Case file · Folklore / legend
Swift's lost silver mine
Jonathan Swift, an Englishman, was said to have worked a rich silver mine in the mountains from about 1760 and hidden the silver before he went blind. Treasure hunters have searched ever since.
1760 CE · 37.82, -83.62 · status: legend
The account
A supposed Swift journal places the mine in eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia or east Tennessee; Red River Gorge and Bell County are favourite candidates.
The sceptical view
The journal survives only in later copies, and the region's geology makes rich silver deposits very unlikely.