There’s a number of treasure stories surrounding St. George Island, Florida. I hope you enjoy them, and if you ever find any of them, especially the whiskey cache, let me know!

The Buried Gold

Eastern tip of St George Island

• It’s said that there is $6,000,000 in pure gold bars, hidden on the eastern tip of Saint George Island. The Spanish gold is buried in an eight-foot deep pit, stored in clay crocks.
• In 1796 the pirate William August Bowles, the “King of Florida”, is said to have buried a treasure on St. George Island, worth a cool $10,000,000. Alpheus Hyatt Verrill mentions this treasure cache in his book, Romantic and Historic Florida. The book is long out of print, but you can find used copies by searching on Amazon.
• 5 Chests with an unknown content is said to be buried at the western end of the island, no one knows who buried it.
• The pirate, William “Billy Bowlegs” Rogers, has supposedly buried a couple of chests near the old lighthouse on the island. The first lighthouse was built in 1833 on the western edge of Saint George Island. That lighthouse was destroyed in 1846, so in 1848 a second lighthouse was built at the southern tip of Little St. George Island. 3 years later it was destroyed by a hurricane. The third lighthouse was finished in 1852, it was built 500 yards inland from the second lighthouse. This last lighthouse collapsed on October 21, 2005.
• There’s also rumors of a shipwreck in the West Pass, between Little St. Georges Island and St. Vincent Island, belonging to the pirate William Billy Bowlegs Rogers.

Now you’ve read about the hidden gold, but here comes the good part…

The Lost Whiskey Cache

• In 1763 a ship was on its way from Ireland to New Orleans, on board was 160 barrels of fine Irish whiskey. When the schooner passed by St. George Island it was caught in a hurricane and was smashed against the island. The captain and crew of the ship buried the whiskey kegs in a large pit back from the beach on the eastern end of the island. According to local stories they also buried the ship’s strong box just west of the location where they buried the whiskey.
• There’s another whiskey treasure near Saint George Island as well. The steamer “Alice”, which had 300 barrels of  delicious whiskey on board sank, up the river from Apalachicola. This treasure is worth at least $500,000 today. The steamer should lie under at least 28 feet of clay and sand today, a diver still claims he’s reached the hull of the ship two times. The next time he says he’ll take the cargo with him.

Tags: Billy Bowlegs, Gold, Pirate, Whiskey