State Treasures - Iowa

The Bonnifield Treasure
JEFFERSON COUNTY – I don’t have much on this treasure, but it could be worth checking out.
Old timers in the Fairfield – Lockridge area spoke of a cache of gold coins buried by three Indians, each having received payment (treaty money) in gold from the U.S. Government.
The three were killed in tribal warfare and their gold cache became lost.
“Clues” as to the whereabouts of this cache were reported to have been found inside the Bonnifield log cabin in 1828.
It was determined the Indians had buried their gold somewhere near the cabin; what clues were found and why it was believed the gold was nearby is unknown.
The story states a number of recovery attempts all failed. It could have a ring of truth to it except that in 1828 there was no cabin there and no Bonnifields. Perhaps it was simply a typo?
Beyond what local research could reveal, Bonnifield family records put them in Virginia in 1828.
Determined to settle on the recently acquired Scott’s Purchase (an area roughly encompassing some 6 million acres in present-day eastern Iowa, extending north from Elkader and south to Fort Madison), the Bonnifield family left Virginia in 1836.
The women and children who traveled in a spring wagon stopped to winter in Clayton, Illinois.
The first of the Bonnifield party reached Jefferson County in March of 1837 and erected the Bonnifield log cabin in the northwest section of Round Prairie Township.
The rest of the family arrived in May that year. The Bonnifield log cabin, believed to be the oldest remaining white settler’s cabins in Iowa, was moved from its original site in 1907 by the Old Settler’s Association to its present-day location at Fairfield Waterworks Park on North B. Street at Waterworks Road in Fairfield.
The original site for the Bonnifield log cabin is roughly marked today by the Bonnifield Cemetery.
The tiny cemetery contains the marked graves of six Bonnifield family members, all who passed away between 1839 and 1846.
I located a description of where the family’s cabin sat in relation to the cemetery in early Jefferson County records.
“The cabin site is on a knoll overlooking rolling ground in all directions, about a half mile further east [of the Cemetery] on the south side of the road.”
The road mentioned is present-day Highway 34. Traveling west from the intersection of Highway 34 and South Center Street, or Wintergreen Boulevard in Lockridge, the cabin sat off the south shoulder of the highway about 2.2 miles west of the intersection.
At 2.6 miles west of the intersection is Umbre Avenue. Take Umbre Ave. south of the highway almost 4/10th of a mile to the Bonnifield Cemetery.
Today this area remains rural farmland; always get permission before entering private property.The Treasure Bluff
CLAYTON COUNTY – The U.S. government began construction on Fort Crawford in 1816 at the settlement of Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory.
Fort Crawford was erected on top of a sacred 2,000+-year-old Hopewell Indian burial mound, as was the village itself.
The fort was established to protect the settlers of the territory, but annual flooding from the Mississippi River eventually made the fort unusable.
Construction on the new Fort Crawford began in 1829 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor.
Disputed treaties between the Indians and the U.S. government resulted in several Indian raids, skirmishes, and battles leading up to the Black Hawk War {May – August 1832}, making the territory unstable for some time.
Taylor, who went on to become the twelfth president of the United States was promoted to the rank of Colonel on April 5, 1832, and remained in command of Ft. Crawford through 1836.
“In the early 1830’s,” a gold payroll shipment from St. Louis for the officers and men garrisoned at Ft. Crawford consisting of “four bags” each containing $20,000 in gold specie, arrived at Ft.
Crawford and was received by Colonel Taylor. Taylor had the fort on “High Alert” just then, having received intelligence of a large gathering of Indians nearby.
Taylor summoned four of his most loyal men and, after a brief counsel, took possession of the gold and hastily departed the fort; their orders were to bury the gold somewhere safe and quickly return.
Moments after Taylor’s four handpicked troopers cleared the stockade he received word that an attack appeared imminent.
Taylor gave the alarm just as a large force of warriors appeared.
In a well-planned assault, the Indians laid siege to the fort for several days resulting in heavy losses on both sides.
The Indians finally withdrew, the fighting ceased, and Col. Taylor quickly dispatched a search party to locate the four missing troopers who hadn’t been heard from since escaping the fort days before.
Not far from the fort, the search party quickly located the four missing men; stripped, scalped and dead. No sign of the gold was found.
One soldier recovered the only evidence preserved in the case - a scrap of paper found at the scene with these hastily penned words… “On highest bluff across from Fort, in four piles. Each 20,000. Pierre Mercierre.”
Taylor sent a detachment of troops to the scene to recover the gold.
Weeks passed, but no other evidence was found. The search was abandoned.
Assuming the note is valid, the one clue pointing west to Marquette, Iowa, is found in the line “across from Fort.”
And a search of the National Archives for documents related to the battle could produce records of the gold shipment and, if lucky, perhaps a description or map showing the location of where Taylor’s Troopers fought their last battle.
The site of Old Fort Crawford is marked today by Villa Louis, a mansion built over the fort on the banks of the Mississippi; the original fort blockhouse remains on the property.
The Villa Louis is now operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society and is located at: 521 North Villa Louis Road, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
On the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, the site is surrounded on the east by bluffs and by bluffs on the west across the river on the Iowa side.Lost and Forgotten Iowa Sites
GT: Lime Creek (Cerro Gordo County) – Lime Creek is a lost ghost town listed in the U.S. Official Register as a Post Office from 1869 – 1871. The location is unknown and not found on maps from that period.
Note: Sites 4-6 are located on a two-mile stretch of Nishna Valley Road just west of Lewis.
Today’s road closely follows the original route established before 1830, which passed through the towns of Indiantown, Iranistan, and just south of the Indian village of Mi-au-mise.
The original route known as Clark’s Road was also the state highway.
Within a year of Indiantown and Iranistan becoming ghosts, Clark’s Road became a major highway route for westbound travelers.
Local research of this old thoroughfare would likely give you some new sites to hunt.GT: Indiantown (Cass County) – Indiantown was the first white settlement in Cass County, founded in 1846 by 20 Mormon families. Clark’s Road (present-day Nishna Valley Road) merged with the Old Dragoon Trail here.
Nearby Lewis became the county seat in 1853 and the town began its decline; by 1857 little remained. Indiantown was so-named because of its close proximity to the Pottawattamie Indian village of Mi-au-mise on Nishna Valley Road 1.1 miles west of Lewis.
The town sat just south of the pavement and immediately west of 567 Lane.GT: Mi-au-mise (Cass County) - Pottawattamie Indian village located 3/10ths of a mile west of Indiantown.
The village sat 7/10ths of a mile north of the pavement’s edge on Nishna Valley Road and immediately above the 90-degree bend of Spring Creek.

GT: Iranistan (Cass County) – Laid out in 1853, Iranistan was the first plotted town in Cass County. The Post Office existed from 1855-1857.
The ghost town once had a sawmill and was located 1.1 miles west of Mi-au-mise and 2.4 miles west of Lewis, as the crow flies.Sources:
Henson, Michael Paul, “Questions & Answers,” June 1978, Lost Treasure magazine, p. 47
Jefferson County, Iowa: Bonnifield Cemetery, http://iagenweb.org/jefferson/Cemeteries/Bonnifield.html
Perry, Thomas, “Find The Right Bluff And $10,000,000,” July 1969, Treasure World magazine, p. 13
Ghost town research: Iowa Ghost Towns, Cerro Gordo County, http://www.iowaghosttowns.com/cerrogordocounty.html
Ghost town research: Iowa Ghost Towns, Cass County,
http://www.iowaghosttowns.com/casscounty.html
Pearce, Floyd E, Indiantown – The Mormon Settlement in Cass County, Iowa,
http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/nj_spring1994/Pearce.pdf