Lost gold at the mouth of Heart River?

The year was 1863 and the Civil War raged, far away in the East. The Sibley and Sully military expeditions had driven Dakota tribespeople westward out of Minnesota in a number of battles following the

U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

. And in Dakota Territory there was a day when the Missouri River, near present-day Bismarck, ran red with blood.

On Sept. 13, 1863,

the New York Times reported

that “a party of thirty miners” traveling down the Missouri River was “supposed to have been killed by the Indians.” More information came from the St. Paul Daily Press: these miners, returning home from Idaho gold fields, were all murdered by Dakota warriors.

The miners’ demise was wrapped in mystery, but the details became known months later when Native Americans told another group of returning miners what had happened.

The ill-fated party, consisted of 18 men, one woman, and three children in a large, flat-bottomed mackinaw boat. Anticipating trouble, they were well armed with rifles and a small cannon. Each miner carried a pouch filled with gold dust, and the boat allegedly had a false bottom that concealed more gold. They stopped at Fort Berthold, where

fur trader Fred Gerard

sold them supplies and advised them not to go further into danger. One miner did elect to stay at Fort Berthold. The others knew the potential hazards, but continued on.

On Aug. 10, 1863, at the mouth of the Heart River, a group of Yanktonai Dakota came along the Missouri riverbank, beckoning the miners to come ashore, but the miners “responded by firing the cannon three times.” The warriors vigorously returned fire.

Unfortunate for the miners, the firing of the cannon caused the boat to spring a leak. It sank, running aground in shallow water. Sensing an opening, the Dakota attacked. Nearly 200 Dakota launched an onslaught upon the miners who fought desperately to save their lives and the gold, killing 36 warriors. However, with limited ammunition, the miners were overpowered and killed. The Yanktonai reportedly used the gold from the pouches to buy ammunition.

Fort Berthold’s Fred Gerard, hearing of the disaster, sent several of his Arikara friends to the site to scrape up spilt gold. But the gold nuggets hidden in the sunken boat’s false-bottom supposedly remained.

Many people later hunted for this legendary Heart River gold, searching riverbanks several miles south of Bismarck. This raises the question: “Is the fabled Heart River gold still there?”

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota. It is edited for presentation on Forum Communication Co. sites by Jeremy Fugleberg, editor of The Vault. See all the Dakota Datebooks at 

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