Blackbeard’s Buried Burlington Treasure
As late as 1875 an enormous black walnut stump remained on the East side of Wood Street, just North of Union (near 23 on map), as a reminder of buried pirate treasure. One dark and stormy night, believed early inhabitants, Blackbeard and his pirate crewlanded at the foot of Wood Street with their gold and silver plunder to hide. Beneath that walnut tree, they buried their blood-stained gains under a broad, flat stone. And, under a suicidal Spanish cut-throat who volunteered when Blackbeard cried above the storm, “Who’ll guard this wealth?” A charmed bullet left no wound but did the deed, and they buried the pirate upright, feet resting on the stone he guarded. The ship’s dog must have been partial to the spaniard, because it was shot, too, and buried there. For many years into the 20th century, folks on Wood Street reported seeing a black dog, guarding the tree, then… disappearing. Why would Blackbeard just up and leave the treasure there, you ask? Some say he returned to claim it one wild and windy night, but lightning flashes revealed a spectacle of haggard witches dancing with linked hands around the Spaniard’s grave, forever repelling the superstitious pirates…