By JIM MEYER
Staff writer
The FBI confirmed Thursday it was conducting a court-authorized excavation last week at Dents Run in Elk County.
While not offering specifics, Carrie Adamowski, the Philadelphia Division public affairs specialist for the FBI, said the excavation was part of an ongoing investigation.
Adamowski said in an email that nothing was found and the excavation ended March 14.
Dents Run is rumored to be the location of missing gold from the Civil War era, supposedly carried by a wagon that never reached its destination.
Finders Keepers, a treasure hunting group from Chambersburg, has been visiting the Dents Run area since 1975, and members of the group were reported to have been at the FBI excavation site by WJAC-TV in Johnstown.
Dennis Parada, owner of Finders Keepers, said in an email to the newspaper that the investigation is ongoing and that he is under orders by the FBI not to speak publicly about the matter.
In 2005, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources minerals section investigated items Parada recovered in the area and concluded that nothing of historical or cultural significance was present.
Undeterred, Finders Keepers has continued to visit the area with metal detectors in hand.
It is unknown what prompted the latest investigation involving the FBI.
“We have orders not to talk from the FBI,” Parada said in an email. “The investigation is still going on and it could take weeks or months. This is big, real big news, but I cannot talk.”
