The FBI was accused of digging up and hiding hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold in the Civil War, as witnesses reported signs of a nighttime dig.
Eric McCarthy, 45, and Don Reichel, 73, said they heard clattering early in the morning and saw heavily loaded trucks in the remote woods of Elk County, Pennsylvania.
McCarthy, an elk guide, and his client Reichel awoke before sunrise that day to search for a rack of antlers and saw the FBI’s dig one hill over.
McCarthy saw a parked excavator, a small piece of equipment moving up and down the hill, a brown-black crack in the earth, and people huddled under a canopy around 5 a.m. on March 14, 2018.
Rather, the FBI’s timeline shows that the search team did not arrive at the dig until 8:00 a.m. that morning, hours after the alleged signs of excavation.
“I can hear some machines, or something, banging and banging and roaring and all that stuff,” Reichel told the Associated Press.
Eric McCarthy (pictured), 45, and Don Reichel, 73, said they heard clattering early in the morning and saw heavily loaded trucks in the remote woods of Elk County, Pennsylvania
Treasure hunter Dennis Parada, left, and elk guide Eric McCarthy are shown at a hunting camp in Penfield on Aug. 23, 2023.
The FBI released a trove of records earlier this year about its search for a $500 million cache of gold lost by the US government in 1863
Fortune seekers Dennis and Kem Parada sued the FBI last year, claiming they failed to produce records of the dig and disputing the agents’ claim that the dig came up empty-handed.
Earlier this year, the FBI revealed a trove of records about its search for a $500 million cache of gold lost by the US government in 1863.
The documents released in the legal battle only deepen the mystery about what the agency unearthed five years ago in Dents Run, Pennsylvania.
“The FBI may have found the gold — or it may not,” a judge noted in a ruling last week.
McCarthy thought Parada, who searched for the gold for years before approaching the FBI with his findings, was treated unfairly.
“I just felt I had to say what I saw, you know?” McCarthy explains. ‘I have no ties to anyone here. It’s just that I felt they were wronged.’
He said a trio of heavily laden armored trucks rumbled past him and Reichel during their lunch break — with one truck lagging behind that appeared to be weighed down.
“Eric and I both made the comment that one should be loaded.” Reichel said.
“It was loaded to the gills,” McCarthy says, adding that he has driven overloaded dump trucks and “I know what it looks like.”
The agents vehemently deny that it was dug after hours, and say the FBI simply conducted nighttime ATV patrols to secure the site.
‘No gold or other evidence was found or collected. The FBI continues to unequivocally reject any claims or speculation to the contrary,’ spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski said.
The Paradas believe the FBI continued their excavations through the night, before making off with the loot – depriving them of a hefty finder’s fee.
An FBI photo depicting the site of his 2018 digging for Civil War gold is seen on Dennis Parada’s laptop
The Paradas sued the FBI last year, alleging they failed to provide records of the dig and disputing the agents’ claim that the dig came up empty-handed
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, forced the release of documents related to the dig under a Freedom of Information Act request.
But the Paradas now claim that the FBI withheld or “doctored” important information.
In particular, the plaintiffs are seeking the release of operational records they believe will show whether the agency planned a nighttime dig — crucial to their claim that’s when agents snuck away with the horde.
The detectorists also say operative photos released by the FBI do not contain time stamps, despite the camera that automatically took them.
Warren Getler, co-author of ‘Rebel Gold’ and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, who began working with the Paradas in 2017, told DailyMail.com that the ‘absence of timestamps goes directly to the issue of a deliberate cover-up of nocturnal activities goes ‘.
Dennis Parada, 70, was first alerted to the possible presence of Civil War gold in the area when he read an article in Treasure magazine in 1974.
McCarthy said a trio of heavily laden armored trucks rumbled past him and Reichel during their lunch break — with one truck lagging behind that appeared to be weighed down
The FBIT vehemently denies that it was dug after hours, saying its police were simply conducting nighttime ATV patrols to secure the site.
The story revealed that a Union caravan carrying gold bars in false bottoms en route to the US Mint in Philadelphia was ambushed in Elk County.
In 2004, Parada found a cave in Dents Run after a washout exposed an opening in the side of a mountain.
He says he has since visited the cave more than 400 times and has found a bullet shell, whiskey bottle and bones scattered nearby that date back to the 19th century.
Gelter then arranged a meeting with the FBI after radar technology suggested gold was buried there.
The agency commissioned an independent firm to conduct its own tests, which also indicated that a large amount of the precious metal could be found.