The date is October 6, 1866.
It is a blustery autumn night here in southern Indiana,
and about half a mile up the tracks,
brothers John and Simeon Reno, are about to board a train
bound for Cincinnati.
[horn tooting]
[heavy footstep]
[Josh] But these are no ordinary passengers.
They're the leaders of the fearsome Reno gang,
and they're about to commit a brazen crime
that's never been attempted in the U.S.
Robbing a moving train.
But the brothers aren't acting alone.
They're working with an accomplice.
He holds up a red lantern,
a signal that there is danger on the tracks.
Little does the engineer know
just how much trouble is coming his way.
Fooled by the lantern,
he instructs the brakeman to stop the train.
This is the cue.
The Renos slip on cardboard masks
and make their way toward the front of the train.
The engineer can see there is no emergency.
And whoever was holding the lantern is gone.
By now, the thieves have reached the express car
where safes and valuables are kept.
At gunpoint, the lone guard opens one of the lock boxes,
but doesn't have the key to a second safe.
So the Renos simply throw it out of the car.
And then, as the train starts moving again,
bail out as it speeds away.
America's first train robbery is a smashing success,
and the Renos, they're just getting started.
The gang inspires copycats.
Legendary desperadoes like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy.
In just two years,
the Reno gang nets hundreds of thousands of dollars,
that's tens of millions to us.
Much of it never recovered.
But that may be about to change.
Now two hot leads are being chased down
in search of the missing money.
A treasure hunter believes
he's located the long lost site
of the Reno family homestead.
And he's got an inside scoop
on a hidden cave rumored to be a secret gang hideout.
All aboard for a journey to a time
when outlaws ruled the rails.
Next stop, treasure.
[horn toots]
[Josh] The past is all around us.
Oh, this is crazy.
A world of mystery.
-This is a plane. [laughs] -[man] Yeah.
[Josh] Danger.
We are about to be underwater.
Whoa!
And adventure.
It's just straight down.
Huh, huh, huh, huh!
[eagle screeches]
[Josh] I travel to the far corners of the earth
to uncover where legends end.
[screams and laughs]
And history begins.
Okay, let's punch it.
I'm Josh Gates,
and this is Expedition Unknown.
[horn tooting]
[Josh] My search for Reno gang gold gets on track
in the tiny town of Seymour, Indiana.
Well, I heard this town was small, but this is ridiculous.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
The rest of Seymour
isn't that much bigger than the model on the table.
But there is one hometown kid
who can't forget where it is he came from.
Johnny Cougar, the Cougs.
John Mellencamp, whatever he calls himself.
He's from here.
All right, I gotta go suck a chili dog behind the Tastee-Freez,
whatever that means.
Today, Seymour embraces its small town status
because, well, John Mellencamp
literally wrote a song about it.
Back in the 19th century, though,
its founders had big dreams,
all thanks to the economic engine that was the railroad.
[horn tooting]
This area is known as the crossroads of southern Indiana.
That's because trains traveling from west to east
and north to south would intersect right here.
And for a time, Seymour's prospects were looking good.
That is, until the Reno gang
decided to put these crossroads
in their crosshairs
and stop this place in its tracks.
Even 150 years later,
the gang's notoriety still hovers over Seymour.
As I learn at Rails,
Seymour's train-themed brewery.
I'm here for a masterclass in the Reno legend
from a man so knowledgeable
he's known as the history guy. Lance Geiger.
-Great to meet you. It's incredible. -They're great.
[Josh] And the lesson begins musically.
♪♪ Goodbye brothers And all the Reno gang ♪
♪♪ Me, Frank and William Together we will hang ♪
♪♪ And goodbye sister ♪
♪♪ Laura, true and lovely ♪
♪♪ Tell everyone that we swung For the first train robbery ♪
Whoo!
Incredible.
Reno gang runs deep around here.
Oh, yeah, it's part of the culture.
-Considering how successful they are... -[Lance] Mm-hmm.
...why aren't the Renos a household name?
Partially, it's because their story was never really told.
And partly they're just overshadowed by people like Jesse James,
the Daltons and Butch and Sundance
and these people that came after.
And when we say the Renos, who are we talking about?
Wilkinson and Julia Ann Reno had five sons.
[Josh] The Brady Bunch, these kids were not.
Led by brothers John, Frank, Simeon, and William,
the Renos were a force to be reckoned with.
What starts this off?
Why are they such ne'er do wells?
It's strange because they had a religious upbringing.
And in the small amount of time
that their dad didn't have them reading the Bible,
they seemed to have been troubled from the very start.
They would go out and they would run crooked card games
and bilk travelers.
There was an allegation of horse theft,
maybe some petty crime.
[Josh] The family's base was a homestead
in the nearby town of Rockford.
They started picking up cheap land there
from motivated sellers,
eventually amassing a parcel of over 1,200 acres.
It turns out the sellers were motivated
by the Renos setting fire to their homes.
Soon the Renos totally controlled Rockford.
Notably one Reno not involved in their scheme
is their brother Clint.
Clint was called Honest Clint
because, uh, he just had a different bent than his brothers.
Honest Clint, why is Honest Clint familiar to me?
Probably because in 1956, Elvis Presley's first movie
-was a movie called Love Me Tender. - [Josh] Yes.
[Lance] And he played Honest Clint.
That movie was very loosely based on the story of the Reno gang.
-Honest Clint wasn't actually a... -[Lance] Well, he...
-[Josh] Hip-gyrating singer? -[Lance] Uh, no.
No, he was not a hip-gyrating singer.
He probably never loved anyone tender.
[Josh laughs]
[Josh] Clint aside, the other Renos
continue their wicked ways until 1861,
when they find real opportunity
in the form of the Civil War.
The Union Army would pay cash rewards called bounties
for men willing to enlist.
So the Renos did,
over and over under fake names.
Each time taking the money
and then running before they saw combat.
And when the war was over,
they had a place to go back to to create a headquarters.
-Rockford. -Rockford.
This is the Mos Eisley spaceport.
-Absolutely. -This is a den of scum and villainy.
A red tide and scum and villainy.
And, yeah, it goes beyond Rockford then.
It comes all the way down here to Seymour as well.
[Josh] Now a real gang,
the Renos branched out into counterfeiting,
robbery, horse thievery and brothels.
[gunshot]
[Josh] Naturally, their activities began to draw attention.
"They are as desperate a gang of robbers and murderers
as has ever been known.
A family named Reno.
A gang of as shrewd, bold,
and unscrupulous scoundrels
as exists on the face of the globe,
who are banded together in a regular organization
and have reduced villainy to a science."
They are the most infamous outlaws
that you've probably never heard of.
In some ways it may be the first organized crime in the country.
These guys were meticulous,
they were strategic and they were innovative.
-This brings us to the trains. -Yeah, to the trains.
So tell me about their first robbery.
October 6, 1866.
They boarded the train right here in Seymour.
They just got on at the station
-like a regular passenger. -[Josh] Uh-huh.
[Lance] They put on masks to hide their faces,
and they just robbed the express car at gunpoint.
They made off with about $15,000,
which is the equivalent of maybe a quarter million dollars today.
-That's a huge haul. -Huge haul.
Their first train robbery, they get the equivalent of a quarter mil.
A quarter million dollars today.
-Simple as that. -Simple as that.
This is now such like a western bad guy trope,
but to them, this is like state of the art.
Yeah, absolutely, no one had ever done it before,
so they didn't know how to protect against it.
[Josh] In an era before Venmo, or even money wiring,
the trains were ripe for the picking
because they were often loaded with hard cash
being moved from bank to bank.
And when the Renos robbed their first train,
they made an enemy of the Pinkertons,
the legendary firm
that revolutionized law enforcement.
I love the Pinkertons. The Pinkertons are amazing.
The Pinkertons are like
somewhere between law enforcement and mercenaries.
[Lance] And they are as ruthless, uh, as the people that they are chasing.
-So they're on the case? -They're on the case.
[Lance] And they are able to follow the tracks
of some of the gang members all the way back to Rockford
and find all sorts of evidence
that they had committed the crime,
but they aren't able to secure a conviction in Rockford.
-No justice in Rockford. -No justice in Rockford.
-Yeah. Surprise! Surprise! -[laughs]
The Renos own this town.
They own the town. You might as well call it Reno Town.
[Josh] The first two trains they robbed
made the Renos wealthier than they'd ever been.
But these were just a warmup for what was to come.
There were three train robberies,
and it was only the third train robbery,
which was in May of 1868
that they made the really big score.
In that third robbery they make off with how much?
Around $96,000 in cash and gold.
A lot of that would have been the $20 gold piece
that was called the double eagle.
Yes.
So this is a hugely valuable coin to collectors today.
A mint double eagle gold coin could be...
-$2,500 to $5,000. -For one coin?
[Lance] For one coin, maybe even more,
because this would be associated with the Reno gang.
Right. So we could be talking ten million?
Or more.
-A mother lode. -[chuckles] A mother lode.
-Right. -A whole lot of money.
And then the big question. Is it still out there?
They stole so much over such a short period of time,
they could not possibly have spent all that.
-Right. -By the end of the year of 1868,
they have all been caught.
And that means it's out there somewhere.
In fact, when the last two brothers are caught,
and that was Sim and William,
they tried to bribe the sheriff by saying,
"If you let us go, we'll tell you where we buried the loot."
There is an explicit claim that money is buried.
[Lance] That money is buried. The problem is where.
[Josh] Right.
[Lance] But there was one place they always started,
and they always went back to.
-Rockford. -[Lance] Rockford and the original farm.
But the problem is that, you know, the farm's not there anymore.
No one knows where the original homestead is.
Right.
But it happens that there's a person today
who thinks he's found the location of the Reno farm.
-Where this gang was centered. -Where they were centered.
And where they might have buried their treasure.
Sounds like I'm going to Rockford.
-Goin' to Rockford. -Thanks, Lance.
-Cheers. -Thanks, Josh.
All right, boys, play me out.
[folk music playing]
[Josh] The Rockford of the Renos era is long gone,
more of an idea than an actual place.
All that's really left is a sign and a vineyard.
A winery. Not a bad place for a treasure hunt.
But the man I'm here to meet
may be about to put Rockford back on the map.
On the winery's property...
-Hey! -[laughs]
I say hello to treasure hunter Troy McCormick.
-Hey. Nice to meet you. -Welcome to Indiana.
-Hey, thrilled to be here. -Great.
Okay, let's talk Reno gang.
You bet.
First of all, no question,
these guys stole a lot of money.
This one train robbery, the third one,
we call the big one.
They got $96,000.
And that's in 1866 money.
Right, and I think we can say
that that money's got to still be out there somewhere.
It has never been found, except for one instance
where they found a jar of coins
that was tied to one of the Reno gang.
[Josh] Shortly after the gang was brought to justice,
some nearby land belonging to one of the members was sold.
And the new owner unearthed a two and a half gallon fruit jar
on the property, filled with gold double eagles.
And that was just one sixth of one train robbery.
This guy is one share.
-Crazy. -Yeah.
Now, I'm willing to bet we're not the first two guys
that have gone looking for this treasure.
No, people have been looking ever since the 1860s.
And why haven't they found it?
They weren't looking in the right spot.
You're talking like a guy who knows where the right spot is.
I have found where the original homestead was for the Renos.
-Which was where? -You're standing on it.
This is the Reno homestead.
This is it, right here.
We're literally right here.
This is the Reno homestead.
You're standing right on it.
[Josh] I'm talking to treasure hunter Troy McCormick,
who's looking for the buried fortune
of America's first train robbers,
the legendary Reno gang.
The location of their 1800s homestead
has been lost for over a century,
until perhaps now.
-Two things helped me find this. -Okay.
The first one was a written description by a local historian
who said that the Reno homestead
-was north of Seymour... -Uh-huh.
-On a hill... -Check.
Across from the cemetery.
-Which is where? -Right over here.
Check.
And it's on the west side of the cut they made in the hill
for the railroad tracks.
-Which is right over there. -[Josh] Which is right over there.
[Troy] And that puts us right in this area.
-[Josh] Okay, that puts us in the area. -Yes.
But we've got to do better than that.
That's where my second clue came in.
It was an amazing discovery.
It was a true X-marks-the-spot moment.
-Okay. -I want you to look at this.
Oh, my word.
This is an old property map.
This is an 1878, uh, plat map
that shows land ownership on it. Look down here.
[Josh] The town of Rockford.
[Troy] And then right below it.
-[Josh] "W. Reno." -[Troy] Wilkinson Reno.
This is the Reno homestead.
This is ground zero right here.
So what I did then was take a transparency
of that old plat map...
[Josh] Oh, this is so cool.
So that I could lay it on top of the modern map.
[Josh] And for modern markers on here, we've got what?
-[Josh] We've got the river. -[Troy] Yes.
[Troy] But then we have the railroad line
that comes right through Rockford,
goes right here behind us, the same railroad tracks.
That's huge. We are in the spot.
We are here. In fact, you know what?
Right over here... We're gonna look at this.
...is part of--
-This is part of the foundation. -It is.
This shows where the house was,
and you can even see...
-It continues on. -It continues on.
This place does make all the sense in the world to hide this loot.
That third big train robbery,
that happened just down the tracks here, right?
[Troy] It did. They would have put the gold on their horses,
come right up the tracks, buried it on the family farm,
and then hightailed it out of here
before the Pinkertons could get here.
And has anybody searched this land?
To my knowledge, no one has ever metal detected this area.
Well, let's change that.
[Josh] The Reno's had a gang,
and to cover this much land, Troy has assembled one of his own.
Metal detectorists Roger Diddleberger,
Bill Becker and Chris Place.
The group arms themselves and we go straight to work,
searching for historic items from the homestead
or historic currency from the Reno robberies.
[beeping]
Got a hit.
Oh! Hey, guys, guys, bottle cap.
-Yay! Good job. -Thank you. Thank you for your support.
I appreciate it. I'll be here all day.
Literally.
[Josh] Well, at least I got the bottle cap out of the way early.
Hopefully, there's more to find.
I got something over here.
-[Josh] Yeah? -Oh.
What do you got?
[Chris] Uh, it's a shoe nail.
-[Josh] A horseshoe nail. -[Chris] Yeah.
-[Troy] That's period. -[Josh] That is period.
That is an old-school nail. Look at that.
This is a square-headed handmade nail,
dating back to the late 1800s.
That is almost certainly from the Reno homestead...
-Reno period, yes. -Farm, right.
That would've been off one of their horses.
That's right.
-Nice find. -Yeah, that's really cool.
All right, so we're on the right track.
We're pouring over land
that hasn't been investigated in a century and a half.
The team continues to sweep through the field
and over into the vineyard,
where some of the finest wines
in all of Indiana are produced.
While we're looking for 19th century treasure,
the first thing I dig up
is from a distinctly different vintage.
Hey, Josh, you find anything over there?
Nothing yet.
[Troy] Okay.
Except this full-bodied Cab.
[beeping]
Strong hit there.
-You want the shovel for that one? -[rapid beeping]
Yeah, I'll take it. Something solid there, for sure.
[beeping]
[rapid beeping]
Ooh!
What is that?
That's a knife.
-[Troy] That's a pocket knife. -[Josh] That's a pocket knife.
Super old.
-Probably had wooden pieces on the side. -[Josh] Yeah.
[Josh] This absolutely feels like it could be period.
Wow, that is something.
That could be a Reno gang knife right there.
[Troy] It very well could be. It's been in the ground a long time
to be that deteriorated.
[Josh] That's a beauty. Look at that.
We've got a little weapon here.
-Yeah, a piece of history. -Yeah.
-Now we just need the gold they stole. -That's right.
[Josh] We continued to drift toward the tracks
that carried the third train robbed by the gang,
the one that netted them the largest take
of their brief and brutal career.
And we keep discovering that these fields
are filled with historic finds.
[beeping]
[Josh] I got an old bullet.
-A bullet? -Yeah.
-[beeps] -Old piece of lead.
[Troy] Like a musket ball or something.
Could be a musket ball. Could be an old 22.
-Who knows? -[Troy laughs]
Josh, I've got something round.
-[Josh] Something round? -Yeah, and green.
[Josh] You got what? You got a coin here?
[Troy] I've got something round and green right here.
That's either a button or coin.
-[Josh] That's a coin. That's a coin. -Oh, that is a coin.
[gasps] Indian Head. Look at that.
-Look at that. -[Josh] That is unbelievable.
That is what is called an Indian Head penny
for sure.
This has got to be old.
And that date is on there. That date is clear.
Come on, Josh. What is it?
You're gonna love this. You ready?
1864.
Oh, that's right in the heart of the Reno period.
Right. This is two years before their big train robbery,
but they are already way up to no good.
-[Troy] That's Reno. -[Josh] That's Reno.
I mean, that's big time Reno era, right?
It's right in the middle of the Reno reign of terror.
Big time. So we got a horseshoe nail.
Bullets and money.
That's the Renos through and through.
All we need now is guns and gold.
-We're gonna find it. Come on. -[Troy] Let's do it.
[Josh] Now that we are in the money, we need to keep going.
Historic coins are like potato chips.
Nobody wants to stop at just one.
-[Bill] Hey, Josh. -Yeah.
I got something old.
It's a coin.
-You got a coin? -[Bill] Yep.
[Josh] Here we go.
What do you got?
[Josh laughs]
[Bill] Uh, looks... Looks old.
[Josh] Coin, where? [laughs]
Look at that.
In a field that was once the homestead
of Indiana's notorious Reno Gang,
we're searching for a stash of coins
from one of America's first train robberies.
And, well, here's a coin now.
[Troy] Ooh. What is that?
-[Josh] That's a Shield nickel. -[Troy] Oh, that's awesome.
-Look at that. That is a Shield nickel. -Shield.
-Nice work. -Unbelievable.
[Josh] Our luck has turned not on a dime, but on a nickel.
Specifically a Shield nickel.
This is one of the earliest US minted coins.
-[Troy] Right. -[Josh] So these are from when?
-You know, they started 1866... -[Josh] Right.
...up until the 1880s.
If it's the early side of that, we are in the zone.
The Reno's run ended in 1868.
So, for this coin to be linked to the gang,
it can't be dated any later than that.
[Troy] Can you see the date on it?
It should be, like, right under the Shield.
It's-- The problem is with these coins--
-[Troy] They wear so bad. -[Josh] They wear so quickly.
So I see nothing under the Shield.
It's worn off.
Can you tell on the other side
if it has stars or stars and rays?
And if it's got stars and rays--
It does. It has stars and rays.
[Troy] They only did that for two years.
1866 and 1867.
This is Reno Gang.
I mean, [stutters] that's the money.
-[Josh] Reno treasure right there, my friend. -[Troy chuckles]
Whoo! All right, we're rocking and rolling.
Here we go.
We keep metal detecting,
hoping for more historic coins.
But after another few hours,
the field isn't producing them.
-Okay, let's take stock of where we're at here, Troy. -[Troy] All right.
-We've got awesome finds. -Yes.
But no Mason jars full of gold yet.
But this isn't the only place to look.
-You got something else? -[Troy] I do.
Okay. Talk to me.
They roamed across the four-state area.
-The Pinkertons knew about their homestead. -[Josh] Yup.
-So you wouldn't want to put all your eggs in one basket. -[Josh] Okay.
So this other location is where?
South of Seymour, deep in the woods.
And you think it's promising?
It's better than a bank vault.
-I'll take that. -[Troy] All right.
-Shall we go? -[Troy] I think so.
Let's check it out. Come on.
The rest of the metal detecting dream team
is going to continue to search the homestead.
But Troy and I hit the road
to find another Reno Gang hideout,
one that he says is tightly linked to the gang's violent end.
After this third train robbery, the big hit,
what happens to the main members of the gang?
They split. Two go to Canada, two go to Indianapolis.
They just-- [stutters] They head out.
-The heat is on, they get out of town. -[Troy] Correct.
[Josh] But with the Reno brothers themselves in hiding,
the rest of the gang recklessly decided to rob a fourth train.
And this time, the Pinkertons were waiting.
But the local citizens were tired of living under the Reno's tyranny.
So instead of a jury, the Reno gang faced a mob.
Hundreds of armed townspeople
calling themselves the Red Mask Society,
seized the six captured train robbers from the Pinkertons
and swiftly hanged them from a nearby tree.
This is, uh, frontier justice.
It's vigilante justice.
[Josh] As for the Renos, Frank, Simeon,
William and Charlie Anderson were later caught.
And while awaiting trial, armed vigilantes stormed the jail
and hanged them in their cell.
With everything unraveling so quickly for this gang,
the treasure just, kind of, poof, vanishes.
[Troy] The largest haul that they had,
they had to hide somewhere
because they all got out of town.
[Josh] Legend holds that this cache of gold and silver coins
was buried in several fruit jars,
only one of which was ever recovered.
[Troy] Think about all the money that they stole.
Millions in today's money.
And where did it go?
That's the question.
And it's a question Troy believes he knows the answer to,
after tirelessly investigating local lore.
So, what are we talking about here?
Is this another farm?
No, this is actually a cave.
A cave?
And there's supposed to be a flat-top boulder with carvings on it.
And you think you have an idea of where this place might be?
[Troy] In my research, I found one reference to the landowner's name
-back in the late 1800s. -Okay.
And I've tracked that down and gotten permission
from the current landowner to explore that property.
[Josh] So it's how far from here?
[Troy] About 30 miles.
But the roads, when we get there,
are going to be a little rough.
A little rough?
A little rough.
[Josh] Mm-hm.
♪♪ Yeah! ♪
♪♪ Ride, stallion, ride They got me on the run ♪
Yikes!
♪♪ Ride, stallion, ride Into the setting sun ♪
♪♪ There's a man With a badge ♪
♪♪ Who would want To shoot me dead ♪
All right, this is getting a little rugged.
This place is supposed to be deep in the woods.
♪♪ And that's why I left My sweetheart Mary crying ♪
♪♪ I'll be running All my days ♪
Good lord.
♪♪ To the end of the line ♪
[Josh] Here we go. Come on, come on, come on.
[Troy] Dig it, dig it.
Whoo!
Let's see if we can get across this creek.
Hang on.
Oh, we got it, we got it, we got it.
[Josh exclaiming]
-We made it. -We're alive.
That is what they call the end of the road, literally.
I think we're on foot, yeah?
I guess we get in the creek now.
All right. Time to get wet.
We step out into a steady rain
on the edge of the property,
rumored to hold a Reno hideout cave.
Damp but undeterred, we wade into the stream.
Now, do we have any specifics about the cave itself?
What it looks like?
[Troy] We just know that it was a really large opening.
-[Josh] Okay. -[Troy] The cavern itself
was supposed to be big enough to ride horses into,
and several men would be able to spend the night
as a hideaway to get away from the law.
Okay, so it's not gonna be some small, discreet thing.
No, it's gotta be big enough
-that horses will go into it. -Right.
What about the carvings you mentioned earlier?
[Troy] There's supposed to be, uh, a boulder
right in front of the cave.
And it's got--
Someone's carved a handprint and a horseshoe, a sunburst.
-Well, that's at least super specific. -[Troy] It is.
We find that, and we know we're in the spot.
-We're gonna know it when we see it. -[Josh] For sure.
As the rain continues to fall,
we trek through the creek, keeping our eyes peeled,
but they don't need to stay peeled for long.
Whoa! What's that?
Look at that!
That is a cave.
That is definitely a cave.
[Troy] That has to be what we're looking for.
[Josh] Oh, my God.
This fits the description to a T.
The cave appears to fit the bill.
But is it the Reno Gang's hideout?
That remains to be seen.
But what I can tell you right now is that this is awesome.
If this is it, then there should be symbols here, right, in the rocks?
There should be a boulder with symbols.
And there should be gold and silver
buried somewhere near the entrance.
Outside or inside?
That we don't know.
Okay. We gotta search everywhere.
We begin to metal detect while continuing to search
for the mysterious symbols that are said to adorn the Reno Gang's cave.
Josh, Josh!
-What do you got? -[Troy] Oh, man. I got carvings.
-What? -Rock carvings.
[Josh] Get out of here.
Oh, my God!
-Look. Have a look. -Oh!
That's a horseshoe.
That is a horseshoe.
And I've got a hand.
That is a handprint.
Deep in the wilds of Indiana,
I'm searching for a remote cave
that was reportedly used as a hideout
for the legendary train-robbing Reno Gang.
And these markings, they have just sealed the deal.
No way!
Troy, this is real!
This is actually here.
-These are initials. These are initials. -Yes, they are.
[Josh] That is an "S" for sure.
Could be Simeon.
-Oh, yes, yes. -[Josh] Right? Simeon Reno.
Member of the Reno Gang.
And that's an "M" or a "W".
-That could be a "W". -"W" could be William.
-William Reno. -Another brother.
[Josh] That's the sun.
Look at that, circle in the middle and rays coming out of it.
It's a perfect representation.
This is actually here.
I don't want to sound rude, but I assumed this legend was [bleep].
Yeah, well...
This story of these carvings outside of this cave,
that part of it is true.
This is real!
I love it when a legend comes to life.
-Amen. -Wow.
Come on!
I'm chomping at the bit to get in the cave now.
Let's go find the gold and silver.
Let's do it.
There can be no doubt that this is the cave
referred to in the Reno legend.
Now we head inside to find the money rumored to be buried in glass jars.
Okay, Troy, let's see what's in this cave.
Whoo!
-Look at this place. -[Troy] Wow.
[Josh] Talking about the Reno Gang being able to bring horses in here,
you can bring a school bus in here.
[Troy] Oh, easily.
What a great place to hide out.
It is so incredible to think that those symbols outside
put us in this legend, in this story.
You can just imagine the Reno Gang coming through here.
Let's start looking around, see what we see.
-Oh, Troy. -What's that?
Look at how far back this goes.
Are you kidding me?
-[Troy chuckling] -[Josh] What?
That's, like, a whole river channel.
[Josh] How deep is that?
There's one way to find out.
Ooh, that's deep.
That's up to my knees.
Underneath my feet, it just feels like bedrock.
This is endless.
[Troy] It just goes and goes.
This is some goony [bleep] here.
And thanks to the rain outside,
it's getting wetter in here by the second.
This is crazy.
But we may be walking in the soggy footsteps of the Reno Gang.
[Troy] This water is still carving out,
making this tunnel deeper.
[Josh] Totally.
Hopefully, with that rain out there, this doesn't flash flood.
Okay, so, water channel keeps going this way.
We've got dry land up here. I'm gonna search up here.
-You look down here, yeah? -Sounds good.
I'm gonna actually start on this gravel,
-and I'll work that way. -Sounds good.
It's so weird back here.
We've got these channels that have been cut by the water.
But then you get these high shelves.
They're all caked in mud.
Looks like something's burned up here.
-Oh, Troy! -What?
[chuckles] Come here. Look at this.
[Troy] I'll be right there.
Hey, look at this.
[Troy] What you got up here?
Oh, my gosh!
[Josh] It's a lamp.
-Yeah? -That's an old oil lamp.
Ooh, down there, there's more of it.
-[Troy] There's more. -[Josh] Look at that.
-That's where the wick came out, right there. -[Josh] That's right.
Glass is missing.
-This is what cradles that glass, right? -[Troy] Yes.
And then that's the burner top, yeah?
-[Troy] Yup. -[Josh] It's all burned and rusted.
And then that's part of the body down there, right?
Oh, it's a long stretch.
Here's the body. Look at that.
That's amazing.
This is old.
What was somebody doing back here with this?
We're not the first ones in this cave.
That's a cool piece of history right there.
-Nice. -That's amazing.
All right, let's photograph this and keep moving.
The lamp appears to be 19th or early 20th century.
Clear evidence that people were here long ago.
To see if those people were, to pick one profession at random,
train robbers,
we continue deeper into the cave.
It's getting narrower back here.
[grunts]
-[Josh] Are you okay, Troy? -[Troy] Yup.
I can hardly fit back here.
Oh, I think we might be at the end of the line here.
[Troy] Oh.
[Josh] Yeah, that water is seeping in from somewhere over here,
but it's pretty much-- That's it.
End of the line, but I think not the end of the story.
Definitely not.
I mean, look, the legend says they buried treasure
near the entrance of the cave, right?
-That's right. -And we've gone way past that.
-We're way into this cave system. -[Josh] Yeah.
Anything that was back here would have been washed out by now.
I think we've got to focus our efforts back toward that entrance.
-Sounds good. -Let's do it. Come on.
We turn around and start back toward the opening.
But the rain falling above is now making its way underground.
[Troy] Oh, look at this raging water.
This water is deeper.
[Troy] Ooh. I think the water level's coming up in this cave.
Okay, we gotta get the hell out of here. Come on.
This is way deeper than earlier.
[Troy] I think we're getting close now.
[Josh] Yeah, we're almost there.
Here we go. It shallows up in here.
[Troy] Oh, good.
Whoo!
Like everything else in the cave,
we've been washed back out to the entrance,
where we eagerly return to metal detecting for the Reno's treasure.
Let's look around on these slopes next to the cave.
This area looks pretty undisturbed.
I think it'd be a lot easier to bury something here in the dirt
than it would down in the gravels of the cave.
And less chance of it getting swept away.
-Good point. -[Josh] Yeah. Let's look around.
So we move up to the bank of the creek
to see if we can make a valuable withdrawal.
[metal detector humming]
There's something here for sure.
[metal detector beeping]
Josh, I've got a screaming hit over here.
[Josh] Yeah, I got something here, too.
It's down about eight inches.
Josh, I've got a Mason jar lid over here.
You do?
-Does it look old? -[Troy] Oh, definitely.
It's still got the porcelain liner in it.
I mean, that's exactly what we're looking for.
That's part of the story, right?
They're burying stuff in fruit jars, Mason jars?
That's right. This very well could have held some coins.
We'll look around there for sure.
-I got something here. I don't know what it is. -[metal detector beeping]
It's right there.
We know that the Reno Gang buried gold double eagle coins in fruit jars.
This could be a sign that we're on top of another cache.
We may be inches from treasure.
That's deep enough down.
That could be something old.
Oh.
Holy [bleep]. Troy!
-Troy! -[Troy] Yeah.
-[Josh] Come here. -[Troy] Oh, a sec.
Oh, I got something.
[Josh exclaims]
While the Reno Gang's reign of terror has long since ended.
Right here in Seymour, there is one lasting reminder of their dark legacy.
One of the members of the Reno Gang was held in this very cell
before being dragged out by a mob and hanged.
[producer] Go in the cell.
-You go in the cell. -Just get in there.
Why do you want me to get in there?
It looks good. Go in and-- [stammers]
Then we'll get a shot.
You're gonna lock me in it.
-No. -Sure. Okay.
It doesn't lock anymore, right?
-No. -Okay.
That'd be illegal.
All right. Well, here we go. Here's your shot.
[producer] Here, let me just get it all the way.
It's lunch.
Well, I don't think anybody saw that coming.
[banging on door]
[Josh] Guys!
Of course.
I think the Reno Gang peed in here.
[Josh] I got something here. I don't know what it is.
[exclaims]
-Troy. -[Troy] Yeah.
[Josh] Come here.
Searching for the lost fortune of the notorious Reno Gang,
treasure hunter Troy McCormick and I have found a cave
that may have been one of their hideouts,
and possibly some of their old gear as well.
I thought this was a spoon, but it's not.
Look at this.
I think that's a musket ball mold.
[Troy] It's deep enough for a small caliber.
[Josh] Look, you can see--
[Troy] You can clearly see where it was hinged.
[Josh] This was hinged. And this is hollow.
That is right in the time period.
That's, like, Civil War era.
Not everybody carried those with them.
Sitting around a campfire, nothing to do,
so you're making some extra bullets.
[Josh] Muskets weren't fully replaced by revolvers until the late 19th century.
And the Reno Gang would certainly have had some in their arsenal.
Find of the day right there.
Nicely done.
That's incredible.
And that jar lid you got is right over there?
[Troy] Correct. It's right there.
-I feel like maybe we're in, like, a campsite area. -We're in a good spot.
Yeah, big time.
The evidence of habitation is piling up quickly out here.
But it's now time, as a wise man once said, to show me the money.
Troy, I'm still getting a signal down here.
[metal detector beeping]
-In the same hole? -[Josh] Yeah, right near it.
-What have you got? -I don't know, man.
So here, I'll turn this off.
I got a hit on the right side here.
Do you get that?
[metal detector beeping]
[Troy] I think there's one right there.
[Josh] Boy, it feels like there's something there.
Let me see that shovel.
[Troy] Try digging right there.
Okay.
Gonna take out a big piece.
We'll see if that gets us anywhere.
[metal detector beeping rapidly]
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
-You see this? -[Troy] Little silver circle.
[Josh] Is that a coin?
Get the hell out of here. Is that a coin?
[Troy] Oh, my gosh, it is.
That is a coin.
That's silver.
That's silver right there. Look at that shine.
The target that was trying to get away from us.
[Josh] Are you kidding me?
-There's somebody on it. -[Troy] That's a Seated dime.
What? What is a Seated dime?
-[Troy] Mid-1800s. -Get out of here.
Early to mid-1800s.
Hit it one more time.
There should be a date right underneath of that seated woman.
I know this sounds crazy, but I swear to you it says 1840 something.
'41, '43?
Josh, you nailed an old coin.
Are you kidding me?
Named for the seated image of Liberty on its face,
a Seated dime from the Reno era is a huge deal.
It's potentially valuable from a collectible standpoint,
but more importantly, it puts a firm date on when people were using this area.
Dude, this is literally buried silver.
You know, the legend said they buried silver and gold near the mouth of the cave.
You found silver near the mouth of the cave.
I'm literally speechless.
And this was right next to that bullet mold handle.
That's right. I mean, a foot away.
That's a great coin any day of the year.
[Josh] Wow.
That's just gorgeous.
[Josh] It's beautiful.
Buried treasure, check.
With silver in our pockets,
we continue to scour the forest
until the sun sets,
and with it, our investigation of the Reno Gang.
Like the Reno brothers themselves,
the story of the Reno Gang has been buried deep beneath the Indiana soil.
They ushered in an entirely new era of American crime.
Yet few outside this region have heard of them.
Perhaps the vigilante mob that ended the Reno's reign
happily swept them under the rug
and into the realm of legend.
Or maybe they were just overshadowed by the Wild West outlaws
that followed in their footsteps.
But we shouldn't forget that the Renos and their story
are uniquely American.
A gang born from the bloody Civil War,
they preyed on the railroads that would expand the country,
helping to create the Wild West era.
And the mob justice that ended the Renos,
that's sadly part of our history as well.
But in 1868, the people of Seymour didn't see it like that.
To them, as one local hero might put it,
the Renos fought authority,
and authority always wins.
[train horn blaring]