BRAD: Every property Charles Hackley developed,
there's rumors of tunnels.
Charles Hackley and the idea of the Confederate gold
was not speculation.
Could Edwin Stanton have been connected to Charles Hackley?
It's a strong possibility.
And Stanton was involved in the murder of Abraham Lincoln?
-Yes. -Wow.
11 feet across.
-Six feet wide. -That's what we're looking for.
I'm getting a bad feeling about these waves.
Holy... [screams]
â™ª
NARRATOR: In Muskegon, Michigan...
-KEVIN: Hey, guys. -Hey, there they are right now. -Hey.
NARRATOR: ...treasure hunter Kevin Dykstra,
his brother Al
and underwater imaging expert Brian Abbott
have gathered for an important meeting
with members of Kevin's team.
They are eager to discuss the results
not only from recent diving efforts
at the bottom of Lake Michigan,
but also from Kevin's trip last week
to the Chennault Plantation
in Washington, Georgia.
Boy, we got a lot of stuff to go over, guys.
We had a very productive time down there in Georgia.
It was like being in a 300-acre time capsule.
You guys are not gonna believe
-what we discovered down there. -Well, let's hear it.
This was the well-known site from the Civil War
where a lot of gold and silver went missing.
And, so, these guys were down in the creek,
where Gary Drayton had a ton of success.
NARRATOR: Last week, Kevin, Al and Brad,
along with Marty Lagina's son Alex
and metal detection expert Gary Drayton,
traveled to the grounds of what was once
the Chennault Plantation in Washington, Georgia.
-That's the one we want to hit. -Yep.
That'll be the golden bucket.
NARRATOR: They were following up on a tip
from one of the Chennault family descendants
who claimed that gold coins
and other evidence of Confederate treasure
had been routinely found by her ancestors
near an old creek bed on the property.
-I got a ring! -AL: Oh, yes!
GARY: That is a silver ring,
-and that looks like an oldie, as well. -Wow!
I mean, it was huge.
It was just, like, a treasure trove of artifacts.
All kinds of evidence. It just was really
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dig on a place like that.
-A lot of stuff here, isn't there? -Wow.
-Whoa. -That is amazing.
NARRATOR: The story of the Chennault Plantation,
along with the evidence Kevin and the team found
during their visit there,
supports Kevin's belief that at the end of the Civil War,
portions of the Confederate treasury were scattered
and then hidden throughout North America.
Look at all this history that took place on our property.
That's just so exciting.
When we set all that stuff out on that table
and Dan O'Leary saw all those artifacts...
-Mm-hmm. -...I think he said,
-"I'm gonna go buy my own metal detector." -Yeah.
-He did, too. -BRAD: He did, too. That's right.
-[laughs] -So, what did you guys get done?
We got one dive in, uh, with some finds,
but we ended up having some really crazy weather.
-No kidding. -KEVIN: Were you able
to get any sector scanning done?
Yeah, we got a few drops done, and I'd like to pull them out
-and show you what I've got. -Oh, great.
NARRATOR: While Kevin and his team were in Georgia...
BRIAN: Diver in the water.
...Brian, Jeff Zehr, Frederick J. Monroe
and Kevin's youngest brother, Darren,
continued searching the bottom
of Lake Michigan for additional evidence
of a 19th century boxcar that Kevin's research
has led him to believe was deliberately dumped
into the lake while filled
with millions in stolen Confederate gold.
Get ready to deploy the sonar.
NARRATOR: Although Kevin had already applied
for the necessary permissions that would allow
his team to excavate previously chosen areas,
he is hoping
that he can amend his permits to include
a number of debris fields that Brian Abbott discovered
during last week's dives.
Wow, this is phenomenal, guys.
How many images were you able to get?
I probably got about ten images,
but they're all from different drops
and different ranges. So, three drops
with different ranges and so forth.
I'll turn around here and, uh, show it to you guys.
BRAD: You got some good pictures.
BRIAN: Yeah. So, you can see, it's-it's clear.
We were able to get some good distance out.
This is only a 90-foot scan,
but we've got thousands of targets down there.
Excellent.
KEVIN: So, with an image like that
with all of those targets,
if we send somebody down there with a metal detector,
could you guide them
-into those areas that need to be checked out? -Absolutely.
-Yeah, as long as we have comms with the diver. -Excellent.
BRIAN: We've got all GPS coordinates on this
so we can verify where exactly this is,
and we can put you guys
back on these individual targets that are down there.
Well, these look like some pretty significant targets.
That one shot almost looked like a scatter-field.
-BRIAN: Right. -I definitely think
we need to investigate those targets.
Mm-hmm. I agree.
KEVIN: We are doing so much.
We're covering so much ground,
and we're moving forward in this permit process.
Once we get that permit,
the more areas we have to search,
the better chances we have of finding that gold.
I think we need to get up on the lake and start doing
some more searching.
Yeah. We will.
KEVIN: All right, let's get to work.
NARRATOR: The following morning,
Kevin and Al arrive at the marina in Frankfort.
They are eager to check out
the areas where Kevin's brother Darren
and Jeff Zehr found what they believed
to be another promising debris field just one week ago.
Did you check the waves at all?
KEVIN: It's gonna have to be pretty brutal
-for us not to go out today. -AL: It's a good day
-for treasure hunting. -Hey, guys.
-Hey. How are you, Kevin? How you doing, man? -AL: Hi, guys.
-Brian. And you are? -Captain Luke.
Captain Luke? Nice to meet you.
-Hey, Kev. -Frederick.
-Let's go find some gold, huh? -[laughs]
Let's get with it.
[engine starts]
Our plan today is to go back to those areas where Jeff
and Darren got the sector scan hits
because it's really promising.
All right. We're good.
KEVIN: So we're gonna have Brian Abbott
try to put us directly on top of those
and then with the sector-scan
can guide us into those points of interest.
I can't wait to get out there and dive on those targets.
-Looks like we got good seas out there today. -BRIAN: Yeah.
I think so. We'll give it a shot and see what we can do.
Why don't we get our sonar hooked up right now.
All right. Good idea.
-Oh, it's all hooked up already. -Yep. Good to go.
Would be nice if we could get, like,
three or four dives in today.
NARRATOR: According to Kevin's theory,
in the late 1800s,
a boxcar containing stolen Confederate gold
was headed across Lake Michigan on its way to Utah
when it was mysteriously pushed off the back of a ferry.
The enormous weight of the car
combined with the weight of the gold
would have caused the boxcar to shatter.
It would also have created a large debris field,
which, over the course of time,
would now lie hidden
under layers of silt and vegetation.
Since the team began sector scanning
the bottom of Lake Michigan,
Brian Abbott has been building a mosaic
of both potential dive and sonar drop sites.
But given the fact
that the lake's underwater visibility
can drastically change not only from day to day
but from hour to hour,
returning to the site and finding the debris field,
even with the help of sonar scans,
will not be an easy task.
I don't know if you guys can see. I see pretty good, uh...
stuff crashing over the-the walls out there.
What are they looking like?
Probably six to eight.
KEVIN: Oh, yeah, they are coming over the walls.
AL: Yeah, that's not good.
-KEVIN: Yeah. Oh! -AL: Oh, look at that one.
-KEVIN: Whoa! -AL: Holy cow.
KEVIN: When we first get
to the Marina and we look out
over the bay here, it's always pretty calm
because we're kind of set down in a hole here.
But you cannot use this bay as a guide.
That big lake has 300 miles of lake water
coming at you. You don't know what it's gonna be
until you get out of the breakwater.
I don't like this, Luke.
Yeah, let's head out a little further there, Luke.
-It's deceiving from back there. -BRIAN: So, guys,
I know it's a little rough, so let's just take our time.
But I'd like to build the tripod,
get it set up, ready to deoy
and, uh, go from there.
Grab some legs here.
KEVIN: We're gonna deploy this,
but we're gonna have to get off the back of the boat there.
-I think we need life jackets on. -BRIAN: Yeah.
-All right. -BRIAN: Yeah.
AL: All right.
-There you go. -Thanks.
KEVIN: Al, why don't you
come around this side here.
-Okay. -I'll get on the back of the boat.
Okay.
Go straight up. There we go.
-Okay. -Okay.
Hang on a minute.
KEVIN: Nice.
BRIAN: Watch yourself here.
KEVIN: Yep.
Boy, I don't know, Al.
-[laughs] -AL: It's awful rough out here.
KEVIN: It sure didn't look like this
-was this rough on shore. -AL: No.
KEVIN: All right, guys.
Let's, uh...
let's find our target area.
AL: Let's do it.
KEVIN: All right.
There's a definite somet On a boat
off the coast of Frankfort, Michigan...
Hang on, guys.
...Kevin Dykstra, along with members of his team
and underwater imaging expert Brian Abbott,
are trying to relocate
a possible debris field,
one which Kevin hopes could be the location
of millions of dollars' worth of lost Civil War-era gold.
Yeah, I don't know what's going on here,
-but it scares me. -Yeah.
LUKE: We lost our GPS, Brian.
-BRIAN: Did we? -LUKE: Yeah.
BRIAN: Ah, [bleep]. Okay.
KEVIN: We're losing the screen on our GPS.
Yeah, we're-we're losing the signal.
I don't know if it's these waves that are rocking things so bad.
Yeah, we got a malfunction somewhere.
Yeah, we... we got nothing.
-Now we got to... Oh! -AL: Oh!
BRIAN: GPS is going on the fritz here.
AL: What's going on with it?
We're gonna shut this right off. I don't want to damage it.
-Can we guide him from the Lowrance? -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Since the GPS unit on the boat is malfunctioning,
Kevin is hopeful that the team can still find their target
by using a Lowrance sonar system.
Sometimes referred to as "the fish finder,"
the Lowrance sonar system is primarily used by fishermen
to track schools of fish.
It is Kevin's hope that it will also help guide the team
to the same place where Jeff Zehr
and Darren Dykstra made their previous dive.
How far away are we?
-KEVIN: We're about 200 feet away. -AL: All right.
-He's doing good. -Okay.
Are they gonna holler out at me when they...?
Yup.
-Okay. -So if he and Brian
can get this boat over top of that waypoint,
that's where we want to be.
Okay.
Say when.
Uh... when.
KEVIN: Nice.
BRIAN: Okay, good job, man.
NARRATOR: Now that the team has managed to locate
what they hope is a debris field,
Kevin and Al will deploy the MS-1000 sector scanning sonar
in order to obtain three-dimensional images
of a possible boxcar,
or, perhaps, evidence of the stolen gold.
AL: Okay. All right, it's going.
Okay, roger that. I'll start recording,
-taking sonar data. -KEVIN: All right.
40 should be... All right, we're on the bottom.
Roger that. On bottom.
-Are you getting data now, Brian? -Yeah, I'm getting data.
All right. Hold on.
-Care if I come up and look at that screen? -Ah, no, man. Come on.
-KEVIN: Ah, nice! -So, how many feet is that?
KEVIN: Uh, we are 30, 60, 90, 120 feet away.
We moved quite a bit in a short time.
Yeah, we did. The wind's clipping pretty good.
You seeing anything?
KEVIN: There's a definite... something here.
-That's a really... -What is that?
BRIAN: It's got a weird shadow.
It's kind of long.
Ah, [bleep]. Geez.
-Darn it. -KEVIN: It tipped?
BRIAN: No, it's just...
it's too much shaking.
NARRATOR: When performing a scan, the MS-1000 requires
anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes
to make a full rotation.
During that time,
the tripod must not be jostled in any way,
or the scanned images may appear distorted and unclear.
This makes scanning in rough conditions,
such as the high waves
Kevin and the team are now experiencing,
a challenging, if not impossible, task.
KEVIN: You know, being out on the lake at this time of the year,
it can change in an instant-- you know,
you talk about being on a knife's edge right now.
We could go out there, calm seas,
and within just a few minutes
it could work up into a full gale.
We're totally at the mercy of Lake Michigan.
Okay, about another 20, 25 seconds.
Al, I'll switch places with you. Can you come and look at this?
All right.
-You got it? -I got it.
Slowly, let's bring our aft around,
bring the stern around.
This whole thing right here.
What is that?
It's this area here and this in here.
Okay, it looks like something
-isbroke in half, don't it? -Yeah. It does.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the team has actually located
a portion of a boxcar,
the same one that reportedly contained
more than $140 million in stolen gold?
-Can we mark this location? -Yeah, I'll-I'll mark it.
Can you get a measurement as well?
BRIAN: Ten... 11 feet across,
five, six feet wide.
-AL: Did you hear that, Kev? -What?
11 feet across by five or six feet wide.
-That's what we're looking for. -BRIAN: All right.
KEVIN: We're really excited about this target we found.
We know that a boxcar is approximately 35 foot long
and approximately seven to eight feet wide,
but we need to get down there onto that target
and see what the exact size of that is
to make sure that it is either a boxcar
or possibly something else.
How you doing?
We have a 150 foot
-of coil out now. -Roger that.
Okay, another 30 seconds or so.
So let's get ourselves secured,
and we'll go back and we'll pick up the tripod and then move it
-to our next drop location, okay? -Okay.
Staying dry back there, Al?
-Not really. -Okay.
You need anything?
-Maybe my wet suit. -Yeah.
You know, I don't know what you think,
but I think, you know, we got to seriously talk
about getting down there-- that's why we're here, man.
I don't think it's safe. To be honest with you,
I think it's just getting too wild out here as a cowboy ride.
I think it's a very, uh, dangerous situation to...
put a diver in.
Can we get at least one more scan around?
Guys, um,
I think it's getting kind of rough.
It's... it doesn't seem to be coming down.
It actually seems to be building a little bit.
And you're working right off the aft section of the boat.
AL: Holy [bleep]!
Okay, all right.
-Hang-hang on. -You okay? -Yep. Yep.
KEVIN: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
All right, that's it. We're done.
Okay, we're done.
-AL: Yep. -BRIAN: You're good? You sure?
-Okay. -AL: Yup.
BRIAN: All right, here we go.
-KEVIN: That's brutal. -AL: Uh-huh.
KEVIN: I don't want anybody to get hurt on this.
You know, chasing this gold with me is great,
but it's not great if people start getting hurt.
BRIAN: So, let's get out of here.
It's too... getting too crazy.
-I've got the data I need. -All right.
KEVIN: It's really frustrating knowing where that object is
but knowing the lake won't let you get down there.
You don't want anybody to get hurt.
You don't want to lose any equipment.
You don't want to damage the boat.
But I'm totally worried we're running out of time
to find that gold on the bottom of the lake.
Watch the turn, Luke.
It's gonna get kind of dicey.
We get one big wave hitting the back of this boat,
and this thing's going down.
Hang on.
NARRATOR: Although bad weather
and rough water has forced Kevin to end
today's dive operation...
-Whoa. -...he is hopeful
that Brian Abbott's recently collected data,
showing a possible debris field,
will eventually pay off in the weeks ahead.
MONROE: Well, those waves are treacherous.
KEVIN: Here's my shop.CHAD: Talking about the Rebel Reward,
CHAD: Nice.
NARRATOR: One day after their aborted dive efforts
in Lake Michigan,
Kevin Dykstra and his team,
along with Alex Lagina,
gather in Kevin's Muskegon workshop.
Well, guys, we're all excited about this.
NARRATOR: They're here to meet with Chad VanderVen,
a high-ranking member of the Freemasons.
Well, guys, we got Chad VanderVen,
who is a Mason, and he's agreed to come in
[laughs]: and share what he's able to... with us.
Well, I'm happy to be here. Um...
Are you in the Scottish Rite or the York?
-Both. -Both?
-Yep. 32nd Degree and Knight Templar. -Oh, wow.
And currently I reside in the...
to my knowledge, the only rectified Scottish Rite lodge
-in the United States. -No kidding.
NARRATOR: With connections that stretch all the way back
to the Knights Templar,
the fraternal order known as Freemasonry
expanded across Europe and America in the 1700s
and continues to thrive to this day.
Originally formed as a secret society of master builders,
it has, over time, expanded
into a large membership
with strong ties to civic leadership.
An estimated 14 of America's 45 presidents, for example,
were members.
Known for their elaborate rules and mysterious rituals,
Freemasons are also noted
for their use of various numeric codes and symbols,
like the all-seeing eye...
the pyramid...
the letter "G," which represents
the "Great Architect" of the universe,
and the number 33, just to name a few.
Based on his research, it is Kevin Dykstra's belief
that several of the men connected
with the transportation of gold and silver,
taken from Jefferson Davis at the time of his arrest,
from Irwinville, Georgia, to Muskegon, Michigan,
had strong ties to Freemasonry,
including Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pritchard,
Colonel Robert H.G. Minty
and lumber tycoon- turned-banker Charles Hackley.
Chad, obviously you've got a lot of knowledge,
and, you know, being a high-degree Mason,
you have a lot of secret knowledge, so...
what made you decide to come here today
-and share some of this with us? -AL: Or are you here to push us
offthe right track?
[laughter]
CHAD: Well, as a Muskegon native
growing up hearing these stories,
I think it's safe to say that I am just as curious as you are.
And also wanted to lend my Masonic experience
to help and maybe to set the record straight on things.
So, can we... can we kind of zero in on the project
that we're working on, the Civil War?
One thing that I had heard is that Charles Hackley
and the idea of the Confederate gold
was not speculation.
Many people talked about it.
You heard that?
Yes. His wealth was always talked about.
How much he was worth.
How much the gift that he left to Muskegon had been worth.
I mean, he was the biggest man in town.
NARRATOR: By the end of the Civil War in 1865,
Charles Hackley was already
a very successful Muskegon-based businessman.
But in 1870-- five years after the end of the Civil War--
his wealth grew exponentially.
According to Kevin Dykstra's research,
Hackley's personal earnings during his lifetime
were estimated at $3 million.
But at the time of his death, he donated some $12 million
to the city of Muskegon for the establishment
of numerous institutions including businesses,
a high school,
a hospital and more.
Could Hackley's massive wealth be due to his involvement
with the plot to steal
and then launder a fortune in Confederate gold?
It's interesting to consider why
Hackley was building those things.
Why do you think he did?
At the time,
New England was the end-all, be-all
of financial power and political power in the United States.
And then you have a man like Charles Hackley,
who's shrewd, ambitious, who says
that he wanted to take the power from New York.
Entire shiploads of people
are being offloaded
into the country there.
So the population explodes.
As a result,
so does the number of representatives in Congress.
Suddenly, New England has power.
Suddenly, New England has the power to do as it wishes.
One of the things that Hackley was doing,
they were actually sending teams out to New York
to recruit these immigrants as they got off the boat.
"Would you like a job? 'Cause I can get you on a train
to Michigan. Your whole family."
KEVIN: Listening to Chad tell me all this stuff,
it really instilled in me that Charles Hackley had a plan.
He was gonna build a city that rivaled New York or Boston.
And to do that, you needed a lot of money.
And I think Charles Hackley had it.
Growing up, I heard people like
my great-uncle and my grandfather
talking about the Rebel Reward.
It's not the rebel treasure.
It's not the Confederate gold.
It's a reward. A reward for what?
-What was the reward for? -For the capture
of Jefferson Davis.
No, it was never reported.
It wasn't given by Lincoln.
They got a hearty handshake
and a "thank you very much."
-Barely. -What do you think?
A reward for helping get the rest of the money out.
Hackley saw an opportunity.
Think about it in terms of this: there's no guards.
He's captured at this remote farm,
with nothing and no one around,
with a field in the middle of the woods.
Nobody took the gold.
Nobody stole the gold.
They received it.
That the 4th Michigan Cavalry
took possession of that gold
and brought it back here.
That was an exchange that was preplanned.
It was a thank-you.
It was a payment for services rendered.
NARRATOR: A payment for services rendered?
But, if so, who was authorizing the payment?
Was it Charles Hackley or someone else?
Possibly someone much higher up
and with the authority to engineer
a top secret plot of national proportions.
So, do you believe yourself
that Charles Hackley used that Confederate gold
to-to help build Muskegon?
I believe that that is very possible.
The extent of Hackley's wealth
during these years was hard to determine.
KEVIN: It's so interesting to see that
we-we look at all of these structures
that Hackley built, that he paid for.
He had far-reaching plans.
I mean, if he's sending people to New York
to grab people and send them back home,
the structures are one thing.
The infrastructure took more work.
BRAD: Speaking of infrastructure,
Chad, have you heard of any secret passageways
or tunnels in Muskegon?
My father used to work
back when the Red Cross would do blood collections.
BRAD: Right. Yeah.
And part of his job was taking the blood that was collected
to the cold storage.
In the winter, he said--
he always said that he used a tunnel.
NARRATOR: A tunnel?
During the past two years, Kevin and his team
have been searching for the means
by which Charles Hackley
was able to secretly transport gold,
first, from Irwinville, Georgia,
and then to various locations and banks in Muskegon,
before shipping it out of town by ferryboat.
So far, Kevin has successfully established the existence
of underground tunnels beneath one of Hackley's former banks
and even one connecting Hackley's 19th century mansion
to the nearby home of one of his closest associates.
-KEVIN: Look at that. -BRAD: Look at that. Nice!
Could an even larger network
of secret tunnels also exist throughout Muskegon?
BRAD: In Muskegon,
where Hackley built the school,
the superintendent approached me recently and said
his mother told him when he was a boy
there was "a catacomb" of tunnels in this town.
Really?
You think these tunnels were built at the same time
-that high school was built? -BRAD: We do. The tunnels are
from the time of the construction of the school.
KEVIN: I think the main purpose of the tunnels
were to move that gold around undetected.
We got to check that out.
Yeah.
You know, it feels like
the deeper we dig into this,
the more that we start pulling back
these layers, it seems
to feel that there's a lot more,
because you don't know how much is there.
You have answered a lot of questions,
but you've-you've raised
-some questions as well. -I think I've created a few.
[birds chirping]
In Muskegon, Michigan...BRAD: Look at this, you guys.OR:
JEFF: We got to go to the front of the school. Yeah.
Oh, okay. So, you're just gonna go up here
to the stop sign and turn right.
NARRATOR: ...researchers Brad Richards
and Jeff Zehr are driving
-to Muskegon High School. -Here's the football field.
-Is that where we're going? -Yep. Yep. That's where
-we're going. -They are hoping to find out
more information about a reported network
of underground tunnels
linking the high school to a number of other buildings
built by lumber tycoon-turned-banker
Charles Hackley,
tunnels which Kevin and his team believe
may have been instrumental in a plot to secretly launder
and then transport millions in stolen Confederate gold.
JEFF: Be as that this is your neck of the woods,
tell me more about the school.
Hackley created the Hackley Manual Training School,
Muskegon High School, so...
-Really did a lot for the town. -He did, he did.
Now, where did the wealth come from? You know, that's what
-we're researching. -Right, right.
NARRATOR: In the early 1890s,
Charles Hackley began donating an estimated $200,000--
worth almost $6 million today--
in order to finance the construction
of numerous institutions bearing his name,
including a hospital, a middle school,
a high school, and also a manual training school,
a training school that also included a foundry
where metals could be melted down
for the purposes of recasting them into different forms.
According to Kevin Dykstra's research,
six wagonloads of Confederate gold and silver
were smuggled from Georgia to Charles Hackley in Muskegon
in 1870.
However, since the coins and gold bars
would likely have been stamped with the initials C.S.A.,
for the Confederate States of America,
they would need to be disguised.
Could it be that Charles Hackley
constructed his manual training school
in order to melt the stolen gold
and then transported it to other locations
through a network of secret underground tunnels?
So, this is the old high school.
-JEFF: Right here? -1893.
And then the Hackley Manual Training Center,
the first of its kind in the nation,
was built over here in 1897.
-Hey, Justin. -Justin Jennings
is the superintendent of Muskegon Public Schools.
Thanks so much for meeting us.
He recently contacted Brad when he became aware
of Kevin Dykstra's theories involving
-Charles Hackley. -So this is the, uh,
-memorial here, huh? -This is the memorial.
-JEFF: Wow. -JUSTIN: Kind of the center of everything here.
-JEFF: Huh. -JUSTIN: Everything here is just Hackley.
The school, the gym, everything over here.
-The Hackley Manual Training School. -JUSTIN: Everything.
He put a lot of money into the city, so...
So, it seems like, in the research,
when he built one building, he always built
-another building. -Yeah. He only built things in tandems.
-That's what it seems like. -Built things in tandems.
-Right. -And there might have been tunnels
-between those two buildings. -That's the rumor.
We've tried to find, you know,
maps for the tunnels, but we can't find anything.
-So, today, we'll-we'll get a chance to check 'em out. -Awesome.
-Yeah. -JEFF: Well, we found lots of evidence
of tunnels elsewhere already,
-but we haven't had anything we could walk through yet. -Okay.
-This would be the first time. -Yeah. So if you could show us a tunnel we could
-actually walk into, that'd be awesome. -Absolutely. Absolutely.
-The tunnels are this way. -All right.
-All right. Let's go. -Let's go.
[chuckles]
So, this is part of the old Hackley Manual Training School?
-This is. This is the old weld shop. Yeah. -Okay.
-[creaking] -JEFF: Let's see it.
BRAD: So, these are kind of modern steps right here.
JUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. From the weld shop, so...
BRAD: Okay. And as we get back farther
into the recesses, we're gonna see some older stuff?
JUSTIN: Yeah. It's gonna be hot.
-BRAD: Hot? -Yeah.
[Jeff chuckles]
-BRAD: Oh, my goodness. -JEFF: Well, yeah.
JEFF: Is this what you're talking about?
Or were you...
-This is really old. -Whoa!
Look at this.
This is the kind of architecture you'd expect to see
-in the-- in the 1800s. -JUSTIN: Right.
It's arched. It's, um-- There's not concrete.
-That's brick. Old brick. -Really old brick, too.
-Mm-hmm. It's crumbling. -We should get some pictures of this.
-Oh, yeah. -[camera clicks]
-That's a really cool picture. -Let's check to see
-how far this goes. -Yeah. Let's check it out.
-Oh, okay. All right. -Yeah.
BRAD: Look at this, you guys.
You can kind of see where the foundation
-is crumbled. -Wow!
Yeah.
These mechanicals here,
-these are new. -JUSTIN: Yeah, these are new.
BRAD: This was not originally a utility tunnel,
-it doesn't look like. -No, not originally.
NARRATOR: Because these tunnels were constructed in the late 1800s
and weren't used to run utility cables
until several years later,
why were they constructed in the first place?
What purpose would they have been designed to serve?
Was it to secretly transport millions of dollars' worth
of stolen Civil War gold,
as Kevin Dykstra and his team suspect?
BRAD: This was a lot of effort, and it was not originally
-a utility tunnel. -Yeah. Yup.
Yeah, I wonder if there was ever, like, a set
of rail tracks down here or anything
that they could've pushed a cart on or anything like that.
Um, just keep our eyes open, but this is an old tunnel.
Right.
-BRAD: So, why the expense? -We don't know.
BRAD: These tunnels aren't big enough to do much in,
but they're big enough to cart gold or to hide
from sight and to sneak around a city between buildings.
JEFF: Do you think we're heading south now?
JUSTIN: We're heading south, yes.
-JEFF: Okay. -BRAD: We've gone a long ways.
JUSTIN: Yeah, we're still under the street, so...
BRAD: They said one of these tunnels
went all the way to Hackley Hospital?
I think from his house.
-Man! -Holy cow!
NARRATOR: Charles Hackley's house?
Located nearly one mile away?
Could Jeff and Brad have just discovered the link
between the tunnel they located under Charles Hackley's house
three weeks ago and a network of tunnels connecting Hackley's
other buildings in downtown Muskegon?
JUSTIN: Really tight around here.
BRAD: Oh, wow. Look at this!
Justin. Okay, look at the size of these walls.
JEFF: That's crazy.
This definitely was built during the Charles Hackley era.
This wall right here.
They look like they tried to patch it up.
-Yeah. -But th-this is old right here.
BRAD: What's going through my mind is,
what secrets did these guys have?
I'd love to get behind that wall,
investigate this place further.
-So, how far does that go? -It goes all the way over
-to the school. -BRAD: Can we go?
-Yup. -All right.
This is crazy. We're underneath the street.
We're underneath the street of the city right now.
JUSTIN: Yup, underneath the street.
BRAD: That's crazy.
Charles Hackley--
he put those tunnels in for a reason.
JUSTIN: Yeah, we're in the steam room.
BRAD: And we need to get to the bottom of this.
JUSTIN: I think this is the end, so...
BRAD: Okay. So, we left the street
and kind of ducked back into the high school.
-Right. We're underneath the high school now. -Okay.
That was quite a trip, man.
-Can't thank you enough, man. -Thanks for coming.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Great time. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: The following day...
-KEVIN: Hey, guys. -ALL: Hey!
NARRATOR: ...Kevin Dykstra and his team
gather at his workshop
for a video conference with Marty Lagina's son Alex.
-Well, let's hope he's here. -[laptop chiming]
-Hey, guys. -ALL: Hey, Alex.
Good to hear from you.
Yeah, we've been... we've been busy.
Did you get those photos that I sent?
Um, yeah. The ones of the tunnel?
Yeah. Jeff and Brad are here.
They were actually in that tunnel.
Tell Alex about those tunnels.
Well, Alex, uh,
Jeff and I got into some really, really old tunnels
under the school that Charles Hackley built,
and the tunnel, one of 'em,
headed towards Hackley's house.
Do you... do you know, I mean,
what-what was the purpose of these?
You know, why do you think they're there?
Well, right at the moment, they're-they've repurposed them
with conduit and things for the school,
but you can see that it's the old, original tunnel that
were used back in Hackley's time, um,
well, very likely to move gold around,
to move themselves around when they didn't want to get seen.
I can tell you that putting tunnels underground
is not an easy thing to do.
And I think that is a significant amount of effort.
Um, and I'm having trouble thinking of reasons
that you would need such a long tunnel
if you weren't trying to do something
out of the public eye,
or-or something like what you're talking about.
What Brad and Jeff did--
these tunnels-- man, that's huge.
AL: It's a home run.
Well, guys, that's... that's really great work.
And great job finding those tunnels, and,
Kevin, what-what is the plan
as far as Lake Michigan goes?
Well, we're gonna be watching the weather very closely.
As soon as we get an opening
in the weather, and hopefully, when we get that permit,
it'll mesh together,
and we'll get back to work on the lake.
So, I guess that puts us in a little bit
of a holding pattern, though, doesn't it?
-Mm-hmm. -Yeah, just a bit.
Well, I have some good news on that front, actually.
I've come across an author and a reporter in Washington, D.C.
by the name of Warren Getler.
He is a Civil War expert,
and he's actually got some information that,
you know, might blow your theory up
a little bit bigger than you had expected.
Uh, he thinks he might be able to connect your theory
to Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.
Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton?
The man who served in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet
during the time of his assassination?
According to official Civil War records,
the orders that members of the 4th Michigan Cavalry received,
which directed them to capture Jefferson Davis,
originated in Washington, D.C.,
and from the office of Edwin Stanton.
Could Alex Lagina have turned up a possible link
between Stanton and the plot to steal millions of dollars
worth of Confederate gold and silver?
If you guys want to meet me out in Washington, D.C.,
sit down with Warren and kind of pick his brain
-a little bit... -AL: Oh, wow.
I think while we can't do anything else,
that'd be a great use of time.
Well, Alex, that sounds great.
Well, as-as awesome as that sounds,
I got a lead on something potentially pretty big, too,
I wonder if I shouldn't follow up on.
-What is it? -There's a house right next
to the Hackley-Hume compound
that I'm told has some very interesting things
in-in its basement. Could follow up on that.
KEVIN: You know what? Let's-let's,
um, split up and-and conquer.
I think... I think Brad and Al,
why don't you guys head to Washington
with me, we'll meet Alex. Can Jeff...?
-Yeah. -Can you and Fred go investigate that? That way,
we can get things done on two different fronts.
Well, that sounds great, guys. I will see you in D.C.
And Jeff, Fred, I can't wait to hear what you guys find out.
-Great. -We'll let you know.
KEVIN: Excellent. Well, safe travels.
-We'll meet you in D.C. -All right. We'll see you soon.
KEVIN: That sounds like a great plan.
Let's, uh... let's get packing.
nference
in Muskegon, Michigan...
BRAD: And there's the Lincoln Monument.
-We're not in Michigan anymore, boys. -Oh, wow.
...Kevin Dykstra, along with his brother Al,
history teacher Brad Richards
and Alex Lagina have gathered in Washington, D.C.
for what promises to be an important meeting.
What I think is amazing is the search
that we've taken so far. I mean, look at.
Now we're in Washington searching more stuff out.
Oh, this is pretty exciting to, uh,
have a chance to meet with Warren Getler.
Uh, I've talked with him a little bit, and
he's got some really interesting information.
All right, boys. Here we are--
Warren Getler's office.
ALEX: Well done. Thanks for driving.
-AL: Excellent. -KEVIN: Excellent.
NARRATOR: Warren Getler is an author and investigative journalist
who has spent more than two decades researching and writing
about the Civil War and the period that followed.
-Come on in, guys. -All right.
NARRATOR: In 2003,
he coauthored a book entitled, Rebel Gold,
which documents evidence
that numerous Confederate treasures remain buried
across the United States today.
WARREN: Great to have you guys.
Grab a seat.
-Wow. -Wow!
[Warren chuckles]
WARREN: It's... I'm so glad to see you.
Great fan of what you guys have been doing. Your research
-is phenomenal. -You know, the-the research
has been huge in this project,
but it seems like the more people hear about the research,
the more people that reach out to us.
You know, like you and Alex
-hooking up and setting this up. -Mm-hmm.
-What got you into this? What... -Oh, wow.
-What made you do all this? -Right, so I was
an investigative journalist for most of my career, and, um,
I got wrapped up into this story that involved Stanton
and a lot of other powerful figures.
History will tell us
that this man won the war with Lincoln for the Union.
This gentleman Stanton is a very, very mysterious character.
NARRATOR: Edwin McMasters Stanton
was a lawyer and politician
who had served as attorney general
under President James Buchanan
prior to the start of the Civil War.
In 1862, he was appointed by Abraham Lincoln
to be his secretary of war, the equivalent
to what is now called the secretary of defense.
As the civilian in charge of the United States military,
Stanton exercised great power
during a time of national crisis.
In my research, you had a very powerful contingent
of five or six major players,
some of whom used to be in the Confederate cabinet,
who were organizing events and organizing the financing
of the Lincoln assassination and others.
-Got it. -I think there's a real possibility
that Edwin Stanton was a major coconspirator.
Are you saying that Stanton was involved
in the murder of Abraham Lincoln?
-Yes. -Wow.
Whoa.
Could Edwin Stanton have been connected
to Charles Hackley, who was a high level Mason?
It's a strong possibility. Absolutely.
NARRATOR: Has Kevin Dykstra and his team
just made what could be their most important contact yet--
one that could link the plot to steal a fortune
in Confederate gold to the assassination
of America's 16th president?
If so, then perhaps the treasure Kevin is searching for
isn't only a monetary one,
but one of great historical significance.
One that possibly means
that the conspiracy Kevin has been investigating
and the treasure he's looking for
might be considerably larger
and more deadly
than he and his team could ever
-have suspected. -[gunshot]
NARRATOR: Next time onThe Curse of Civil War Gold...
I believe that there are
potentially billions in gold
hidden by the Knights of the Golden Circle.
And it played out in Muskegon
because of Charles Hackley.
-He fits the profile. -Wow!
AKRAM ELIAS: Here you're in the nation's temple.
I've always felt that the Masons
collaborated about the missing Confederate gold.
What gold?
-Vault number one. -Oh, my goodness.
Every history textbook in America has this wrong.
Absolutely.
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