Everyone likes a mystery

There are a couple of mysteries I found in the dusty pages of time in the Gap that intrigue me.

One mystery is the whereabouts of a certain gun.

Back in 1923, attorneys abstracting title to lots in Big Stone Gap, went back to where Caney Gilly traded an old bear gun as part payment to one of his ancestors for the level fan-shaped land where the town is now located.

The gun was worth only a few dollars but had a record that made it very valuable at the time.

The lands traded for the gun are now worth millions

Later, an unidentified prominent citizen owned the gun as a relic of by-gone days and its presence now is as much a mystery as is much of the Gap’s history.

I can’t help but wonder if the old gun is hidden in someone’s attic or has it been destroyed. 

At the time of the swap, the barrel was bent, as if by old age. The rust had eaten away the elasticity of the spring. The stock was worm-eaten and decayed. The flint no longer flashed flame to the firing pin. The only thing that remained intact was the “touch hole.”

We may never know.

The other mystery is, of all things, a tree.

Uncle Caney once showed someone a beech tree just below the old Flanary ford, with Daniel Boone’s name carved in the bark, with the date that looked like 1777. He said that older men told him Boone carved on the tree on one of his trips through the Gap to Kentucky.

So, is the tree still standing or was it cut down and used for lumber or firewood?

If you see an old, old beech tree in the area, look closely. You might see Boone’s initials.

These two mysteries may never be solved, but then again………

……they might!