Finders, Keepers
A genuine “Gold Rush” occurred in Saratoga Springs in the summer of 1932, outside of the seasonal dash to the race track and roadhouses. During the construction of Saratoga Spa State Park gold and silver were discovered, however not in the form of bulk bullion, but in minted coins.
Architectural work for the development of the Saratoga Spa at the geysers was spread among three different architects in an effort to complete the entire project within two years. Dwight Baum of New York City was awarded the work on the recreation group of golf clubhouse and Victoria swimming pool along with the bottling plant, with Marcus T. Reynolds of Albany designing the Gideon Putnam Hotel. Joseph H. Freedlander of New York planned the administration building, bath houses, laboratory and the Hall of Springs.
These construction jobs provided much needed work during the Great Depression, which held the nation in economic grips, and would also return the flow to the mineral springs which had been depleted by commercial exploitation.
The site selected for the Hall of Springs had earlier belonged to Lyman F. Pettee, who was the president of the Geysers Natural Carbonic Acid Gas Company, one of the operations utilizing the springs for profitmaking marketability. Lyman and his wife Mary had a large 12-room summer home in this vicinity and their son, Harry E. Pettee, would become the Mayor of Saratoga Springs (1918-1919), and president of the successor corporation, General Carbonic Gas Company. Mary Pettee was remembered as someone who engendered old world notions and sensibilities and did not trust financial institutions, preferring to hide her savings in various vessels in the basement of their geyser area home. New York State acquired the Pettee Cottage, from General Carbonic Gas in April 1912 for reservation purposes.
During July 1932 major events had taken place nationally and globally. In Germany, discontent and hardship, fostered by the punishing conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, led to the Nazi Party gaining a voting majority in the Reichstag. In Chicago, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated by his party as their candidate for President. Governor Roosevelt, who had been instrumental in constructing Spa State Park, promised a “New Deal” for citizens, and abolition of the laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol. The nominating convention had concluded to the strains of the song, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” a spirited and hopeful tune.
Locally during high-July, a five dollar gold piece was found at the construction site, and the windfall created a sensation. A few days later three workmen employed by the Lowe Construction company of Schenectady, which had the contract for the excavation and foundation work for the Hall of Springs, ran across a number of $20 gold pieces. This ignited a passionate excitement, with the prospect of striking rapid wealth, and word spread quickly and contagiously.
The July 26, 1932 Saratogian reported,
“A genuine gold rush of truly amazing proportions overwhelmed Saratoga Springs last night and today. Early this morning hundreds of amateur, but none the less earnest, prospectors, armed with pickaxes, shovels and improvised sieves, had taken upwards of a thousand dollars in gold and silver coin from a mound of loosely piled earth a few feet south of the foundation site of the new Hall of Springs in Geyser Park. The rush of the modern Forty-Niners started late yesterday afternoon.” The article continued, “Richard O’Brien, state engineer in charge of the construction work at The Geysers, said today that the earth which bore the pay lode had already been turned over four times when the rush started. It was originally removed from the site of the Hall of Springs in excavating, dumped in a mound a few feet south of the location, brought back to the original site for filling and finally returned to the spot where prospectors were still feverishly digging and sifting this afternoon.”
It was mentioned that the money was found in milk bottles, canning jars, and tin cans in the soil, and that prospectors worked through the night, aided by lanterns and flashlights, many humming the newly popular tune “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
The gold and silver coins were in varied denominations ranging up to twenty dollar pieces, and most of the durable legal tender was minted in the early 1880’s, the newest coin bearing the date of 1890. The Saratogian reporter continued,
“The sweat poured from their fevered brows in the heat of the merciless sun. But at noon today it appeared that the lode was almost exhausted although workers continued to pick up dimes, quarters and an occasional half or silver dollar. Many, however, kept on grimly, hopeful that another large strike might be unearthed. Some even expressed the opinion that the pay lode had hardly been touched as yet, and that much larger amounts would be found eventually. The “gold fever” was strong upon every man, woman and child who sought the money. “There is no fooling about this Klondike fever,” one of the searchers said, “when you are pawing over that dirt, and something shines, you start to tremble all over. It’s worse than buck fever ever was.” It was well-nigh impossible to secure the names of the lucky finders or to get them to divulge the amounts they had taken out of the earth. For it became immediately apparent that the question of legal ownership of the buried sums might prove disastrous to the interests of the prospectors.”
Indeed that proved to be the case as Attorney General John J. Bennett, when the matter was brought to his attention in Albany, directed that the state police put a stop to the mining operations on the grounds, as treasure found on state property belongs either to the state, or to the owner of the property prior to its acquisition, thus suspending succeeding searches seeking sovereigns.