BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1, 2024
Rumors have persisted of buried treasures out in the wilds of Maine, involving gold, diamonds and straight up cash. For instance, in 1807, Timothy Barrett moved to True’s Pond in Liberty. He would come into town to buy essentials, but with no means of income, people wondered where he got his money. Supposedly, Barrett had gold coins squirreled away, with local legends claiming the cache was worth anywhere from a few thousand dollars to up to $70,000 — about $2 million in 2024 dollars. About 200 miles north there’s another story of a hidden treasure. According to Portage Lake historian Corrine Routhier, there’s a local legend that sometime in the 1850s, a smuggler known as Buffalo trekked across the border with Canada. He supposedly buried a bag of diamonds and other gemstones with plans to come back to retrieve them, but he eventually died and the gems remained buried somewhere in the area. There are likely many more stories about legendary caches of untold wealth, hidden somewhere in the wilds of Maine. You just never know.