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My town has a legend from 1712. About a dozen rich families from the Massachusetts Bay Colony were granted permission by the colony leadership to purchase land from the indians and establish a town about 50 miles west of Boston. Because the indians in the area were becoming quite hostile (including an incident where they completely destroyed a nearby settlement by scaring the townsfolk into the garrison and then burning it), the town wasn't actually settled for about 3 decades. When they (or their sons' families in most cases) arrived in the completely remote old growth wilderness in 1712, they found a hermit living alone in a rock cave on one of the town's hills. Nobody bothered him, and nobody knew for sure who he was. Most people suspected he was a fugitive as pirates were often publicly hung in Boston but several were known to escape capture and disappear into the wilderness.
One day many years later when a proper town was established, the hermit, dressed in rich cloth and gold jewelry, emerged. He hired a carraige to Boston and paid in gold coins never to be seen again.
Legend has it he has left gold treasure buried on what is now Carey's Hill. It's never been found. What a fucking legend though (both the story and the man).
Excerpts are from a local history book written in 1860 by an elderly resident.
