The Legend of the Lost Sand Dunes Gold

I am going to break with my tradition of only posting to this blog in winter (of which we had very little this year) to tell you a story. But first, let me give the reader some context:

From 2003 to 2015, almost half of my Park Ranger career, I was the "boots-on-the-ground" ranger at Sand Dunes State Forest Recreation Area near Zimmerman, Minnesota. I have a lot of stories from then and my years, paid and volunteer, with the National Park Service, the Anoka County Park Rangers, and the U.S. Forest Service, which I have recently been convinced to put into book form after I finish the rewrite of “Truthbearer.” To paraphrase Robert W. Service, “The Northern Lights have seen strange sights, but the strangest they’ve ever seen…” But that’s another story for another day.

One of my first projects when I was assigned to Sand Dunes was to complete construction of the Bob Dunn Equestrian Campground with the assistance of the Wright and Sherburne County Sheriff’s Department Sentenced to Serve (STS) crews. STS is a state-sponsored program that allows non-violent jail inmates to reduce their sentence through being part of a community service work crew. The DNR had already established the campground from an old shooting range, and installed a roadway, campsites, built two new vault latrines, a handicapped accessible ramp, and day-use parking. Our job would be to install the site number posts, fencing, pickets, and parking area borders. That requires a lot of holes to be dug. A LOT of holes. It was tedious, hot, labor intensive, and boring work. The crew chief and I needed some incentive, something that would inspire the crew to dig. Then, a coworker told me the Legend of the Lost Sand Dunes Gold. Now I am going to tell it to you.

The story goes, that back during the Dakota Indian Uprising in 1862, a unit of Army Cavalry were transporting $16,000.00 in gold payroll (worth $6.4 Million today) from Fort Snelling near St. Paul, to Fort Ripley, north of Brainerd along the old stage road that ran through the Orrock area, near what is now Sand Dunes State Forest. Depending on which version of the story you are told, they were either set upon by a Native war party, or received orders to report immediately to the Mankato area to assist in efforts there. In either case, the paymaster was directed to bury the leather saddlebags containing the gold in an identifiable place, and either head to Mankato or return to Fort Snelling and the gold would be retrieved later. The paymaster and one trooper, who would be the only ones who knew the exact location, buried the bags near “a big oak tree” under cover of darkness, and to distract their attackers, sent one horse off in the direction of Fort Ripley, and headed to Mankato or Fort Snelling quietly. Unfortunately, the paymaster and the trooper were killed in the conflict before either could reveal the exact whereabouts of the gold, and when the Army returned to the area, they found that a massive wildfire had swept through the area and obliterated any recognizable landmarks. The gold was never located, and presumably is still there, somewhere.

Then there is a second story, probably closer to verifiable fact than legend, about “Old Sherburne’s Gold.”

Around 1857 there was a man known as "Old Sherburne" who lived in the area that is now part of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Sherburne County. (I’m not sure of Old Sherburne took his name from the county, or the county took its name from Old Sherburne.) He was regarded locally as a hermit but not like more famous hermits such as Minnesota’s Dorothy Molter, New York’s Noah John Rondeau, or California’s John “Grizzly” Adams. Old Sherburne was said to be friendly, sociable, and generous with the money he had gained from the sale of his part of the family business back east. Shortly before he passed away in 1882, Old Sherburne sent a telegram to his brother in Indiana saying that he knew his time was short, and he would bury his remaining money, about $40,000.00 in gold (worth $16 Million today) in the Blue Hill moraine near his home. Blue Hill is a well-known landmark on the Wildlife Refuge, and was and is still the highest point of land in the area. By the time the brother arrived from Indiana, Old Sherburne has walked on to his final reward. The brother searched for several weeks and never was able to find the buried gold, so it may be, as far as anyone can tell, somewhere on Blue Hill to this very day.

Well, if you want a bunch of jail inmates to dig holes, tell them about the legendary buried gold in the area. (Even if Blue Hill is 11 miles away.) "If we find it, do we get to keep it?" was the big question. We told them, "Let's find it first." The whole team got to work, and the work got done in record time. Now you know why.