think Graball Road would've gone.

Gary, I think that might be a place...

Yeah, puts a whole new meaning to the words "river bank."

-[laughter] -DAN: I like the way you think.

Oh, yeah.

You know, I've got a couple of aerial photographs and maps

that might be really helpful if you'd like

-to take a look at 'em. -Yeah, I think we should.

Okay, sure.

Take a look at this aerial here.

This is the old Chennault Plantation,

-just directly across the street. -Mm-hmm.

And it looks as though Graball Road

probably went along that area there.

ALEX: Yeah, it definitely does.

The existing creek actually crosses Graball Road.

You know, somewhere in this area here,

the creek and old Graball Road intersect.

I think we need to get up on that Graball Road.

I think we need to break up into teams,

and we'll just kind of work towards each other.

-Cool. -Does that sound like a plan?

-Yeah. -Sounds like a plan.

That sounds great. Well, good luck.

-Happy hunting. -OTHERS: Thank you.

-Thanks, guys. -Thanks again. -See you later, guys.

KEVIN: All of the stories that we've heard about gold

being spilled at the Chennault Plantation

happened on Graball Road.

I think we have the best chance for success in that creek

that Carlene's great-great-grandfather

found the gold in.

Well, I think, um,

you know, right here is where Graball Road come down.

-Yeah. -What do you think, Gary?

This road going down here, this is the prime area to me.

Why don't, um, you and Alex

start metal detecting up this way,

and then the rest of us will head down and approach it

from the other end.

Let's get some tools out

and let's get this process underway.

-Okay. -About time.

-Anticipation's been killing me here. -Grab a shovel.

-All right. Let's get started. -All right. Let's do it, man.

NARRATOR: While Brad and Alex begin searching

along the old Graball Road,

Kevin, Al and Gary look for the creek bed where,

according to Carlene Ingram,

lost Confederate gold and silver may still lie buried.

Oh, look at that erosion down there.

You can see where the water's been filling up in this creek

and it's eroded the banks.

Any gold hidden in the banks, in this we're gonna find it.

So should we check this spot out?

-Yeah. -Let's do that. You lead the way.

I'll stay up here and watch out for snakes.

AL: All right.

Oh, now you remind us of the snakes.

We'll know if he sees one 'cause he'll scream.

Fantastic erosion. This is a great place to hide stuff.

Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: If Kevin and his team

can find physical evidence

of stolen Confederate treasure on the Chennault property,

it will validate his theory

that lost Civil War gold and silver might be found

not only in Michigan, but at numerous locations.

The gold at the bottom of Lake Michigan, in my opinion,

is by no means all of the gold.

It's a small portion of a much larger cache of gold

I think that's scattered around the country.

-[metal detector whirring] -I mean, look at this.

I mean, this puts you back in the day,

'cause if you was running with gold in your pockets,

this is the type of place you'd hide it,

-in amongst all the roots and stuff. -Absolutely.

This is the place I think we're gonna find it.

That's a tough one to tell what it is, mate.

-[metal detector whirring] -How deep?

It's only, uh, three inches.

You're right, it is rocky, ain't it?

Mm. It is!

Would it be on top of the rock or under it?

It'll be on top of the rock.

That's a good thing that the rocks are trapping targets.

They're a natural barrier,

they stop things from sinking further.

-Is that...? -Whoa!

-Oh, look at that. -GARY: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Just outside of Washington, Georgia,

on land that was once part

of the historic Chennault Plantation...

Whoa!

NARRATOR: ...Kevin and Al Dykstra,

along with metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

are carefully searching an old creek bed.

They are hoping to find physical evidence

of a 150-year-old robbery

involving gold, silver and jewelry

that had once been part of the Confederate treasury.

That's old, mate.

I think this might be part of a thrown horseshoe.

I'm pretty certain that this is a horseshoe. Take a look here.

Oh, yeah, nail hole.

GARY: Oh, you can see all the holes.

This is definitely a horseshoe, and-and this is an old one,

and it's interesting because it is, it's totally wore out.

AL: Yup.

A farmer who's using his animals would never let that shoe

wear down that far,it would do damage to the horse

or the mule's foot.

So, the fact that this is just totally wore out

said this-this animal had been travelling a long time.

You know, with Bob saying that this was the road they believe

the gold travelled on, and us finding a definite horseshoe,

we're on the right track,

but let's keep checking here, all right?

Yeah, there might be more in there.

NARRATOR: As Kevin and his team continue to search

the Chennault Plantation area

for evidence of lost Confederate treasure,

Kevin's brother Darren,

along with fellow treasure hunters

Jeff Zehr and Frederick J. Monroe,

meet with boat captain Matt Mervau

and underwater imaging expert Brian Abbott

back in Frankfort, Michigan.

JEFF: We got some smaller things on the side-scan here.

FRED: So we'll probably circle around and double-check that.

NARRATOR: As before, the team is searching for the remains

of a boxcar that, according to Kevin's research,

was filled with millions of dollars

in stolen Confederate gold and on its way west to Utah

when, sometime in the late 1800s,

it was deliberately pushed off a ferryboat

and sent crashing to the bottom of the lake.

Although they have already identified two possible

dive sites, and have applied to the state for the permits

that will allow the areas to be investigated,

the team is hoping to find additional places

where the gold might be.

Ah, we got something right here.

Left-hand side.

BRIAN: That's a nice target. That's interesting.

FRED: What do you think it is, Brian?

BRIAN: I don't know, but it's a good target.

FRED: It is a good target.

Yeah. So let's get ready to deploy the sonar,

-if you can hold position here. -We can do that.

See, that's when it gets exciting now.

NARRATOR: Having located a promising object on the lake bottom,

the team deploys the MS1000 sector scanning sonar device,

which can generate a 360-degree three-dimensional map

of underwater environments.

BRIAN: 20 feet. 40 feet.

Okay, we're on bottom.

If we can put engines in neutral.

MATT: Neutral.

BRIAN: And I'll start scanning.

-JEFF: Got an image yet, Brian? -BRIAN: Yeah.

-Keep an eye on this. -Yep.

[clicking rapidly]

BRIAN: Wow, this is phenomenal, guys.

I'm getting full range out there.

It may be nothing, but it's got some stuff kind of spread out.

We do have a target over here. Not sure what it is.

Could you give us some dimensions on that?

I don't think I can be exact.

It's a little over six inches in height.

Roughly, about a foot long.

-JEFF: Is that right? -Yeah.

They're six inches wide,

a foot long; that sounds to me like a gold bar.

JEFF: It's time to go down and see if that's real gold.

We need to dive on this.

FRED: What are you waiting for?

Heck yeah, let's do it.

JEFF: I can't tell you

how anxious I am to get underwater again.

To actually know that there's a possibility

that we're gonna see bars of gold.

It's hard to keep me out of the water.

We're gonna look for what we saw on the sonar,

because we know the sand could have covered up

-all kinds of stuff. -Cool.

-All right, you ready to go? -Ready, willing and able.

Yep, right here.

So, everything else looks good.

BRIAN: Diver in the water.

Okay, diver two in the water.

Jeff, let me know when you guys are on the bottom.

Go west 25 feet.

What type of debris do you see?

NARRATOR: A gold bar?

Is it possible that Darren and Jeff have located

a second debris field, one that contains the remains

of a 19th-century boxcar that was once carrying

stolen Civil War gold?

Is it gold or what?

NARRATOR: Although the sediment-covered object

appears to be the right size and shape

of a possible gold bar,

without a government permit, Jeff and Darren are prohibited

by Michigan law from digging,

picking up, or even touching anything on the lake bottom.

JEFF: That could have been a bar of gold, but you never know

until you actually see what's down there.

We have targets to check off,

and right now, we're gonna continue searching

this big area till we just have to call the dive.

We need an air check, gentlemen.

What is the PSI in your tanks?

-Okay. -Thank you, gentlemen.

I'm gonna call it in about two minutes.

Jeff, you have a two-minute notice.

NARRATOR: While searching for a fortune

in stolen Confederate gold

at the bottom of Lake Michigan,

Jeff Zehr and Darren Dykstra may have just made

an incredible discovery.

Gold bar.

We'll give 'em a couple extra minutes.

-Uh, we'll see. -[laughs]

Have you found the object you were looking for?

They're going through their air pretty quick.

They've been in a little over 17 minutes.

Time to quit playing. I'm gonna call it.

All right, gentlemen, showtime's over.

Start your ascent.

Head back to the anchor rope. Do you copy?

NARRATOR: Although they would like more time

to examine the area,

Jeff and Darren's air supply is nearly exhausted.

Copy that.

NARRATOR: They must return to the surface immediately.

-MATT: Two divers up. -Two divers up.

BRIAN: Diver all right? Okay.

BRIAN: Good job. Tell me about it.

You mentioned a debris field.

What was the context of that?

Well, the very first objects we got to,

I still couldn't tell you what it was made out of.

-All right. -And then I saw two things

that were lipped up, and they looked like--

They really looked like they could have been a gold bar.

-Okay. -And, uh, one of them was

definitely brick-shaped.

It was definitely curious when we went up to it.

I-I was hoping it was a gold brick,

-because it was, like, that size. -Yeah. Yeah.

JEFF: And, uh, we'll see how the video comes out.

Boy, that sometimes shows things that I

may have missed seeing or...

-Right, a camera will. -Yeah.

Much more to look at. Much more to look at.

All right, well, let's get you on deck here.

JEFF: So Darren and I had a great dive

in terms of just seeing what's down there.

So we're gonna go back to that area again.

And right now, we can at least

take a shot at getting the sector scan out

-and getting some more reads. -Let's pull the buoy.

JEFF: We need to get as many targets as possible

before Kevin comes back home.

So, we just finished the north side.

We did get some good data I can add to the mosaic

that we've already started to build out here.

Let's move to the south side, and we'll work our way south

-and see what targets we can pick up. -Okay.

NARRATOR: While the team finishes up their work

on Lake Michigan,

Kevin Dykstra, his brother Al, and Gary Drayton continue

searching the grounds of the historic Chennault Plantation

in Washington, Georgia.

-Ooh, look at that one. -Good one.

-KEVIN: Square nail, yeah? -AL: Yeah.

Yeah, this is called a cut nail.

This is typical late 1800s.

It could have been used in construction.

-On a wagon. -Yeah, could have been a wagon.

Maybe an old bridge that might have been here at one time.

Could have been just about anything.

You know what, guys,

I think we need to get the backhoe in here.

-It'd be a a whole lot faster than doing it this way. -AL: Yeah, I agree.

GARY: It's easier to take a bucket out, you're right.

KEVIN: For sure. I'm gonna go grab the backhoe.

-All right, mate. -Excellent.

[metal detector beeping]

GARY: This is a good little area.

[device whining]

-AL: What'd you get? -GARY: I got a ring!

Oh, yes! That's awesome.

I got a ring, mate. I got a ring.

Let me see.

No way.

GARY: It is a ring.

That is a silver ring,

-and that looks like an oldie as well. -Wow.

Looks like an old design.

NARRATOR: A ring?

Could it be one of the pieces of jewelry that was reportedly

part of the Confederate treasury,

of which a portion had been confiscated by Union troops

before being stolen by rebels on this same property

back in 1865?

-GARY: Kev's gonna lose it. -AL: Oh, he's gonna freak.

AL: Hey, Kev.

You've got to come and see this, mate.

-What is it? -You won't believe it.

-Oh, this is big. -No.

It's not gold, but it's the next best thing.

Put your hand out, mate.

AL: Silver.

-Silver ring. -GARY: Silver ring.

-Man. -Yep.

And by that pattern--

and that is from the day; that's period.

AL: That's a find. That's a good one, ain't it?

-That's a top-pocket find. -It really is.

-Yep. -KEVIN: So, to actually

find silver, to find a ring

in that creek was huge.

It definitely showed we're on the right track.

You know, right now, I'll settle for any kind of proof.

Proof for Marty, and proof for my team.

He's still getting readings in here.

Yeah, there's still a lot of metal in here.

KEVIN: We're fighting this water. I mean,

if we can get the water stopped for just a brief period

and I can bail some of this water out,

then we're looking at the ground underneath.

And I, and I feel like we could be uncovering gold coins

under the water, we just can't see them.

-Sure. -So, if we dam the creek up for just a minute,

we'll clear this out and we'll see what's down there.

-Good idea. Good thinking. -I'm gonna set this back.

-I'm going to jump back in the excavator. -Okay, mate.

There could be stuff in this as well, in the bank.

-Yeah, in the bank? -Easily.

-This is a crossing. -Yep.

NARRATOR: Using the backhoe to dam up the creek,

Kevin and his team will be able to create

a relatively dry search area.

GARY: I'm telling you, Al, we're gonna find

-some really good stuff in here. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: As Kevin continues

damming up the creek, Brad Richards and Alex Lagina

are metal-detecting the area around old Graball Road...

-All right, Alex, let's make this thing sing. -Yep.

...which, according to Bob Young,

might be littered with remnants of Confederate treasure

that was dropped by thieves when they raided

the Chennault Plantation in 1865.

[beeping]

-That's all reading as iron. -Okay.

ALEX: We are basically

ten feet off of Graball Road as we're searching this area.

Kind of fits the story.

It's just about within sight of the plantation.

[beeping]

Right there.

Still in there.

It's out now.

What is it?

What is that?

BRAD: I've never seen anything like it.

That's a piece of jewelry. It's decorated.

Look, you can see a decorated pattern here on the bottom.

-Hang on, let me check. -Have a look.

BRAD: Oh, yeah. That is engraved.

ALEX: Mm-hmm. Let's see what Gary thinks about that.

-That's a good find. -That's cool.

Yeah, I think we should check this area

-a little bit more. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: While Brad and Alex continue

to search for more evidence,

Kevin Dykstra, his brother Al and Gary Drayton

investigate the area where Carlene Ingram

claimed her great-great-grandfather

kept finding a number of gold coins

for years after the Civil War.

Yeah. Right there.

-That's the one we wanted. -GARY: Yep.

-That'll be the golden bucket. -Yep.

NARRATOR: After building a dam

to clear the water out of a creek bed,

Kevin now uses the backhoe to dig up what he hopes

could be important clues, and possible treasure.

Ooh, I see an horseshoe!

-AL: Oh, look. -GARY: Right on top.

That's a crossing, mate.

-Look at that. Yeah. -KEVIN: That is wore out,

-just like the other half. I knew it. -AL: Yeah.

KEVIN: And this completes that horseshoe.

GARY: And I'm telling you, mate,

this is just a drop in the bucket.

-Yeah. -Yeah. We got to... -It really is.

-We got to keep going. Okay. -Yeah.

Let's see what else we got in here.

KEVIN: That's a pretty low tone.

GARY: That sounds good.

So hopefully there's something good being masked,

'cause some of this stuff sounds good,

and I can see it on top, this one.

Oh, I know what that is.

♪ That is Civil War.♪

-What is it? -It's an hanger.

A belt hanger.

It used to hang off a belt or a sash.

-AL: Oh, that's a good find. -Yeah, I found those

in the southern states all over on Civil War sites.

That is really cool; that would have been on a soldier

during the Civil War.

-No kidding. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: A belt hanger?

Could this have been worn by one of the men

that was involved in the rebel attack in May of 1865?

You know, it's funny. It seems the deeper we're digging,

-the older we're getting. -Yeah.

Yeah, and we're getting a wide variety of finds now.

I'll say that's a great little start.

[beeping]

The heck is this?

That looks like a pin.

GARY: Oh, I'm not sure.

That... that's jewelry.

Look at that. I see stones in it.

NARRATOR: While searching for evidence of stolen Confederate treasure,

on property that was once part of the Chennault Plantation,

Kevin Dykstra, his brother Al

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

have just made a potentially important discovery.

That's a little bobby-dazzler.

AL: It's got, uh, blue stones, green stones.

Emeralds on the sides, and maybe a sapphire in the middle?

KEVIN: You know, there was jewelry

missing at the Chennault Plantation as well.

So quite likely, this could be some of that jewelry.

Gary, why don't you put that in your top pocket?

I'm running out of pockets, mate. That's a good sign.

-Don't lose it. -Two pieces of jewelry.

-That is pretty special. -AL: That's a big day.

Are you good, or do you want to take more out?

I don't think we should take any more out today.

It's getting late in the day.

That was very successful, look at all the stuff we found.

We found jewelry, we found period Civil War pieces.

Well, I think we're done for today, mate.

All right. Well, I'm gonna push this back

and we're gonna clear this creek out so the water flows again,

and then we'll hook up with the other boys

-and see what they found. -Okay.

NARRATOR: Although they didn't find gold bars or silver coins,

Kevin and his team

discovered enough evidence to convince them

that stories of the Confederate treasury being scattered

throughout the United States could very well be true.

-Look at all that stuff. -[laughs]: I know.

NARRATOR: If so, it would mean

that the gold bars he's hoping to recover from the bottom

of Lake Michigan represent only the tip of an incredible

multimillion-dollar iceberg.

GARY: And we've done fantastic.

Ooh! That was a day.

AL: That was.

NARRATOR: The next day...

KEVIN: This is an amazing amount of stuff.

...before Kevin Dykstra and his team return

to their home base in Muskegon, Michigan,

they meet once again with property owner Dan O'Leary

and area historian Bob Young.

They are eager share with them their incredible finds.

Wow.

KEVIN: These artifacts tell a story.

We know that Jefferson Davis was traveling

with a bunch of gold and wagons, but we also know

there were other caches of gold.

So we found artifacts that lend credibility

-to our research. -Yeah.

KEVIN: When we laid all those artifacts out for Dan and Bob

to see on that table, it made me feel like

we were definitely looking at a time capsule here.

And all of those artifacts only helped my theory.

This is a silver ring from the Civil War era.

That is amazing.

We got a little brooch here, a little pin.

DAN: Look at that.

KEVIN: We found silver,

but we didn't find gold.

Whether we ever find a piece of gold or not, uh,

look at all this history that took place on our property.

I mean, that's just so exciting.

I do believe there is gold there.

-So do I. -I do believe that.

KEVIN: With the many searches we have going on,

we feel that there was gold that spread

in many different places across the South.

Unfortunately, we just don't have the time

-to dedicate more here. -Sure.

KEVIN: So to have the privilege to excavate on your property

really pushes this project forward.

Well, I really appreciate you guys coming out

and digging up the stories

that we've heard about our own property,

but really, you've brought it to life.

KEVIN: After these amazing finds at the Chennault Plantation,

who knows where the discoveries will come next?

This was an amazing, worthwhile and exciting trip,

but I am very anxious to get back home and look for that gold

that's at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

And can you say it? Y'all come back now.

-[laughter] -Y'all come back now, you hear?

You hear?

NARRATOR: For Kevin Dykstra and his team,

the search for lost Civil War gold

has become bigger and more challenging

than they could have ever previously imagined.

What began as a deathbed confession

concerning a boxcar filled with stolen gold

has become a trail of clues,

and a mystery begging to be solved.

But what next?

Will Kevin find millions of dollars' worth of stolen gold

at the bottom of Lake Michigan?

Or will the trail lead him elsewhere,

perhaps far out west, or to a location as yet unknown

that is hiding not only gold, but evidence of a conspiracy

that, once exposed, could rewrite...

[gunfire]

...history.

Next time on The Curse of Civil War Gold...

BRAD: Every property Charles Hackley developed,

there's rumors of tunnels.

Charles Hackley and the idea of the Confederate gold

was not speculation.

Could Edwin Stanton have been connected

to Charles Hackley?

It's a strong possibility.

And Stanton was involved in the murder of Abraham Lincoln?

-Yes. -Wow.

11 feet across.

Six feet wide.

That's what we're looking for.

I'm getting a bad feeling about these waves.

AL Holy [bleep]!

Aah!

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