The legend of Swift’s silver mine is based on accounts given in the journal of an Englishman named Jonathan Swift. Swift claimed to have preceded Daniel Boone into Kentucky, coming to the region in 1760 on a series of mining expeditions.
The journal recounts how a wounded bear led Swift to a vein of silver ore in a cave, and how that for the next nine years, he made annual treks back to the site of the mine, carrying out “silver bars and minted coins.” An article in an 1886 edition of Harper’s Magazine tells how Swift supposedly buried a good deal of the treasure at various locations:
“John Swift said he made silver in large quantities, burying some thirty thousand dollars and crowns on a large creek; fifteen thousand dollars a little way off, near some trees, which were duly marked; a prize of six thousand dollars close by the fork of a white oak; and three thousand dollars in the rocks of a rock house: all which, in the light of these notes, it is allowed any one who will to hunt for.”
Later, amid numerous obstacles that included Indian attacks, and a mutiny by his crew, Swift walled up the cave and discontinued his mining operation. He left his journal in the possession of a Mrs. Renfro, the widow of one Joseph Renfro of Bean’s Station, Tennessee, in whom he was purported to have a romantic interest. Before Swift could return to the mine, he was stricken blind and was unable to locate it again.
More
Jonathan Swift on Treasurenet forums
The Legend of Swift’s Silver Mine
Through The Cumberland on Horseback (Harper’s Magazine-Google Books
Buried Treasures of the Appalachians
The Urban Treasure Hunter: A Practical Handbook for Beginners
