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The family then
moved away promising their neighbors that they were going to
return in seven years. They were never seen in the vicinity
again, but in the seventh year, in 1869, a mysterious light was said
to be seen hovering above Bone Hill near the stone wall. According to
the legend, the light continues to appear every seven years. Some say it is the ghost of the farmer coming to claim his buried
fortune.
Now let’s say
that I am old enough to maybe have been involved, as a youngster, in a
few ghost chasings. I’m not saying that I believe in the legend -- we
just thought that one of the farmers was having a little fun. I saw
the light appear, then disappear and then show up in another area. We wanted to find out who was behind all of this, but never caught up
with them. Edwin F. Borgman of Levasy was born on that farm and in
1939 he stated, "The light appears for a fact, I've seen it. It puffs
up like a glow, and goes away. But there is nothing whatever to the
buried
treasure story. I've never been able to find how that thing
started." He also contended that if there had been gold buried there,
he would have known about it. Borgman’s father bought the farm in
1878.
There is
nothing we can find as to who owned the land in 1862 when the
treasure
was supposedly buried. Nor can we find who owned the property
during the next 16 years before H.H. Borgman purchased the land.
Geologically, Bone Hill consists of slate and limestone and is just
west of some earlier soft coal mine areas. It is theorized that the
mysterious light might be the result of gases oozing from seams in the
"slate ribbed hillside".
The light, if
it is still doing its "seven year glimmer" would have last appeared in
2002 with the next appearance scheduled for 2009. I have been there,
with a camera, waiting until dark to take pictures but I didn’t see
anything. Friends I’ve talked to haven’t recently seen anything
either, so maybe the ghost found its gold and has moved on. Believe it
or not!
The
remains of the stone wall, built by slave labor, can still be seen one
and one-half miles south of Levasy on the west side of H Highway. Levasy,
Missouri
is approximately 25 miles east of Kansas City,
Missouri
on U.S. Highway 24.
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