The Gold That Never Was
The story takes place back in 1953. At the time, I was working on a farm in Pennsylvania. The farmer, I was working for, was asked by a friend named Tom, to help dig the foundation for a silo. While digging, they suddenly hit pay dirt “gold” so they said.
Tom quickly scooped up a jar full of sands and jumped into his Chevy truck. Shaking from head to toe from the excitement, he sped down the dirt road to a jeweler’s shop that was in town.
“Tom,” said the jeweler, “I think what you have here is gold!”
Tom began to jump for joy and yelling, “I’m rich, I’m rich! Now, I won’t have to finish building the silo. No longer will I have to plow the fields, do the planting and the backbreaking task of the harvest.”
After arriving back at the claim with the good news, the two farmers who were now miners, formed a partnership with a quick handshake, and began to dig like no miner had ever dug before. To their disappointment, no more gold was to be found.
Back in the early 1850’s, the old homestead had been a stagecoach stop. It had more historical value than any amount of gold in the jar. Anyway, Tom placed the jar on a shelf in the backroom near the kitchen. There, sat the jar for fifty years collecting dust along with countless tales of how he had found a fortune in gold, while digging the foundation for a silo.
The diggings became known as “The Silo Mine.”
Sadly, at the ripe old age of 90, Tom passed away. The historical homestead was willed to my brother along with the jar of gold.
One day, my brother took the jar from the shelf and handed it to me.
“Ron,” I said, “I’ve been a prospector and gold miner for many years, and this stuff isn’t gold.”
Go to Member Archive, and see the jar of "The Gold That Never Was"
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