In the heart of Pennsylvania elk country, Eric McCarthy and his client, Don Reichel, got up before sunrise to scour the forest floor for so-called "brown gold"—a rack of freshly shed antlers to add to Reichel's collection back home. One hill over, a team of FBI agents was also hunting for gold, the metallic yellow kind. The FBI's highly unusual search for buried Civil War-era treasure more than five years ago set in motion a dispute over what, if anything, the agency unearthed and an ongoing legal battle over key records. Now, two witnesses have come forward to share with the AP what they heard and saw in the woods that late-winter morning.
The FBI insists nothing came of the March 2018 excavation in Dents Run, a remote wooded valley about 110 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. But a treasure hunter who led FBI agents to the hillside where an 1863 gold shipment might have been buried is challenging the government's denials. McCarthy, a 45-year-old elk guide, had never met treasure hunter Dennis Parada. But he watched from afar as Parada took the FBI to court and told his story in the media. McCarthy recently decided to share his own story because he thought Parada, who spent years looking for the gold before approaching the FBI with his findings, has been treated unfairly. "I just felt like I needed to say what I saw, you know?" McCarthy explained.
In an interview, McCarthy recalls hearing the unexpected clang of heavy equipment as he worked his way up the mountain in near-darkness. Later that day, while breaking for lunch, McCarthy and Reichel watched a trio of armored trucks rumble past. One of the vehicles rode low, as if it was carrying a full load. "They took something out of Dents Run," McCarthy insists now. "Something heavy." Reached by phone, Reichel, McCarthy's 73-year-old shed hunting client, corroborated his account of hearing early-morning clatter and seeing a loaded truck on March 14, 2018. Their recollections echo earlier statements from residents who told the AP of hearing a backhoe and jackhammer overnight and seeing a convoy of FBI vehicles, including armored trucks.
story continues below
Parada views the eyewitness accounts as important because they could bolster one of his main contentions—that the FBI conducted a secret overnight dig for the gold and spirited it away. The FBI's warrant to excavate the site limited work to 6am to 10pm each day. The agency strenuously denies it dug after hours, saying FBI police merely conducted nighttime ATV patrols to secure the site. The FBI also says "appropriate vehicles and equipment" were brought to Dents Run, but armored trucks were not among them. McCarthy and Reichel say the opposite: that when they reconvened for lunch a convoy of unmarked black SUVs and armored trucks drove by them on Pennsylvania Route 555, heading out of Dents Run. McCarthy and Reichel said one of the three armored trucks seemed to be weighed down—more squat than the other two and lagging behind. (Read the full AP story for more.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
