fern   In May of 1877, a man started in a buggy from Michigan City, carrying a tin tray or box filled with U.S. bonds and four-quart bottles filled with folding money. Feeling he was being pursued, he stopped and buried the loot in a cemetery about three miles from LaPorte, supposedly Pine Lake Cemetery. He later took ill in Joliet, IL, and telegraphed a friend (reportedly a Dr. Gregg of LaPorte), telling him the secret of the buried treasure. But he gave few specifics on the exact location.

   The amount of money, according to Dr. Gregg, was simply fabulous, running into the hundreds of thousands. Supposedly the money was the sinking fund of a gang of robbers, to be used in case of their arrest to gather witnesses and pay off judges and juries.

   Dr. Collins, a well known LaPorte physician, consulted a clairvoyant and he and Dr. Gregg, with a few other men, dug and searched for a few weeks with no success.

   In 1898 the story of buried treasure in the cemetery rekindled. At several different times, strangers came to LaPorte in a quiet way and searched for the booty. As far as anyone knows, nothing was ever found. One trio of men even came from Chicago armed with an instrument said to be able to detect gold or silver. They were permitted to proceed with their experiment, which came to nothing.

Pine_Lake_Cem   In 1902 came the story of an old Michigan City prison inmate named John Rhoda, who, although paroled and privileged to go where he wanted to go, preferred the life of prison. He returned to the state prison and asked that he be permitted to stay for the rest of his days. He told the warden that he had buried what little money he had saved somewhere between LaPorte and Michigan City. He would not say exactly where.

   At that time the Chicago and South Shore Railway Company was excavating to install its line between LaPorte and Michigan City. This began to trouble Rhoda, who feared his money would be found. The warden offered to drive old John to the place where he had buried the money, but John got out of the car after a few miles and said he would return to the prison in time.

   Toward evening the old fellow appeared at the prison gates. Clasped tightly in his arms was an old baking powder can, still covered with dirt, containing $115. The money was turned over to the clerk, who placed it to the man’s credit. Old John worked light duties at the prison and stayed there for the remainder of his days.

   As late as 1953, stories still circulated of hidden treasure, each involving similar circumstances — bank robbers from South Bend supposedly hid loot in Pine Lake Cemetery, then were caught and imprisoned. One died without telling the treasure’s whereabouts; another said it was buried “under a stone not far from a large house near three oak trees.”

   A Mr. Koch of LaPorte who remembered the story said the house was actually an ice house on the south shore of Stone Lake. He said his father was once digging for bait in that area and scratched the top of an old tin box as he dug, but didn’t bother to unearth it. Koch said the story went that one of the convicts, upon release from prison, rented a boat at Weller’s Grove — then a summer resort on Stone Lake — and rowed straight across the lake to the stone. He dug up the $1,500 in solid gold bullion and left LaPorte, never to be heard from again. It was felt that the Pine Lake Cemetery story was simply fabricated to cover the gold’s real hiding place.

   This may be true about what that robber hid — but is there still a treasure somewhere beneath Pine Lake Cemetery that was buried by someone else?

TO VIEW LAPORTE COUNTY TREASURES, visit the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum, 2405 Indiana Ave. (www.laportecountyhistory.org). Fern Eddy Schultz is LaPorte County’s official Historian.