Gold in Arkansas From the Trail of Tears
RJ Freyaldenhoven
Published by RJ Freyaldenhoven at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 RJ Freyaldenhoven
Discover other titles by RJ Freyaldenhoven at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bobandpennylord
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashword.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Gold in Arkansas From the Trail of Tears
The legend of the Trail of Tears Gold
Bully's claim of the Gold's Location
Gold in Arkansas From the Trail of Tears
Background of the legend of the Gold
First we need to establish the background of the legend of the Gold in Arkansas from the Trail of Tears.
Sometimes it
is good to take a break and remember some beautiful moments.
I
want to share a little bit about my grandpa. But before I get into
the details of the walk with Grandpa, I want to explain a little
about my background.
The place is
Holy Family Mission - Morrilton, Arkansas, which is the best
kept secret in the USA. We live in the Ozark foothills beautiful like
no other place.
I am going to give this history so you can see how
it was weaved together through the centuries.
Arkansas became a state in 1836, and prior to that was a territory. in 1542, it was explored by Hernando De Soto in search for the fountain of youth. To this day there is a string of little towns with Spanish name near where we live, Adona, Ola, Birta, Chula and Casa - little towns.
Later, the Spanish sold it or forfeited it to France. The French explored it and left their mark also. Ozark is French for use arc, Little Rock was originally named La Petite Roche, and we live in the shadow of Petit Jean Mountain.
After the French sold Louisiana, Arkansas being part of that purchase, Arkansas as a Territory was home to Cherokee Indians. The Cherokees came from the Carolinas, Alabama and Tennessee and were forced to come here. The march has been dubbed the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
That famous Trail of Tears ends about one mile from us.
The Cherokees also left their impact. My best friend's grandmother was a Cherokee. A lot of the people in this area have Cherokee names like Shoptaw, Littlejohn and so on. My mother was born in Solgohachia, a litte town north of here.
After the Civil War, the Federal government wanted to bring in immigrants to the now State of Arkansas. They gave a Holy Ghost priest 1,800.000 million acres of land 20 miles north and south of the railroad from roughly Little Rock to near Fort Smith. He gave them 240 acres per family to move here.
About 1000 feet from here, the Holy Ghost Fathers built a Monastery complex, consisting of the Monastery, orphanage, center for immigrants and farming center. The complex was name Saint Joseph Colony.
On May 8, 1892 a tornado destroyed the Saint Joseph Colony. The only things left are the Tabernacle, two bells, and a Crucifix. All these items are on display here at the Mission.
Beginning around 1878 immigrants came for Italy and settled north of here, Lithuania south, Poland south, France, Germany, Switzerland and other parts of Europe. These immigrants went through Saint Joseph Colony and learned how to farm here and what would produce good crops.
That is the background of my grandfather - Christian Freyaldenhoven. He came over when he was 2 years old and settled with his family near here. He met Anna Backes and they married. She was the only child and she inherited 240 acres, Holy Family Mission sets on some of these acres.
Grandpa and grandma had their first house here. It was a log house. The roaring twenties came and grandpa became wealthy selling fruits and vegetables that he sold by the railcar to points all over America. The railroad that had brought them here was making the rich.
The stockmarket crash of 1929 destroyed my grandfather financially. Then three of his children died of spinal meningitis. Finally my grandmother died at age 42. Grandpa was finished.
He had trucks and cars and lots of equipment. After these events he went back to horse and buggy and kept his money under his bed.
When I was a little boy he took me to town in a horse and buggy many times. It was then that grandpa would occasionally take me for a walk.
Grandpa was an entrepreneur, but he was crushed by events of his life. He was quiet, and well loved by all the community around here. He prayed in German. His daughter married a Frenchman! Uncle Frank was my godfather.
Grandpa and I started out on our walk and he would pull leaves from trees and tell me what each tree was by the shape of the leaf. He also would tell me what that particular leaf was good for medicinally. I suspect this was wisdom from the Cherokees in the area, maybe from John Littlejohn who had worked for grandpa. John Littlejohn will be discussed later in this ebook.
There is a row of sassafras trees about 100 feet from the Mission here. Sassafras roots are boiled to make root beer. The leaves smell like rootbear. Grandpa would cut a limb from the sassafras tree and then cut the end and fray it. He would make two of these and show me how to brush my teeth with this twig. Worked pretty good and left your mouth with a root beer taste.
Grandpa would show me different trees that produced nuts like hickory nuts, walnuts, and pecans. These grow wild here and taste great. We would pick some of these and put them in a sack.
On other occasions, we would pick poke salet which tastes like spinach, huckleberries which are wild blueberries, wild grapes, and the best of all muscadines.
Muscadines are America's grape. Post Familie Winery at Altus - west of here grows them and sells the juice - Excellent.
During our walks grandpa would explain what all the goodies were we were placing in the bag. We would head for home when the bag was about full and when we got home he would prepare a feast for the harvest we had brought.
It was a wonderful time to be with grandpa on these walks. To this day, when I become stressed, I think about walking with grandpa. Grandpa taught me that you can be about as happy as you want to be. He had been forged in struggle and grief. He was a good grandpa.
The Legend of the Gold in Arkansas from the Trail of Tears?
Remember we talked about the Cherokee impact on this area.
Let us discuss a legend that exists to this day.
One of grandpa's workers was a man named John Littlejohn or Bully. Well Bully was half Cherokee and spent his early years as a bartender in the infamous Fort Smith during hanging Judge Roy Bean times.
Reference: True Grit and Judge Roy Bean
Bully was a collector of handguns and a storyteller par excellence. He had a trunk full of pistols that he took away from folks that visited the bars where he worked in Fort Smith.
Bully also spent a lot of time telling stories about the places he visited and the people and events in his life. Dad suspected that he had to leave Fort Smith, but that is another story.
Bully told grandpa and dad about the legend of the lost gold of the Cherokees. He explained how the gold was brought with them on the trail of tears. He explained how they hid the gold but not where.
Through the years the legend pops up and you will read something about it, or hear about it.
You can google "Lost gold of the Cherokees" and it gives information that this gold is hidden in Georgia. But remember the Cherokees were forced out of Georgia and surrounding areas to Arkansas and then Oklahoma.
Bully claimed that the gold was hidden in a cave in the bluffs of the Point Remove Creek. My brother and I searched many of these bluffs but found nothing. The Point Romove creek drains into the Arkansas River just south of here. In fact this creek cuts our property in two pieces. It was also the location of the southernmost boundary of the Cherokee nation here earlier. The bluffs occur in the hills just north of here near Solgohachia and Cleveland areas. Good hunting if you decide to search for it.
Did the Cherokees have gold? Yes and lots of it according to many sources
Did they bring it to Arkansas when they were forced out of Georgia? Seems logical.
Did they hide it in the caves? I have no idea
Is it still there? What do you think?
Try Googling Cherokee gold and lost Cherokees etc and see if you can come up with anything.
I can tell you where some of the bluffs are.
And that is the legend of the lost gold of the Cherokees.
Yes you read it right you can get gold and diamonds free in Arkansas and only in Arkansas.
I just wanted to end the Gold thread with these comments.
1. Hernando de Soto was searching for Gold, in part because the Cherokees in North Georgia were giving it to traders as payment etc.
2. To this day there is gold in the streams of Northern Georgia. In fact the first gold rush was to Georgia around 1825. You can pan for gold there even now.
3. There is also gold in the streams of southern Arkansas. I have seen some of this gold dust from a friend that make a sluice and gathered it in. You can pan for gold in those streams also to this day.
4. Finally, did you know that Arkansas has the only diamond mine in North America? Yes in Murfreesboro The largest one found is around 95 carats! You keep what you find. The history of the diamond mine is very interesting involving Ford Motor Company and DeBeers Company of South Africa. Read about it at the link below. http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/
That is it for gold and diamonds. I bet you never thought you would have a source of free diamonds and gold.
Here is a link to get your own gold panning tool. from Amazon
The Legend of the Cherokee Rose.
No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the Trail Where They Cried than the Cherokee Rose(pictured at top of page). The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mother's spirits and give them strength to care for their children.
From that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother's tear fell to the ground. The rose is white, for the mother's tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the "Trail of Tears".
The Cherokee Rose is now the official flower of the State of Georgia.
Endnotes:
The Trail of Tears from Our Georgia History.
The Trail of Tears from Georgia's Chieftains Trail
Cherokee Statistics according to John Ross
From http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html
About the author:
RJ Freyaldenhoven aka Brother Joseph Freyaldenhoven is a lifelong resident of Arkansas. He is a retired Chemical Engineer with extensive experience in power generation and papermaking. For the last 25 years he has worked with Bob and Penny Lord Ministries in various roles and currently is webmaster of their sites. RJ loves to write about his experiences and hopes you enjoyed this ebook about the Gold from the Trail of Tears.
Follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brotherjoseph
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/brojoseph
Website: http://brother-joseph.com