photo credit: Dave & Jean LeViere Collection
There's Gold in Them There Hills
The Legend of Lucy Barnes' Treasure
Once Joseph Barnes built the Halfway House Hotel, the Barnes family was on it's way to becoming rich. The money kept coming in over the years as the Halfway House became one of the most famous stops on transits from Dubois to Olean or vice versa. Then during the Civil War the Barnes family installed a telegraph system in the Halfway house, the first one in McKean County. People flocked from all over the county to send out their messages and wait for a reply. Anyways, Lucy Barnes, wife of Joseph Barnes, took care of the profits the Barnes family made from the hotel. Lucy didn't trust the banks and the area, plus there weren't any banks within a convenient distance from the Halfway House, so she invested the money somewhere else. It was noted that at night Lucy would take jugs full of money (mainly gold coins) up into the woods on the hill and when she returned from the woods she'd be empty handed. Then in 1886 Lucy passed away, but while on her deathbed she tried to tell her children where she had stored the money. Due to her weakness however, she was unable to tell them, and as a result of such nobody has found all the money since. Some of the money has been found, but it is believed there is still much to be found and also that alot of it has been washed down through the hills due to running water.
Halfway House in 2004
photo credit: Dave Vandermark Photo
Front of old hotel from a distance in 2004
photo credit: Dave Vandermark Photo