Skull Creek Buried Treasure Legend on Hilton Head Island

THE LEGEND: Buried treasure along Skull Creek is said to have a supernatural guardian

During the Civil War, Hilton Head became headquarters of the Union Department of the South. Tens of thousands of Union troops passed through the island, while thousands of formerly enslaved people sought refuge and paid work within Union lines. From that turbulent period grew a much older-sounding Skull Creek tale, one involving pirates, buried treasure and a guardian who never left his post. According to the story, a woman whose family had lived along Skull Creek for generations told two Union soldiers about something an ancestor had witnessed long before the war: pirates burying two heavy sea chests beneath a pair of live oaks. But the treasure did not go into the ground alone.

The pirate captain supposedly murdered one of his own men and buried the body beside the chests, binding the dead man to the treasure as its eternal guardian. Intrigued, the soldiers supposedly set out one night with a pick and shovel to find it. The two live oaks stood where the story said they would. As the men dug, the sky darkened, and a cold wind swept through the trees. Then a pick struck something solid beneath the sand. At that instant, according to the legend, a brilliant flash illuminated a figure standing nearby: a dead pirate in tattered clothing, holding a gleaming cutlass. The soldiers fled.

No contemporary account documenting the encounter is known to survive, leaving the episode firmly in the realm of oral tradition. But the tale of treasure beneath Skull Creek — and something guarding it — endured. People have been searching the Lowcountry for buried treasure for centuries. This particular story suggests knowing when to stop digging.