on the shore of Lake Michigan located
just a few miles south of Muskegon Kevin
Dykstra believes he has located physical
evidence of an abandoned Confederate
train engine buried some four feet
beneath the sand if he can dig an area
deep enough and wide enough so that it
can be photographed
Kevin is hoping it will serve as proof
that will convince fellow treasure
hunter and Michigan businessman Marty
lagina to finance what promises to be a
very expensive search to find a boxcar
filled with lost Confederate gold after
the Civil War ended in 1865 a company
called the Florida Railroad reported
that a Confederate locomotive had been
stolen in the city of Cedar Keys who can
steal something from a railroad who can
steal a train engine and believe that it
was Colonel minty Colonel Robert HG
minty was one of the union officers
responsible for the arrest of Jefferson
Davis according to Kevin Dijkstra's
research it was minty who tipped off
Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pritchard to
the fact that the Confederate President
was fleeing south with the Confederate
Treasury and to capture Davis at all
costs after the war meant he became the
superintendent of a number of railroad
companies overseen expansion projects
and general management one of those
companies was the Florida Railroad which
he joined around 1869
one year before Kevin Dykstra believes
mint he arranged for the gold that was
secretly buried in Georgia to be brought
to Michigan by rail Kevin Dykstra must
now face a sobering reality even if a
stolen Confederate locomotive really
does lie buried beneath the sand it may
be too close to the water to be
successfully exposed I don't believe
there's anything more physically that we
could do we brought in 20 people the
sand just keeps washing back in
refusing to give up on what could be a
historic discovery Kevin and his team
now shift their focus to uncover what
they believe to be the abandoned
railroad tracks we're just under 8 feet
that should have hit it if you were
gonna hit it eight feet down and still
no sign of the tracks I know the tracks
are there I have to get down to that
railroad track for two reasons one
because I will not let it beat me I will
find that I will get right to it
and the others I want to show it to
Marty got something right there sweet I
heard it that's got to be the railroad
track in an attempt to create a
reinforced digging shaft the team now
uses a three foot wide steel caisson if
they can pump water out of the metal
cylinder they hope to confirm that the
object buried beneath the sand is an
abandoned train track
we got a ticking clock I got to get that
sleeve down about two and a half feet
we're gonna start extricated all of that
sand and mud that sleeves gonna go down
will we get to that railroad track I
believe we will can you take that probe
down and push down I think we can get to
it we just keep digging and digging and
digging any price it back up suddenly
after what seems like the perfect plan
to get deep enough to find the suspected
railroad tracks the hole once again
caves in due to incoming water you
losing the other bank big time but Kevin
Dykstra is not ready to give up all
right it starts a generator up and let's
try to get some water out of there man
we were so close
don't plug it don't plug it hold it as
still as you can
there although Kevin's brother al can
feel one of the metal tracks buried deep
below the sand the influx of water is
making it impossible for the team to
expose it right here how can I get down
to that railroad track I mean we put our
hands on it so I figured it out we came
out with a 38-inch to to go over top of
the 36-inch to but it's much taller so I
can stack one on top of the other and
get right down to that railroad track
yeah baby there's something here I can't
believe it it's metal really oh my god
that's a railroad didn't I can't reach
down far enough we need to get the water
out we need to get more sand no for
Kevin Dykstra and his team it has been a
day of both extreme highs and bitter
lows although he is convinced he has
successfully located both the stolen
locomotive and the abandoned railroad
tracks
he cannot dig them up sufficiently to
prove it as much as I want to move
forward from this point right here I can
if he is to secure the necessary
financing he needs from Marty lagina and
undertake a search for the gold that may
still lie at the bottom of Lake Michigan
he will need a new strategy
you