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14— Corbin Times-Tribune, Sunday, February 22, 1976 Story Of John Swift's Mines Is One Of Kentucky's Great Legends By THOMAS S. WATSON Associated Press Writer CAMPTON, Ky. (AP) — Of all the mysteries and legends of Kentucky pioneer history, none has proven more challenging and exasperating to those who have sought its rewards than the story of John Swift’s lost silver mines. Michael Paul Henson, in his book ‘‘John Swift’s Lost Silver Mines,”’ offers what he claims is the text of Swift’s journal. It begins: “I was born Oct. 3, 1712, in Philadelphia, Pa., my ancestors first came to America in 1637. I went to sea, when a boy, after several years of sailing, I be came captain of a ship. I mar ried Desiree Ann Swift, April 21, 1748. When I left the sea in 1752, I settled in Alexandria, Va.” Henson, a native of Jackson, Ky., said Alva Rice of Johnson County, who died in 1966, ‘“‘had what he swore and be damned was an original copy of Swift's journal. I’ve printed it in my latest book.” Henson said Rice obtained a copy of Swift’s journal, pen cilled in longhand, from ‘a relative who obtained it from Robert Alley, also of Johnson County.”’ Judge Charles Kerr’s “History of Kentucky,” states that Alley searched for Swift’s mines and was associated with William Turlington who claimed to have the original Swift journal. Swift is quoted in Henson’s book as saying he ‘“‘became a trader amongst the Cherokee (Indians) in North Carolina and the Tennessee country,” and after fighting with Gen. Brad dock ‘‘in the attack on Ft. Du quesne in 1755,” I returned to Alexandria and my occupation as a silversmith and trader amongst the Indians.” Swift tells of meeting George Munday, a young Frenchman who told him that he, his father Samuel Blackburn, Shadrack Jefferson, (and) Issac Camp bell. “Led by Munday we pene trated the western country, leaving Alexandria June 21, 1760. After crossing Big Sandy Creek, near its headwaters, and continuing west for a consider able distance, we located three of the mines,’’ Swift wrote. He said other mines were lo cated ‘“‘by traveling along a great ridge, leading in a south- Three Mines Were Located West of Big Sandy and two brothers had ‘found a vein of silver and were working it (in 1750) when the Shawnee Indians attacked them, killing his father and two brothers and making Munday a prisoner.” Munday escaped from captivity and met Swift at Alexandria. Swift said he sailed to Cuba to “enlist the help of two ex perienced miners of my ac quaintance, Guise and Jef fries.” Upon his return, Hen son’s book quotes Swift as hav ing wrote, ‘I contacted several friends in North Carolina and Virginia that had been with me in the Braddock Campaign, James Ireland, Abram Flint, westerly direction, until we came to a large river. Swift said a furnace was built and charcoal burned ‘‘west of the headwaters of Great Sandy Creek,” before the company re turned to Virginia Dec. 10, 1760. Swift said he started on a re turn trip to the mines June 25, 1761 with a company of 17 men. He tells of working the mines until 1769, although harrassed by maurauding Indians and a Scotch company that extorted “great sums” from him, and returning to Virginia yearly with silver and silver coins minted at the site. When finally forced to leave, Swift said, he left thousands of dollars in English crowns hid den in various places and con cealed the mines but left “marks of animal tracks and arrows” on stones along with other signs so the treasures could be found in the future. There is a map in Henson’s book, alleged to have been drawn by Swift, which shows the general location of the mines. Swift went to England with the hope of getting ‘‘a party in England or France) interested in coming to America and working the mines on a large scale,” his journal said, but while there he spoke up for ‘“‘a free country of America’’ and was imprisoned for 15 years. Swift’s sight began to falter in prison, the last entry in his journal states, and by the time he was freed the old sea cap tain knew that he would never find his lost silver mines again because ‘‘the hills and valleys are plain before my eyes but I cannot see. I lead the men as a blind man.” “Collins History of Ken tucky”’ notes that Judge John Haywood, who wrote a “civil and political history” of Ten nessee, said ‘‘two old furnaces”’ used to extract silver were found on Clear Creek, ‘‘which discharges itself into the Cum berland.’’ Haywood linked the furnaces to Swift’s silver min ing activities. “Three years ago I made a trip down there,’’ Henson said. “The creek, according to Swift’s journal, was approxi mately 15 miles long and in all ways resembles Clear Creek in Bell County. “I ran into an old gentleman 84-years-old who told me about these furnaces and he showed me where they had been but there is no evidence of them now whatsoever,’’ Henson added. “‘My theory is the furnaces and Swift were on Clear Creek in Bell County because he plainly states in his journal that they came southwest from the forks of the Sandy River along the base of a large moun tain which had to be Pine Mountain,” Henson said. People from Arizona to New York have consulted him about searching for Swift’s mines, Henson said, ‘‘and a lot of them claim they’ve found symbols in an area west of Louisa. “Shafts and charcoal pits have been found in Bell County, but the only man who has found silver is W.E. Partin from Frakes who, back in the 1930s, found a chunk of ore and sold it for $4.50 to an assay of fice. It was found near Chenoa Lake not far from where these furnaces were located,’’ Henson added. “Collins History of Ken tucky”’ quotes a Feb., 1873 ar ticle from the Greenup Inde pendent which said “A bar of pure silver was found many years ago near a small mill in Carter County, which was thought to have been smelted from ore obtained from the sil ver mines said to exist in that country. “And, within the past few days, a piece of ore which has every appearance of silver ore, and a small quantity of metal which is said to be silver, was shown by a gentleman of un doubted veracity, who testifies that he got the ore in the moun tains of Kentucky, and with his own hands smelted the metal from ore obtained in these mountains,’ the article noted. In April, 1964, Ralph W. Griffith, president of the Moun taineer Mining Exploring Co., of Clarksburg, W. Va., claimed he had found one of Swift’s mines on the farm of John Adams on Mill Creek in Wolfe County just a mile from the Mountain Parkway. Griffith said at the time of his discovery that a foot-thick stone blocked the passage sev eral feet inside the shaft but he would attempt to remove it and collect the bounty of six years of searching. “He actually went back into a shaft there for about 40 feet, and it had fallen in’’ Henson said, ‘“‘and he was going to blast the rest of it out. “Well he blasted all right,” Henson said, “he blowed that whole damn mountain in on it. He dynamited it.’’ say where he got them but ad mitted ‘‘there’s plenty of them left.” Henson said he’s looked for the Swift silver but is now con vinced it will take a scientific approach to find it. ‘‘Eventual ly the state of Kentucky may decide to find it but until then I don’t see that a scientific effort will be made.” Henson also argues with those who say eastern Ken tucky is not suited to be the ge ological host for silver. ‘‘Ac cording to Swift, his silver was in sandstone. Silver has been found in both limestone and sandstone although it is unusu al,”’ he added. The highway marker of the Kentucky Historical Society, on the courthouse lawn here, says; “John Swift’s fabulous jour nals report silver operations in East Kentucky. References to ships on the Spanish Seas and to coinage of silver in this area with six trips from Atlantic
Newspaper Details
Corbin Times Tribune
Corbin, Kentucky, US
Sun, Feb 22, 1976
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Amanda G.
USA 31 May 2026
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