On October 17, 1899, a northbound train was traveling along what is now known as the Rock Island Railroad just east of Forest City, in St. Francis County. In the train’s strongbox was a little over $12,000 in gold, which was being transported from West Helena to Jonesboro, Arkansas.
It became evident that news of the gold shipment had leaked out, for as the train approached the bridge over Crow Creek near Forest City, the span was suddenly blown apart by a blast of dynamite, and the train came to a halt. As the train stood motionless, an awaiting masked man jumped into the engine cab, and held the crew at gunpoint while two more masked men threw dynamite under the car carrying the gold shipment, and then fled to cover. It was obvious that they knew what they were doing.
The blast blew the treasure car apart and killed the two guards. The outlaws broke open the strongbox and transferred the gold to their saddlebags. They then fled to the woods.
A posse from Forest City and West Helena was soon in hot pursuit. After three days of flight, just out of range of the posse, the bandits found themselves at the forks of the White River and Cypress Bayou in Prairie County. It was here that they decided on a new strategy. They would each take a handful of gold coins for spending money and bury the rest. They planned to meet back at this point on Christmas Day to divide the remaining loot. Their next move was to split in different directions, and this they did.
Information gained later provides us with the names and the fates of the outlaws. They were Max Perry, Roy Hutton, and Walter Drake. Perry had ridden north, and five days after the holdout he was shot by a farmer while trying to steal a horse. Hutton had headed south and was killed by an alert deputy sheriff, in the town of Clarendon, Arkansas. Drake had fled to the west and was captured by the sheriff of White County at Search, Arkansas. The chase had ended, and two of the outlaws were dead within six days following the robbery. But the story continues, with Drake’s being returned to Forest City for trial.
Drake was questioned many times during his incarceration by both law officials and railroad detectives as to the whereabouts of the loot, but he remained silent on the subject. While in prison, Drake contracted some unknown disease and died after serving seven years and two months of his 20-year prison sentence.
This treasure story might have ended with Drake’s death, but for Drake’s young cellmate, Billy Joe Gordon. Gordon, serving a murder sentence, had been cooped up with Drake for nearly five years. They had become good friends, and when Drake knew he was dying, he told Gordon the story of the buried gold.
At the forks of the White River and Cypress Bayou, where they had split up, they had stepped off exactly 45 paces due south from an old oak tree located about 400 feet from the forks, also due south. Here they took a short-handled shovel and dug a hole about four feet deep and buried the gold coins.
Gordon, when he was released, tried to find the treasure but was unable to do so, as the passage of time had caused the landmarks to change.
So, a few hundred feet south of the confluence of White River and Cypress Bayou, about four feet deep, is a pile of gold coins worth a small fortune.