Poverty Island’s lost Gold

The Claim

There are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold hidden on Poverty Island

Tales of a huge amount of wealth on or near this island date back to around 1750, when the first story of its origin takes place.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, there were many troubles and wars in North America, with various superpowers fighting for territory and control, with the British fighting the French and the 13 colonies, and later the United States, which became the main power in the region.

During the various wars, 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. On one such gold delivery mission from the French to their allies, a British vessel intercepted the gold-carrying ship and attacked, but before the gold could be taken, the captain ordered it 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 nearby 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 Confederates 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, valued at 2 million dollars, but they have not provided proof of their claim.

There’s a ton of gold in the lake surrounding Poverty Island. 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. With many choke points along the route for ambushes, there’s the very real possibility that many ships were sunk 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 one thing you don’t do in 18th and 19th-century colonial armies, it’s 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 at one point, it’s no wonder no one has been lucky enough to come across it yet.