When looking at a geocache map we realized that no fewer than 20 caches are dedicated to the Mary Jane Thurston Park North Turkeyfoot Creek in northern Henry County. On the south side of the river, there is a creek that empties into the Maumee that is directly across the river from where the North Branch exits. This creek simply goes by the name Turkeyfoot Creek. On the map the only places that the (southern) Turkeyfoot can claim caches is at the beginning, (the reservoir area in Hamler where the B&O Railroad cross the Turkeyfoot), and the end (where the Turkeyfoot dumps into the Maumee). We have decided to fill in the area with a series of several caches between the beginning and the end so you can get a little better idea how the story flows. We hope you enjoy the hunt.
Here is where an Indian Ghost Warrior on horseback guards treasure along the Turkeyfoot Creek. In the 1790's a courrier carrying gold for American general Anthony Wayne along the Maumee river was ambushed. His gold ended up in a town (ghost town?) called Shunk, then an Indian village on the banks of a small creek. When the Indians were forced out of northwest Ohio they buried the gold and other treasures. They declared that someday they would return for it. Realizing that someone might come and dig for it they left behind in the form of a ghost, a guard on horseback. Shunk still exists but is no more than a dip in the road on Ohio route 109, 5 miles east of Napoleon in Henry county Ohio....
Turkeyfoot Creek
A white ghost on horseback is said to guard buried treasure on the inside bend of Turkeyfoot Creek, near the village of Shunk in Henry County--formerly part of Ohio's notorious Black Swamp. Indians buried it there following their defeat by Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers; it is thought to be about $40,000 in gold sheets, soldiers' pay stolen from the Army paymaster en route to Fort Defiance. The Indians, who migrated to Oklahoma Territory, intended to retrieve the gold when they returned to take back their land from the white man. As we all know, things didn't go as planned for the Indians, and now they say that the gold is buried somewhere on the bank of the creek, waiting for someone to dig in the right place.
Plenty of people have made attempts to find the Turkeyfoot treasure, but none have succeeded, and many are discouraged by the spectral white horseman. One boy named Thurmon Dresbach was using an iron rod to poke through the mud when his parents heard him scream in terror and found him unconscious and in shock. When he was able to speak he talked about "a white ghost on a big horse." Another person who tried to find the gold was a stranger who wandered the Turkeyfoot Creek area with trained coon dogs for several weeks in 1926, always after dark. He was discovered in a state similar to that of Thurmon Dresbaugh: unconscious, lying on State Route 109. When revived the next day he wouldn't say what he'd seen, but he was gone by the following morning.
Source: Gerrick, David J. "Ohio's Ghostly Greats" Dayton Press, 1982. pp.30-31
The "Turkeyfoot Buried Treasure" is an ammo box placed on the NE corner of the bridge. Parking here is very limited to a small grassy area on the NW corner of SR109 and N-2. Be very careful when crossing SR109 or you may end up being the next ghost to have to guard this cache. The best approach to this find is to cross the highway at the N-2 intersection and walk up to the GZ on the outside of the guardrail. Happy hunting.