Mystery Pulled From the River: Bellville Treasure Hunter Recovers 100-Plus-Year-Old Safe
BELLVILLE — The little village of Bellville, Ohio, had big excitement today as a mystery years in the making was finally pulled from the water: a 100-plus-year-old safe buried beneath rocks, mud, and river debris.
Bellville native, treasure hunter and scuba diver Rusty Farst led the recovery effort, bringing together a team, local officials and a crowd of curious onlookers to witness the long-awaited extraction.
Though Farst was born in Butler and lived there during his early childhood, he said Bellville is home. Farst said. “I graduated from Clear Fork in 1976. So that makes me an old-timer.”
The question everyone wanted answered was simple: What’s in the safe?
As for what is inside, Farst is careful not to make promises.
“It could be anything in there,” Farst said. “I didn’t want to break it in half and have all the gold bullion fall out. That would have been the disaster.”
Farst said the mystery began five or six years ago when he was exploring the river under the bridge with Jason Ireland, a local artifact hunter who studies Native American history and searches for arrowheads and early tools.
“He was finding arrowheads in the river and all kinds of Indian skinning tools,” Farst said. “Then he said, ‘There’s a box over here I want to show you.’”
The object was covered with rocks and iron, but Farst immediately suspected it was something more.
“I said, ‘Jason, this looks like a safe, dude,’” Farst recalled. “I told him, ‘I’m going to get it out somehow.’ He said, ‘All yours. I’m not interested in that. That’s too new.’”
For years, Farst kept thinking about the safe, planning how to remove it from the river without damaging the area. Today, that plan finally came together.
Farst said the recovery had to be done carefully because the river is environmentally sensitive, with protected species including mussels and trout. The village and police assisted, and Farst said the project would not have been possible without teamwork.
“It took a group effort to do this,” Farst said. “The police officers are here, the city’s here to help me, gave me a permit to do this, because this is a very temperamental river.”
Farst also credited Phil Wharton for helping move the heavy safe after it was brought up from the water.
“If it wasn’t for Phil Wharton and his wonderful driving here, we wouldn’t have it where we have it right now,” Farst said.
The safe is believed to date back to the late 1800s and may have been connected to the old Bellville Mill, which once stood in the area. Farst said it could have fallen into the river when the mill was still operating, or possibly when the roadway was later built.
“There was a mill here, the Bellville Mill,” Farst said. “It might have been in here since the ’40s or it might have fallen in way earlier. It was made in the late 1800s, the safe. People keep safes for a long time.”
Farst said the safe was located in an eddy near where the dam once stood, in an area familiar to generations of Bellville residents.
“Guys have been standing on it to fish right here,” Farst said. “This is where the dam was. We used to ice skate up here. As a child, I skated this from 5 years old to 20 years old.”
While many in the crowd were hoping for gold bars, coins or other treasure, Farst said he is more interested in the history than the contents.
“I was hoping to find something that tells us where it came from,” Farst said. “As we clean it up, there’s going to be names of whoever made it, the manufacturer. So we’re going to know when it was manufactured and a little bit more about it by the writing that’s on the outside.”
During the recovery, Farst also showed an old cork-style medicine bottle found in the safe. He said the bottle may have held iodine or another medicine and could date back decades. Another item was unusual rock from the safe, also caught attention because of its color.
“Nothing else makes that color but gold,” Farst said with a smile.
Farst is no stranger to treasure hunting. He said he has spent about 40 years searching for lost pieces of history, including discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and even ancient Mayan remains.
“My best find was in 2003,” Farst said. “I found 13 Mayan skeletons, and 12 of them were sacrificed and cooked and eaten. They were carbon-dated at 3,000 years old, and I got the cover of National Geographic in November 2003.”
Farst said National Geographic has given him three weeks to complete this Bellville safe project on his own dime, and the extraction may become part of future magazine work.
“All the proceeds go to the historical society,” Farst said. “I want to back them and I value them.”
Farst said Lynn Fox with the local historical society indicated they want the safe, and it will be cleaned up and delivered in the coming days.
What started as a quiet river mystery turned into a village-wide event, with residents gathering to watch as the old safe was finally brought back into the light.
“I kind of wanted to do it in secret at night,” Farst said, “but there was no way I was going to get away with that. So I’m glad everybody’s here to enjoy it.”
