“Lost treasure of the Beaver Island Mormon Colony” (1987)

Summary

Carl A. Norberg’s six-page article is the key identified source for the High Island version of the treasure legend. The held Inland Seas subject index establishes the title, author, volume, year, and pages: volume 43, issue 3 (1987), pages 188–193.

Collection status and limits

The article itself is not yet held. Later summaries attribute to it a “royal treasury” hidden thirty paces from a large tree overlooking High Island’s northeast harbor, followed by logging that removed the landmark. Those details remain unverified against Norberg’s text and are not treated as independent facts in this KB.

Some later citations call the article volume 43, issue 2 while also identifying it as Fall 1987 and retaining pages 188–193. The subject index says issue 3. A physical copy or page scan is needed to resolve the issue number and, more importantly, identify Norberg’s own sources.

Open questions

• Obtain pages 188–193 from the National Museum of the Great Lakes research library or through interlibrary loan.
• What oral, newspaper, manuscript, or institutional sources did Norberg cite?
• Does the article distinguish a Strang-era story from a later High Island retelling?

See also

• High Island
• Strang treasure traditions
• James Jesse Strang