I was born in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers. Not too far away from the second of these rivers is the place where my family has farmed for centuries. Normally this would not be a matter of historical interest [1], but as it happens, there is a wooded area near the farm where they have been legends of buried treasure to draw the unwary to attempt to search out what was supposedly buried during the retreat of Braddock’s army after the disastrous Battle of Monongahela, in which Gen. Braddock was mortally wounded (and later buried near Ft. Necessity in the next county south [2]). Naturally, despite the efforts of many (and some humorous signage in the area), the treasure has never been found, and may not even exist.

Legends take on their own sort of logic, a combination of rumor and hearsay mixed in with hopes and fears. On July 9, 1755, about 1300 British regulars and colonial militia fought about 900 French troops, colonial militia, and native allies in some hunting grounds just east of Pittsburgh. The battle was a disaster, in which the British force lost almost a thousand casualties (including about 500 dead) while only inflicting less than 100 casualties on the French force [3]. Scalping of the dead and wounded by the victorious French-allied natives led to a great deal of disorder, and ended up starting the French & Indian War leading to the destruction of French presence in Canada and what later became the Midwest states of the United States. In this atmosphere of death and defeat, it is hardly surprising that a legend of hidden treasure would be found, or even that such a thing could be true.

After all, the existence of buried treasure is something that is not unheard of. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered starting in 1946, among the more curious scrolls found was called the Copper Scroll, a text written in a fairly ordinary type of Hebrew (as opposed to the biblical Hebrew we are more familiar with) that purports to show the locations of various treasures. As might be imagined [4], the scroll itself has attracted a great deal of competing theories about it being a hoax, or the treasure of the First or Second temples or the wealth of the Qum’ran community itself. The fact that the treasure has not been found, and the fact that the date of the scroll (which may even be as late as 100 AD) has only made the debate more fierce. Yet, there is hope here too for people who wish to find buried wealth among the sands of the Holy Land, a sign that hope and greed both spring eternal.

Not all legends are based on what is in the ground, though. On July 8, 1947, reports out of Roswell, New Mexico indicated that the local operations group at the air force base had discovered a “flying disk.” Naturally, this led to legends about UFO discoveries and the longstanding belief that there were aliens involved. The Air Force countered with statements that what was recovered were merely experimental weather balloons, and legends sprang up as a result of the combination of various myths and hoaxes and a wide degree of skepticism about the honesty of the American government [5]. Naturally, the existence of competing narratives, each with a high degree of skepticism about the other side, has been a fertile environment for the creation of various legends, of which all cannot be true and all might be false.

It is worthwhile to note that the Roswell incident itself occurred at the beginning of the Cold War, when there was a great degree of subterfuge in the behavior of our government in the name of national security. Yet the devotion of the government to secretive behavior that was beyond the knowledge of and accountability to the people itself served to reduce the amount of trust that the American people had in their government, a situation that continues to this day. The existence of experimental machinery to spy on Russians and the present behavior of the United States in spying on allies and its own citizens spring from a common refusal to be open and honest in one’s communication, and to behave in a secretive manner. A love of secrets and a disdain for accountability naturally and inevitably reduce trust. Yet the consequences of this reduced trust are serious, including a loss of civic virtue and a growing belief that government is not the servant of the people (as it should be) but rather the enemy, which can lead to dangerous civil discord or more commonly the sort of apathy and cynicism about government that does not bode well for our resilience as a society in times of crisis.

There are many similarities between these two incidents in that it is supposed secrets that are the ground from which legends spring fully armed. Legends and myths thrive in the stale air of secrets and lies, of things that are hidden from others. They can only be eradicated in the open air under the light of inquiry and openness. Yet this very openness is difficult to achieve because of the lack of trust we have in others because of their secrets and lies, and few people are willing or able to allow themselves to be vulnerable and open to the world around us. In such an atmosphere, we should expect to see legends being born often and proliferating these days. And that is precisely what we find.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/history-and-memory/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/a-family-legacy/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/a-rose-by-any-other-name/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/the-first-of-his-name/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/death-is-a-hungry-hunter/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Necessity

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Monongahela

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_scroll

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident