The old William Strong tavern site is located exactly three miles north of the little village of New Castle, in St. Francis County. Strong operated a ferry on the St. Francis River, along with his tavern, inn, and general store. He was a kindly old man and minded his own business.
Just up the St. Francis River about one-fourth mile is Crowley’s Ridge. In the summer of 1885, a gang of outlaws moved into a cave at Crowley’s Ridge. The cave is a large one with several rooms. The gang was small and didn’t extend their operations much over 100 miles. They often visited Strong’s tavern, hanging about and drinking while they planned their next robbery.
Early one morning, William Strong was near the outlaw cave, hunting fresh deer meat. He saw the outlaws from a distance, digging a hole in the woods back from the cave about two hundred feet. Squatting down so he wouldn’t be seen, he saw them pouring coins from a sack into a box. Strong slipped away, continued to mind his own business, and told no one what he had seen.
At last, luck ran out for the gang one day in Memphis, Tennessee. Attempting a bank robbery on May 1, 1886, all of the gang members were killed. When news of this reached William Strong, his first thought was to try to locate their buried loot. But he was getting old, and felt that he had all he needed in life and so he rejected the notion.
A few years later, he told the story of the outlaw loot to a nephew just before he died. The nephew tried to locate the cache of buried coins, but there were not any metal detectors in those days. It was hit or miss, so he found nothing.