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MASSACHUSETTS TREASURES & HISTORY |
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Bring Your Kids Party to Life with Our Fun Printable Treasure Hunt Party Games! Print 'n' Play Now! Only $7.99 (ages 6-9)
Easy Princess Treasure Hunt #5 (Clues lead to a clock, a book, a rug, a candle, a brush, an apple, a fork, a pillow, a key, and a basket)
Easy Pirate Treasure Hunt Game #2
(Clues lead to a pot, picture, a map, paper towels, a cookbook, light switch, glue, broom, a decorative or toy frog, & a clock)
Easy Outdoor Treasure Hunt #4 (around the home)
(Clues lead to a door mat, a garden hose, a tree, a mailbox, a bench or chair, a pot, a downspout, a rock, a car, and a flower) More Printable Treasure Hunt Games Family Friendly Links
 Ace 250 Metal Detector
 Garrett Detector Headphones  Gold Prospector's Handbook
 Deluxe Gold Panning Kit
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Explore Massachusetts Treasure Stories IF YOU FIND THIS SITE USEFUL AND INTERESTING, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING BELOW TO HELP FUND OUR CONTINUED TREASURE LEGENDS RESEARCH AND RISING WEB SITE MAINTENANCE AND HOSTING COSTS. THANKS! Buried Treasure Chests at Balancing Rock. According to legend, in the late 18th century a lawyer and a friend of his stole two chests containing about $200,000 in gold and silver pieces from a pirate and buried them near a strange boulder on Kents Island. This island is located northeast of South Byfield in the middle of a salt marsh along the banks of the Parker River that runs through this historic farm district. The rock gets its name because of its odd positioning and the unusual "wobble" produced when you push against it. The men supposedly marked the boulder by carving what appears to be the letter "A" on it which still is visible today. The story claims that the pair were planning to return in five years to retrieve the treasure. Where they went and the reason they had to wait five years is unclear, but locals reported that they never returned. In the early 1800s, many people dug around the area of the rock and tried to locate the treasure to no avail. An unconfirmed rumor later surfaced of one chest being found in the 1930's by a treasure hunter, but at least one other chest with the rest of the hidden fortune is still believed to be buried on the island. Today, the island is part of the Kents Island Wildlife Management Area. To get to the island located east of Knights Crossing, take Boston Road east which curves to the right and becomes Hay Street, and then turn right onto Kents Island Road, which is the access road to the island. (Topographical Map) Captain William "Trader" Jack's Treasure of Oak Bluffs and Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts Treasure Legends - Metal Detecting Forum Pirate Treasure of Clarke's Island Treasure
of Tenney's Grey Court Castle.
There is a legend of two eccentric brothers hiding a fortune in
treasure near Grey Court Castle (pictured top right), once the center
of the Charles
IF YOU FIND THIS SITE USEFUL AND INTERESTING, PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING BELOW TO HELP FUND OUR CONTINUED TREASURE LEGENDS RESEARCH AND RISING WEB SITE MAINTENANCE AND HOSTING COSTS. THANKS! |
Bring Your Kids Party to Life with Our Fun Printable Treasure Hunt Party Games! Print 'n' Play Now! Only $7.99 (ages 6-9) Easy Christmas Treasure Hunt #3
(Clues lead to an elf, a manger, Santa, a wreath, a snowman, a star, a stocking, an angel, a reindeer, & a candle)
Easy Indoor Treasure Hunt Party Game #1
(Clues lead to a shoe, a lamp, a cup, a TV, a towel, an ice maker or ice cube tray, a book, a plant, a picture, and a pillow)
Easy Cryptic Picture Code Hunt
(Clues lead to
a book
bag, a tea pot, a toothbrush, a night light, a clothes basket, a
keychain, popcorn, sunglasses, a toy football, & a cookie jar)
More Printable Treasure Hunt Games
Treasure Hunt Party Games:
Print 'n' Play Now $7.99! Medium Treasure Hunts for Kids Hard Treasure Hunts for Teens & Older  Buried Treasures Book
 Ghost Towns of the American West
 Triplet Jeweler's Loupe |
Treasure-Adventure.com
Copyright 2006-2011
H. Tenney estate that was adjacent to the Searles castle ruins, in the
hills of Methuen, Essex County, Massachusetts. The region was
originally part of the Pawtucket Plantation which was incorporated as
Haverhill in 1645. Tenney was a local wealthy hat
manufacturer with a thriving business who held many gala events at the
castle. The hill, located off Charles Street, was described
as a beautiful forest with massive stone works and sprawling green
lawns, once known as Meetinghouse Hill when it had only a meetinghouse
and barn used as a parsonage in the 1700s, a graveyard (pictured bottom
right), and a schoolhouse at the time, but once the church was torn
down and relocated, the hill became known as Daddy Frye's Hill after
Jeremiah Frye who ran a large tavern in the vicinity. It is
called Tenney's Hill on the 1900 census. The brothers of this
treasure tale were Mark and Nathaniel Gorrill, natives of New Hampshire
born in the early 1800s, dairy farmers who had a falling out over the
same girl whom they both courted and were rejected by. As a
result, they both became reclusive hermits, living together in their
homestead nearby, although supposedly never talking to each
other. 
Nestled
at the foot of the hill is a home built in the 1830s by a local farmer
named William Whittier. The original rough stone farm house
which also served as a stage coach stop in its early days, along with
75 surrounding acres, was purchased and elegantly renovated by Charles
and Fanny Tenney in the 1880s and would become known as the Tenney Gate
House (pictured left boarded up before renovation, and still standing
today at 37 Pleasant Street next to the Methuen City Hall housing the
Methuen Historical Society) where the family lived while the stone
mansion on the hill was built beginning in the mid to late
1880s. In old town meeting records from 1888, Charles H.
Tenney and others request that edge stones be set on the easterly side
of Highland Street from Pleasant Street to the top of the hill near the
entrance to the C.H. Tenney estate. There was both a front
entrance and a back entrance on the south side of Pleasant
Street. The castle was used as a summer manor for the Tenney
family after they
relocated to New York, and was abandoned as a home by 1951, with 26
acres being donated to the school system (the high school was built on
part of the land, and the middle school was said to be built close to
the mansion), with Grey Court castle and the remaining land being sold
to the Basilican Salvatorian Order who established a monastery on the
site. The monks at first lived in the castle, then the gate
house, and then the old Tenney barn, renting the gate house to tenants,
and renting the castle for use as a drug rehabilitation center called
Challenge House. The castle fell into disuse and disrepair in
the 1970s, the roof was falling in, it was overgrown, and a series of
fires eventually destroyed it altogether. The Tenney gate
house is said to be haunted according to many who rented it, passing
down the story of the monk who hung himself in the tower room and
strange happenings near the gravestone of Father Nicholas Demetrius in
the monks' cemetery that used to exist (but was moved) between the
Tenney Gate House and the Searles Building at 41 Pleasant.
The area surrounding the castle now comprises Greycourt State Park
where an amphitheater was built over the castle ruins and only a small
portion of the courtyard remains. The park and its walking
trails can be accessed from a path behind the Tenney gatehouse or from
East St. at the St. Basil Seminary. The gate house, which was
renovated revealing several hidden fireplaces, is now open to the
public with free admission on Sundays from 1-3 p.m.,
and showcases memorabilia from the Revolutionary and Civil War
time periods, along with old photos taken of the inside the mansion and
displays from the Tenney's hat factory. What is interesting
and perplexing about this treasure tale is that one local legend says
that the brothers amassed a fortune and buried it somewhere on the
hill, and another story from the region says that a townsperson had a
vision of treasure being hidden in the wall of the castle, the castle
was searched, and $20,000 in bonds was found in the cellar beneath one
of the castle towers. But considering that the castle would
not have even been built until the brothers were around their late
60's, and they did not seem to have any close association with the
Tenney family to have been inside in the basement hiding bonds, it
seems highly unlikely that they buried the treasure found in the
castle, but that any fortune from their farming business would more
probably still be buried or hidden somewhere else on the
hill. 
