The Claim
There’s hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold hidden on poverty island
Tales of there being a huge amount of wealth on or near this island date back to the 1750 when the first story of how it got there takes place.
During the 18th and 19th century there were many troubles and wars in north America, with various super powers fighting for territory and control, with the British fighting the 13 colonies and later the United States being the main contenders.
The French supported the Americans since they were also at war with the British and during this time they sent a huge amount of gold to the Americans to support their war effort. A British vessel intercepted the gold carrying ship but before it could be taken the captain ordered the gold to be thrown overboard, which was supposed to be right next to poverty island.
The second story comes from a man named James Strang who was the governor of a near by colony. He was said to have been incredibly greedy and made many mistakes in his position, which eventually led to him being thrown out. However just to spite his people, or maybe just to try and keep it safe to come back later, he threw his collected wealth into the water, once again close to Poverty island.
The last most common tale comes from the American civil war when Napoleon Bonaparte himself sent a shipment of gold to the confederate’s in support of their war effort, but pirates are said to have attacked the ship and once again the captain ordered the goods to be thrown overboard before they could be taken.
There are various other versions of how the gold came to be in the lake, and as of yet no one has found anything that’s been substantiated. Apparently in 2014 2 men claimed to have found some sunken gold in the lake to the value of 2 million dollars but have not provided proof of their claim.
There’s a ton of gold in the lake, could that be true?
Well yes it most certainly could be for various reasons. Lake Michigan was heavily used by both British and French ships, as well as pirates and acted as an important shipping route to get supplies inland quickly, and with many choke points along route for ambushes, there’s the very real possibility that many ships were sank or raided in these waters.
There is evidence of British and French ship crews being ordered to throw any wealth overboard in the event of an attack from pirates, as giving such wealth to the enemy was seen as much worse than no one getting it, and if there’s on thing you don’t do in 18th and 19th century colonial armies, its disobey orders.
Any gold thrown into the lake would have simply been left and counted as lost, as there was no such thing as diving gear during this age, so it was simply just abandoned and with the shear size of the lake, with it being over 200 miles long in one point, its no wonder no one has been lucky enough to come across it yet.
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