Photo: Seaview Pier, North Topsail Beach
The Gold Hole
The Gold Hole began in 1937 when the Carolina Exploration Company, headed by Bill Walker, came to the island to search for gold (Stallman, 1996). It was said that back in 1750, there was a Spanish Flota of five vessels (which were loaded with treasure) set out one day during the hurricane season. There was reason to believe that one of the ships, El Salvadore, went ashore broad-side to the sea at New Topsail Inlet. Where the inlet once was, is now land so individuals from the company had reason to believe that where the ship was torn apart from a hurricane, there was treasure on the island. The individuals a part of the company came to Topsail Island and dug an enormous hole where they believed the ship or treasure from the ship might be located. The workers and company continued to dig and search for treasure up until the year 1941. It is said that the men that were hired to work on the project were laid off one night and the next morning the entire expedition was gone (Stallman, 1996). Some people believed that the project ended since it was becoming too expensive and they were failing to find anything on the island (McAllister, 2006). To this day no one knows the real reason the expedition ended; whether they found treasure and ran off or if they just quit the search (McAllister, 2006; Stallman, 1996). However, the hole still exists today on the island. Individuals on the island have attempted to fill the gigantic hole with miscellaneous objects such as refrigerators, cement blocks, shrubs etc. (Stallman, 1996).
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Photo: The Gold Hole
Photo from: Missles and More Museum |