I was traveling through the swampy bayous from Cairo to Cape
Girardeau on Route 3 recently when I noticed on my map, the tiny
village of Cache, Illinois. I was intrigued by the name, for
reasons obvious to any geocacher. But curious, too, how this tiny
settlement, now a ghost town, came by its enigmatic name. I decided
to do a little research, the results of which are transmitted in
the following report. It’s an interesting story. I can’t verify the
facts, as they are nowhere to be found in the written record –
until now.
Jean Lafitte (ca 1780 – ca 1826) was a legendary pirate in the
Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. Lafitte, a colorful
character, was reportedly born in either France or Hispaniola in
what is current day Haiti. Though well known in history and
folklore, both the pirate's origins and his demise are unknown.
Lafitte was well known throughout the lower (below St. Louis)
Mississippi River valley. Despised by the authorities, he was a
generous and heroic figure to many of the area’s settlers. He
regularly attacked British, French and Spanish merchant ships
(Lafitte claimed never to have plundered an American vessel) in the
Gulf of Mexico. Afterwards, he usually hightailed it to his secret
"kingdom" of Barataria in the swamps and bayous near New Orleans.
From there, he often transferred his ill-gotten booty to
flat-bottomed riverboats and navigated upstream to Kaskaskia
Island.
On the way he made many stops to camp and visit the trappers,
hunters and farmers that lived at the river’s edge. He traded food
and shelter for rifles, gunpowder, axes, cooking pots and many
other essential items that he plundered from the merchant ships.
Needless to say, Lafitte was considered a friend and hero to most
everyone on the river.
Lafitte buried much of his treasure on Kaskaskia Island (N37°
55.282', W89° 54.989'), or stashed it in caves in the adjacent
river bluffs. That was his plan in early 1812, as he stopped to
camp at the mouth of what is now called the Cache River (N37°
5.254', W89° 15.751'). There he planned to rest for a couple of
days and visit an old friend, Willard Roth, who trapped beaver and
muskrats in the nearby swamps. Lafitte picked this spot for good
reasons: from this point he had a clear view of river for five
miles downstream. Also, the next 18 miles upstream offered many
hiding spots among the numerous islands, bayous and horseshoe
bends.
Lafitte didn’t know that General Jacques Villieres, leading a
battalion of the New Orleans Militia, was hot on his trail and only
two days behind. As he prepared to continue his trip to Kaskaskia,
on the morning of 07 February 1812, Villieres and his flat-bottomed
flotilla appeared off Boston Bar, some four miles downstream.
Lafitte did not panic. He had over an hour to break camp, though he
knew Villieres would spot him if they put their boats on the river.
If this happened Lafitte also knew that he would have to fight,
because he would never escape Villieres. Being heavily outnumbered,
Lafitte quickly devised a clever, but daring escape plan. To avoid
detection, he hid his men, boats and treasure in the dense cypress
swamps about 2/3 of a mile up the Cache River. He left his camp in
place, with the fires burning and breakfast cooking in the pots.
When Villieres spotted this, he felt certain that Lafitte was just
around the next bend, maybe less than a mile ahead of him. The
militia quickly resumed their upstream pursuit with renewed
vigor.
Villieres knew Lafitte well, however, and took the precaution of
leaving a dozen men at the campsite, in case Lafitte was playing
just such a trick. The question now for Lafitte: should he fight
the small squadron of militia, or try to sneak past them in the
dark of night? The moon was waning (new moon being on the 12th).
The day was overcast with a cold rain. If this continued the
chances were good that he could sneak out that night and race
downstream, back to New Orleans, undetected. Lafitte decided to
wait.
What Lafitte hadn’t foreseen was the New Madrid Earthquake, the
largest earthquake ever recorded in the continental United States.
Early that afternoon, while Lafitte and his crew sat quietly in
their boats, waiting for nightfall, all hell broke loose. The
Mississippi boiled furiously and ran backwards for the next two
days. Their heavily laden boats nearly capsized as water rushed up
the Cache River, pushing Lafitte and his crew half a mile inland,
to the current cache location. Having run aground on this ridge of
slightly higher land, Lafitte decided to ditch his king’s ransom in
gold, silver and jewels. Then he and his men pushed off again and
scrambled for the river bluffs, half a mile to the northeast.
Lafitte eventually resurfaced in New Orleans. He fought for the
USA in the War of 1812. After being run out of New Orleans around
1817 Lafitte relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas
establishing a private "kingdom" he called "Campeche." In Galveston
Lafitte either purchased or set his claim to a lavishly furnished
mansion used by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury, which he named
Maison Rouge. The building's upper level was converted into a
fortress where cannon commanding Galveston harbor were placed.
Around 1820 Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly
the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an
ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821 the brig-of-war USS
Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte's presence from
the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American
merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight
and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship the Pride, burning his
fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of
treasure with him. Currently the remains of Maison Rouge sit under
the ruins of a later 19th century structure near downtown
Galveston.
After his departure from Galveston, Lafitte was never heard from
again. Rumors have long circulated that Lafitte died in a hurricane
in the Gulf or in the Yucatan around 1826. A controversial
manuscript, known as the 'Journal' of Jean Lafitte, relates how,
after his announced death in the 1820s, he lived in several states
in the United States, and raised a family until his death in St.
Louis in the 1840's. Reportedly at his request, the publication of
the journal was delayed for 107 years and surfaced in the 1950's in
the hands of a man claiming to be the pirate's descendant.
Lafitte never returned to claim his treasure. His journal
contains a brief description of that historic day’s events. It
includes a crudely sketched map of the area, with a spot, marked
with an “X” and labeled simply as “Cache.” He describes building a
small stone cairn located 100 paces north of the burial site. The
cairn is now gone, of course, but the buried treasure? No one knows
for sure, but this is how Cache got its name. When you hunt this
cache, keep in mind that you are standing within 100 paces of
Lafitte’s richest treasure, which may still be buried here.
Sun 08 Jan 06: Cache had indeed been muggled, but is reset to a
new location. Coordinates have been updated.