Moncrief Springs: Are French Crown Jewels in Jacksonville

[Ocklawaha]

Yeah, but based on MJ experience, unless you show up in an APC or TANK, you'd be mugged before you got 40 paces from your car!!  Hell, I don't even think we got 35!!

OCKLAWAHA

[chuckdiesel]

I actually did some research...TOTAL BS story...  it was a story, created from a novel written by a guy that along with the then current mayor of Jacksonville, to put jax on the map.  If you do look into this...what you want to do is figure out what ship moncrief sailed over in...and figure out WHEN he sailed over...then cross reference with where that ship ACTUALLY was....you'll find there is good fiction but no treasure. -Cheers

[Ocklawaha]

The Amsterdam
The Archduke Joseph
The Arcots
The Ashberg
The Beau Sancy
The Beluga
The Black Orlov
The Blue Empress
The American Golden Topaz
The Bismark Sapphire Necklace
The Black Prince's Ruby (spinel)
The Chalk Emerald Ring
The Delong Star Ruby
The Gordon Sapphire Necklace

These are just a few of the most famous gemstones in the world, there are lists, catalogs, collections and insurance policies, thousands of pieces with millions of documents of verification. If "The Blue Empress" for example went missing tomorrow INTERPOL and every law agency in the world would be turning places inside out to find it. Some of these individual pieces of jewelry are worth the GDP of a small country! Imagine if Princes Diana's jewels vanished suddenly, it would be the headlines in every issue of the National Enquirer FOREVER!
My point is this, even in the days of Marie Antoinette, the pieces in the royal collection were named and already known among the worlds elite.

The clue is these pieces ARE MISSING, missing for over 200 years... If just one was found there would be an immediate buzz. I'll grant you that it might be remotely possible that some family found one or kept one a complete secret, but it's unlikely. To think someone has a complete collection of such gems without the world knowing about it is pretty near impossible.

The question that must be asked of the pawn broker is this, If ANY of the gemstones or jewelry were from most any French royalty what pieces are there? We have ample testimony that those jewels went aboard a certain sailing vessel with Monsieur Moncrief and were NEVER seen again. As we have seen a VERY UNLIKELY scenario. Ultimately the puzzle becomes xxx pieces missing for 200+ years without a trace. Even if a man kept it a lifetime secret, the truth would have come out within 70-100 years... Something that has never happened.

So if the story is false, then where are the jewels and who has them?


OCKLAWAHA

[bobsim]

 We visited the area yesterday while checking out some cemeteries. Looks like some activity at the Eartha White property, here are some photos.

[ben says]

Are you serious? Not being sarcastic..genuinely shocked if true.

[ben says]

WOW...

My girlfriend and I have been joking about these long lost jewels for eons now....can't wait to tell her.

This post made my day/week.

[Ocklawaha]

I actually did some research...TOTAL BS story...  it was a story, created from a novel written by a guy that along with the then current mayor of Jacksonville, to put jax on the map.  If you do look into this...what you want to do is figure out what ship moncrief sailed over in...and figure out WHEN he sailed over...then cross reference with where that ship ACTUALLY was....you'll find there is good fiction but no treasure. -Cheers

From the start I had little faith that the extreme details of our story were 100% accurate. This has pretty well been proved by further research, but to slam dunk the entire tale based on a cursory look at someones 'he said,' 'she said,' is a fools errand.

As many of you know, I'm a historian and have used that knowledge as my gateway into the transportation industry. "The only new thing in the world is the history you don't know..." (Harry Truman). I get a real laugh out of the history channel and much of academia for blowing off so many legendary stories with a cursory wink and a nod.

Most of us at MJ as well as anyone passionate enough about certain eras in history can recite example of fables which turned out to be FACT throughout the epochs and ages. History becomes legend and legend becomes myth. As long as humans have told each other stories, truths has been transformed into legends and eventually myths, thus, creating what we, in modern terms, call pseudo history. However you can bet the farm that whatever the 'myth' there is some fabric of truth hidden therein.

There was NO Trojan Horse!  Uh? Well maybe there was!
There was NO TROY! Um? Guess again!
Fire didn't rain on Soddom and Gomorrah! Recent discoveries prove it did!
Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt? I won't bet against this one either... that neighborhood is full of pillars of salt.
No African American's volunteered to fight for the South in the War of Yankee Aggression! Only several thousand!
The silver dollar in his pocket deflected a bullet and he carried it as a good luck charm the rest of his life. IMPOSSIBLE! Yeah well, now that we have recovered the 150+ year old remains, that 'impossible dollar' was in his pocket.

You can believe whatever you want, I'm just saying a story with the many sources and versions as the Moncrief legend demands much closer examination... TRUTH? It now appears so.

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

That was a pretty fun adventure, I couldn't help but keep thinking about native people in Africa walking barefoot on diamonds. LOL.

I really think there are so many more great discoveries awaiting us as we peel back the layers of legend and expose the shreds of truth hidden therein.

As I am with history, IE: likely to believe that Kokopelli, thunderbirds and shape shifters are more then a simple primitive myth, I am also fascinated by cryptozoology. Big Foot? Who knows but have any of YOU ever lived in the cloud forests of the Andes?

One bright morning we awakened to the strangest bird chattering away in our windowsill. Two days later it was officially 'discovered.' I wonder how many people would have called me crazy if I would have described it a few days before?

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A colorful new bird has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, spurring efforts to protect the area, conservation groups said Monday.
The bright yellow and red-crowned Yariguies brush-finch was named for the indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountainous area where it was discovered.
For conservationists the discovery of the species came at a crucial time -- the government has decided to set aside 500 acres of the pristine cloud forest where the bird lives to create a national park.

OCKLAWAHA