In August 1971, the 5 mile Chief Ca-Ha-Qua Nodaway Scout Trail, built by Troop 74, opened at Nodaway Lake, with the Mic-O-Say dancers commemorating it. AI used to colorize black-and-white photos often makes them brown. The sign was white.
While not discussed in the article, there is a story about Ca-Ha-Qua being involved with a lake in Nodaway County near Clearmont.
Ca-Ha-Qua (“Red Fox”) was said to be chief of the Sac/Fox in the Platte Purchase Treaty of 1836, which was negotiated by William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame) at Fort Leavenworth. There are 15 Sac/Fox names who could not read the treaty that put an X on it. The signatories are identified as “chiefs, warriors, and counsellors.” Mo-hos-ca (“White Cloud”) is reported to have been chief of the Ioways, but 12 Ioways signed with an X.
Caption on the Forum of September 11, 1971 says:
Approximately 30 Girl Scouts from Troop 336, around the lake for about five miles, and the hiking time is Maryville, and their leaders, Mrs. Max Harris, Mrs. Dave Sawicki, Mrs. Don Swartz and Mrs. James Holt and at the Nodaway Community Lake on M-136 Friday to hike the Chief Ca-Ha-Qua Nodaway Scout Trail built by Boy Scout Troop 74, The trail extends around the lake for about five miles and the hiking time is set at 2½ hours. Numbered post along the trail help guide hikers. Scouts built six bridges crossing creeks and ditches.
Maryville Daily Forum, August 1, 1971, on the dedication.
Nature Trail Officially Opened, Developed by Boy Scout Troop 74
The Chief Ca-Ha-Qua Nodaway Scout Trail was officially opened Sunday in a ceremony held at the Nodaway Community Lake on M-148. The Pledge of Allegiance and the recitation of the Scout Oath and Laws were led by Rodney Coverdell. Herman Boswell, assistant Scoutmaster, gave the invocation. In contrast, Richard Wiles, assistant Scoutmaster in charge of the ceremony, explained the purpose of the trail and presented a plaque to Montgomery Wilson, scoutmaster. Wilson then placed the plaque on the sign at the beginning of the trail. The Mic-0-Say dancers performed in honor of the occasion.
As part of many national projects, the trail was developed under the “Save Our American Resources” initiative. The 2½-mile trail has numbered posts for easy following. Others making contributions to the trail include the Maryville Lumber Co., Meek Advertising Co., St. Joseph Light and Power Co., United Telephone Co., Polk Township, Nodaway County Court, Maryville Typewriter Exchange, Maryville Implement Co., and Rawlings Tindall. Also, the Maryville Lions Club provided a patch to be awarded to Boy or Girl Scouts who hike the trail under the supervision of a leader.
In 1898, the St. Joseph News-Press published an item stating that there were treasure hunters around Clearmont who were hunting for half of the $7,500 the Indians received for giving up their land, and that Ca-Ha-Qua was believed to have buried the treasure by Clearmont. The entire story has no corroboration whatsoever and was picked up nationally. The excerpt below is from the New York Herald, January 4, 1898:
PUMPING OUT A QUICKSAND. An Attempt to Recover a Treasure Said to Have Been Left by Indians in Missouri.
MARYVILLE, Mo., Jan. 3.-A search for gold has been in progress for the last three months near Clearmont, a village in the extreme northwest corner of Missouri.
For several years, the Bains brothers, David, John, and William, and their neighbors, have believed that a large amount of money, estimated at from land $7,500 to lying two $300.000, is buried one-half mile long on a north strip of Clearmont and belongs to Alexander Gray, harness maker.
The money is supposed to have been buried by Indians.’ In 1837, that part of Missouri now included in the counties of Buchanan, Holt, Nodaway, Atchison, Andrew, and Platte was held by the Sac and Fox and Iowa Indians.
The Government bought it from them on certain conditions, including paying $7,500 in cash. Old Chief Ca-ha-qua (Red Fox) of the Sacs and Foxes, so tradition runs, was deputed by his tribe to receive the amount due it. He brought half of it on one trip, and going back for the rest, he and his companions were set on by a party of Omahas and killed.
He had told no one what he had done with the money already secured and with other treasures of his tribe that he had in his possession before starting, and the secret of their burial place was carried with him to the grave.
Soon after the Indians were removed to Kansas, it became a tradition among the Sacs and Foxes that the treasure had been deposited in a hollow log and sunk to the bottom of a small lake near where Clearmont now stands. There was formerly such a lake, but the Nodaway River filled it with sand, and its site is doubtful. After the tradition was related to them, the Bains brothers dreamed by night and talked by day of the buried treasure.
Three months ago, they brought two magnetic needles, supposedly with gold-locating properties, and the entire community turned out to see them tested. To the delight of the brothers, both needles dipped over the place where the lake is supposed to have been.
The experiment was repeated with the same result. The brothers set to work, but their troubles had only just begun, as they soon learned. The needles had dipped into a bed of quicksand. The brothers and their helpers worked for days with untiring energy.
It was evident that the box or hollow log containing the money, if it was there at all, was deep below the surface, and they refused to be discouraged as time slipped away.
Finally, one day. Three weeks after the arrival of the needles, Bill Bains’s spade struck something hard. Naturally, he believed it was the hollow log. He called to his companions for help. But the water from the river had already begun to wash in.
They worked as fast as they could, and it is said they succeeded in uncovering the end of the log. But heavy, the water was rushing in, and before it could be secured, the treasure had slipped away. That was more than two months ago.
The story of the finding of the treasure created great excitement in Burlington Junction and Clearmont, Mo., and Braddyville, IA. So many people visited the place during the next few days that to keep them out, armed men stood guard night and day.
Several Clearmont business people became interested; a company was formed to help the Bainses, and 100 shares were sold at $25 per share. Harry Souers, a Clearmont druggist, took several shares and, to pay them, furnished a stationary engine to pump the water hole, and for several weeks, a good-sized force of men worked night and day. A fast, however, as the water and sand were pumped out of the hole, the river filled it again, and little progress was made. But the treasure-seekers know no such thing as discouragement. They quit work for a few days until a more powerful engine and two standpipes could be procured.
The pipes were sunk twenty feet into the sand, and the pumping was begun again, and is still going on incessantly night and day. Under the new arrangement, the sand and water are both thrown out in a continuous stream, but the skeptics declare that before the ink is pumped out, all the Nodaway River north of Clearmont will be dry. People in northwest Missouri and southwestern Iowa are watching the work of the treasure seekers with great interest; knowledge of this fact has probably greatly added to their ardor. We’ve spent almost half as much as was paid for the entire Platte purchase in vain. Still, the Bainses and their friends say they have not yet considered giving up.
In 1938, Ca-Ha-Qua was a character in a pageant at the Krug Park Bowl in St. Joseph. St. Joseph Gazette, August 18, 1938.
- The Boy Scouts built a 5-mile trail around Nodaway Lake so tourists could follow the legend — and the scouts could follow where the treasure definitely wasn’t buried.
- Trail dedication plaque: “In honor of the chief who buried half the money — and in honor of the Scouts who found half the root beer.”
- The map says the chief buried the money by the big oak. The Scouts hiked five miles and found only five miles of steps on their fitness tracker.
- They named the trail after the chief — mostly because “Treasure-Hunt Turnpike” didn’t fit on the sign.
- The Scouts spent months building the trail. Now they offer guided tours: folklore at mile 2, optimistic digging at mile 4.
- Scout merit badge updated: navigation, first aid, and politely asking the lake if it’d seen any suspicious gold.
- Locals call it the Chief’s Loop. Geocachers call it “That place where every X marks a tree, not treasure.”
- The legend says he buried more than half the money. The Scouts say they only found half the sandwiches they brought.
- Trail sign: “If you find the buried cash, please split it evenly — first with the town, then with the Scouts, then with whoever still remembers the route.”
- They say the chief hid the money to keep it safe. The Scouts hid the trail markers to keep the hike interesting. Same idea, different execution.
- New Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared — for wildlife, weather, and wildly optimistic legends.”
- At the trail’s end the Scouts installed a plaque: “In memory of the buried money — and in honor of anyone who still believes we’ll find it.”