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By Birch Stephens Related to James Taylor Adams from Estill Co., KY in the form of a letter by the above who lived in Leighton, KY and was the postmaster. The WPA Project, The Alderman Library, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. I hear you are interested in legends and stories about Swift s Silver Mine. I have been interested in this mine since I was six years old and I am 55 now. I have searched over quite a large range of territory for it. When I was six years old a man stayed at my father s one night and he had a map which was supposed to locate Swift s Silver Mine from where a rainbow shining in a pool could be seen. He said the rainbow was supposed to be outlined against a rock which appeared to be a kneeling Indian. He also gave me my first history of Swift and his mine. He said that Swift came to Kentucky and mined both gold and silver. That he had with him two white men and twenty-five Indians to fight off anyone who might try to intrude upon his reserves. The two white men went away and all the Indians left except two. Swift kept these two standing guard constantly at the mine s mouth. One day he came in and found one lying on the floor of the cave sound asleep and the other leaning against the wall in a doze. He stabbed both dead and loading his silver bars on pack mules started for North Carolina. The oak lint got in his eyes and he went blind. He had to abandon his silver cargo, but succeeded in reaching civilization alive. He made several attempts to relocate the mine and find the smelted metal, but without success. When I was about seventeen I was carrying the mail from the post office to a logging camp. Caught in a shower one day I took shelter under a cliff. As the rain ceased and the sun came out I looked across the valley and there against the hill was a large rock that looked like a giant Indian kneeling, and as I looked a small rainbow appeared directly against it and cast its shadow in a big pool in the creek below. I laid off to investigate the place, but it was not until twenty-five years later that I, with some friends, visited the place just after a shower. Sure enough there was the rainbow and the shadow in the pool, but I could no longer discern the kneeling Indian rock. I believe the mine really exists, but I do not believe all the stories told about it. I believe it is right here in Estill Co., and not in Powell Co., Wolfe Co., or Virginia, as many do believe. |
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