Silver in the Pennsylvania Wilds
- by Lou Bernard
- September 23, 2024
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Fifteen years ago, I was asked to do a research job that involved lost deposits of silver in Clinton County.
I looked into it and discovered that it was plausible, though I didn’t personally find any silver (you’ll notice I still have to work for a living). Recent discoveries have reopened that research job for me, and I’ve spent part of the summer again looking into the possibility of undiscovered silver within the Pennsylvania Wilds.
I was investigating the Elk Country landscape within the PA Wilds region, way up in northwestern Clinton County. There have been stories and legends of silver up there, so I decided to go do a bit of searching.
When I look into something like this, someone always scoffs and tries to tell me that I’m wasting my career on this stuff. So let me explain to you that it’s documented. In fact, silver has been found in the Pennsylvania Wilds before.
An article in the Clinton Democrat from February 2, 1871 mentions silver in the same breath as lead and iron when it was discovered in northern Centre County.
“Some years since, the farm was in the possession of Mr. John Best,” the article explains. “And during that time a shaft was sunk and some lead ore obtained, which we are told was of excellent quality, and contained silver enough to pay for the working of the shaft. For some reasons of which we are not fully informed, the working of the mine was discontinued, but we believe it was not for want of ore.”
A few years later, in the Sugar Valley area of Clinton County, silver was again discovered, making it notable in what is today the I-80 Frontier landscape of the PA Wilds. A carriage maker named J.A. Allbright found some samples of silver on a mountain. He brought it to an assayer, who ran some chemical tests on it and found that it was sixty percent pure silver. The Clinton Republican reported on it on May 17, 1899.
So why isn’t this find more well known? Because Allbright didn’t own the property where he found the silver, and saw no reason to make someone else rich. So he sat on the secret and never told anyone exactly where he discovered it.
An article in the Renovo Record from May 13, 1936 revealed the possibility of silver in Elk County, possibly on property once owned by Reuben Winslow, local pioneer. The article, headlined, “Believe Silver Hidden In Central Pennsylvania,” detailed the search by the Works Progress Administration to find more information. Workers in District 10 of the American Guide Project were looking into the possibility that silver had been discovered in the area previously, and interviewing local residents of Elk Country to see what they could provide.
My own research comes from John Blair Linn’s “History of Centre and Clinton Counties,” one of the most reliable books about our local history. The book mentions a man named Groves who was visiting Keating Township, on the northwestern end of Clinton County. He encountered some Native Americans who would travel past along the Sinnemahoning River, and come back with their packs full of silver. Groves spent considerable time searching for the silver himself, but never found any.
In July, I went up to northern Clinton County to do a little searching myself. I checked around the area of the Sinnemahoning, and did a few tests with litmus paper, and hiked around and checked a few places.
I took a small pan from a mess kit and did some panning in the water. That’s usually associated with gold, but it works for silver, too. I didn’t find any signs of it, but then again, I was only able to cover a small area.
You never know. There may be silver still hidden in the Pennsylvania Wilds. If you ever see me out exploring with all-new equipment, camping on property I just purchased…. well, maybe I finally found it.
