Somewhere in Utah County, a treasure waits to be discovered.
The coins called Brigham’s Bees were works of art. Using a makeshift stamping mill fashioned from a Mexican War cannon, master engraver and Mormon Bishop Samuel Woodbury hammered out a treasury for Brigham Young in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains—more than 3,000 gold coins. However, none of them were ever spent.
On a cold autumn day in 1862, Bishop Woodbury disappeared with Brigham Young’s Treasury of Deseret while enroute to Salt Lake City. Some say Woodbury absconded with the treasure to California. Others say he was a Confederate sympathizer and the Mormon gold ended up in the coffers of the Richmond government where it helped fund the slaughter of the Civil War. Still others say Woodbury was murdered and the treasure stolen.
Over the years, the legend of Brigham’s Bees lured many a fortune seeker into its dark secrets. And one by one, those connected with the treasure died.
More than a century later, with the legend of Brigham’s Bees long faded into the stuff of campfire tales, someone is still killing for the secret of Bishop Woodbury. On a black night in Payson Canyon, Deputy Sheriff Brent Merrell and his K-9 partner, Gadianton, narrowly avoid becoming victims of the mysterious legend.
Armed with a single battered coin he finds hanging from a tree in the canyon, Brent digs deep into the mysterious legend of Samuel Woodbury. Each move puts him closer to the missing treasure and closer to an untimely death.
Originally published in 1991. Updated and republished.
Title: Brigham’s Bees
Author: Robert Kirby
Publisher: Leicester Bay Books
Release Date: January 30, 2013 (previously published in 1991)
ISBN: 978-1481898768
Size: 228 pages, 6×9, softcover
Genre: Mystery
BTW, this book is a reprint (originally published in 1991 by Cedar Fort), so it is ineligible for Whitney nomination.