A remote limestone cave tucked into the rugged creek hollows south of Seymour, Indiana, this site is known locally as the rumored hideout of the Reno Gang — widely credited as the perpetrators of America's first train robbery in October 1866. The cave is accessible only by trekking through a creek bed in Jackson County, and its interior walls are reported to bear carved symbols including a horseshoe, a handprint, a sunburst, and initials that local tradition associates with gang members' names. The surrounding terrain is dense and largely undeveloped, consistent with the kind of remote refuge that outlaws of the 1860s might have sought between jobs. Local legend also holds that treasure from the gang's train robberies was buried in glass jars somewhere near the cave's entrance — none of it, as far as is publicly known, ever definitively recovered. Gates investigated the site in Season 14 of Expedition Unknown, following leads that the cave may hold physical evidence linking it to the gang.
Cave reportedly used as a hideout by the Reno Gang during their years of operation in southern Indiana, according to local tradition
John and Simeon Reno lead what is widely regarded as America's first train robbery on October 6, near Seymour, Indiana, netting a reported sum equivalent to tens of millions of dollars today
The Reno Gang's reign of crime is believed to have ended, with key members captured or killed by vigilante justice
Gates and Troy McCormick investigate the cave during Expedition Unknown S14E04, 'America's First Train Robbers'
The Reno Gang holds a notable place in American outlaw history as the outfit credited with staging the first robbery of a moving train on U.S. soil, on October 6, 1866, near Seymour, Indiana. Operating in the years just after the Civil War, the gang reportedly netted hundreds of thousands of dollars across multiple heists — a figure the episode translates as tens of millions in modern terms — before being brought down, largely through the extrajudicial violence of vigilante groups. Much of the stolen money has never been publicly accounted for, which has fueled treasure-hunting speculation in southern Indiana for well over a century.
The cave south of Seymour exists within a well-established tradition of local folklore that ties the Reno Gang to the Jackson County landscape. Stories of a marked hideout and buried glass jars of loot have circulated in the region for generations. Whether these legends have any documentary basis beyond oral tradition is unclear from available sources — no academic archaeological survey of the site is known to have been published, and the site does not appear in any official heritage registry.
The carved symbols Gates and McCormick examined — a horseshoe, handprint, sunburst, and initials — are intriguing, but their origins are genuinely ambiguous. Carved symbols in rural cave shelters can reflect any number of uses across any number of eras, and without formal archaeological dating, attributing them specifically to the Reno Gang remains speculative. The artifacts recovered on the episode — an old oil lamp, a musket ball mold, and what is described as a mid-1800s seated dime — are more concrete. A coin of that period near the cave's entrance is at least consistent with Civil War-era activity, though consistent is not the same as conclusive.
What the Expedition Unknown investigation contributed is a documented on-the-ground survey of a site that had previously existed only in local legend. The physical artifacts, if authenticated by specialists, would represent the first tangible evidence connecting the cave to mid-19th-century human activity. Whether that activity was specifically the Reno Gang's remains an open and genuinely interesting question — one the episode explores rather than definitively answers.
The Reno Gang's October 1866 robbery near Seymour is widely credited as the first robbery of a moving train in American history — a crime that reportedly inspired later outlaws including Jesse James and Butch Cassidy.
The gang used a red lantern signal to fool the train engineer into stopping, exploiting railroad emergency protocols that engineers were legally required to honor.
Local legend holds that Reno Gang loot was buried in glass jars near the cave entrance — none of it, as far as is publicly known, has ever been definitively recovered.
A seated dime — a coin design minted by the U.S. from 1837 to 1891 — was reportedly found outside the cave during the Expedition Unknown investigation, placing potential human activity there squarely within the Reno Gang's era.
The cave is believed to be located on private or semi-remote land in Jackson County, Indiana, and is not a formal tourist destination. Access reportedly requires a creek hike south of Seymour, and conditions can be rugged and seasonally wet. Anyone interested in visiting should research land access and permissions carefully, as trespassing laws apply.
Seymour, Indiana — approximately a few miles north, making it the closest town and logical base for any exploration of the surrounding area.
Late spring through early fall generally offers the most manageable hiking conditions in southern Indiana's creek hollows, though summer humidity can be intense. Autumn, when Gates filmed the episode, offers cooler temperatures and better visibility through the forest understory.
Doan Gang Cave, Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
The Doan Gang Cave is another Expedition Unknown investigation into a rural American outlaw hideout marked by carved symbols and local treasure legends, making it a near-direct parallel to the Reno Gang cave.
Coffeyville, Kansas
Coffeyville, Kansas, is associated with the violent end of the Dalton Gang, another post-Civil War outlaw outfit whose story intersects with the train-robbery era the Reno Gang helped inaugurate.
Bannack State Park
Bannack State Park in Montana is tied to outlaw history from the same 19th-century American West era and has been investigated by Gates in the context of buried outlaw treasure.