Swift's silver mine

Swift claimed to have preceded Daniel Boone into Kentucky, coming to the region in 1760 on a series of mining expeditions.

[3]Later, amid numerous obstacles that included Indian attacks, and a mutiny by his crew, Swift walled up the cave and discontinued his mining operation.

In this version of the story, Swift and Frenchman took only enough silver to buy two horses, and on a return trip, were unable to locate the mine.

Later, when Swift attempts to return to the mine, Monde's hand covers the compass so he cannot tell which direction to proceed.

[6] Solomon Mullins, or "Money-making Sol" (born 1782, died 1858) was rumored to have discovered Swift's mines near Pine Mountain in Southwest Virginia.

In 1788, Filson claimed a tract of land supposed to have included a silver mine worked by "a certain man named Swift."

Despite the fact that Harrod and Bridges had a dispute over land some years previous, these two and another man entered the wilderness of Kentucky in 1792,[7] purportedly in search of the mine.

Harrod did not return from the trip, and although his body was never found, his wife maintained that Bridges had used the story of the mine to lure him into the woods to murder him.

[4] When Judge John Haywood was working on a history of the area around Clear Creek in Kentucky, he observed two "ancient" furnaces that he believed may have been used by Swift.

[4] In 1854, Professor David Dale Owen was dispatched to Bell County, Kentucky, as part of a geological survey of the state.

Tradition holds that he was an established Indian trader, but some historians came to believe he was a pirate who preyed on Spanish merchants and made his frequent trips into the wilderness not to retrieve his treasure, but to hide and coin it.

A resident of Laurel County, Kentucky, named William Reams held that following Swift's visit to the mine in 1769 – the last trip recorded in the journal – he and his accomplices agreed not to claim any of the treasure they had hidden in the area until 1790.

He contends that a journey into Kentucky was a dangerous undertaking, and that Swift could just as easily set up a clandestine coining operation in the backwoods of Virginia or aboard his ship.