In 2015 Mr. H. Charles Beil published a PDF file called "Theodosia an H. Charles Beil Treasure Hunting Adventure". The document contained the story of Theodosia Alston (nee Burr) and her mysterious disappearance off the coast of North Carolina while a passenger in the schooner Patriot.

The tale is based on his extensive research into Ms. Theodosia’s life and contains a side story about a treasure, allegedly hidden by a guilt wracked pirate who participated in her demise.

 

The publication includes a treasure map and the following description:
 

He was given a casket of coins and jewels that had belonged to the Lady in White as his share. However, haunted by her image he had buried his treasure of a thousand coins and many dozens of jewels along a prominent trail as he made his journey to the interior of North Carolina leaving behind only a cryptic map to its whereabouts.

Theodosia Burr “

 

Many have searched for the cache which is apparently located in or near Cary North Carolina.

 

I have compared the illustration in the book with the original map used to create the adventure.

 

It is very evident that the author has added elements to his treasure map. The fist one is a twelve pointed star (dodecahedron) over the apparent stating point of the adventure included in the story. The star is over Nags Head NC. In addition there are dots which can be interpreted as a path heading south and re emerging on the west side of the barrier islands. There also appears to be an ‘arrow’ of sorts, consisting of two lines drawn in an acute angle.

 

Upon closer examination the path heads towards and up the Neuse river. From there it doesn’t seem to continue, but if you look closely along interior tributaries of the Neuse, (Specifically Swift and Walnut Tree creeks) there is another faint dodecahedron drawn with a few red dots on one of the western stars. This location must be the cryptic location of the treasure.

Initially I was drawn to two things. First- Old Stage Coach road is missing on the treasure map. It starts but it terminates at a creek north of the location. The omission makes it a little harder to match the un named roads with their modern counterparts. Second- There are additional Red Dots on the western side of the stars. This location coincides with modern Lake Wheeler road, just outside of the Dam. Lake Wheeler was built in the 1950’s and the old name for the road was Rhamkatt Road, which has a history unto itself.

 

My search partner went to the location of the red dots and found the area severely flooded due to heavy rains. While this property belongs to the City of Raleigh, it appears that the red dots may be a red herring, not the location of the cache. Furthermore, if one was traveling along the Neuse river to the interior of NC there is no easy path from the eastern side of the star to the point on Lake Wheeler/Rhamkatt road.

There are a number of other modern roads as well as a railroad track inside the cryptic star. Most if not all of these location intersect Swift Creek, but are in flood plains and generally are a bad place to bury a treasure.

The red dots area near modern Lake Wheeler is known as Rhamkatte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This map is a clearer version of the same map  (John Collet 1790) used by the Author. I have added the star in pretty much the same place as he did.

 

 

Detail of original map from 1795

 

 

I then realized that there may be a more subtle meaning to the location of the star. If you look carefully you will see that the star crosses a number of creeks however it does NOT cross any roads. It only points at and touches a road on the eastern side; a spot that corresponds with modern Fayetteville Road.

Going back to the origins of Lake Wheeler road mentioned above I found an old map of the area (right) that shows Raleigh as well as modern Fayetteville Road. If you look very carefully along Fayetteville road there is an arrow pointing to a N.C. Historical Commission Marker. I checked with the modern database for NCHC and there is no mention of this marker in their database.

 

I fired up google earth and found that there is a marker there and that it corresponds nicely to the point where the star touches (points at) the road on the old map.
 

Historic Map of Rhamkatte North Carolina

Map C Google

Map and Screen Capture Courtesy of Google Maps.

Location of the Theodosia Treasure?

Historical Marker on Fayetteville Road.
The location of the treasuer cache?

Monment



The Map Mr Beil uses in this adventure was the same map created by Mr. Collett.

Apparently Mr. Beil has stated that he parked about 100 steps away (about 100 yards) from the cache.  There is an old Frontage Road directly norht of the location and it stops about 100 yards from the monument. 

Here is an image of the monument taken in 2021. Compare to the original black and white image shown above.

Photo Courtesy Steven Luihn
(Photo Courtesy Steven Luihn)

The earth has been piled up in front of the monument. Could the cache simply be hidden there?

Apparently it is commonly know that the cache is not located in "along a river or stream, in a park or a greenway" I believe the next logical public location is the highway right of way.