NEW THEORY - WHERE IS THE CONFEDERATE GOLD?

The whereabouts of the Confederate treasury have been a mystery since the end of the War, but two West Michigan men believe they've solved it. They are putting forward their own theory, one that feels like a real life "National Treasure" movie in which many seemingly unrelated events are brought together into one narrative. At the center of it is Muskegon, Michigan's most generous philanthropist.

Charles H. Hackley, a lumber baron, is arguably the Lake Michigan community's most influential historical figure. Although he has been dead for more than 100 years, his name lives on through his many gifts to the community, including Hackley Park, Hackley Public Library, Hackley Hospital and the Hackley Administration Building.

Yet, Hackley's legacy contains a mystery of its own. When he died in 1905, his net worth was about $10 million, or $261 million in today's dollars, according to the Hackley and Hume papers at Michigan State University.

But a biography Hackley authorized in 1899, in which he gave notes to author Lois Haight, says that he earned $3 million in his lifetime. What accounts for the gap?

The difference is found in Confederate Gold, say Kevin Dykstra and Brad Richards. And they say they've done the research to prove it.

"We really think this is breaking news in history," Richards said.

Michigan historian Larry Massie said there were rumors that President Jefferson Davis had the entire Confederate treasury with him while fleeing the Union Army but they've been "pretty well proven" not to be true. Dykstra and Richards' theory starts with the assumption that the treasury, in gold and silver, was with Davis.

Massie lives in Allegan County, the home of Lt. Col. Benjamin Pritchard, the man who led the Michigan 4th Cavalry that captured Davis.

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Some key dates involving the Confederate Gold and Charles Hackley are listed.

So who is right? Did the Confederate Gold end up into the hands of Charles H. Hackley?

"In a project like this, the research always is paramount," Dykstra said. "If it's not documented, it's just two crazy guys talking. I've always told people, if it's easier to believe that we're just crazy, then believe that. If you believe that the research ... is strong, then we have totally solved it. And that's where we're at."

Davis is captured

The story begins with the capture of Jefferson Davis on May 10, 1865, in Irwinville, Ga., officially ending the War.

Twenty-three hours prior to the capture, the U.S. War Department recorded that the Davis party was traveling with $10 million in gold, valued at $142 million today's dollars.

When Pritchard and his men arrived, there was no gold. No one has been able to say for sure what happened to it - but Dykstra and Richards are convinced the gold was nearby.

Michigan cavalry captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis this week in 1865

It was May 10, 1865 when the unit commanded by the Allegan native captured the he fugitive Jefferson Davis

Davis was captured with eight wagons and 25 to 30 mules, Dykstra said he found in War Department records.

Sixteen mules would have been needed to pull eight wagons, he said. Twenty-eight mules would have been sufficient for 14 wagons.

"Everybody has overlooked that for years," Dykstra said. "I worked with mules, they're not fun - you don't take any extra."

Dykstra says that is proof that six wagons were missing, and located nearby. He believes they were full of gold, and hidden in the woods.

Scott Kuykendall, president of the Allegan County Historical Society, acknowledged it's an intriguing detail but "we need to see more proof."

The society has high interest in Davis' capture - it maintains the revolver Pritchard pointed at the Confederate president. The society allowed Dykstra and Richards to use its archives for their research and Kuykendall has seen them present their theory.

He called it "fascinating" and "possible," but added, "We're going to need a little bit more before we jump on the bandwagon."

'WikiLeaks of the day'

Dykstra and Richards say their evidence goes beyond a few extra mules.

"Out of the 128,000 pages of the war records, I found one sentence when I was looking to see who buried the gold," Dykstra said.

A telegram from Pritchard to T.A. Scott shortly after Davis was captured said: "I returned to the site last night."

Dykstra and Richards believe the correspondence was meant for T.W. Scott, who worked for Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. They theorize that Pritchard was relaying that he had returned to Irwinville and buried the gold.

It's clear that many telegrams were deleted since there are numerous cases in which a reply can be found, but not the original thought or question, Richards said.

"The ones that were actually left in there are like the WikiLeaks of the day," he said.

'Two points on a map'

Richards is a history teacher at Ravenna High School and a board member of Calvary Christian Schools in the Muskegon County community of Fruitport. Dykstra is the facilities director at Calvary Christian Schools and he brought Richards into the project about two years ago.

In 1973, a relative of a Union Army officer supposedly claimed in a deathbed confession that a box car full of $2 million worth of Confederate gold was at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

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Dykstra said that tip was eventually passed to him and seven years ago he started searching for the gold, and researching how it got there - if it is there at all.

His search for large caches of missing gold led him to the theory of the Confederate Gold.

Dykstra then looked for large expenditures in Michigan around that time period, which led him to Hackley.

"I was given a unique opportunity that no one else in the country has ever been given," Dykstra said of the information about the confession. "The advantage I had was, I had a cache of gold that I was trying to find a source. It gave me two points on a map."

Those two points were Irwinville, Georgia, and Muskegon, Michigan. The communities were connected by railroad in 1869, four years after Davis' capture.

A family connection

Railroad development boomed following the War.

By 1869, the Albany and Brunswick Railroad was close enough to Irwinville to transport the gold via wagon under the cover of night, Dykstra said.

The railroad was south of Irwinville, and ran through Tifton, Ga., about 17 miles away. That's where the Confederate Gold could have been loaded onto rail cars over several trips from 1870-76, Dykstra said.

Gen. Robert H.G. Minty worked on the Albany and Brunswick Railroad, Dykstra says employment records show. Minty was Pritchard's commanding officer during the War when Davis was captured.

Minty was married to the sister of George Alexander Abbott, a friend and employee of Hackley's - so Minty and Hackley also would have known each other, Richards said.

Also in 1869, a railroad line was under construction from Ferrysburg to Muskegon, which Dykstra and Richards say was funded by Hackley and went directly to his office. William M. Ferry Jr., who platted Ferrysburg, was also involved in that railroad connection, they said.

However, Meredith Slover, curator at Tri-Cities Historical Museum, did not find records of Ferry being involved in any railroads.

Michigan Lake Shore Rail Road Ferrysburg-Muskegon line was opened during December 1869.

The first railcar arrived in Muskegon - at Hackley's office backdoor - during December 1869, in what Dykstra believes was an initial test run.

Railcars would have also stopped in Allegan to deliver gold to Pritchard before reaching Muskegon, he said.

Dykstra and Richards believe Hackley orchestrated the transport and cover up of the gold, which is why he would have received a share.

Laundering the gold

What would they have done with the gold once it arrived?

"The Confederate Gold ... would have went to the national banking system, and laundered into currency," Dykstra said.

Pritchard, Hackley and William M. Ferry's brother Edward P. Ferry were involved in or founded banks during 1870 and 1871 and those banks and others would have been used to launder the gold, he said.

Around 1874-75, a new building was completed for Muskegon National Bank, of which Hackley was a director. It was re-chartered as Hackley National Bank in 1890. Multiple publications and advertisements say the bank had five vaults.

Dykstra said he believes the vaults were needed to store the Confederate Gold treasure.

First National Bank of Allegan was founded by Pritchard in 1871.

At that time, banks would ship gold bullion to the U.S. Treasury Department, and receive paper currency with the bank name in return, Dykstra said.

"Most national banks, during their lifetime, would print less than $250,000 worth of currency. If a national bank got to $500,000 worth of currency, that was considered excessive," he said.

Muskegon National Bank printed $295,000 from 1870-1890, according to Antique Money. Hackley National Bank printed $4,666,000 from 1890-1935. First National Bank of Allegan printed $797,000 from 1871-1927.

By comparison, First National Bank of Grand Rapids printed $516,000 from 1864-1883 while First National Bank of Ann Arbor printed $367,000 from 1863-1882.

According to advertisements found by Dykstra, Hackley was a stockholder in 14 banks, which he says could have also been used to launder the treasure.

"They were in the banks because that's how they laundered the gold, but they felt that their duty as citizens of the United States was to promote in a positive way," Dykstra said.

Tribute to the Confederacy?

The intersection of West Webster Avenue and Third Street downtown Muskegon is a gathering of Hackley gifts: Hackley Park, Hackley Administration Building and Hackley Public Library. Other large donations include Hackley Hospital and the former Hackley Art Gallery, now Muskegon Museum of Art. Hackley and his wife Julia Hackley also donated multiple endowment funds.

Dykstra and Richards believe there's proof hiding in plain sight that Hackley Park was made possible by Confederate money. They also point to clues in a speech Hackley wrote for the park statues' dedication in 1900.

Looking back at Hackley Park, a gift to the city in the late 1800s

Hackley Park was gifted to Muskegon by Charles H. Hackley in 1890.

The park features five large monuments and a layout of curved and diagonal sidewalks.

"How did Charles Hackley pay tribute the Confederacy? Because he would have -- he would have almost felt duty-bound to do it," Dykstra said. "But he would do it in such a way that people wouldn't pick up on it, unless they knew to look for it."

An aerial view of the park gave it away, he said. Its diagonal crossed sidewalks could be seen as an outline of the Confederate Flag.

The curved sidewalks are a bit trickier, but Dykstra has an explanation: "It's a Bible. That's why the sidewalks were rounded."

In their presentation, Dykstra and Richards show a video that transforms an aerial view of the park into a Confederate Flag and an open Bible.

Hackley Park's design is nod to Confederacy, researchers say

The theory is that Charles Hackley paid tribute to the Confederacy with park's layout.

"Within your sight stands a library built and endowed by part of that same fortune, which the donor regards as a trust for the people with whom he has been associated for more than 40 years," reads a speech written by Hackley for the dedication of the statues.

"If mistakes have been made in appropriating the money generously tendered to the public, those mistakes have been mistakes of the head, not of the heart," reads another portion of the speech.

Dykstra says the way Hackley refers to the money and donations suggests he doesn't view them as his own.

There are also clues in the Haight biography, which was published in 1949, they said. Haight received notes from Hackley in 1899, and was told the book could be published 10 years after his death.

The book states that Hackley made $375,000 -- or $7.2 million in today's dollars -- in one day during 1872, the time that Dykstra and Richards believe the gold was moving.

"Make no mistake, this is a confession from Hackley," Dykstra said.

"When you have a secret, and you think you can be caught at any time, you think one little clue will just tell everybody everything," Richards said. "He's giving huge clues, but only if you can figure that out."

More presentations planned

Richards and Dykstra have presented the theory to the public twice at Calvary Christian Schools, and plan to do so again at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 22.

So far, audiences seem convinced and hungry for more, the duo agreed.

The April presentation will include more research, Dykstra said.

"They have good evidence," said Dr. Thomas Watkins, Calvary Christan Schools board president, who was among the first to hear the theory during November in a private presentation. "I believe what they are telling me. It's too much information that would all be happenstance for it not to be true."

Larry Houseman, of Norton Shores, listened to one of the presentations and said he is anxious to hear more.

"It's an interesting concept - I guess that's all it is right now," he said.

Jaime Christenson, of Muskegon, was even more convinced after hearing of the presentations.

"Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's probable," Christenson said. "I don't believe in coincidences."

Dykstra believes the theory is "bullet proof" and reveals the true story of Charles Hackley and the missing Confederate Gold.

"I don't want to seem overconfident," he said, "but I know what I know."

Local historians remain skeptical.

"We don't feel there are a lot of facts in there cited from primary literature," Soler said. "They're going to have fun with it ... I'm sure it will bring up a lot of interest. It's very speculative, a lot of conjecture tying a lot of loose pieces together.

"We are not believers that the story has merit as of yet."

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