There is an unusual treasure that is probably still where it was stored, about ten miles southwest of Portland, Maine, waiting to be found.
To some people the idea of searching for Egyptian mummies might seem sacrilegious, but remember that the mummies have already been taken from their original graves, transported to the United States, and are worth, on todays collectors market, in excess of $12,000 each. Here is the story.
In 1857, and thereafter for several years, newspaper publishers in this country faced a severe shortage of rags, which were necessary to add strength and body to wood fibers used in paper sheets. As the shortage of rags increased, large numbers of small newspapers went out of business.
Augustus Stanwood, a printer in Portland, Maine, was greatly affected by this rag shortage. Realizing that he would go broke, Stanwood looked around for a much-needed source of this ever-increasing shortage of fiber. One night, while drinking with a sea captain, Stanwood told him of his troubles. The sailing captain suggested using the cloth wrappings of mummies. (At this time the Egyptian grave sites were being exploited, and artifacts, coffins, and mummies were being sold by the thousands throughout the world.)
Augustus made a deal with the ships captain to obtain several dozen of these cloth-wrapped bodies. When the shipment arrived, Stanwood stored them on his property, in pits to preserve them, about ten miles southwest of Portland. During the next three to seven years, he used about half of the mummies, putting their linen and cotton wrappings into his paper grinders. The pulp made a very good grade of paper stock.
About this time the rag shortage let up because of the Civil War and the capture of huge stores of cotton by Union forces throughout the South. Thus, Stanwood did not need to use the rest of his mummies. After he tried to sell them and couldnt, Stanwood left the mummies in the pits he had dug on his property.
After Stanwood died, few people even remembered the mummies, and they are, as far as can be determined, still buried on the old Stanwood property, about ten miles southwest of Portland, Maine. If you arent afraid of ghosts, this unusual treasure could be worth thousands of dollars today.