Rachel Hunter, detective

While most kids their age are out catching frogs and collecting beanie babies, four youngsters in Oxford were been up to their necks in buried treasure.

In the summer of 1998, the foursome, dubbed "the Kudzu Kids" by locals, solved a 135-year-old mystery in their own backyard. By researching old manuscripts and interviewing key Oxford residents, the kids -- Zach Burgess, 12; Melody Cheever, 12; and 13-year-old twins Hunter and Rachel McGowan -- discovered an underground labyrinth of tunnels designed by an obscure Civil War general who made his home in Oxford around the time of these kids' great-great-great-great grandparents.

The intrigue began over summer break when the kids were spying on Dr. Charles Lowry, a professor of Civil War studies at the University of Mississippi. The kids saw Lowry entering an off-limits building on campus and their curiosity got the best of them, so they followed his lead and explored the building. Much to their surprise, the kids stumbled upon an underground passageway and a human bone.

Their discovery made them heroes on the front pages of newspapers throughout the area, but they made an enemy of the crotchety old professor Lowry.

"Right away it was clear that we had found something we weren't supposed to," said "Kudzu Kid" Rachel. "Dr. Lowry was mad that we had brought publicity to his dig, so we knew right away it was Civil War related."

The kids went straight to work digging through the university's archive of Civil War letters and discovered that the college campus had been used as a field hospital during the 1860s. "All of the letters mentioned this guy General Shegog, and we did some more research and found that he had tried to horde all the wounded soldiers' valuables to hide them from the Yankees, who were coming to invade Oxford," Rachel explained.

The kids needed a way to organize all of this information, so they created a web page and posted all of their findings for the world to see. The site -- www.kudzukids.com – was masterminded by Zach, who inherited the necessary cyberskills from his dad, a computer analyst. "I'm not a computer geek or anything," said Zach. "I just like to mess around with Quick Time videos and Shockwave and stuff. My dad's got a lot of equipment, so I figured, what the heck, let's put it to good use."

The kids used a camcorder to record interviews and to photograph the different sites on campus, and they used "voiceman," a hand-held audio recorder, to eavesdrop on conversations and record important information. Anyone who visits their site can see and hear the progress of their findings.

"We got a lot of response from the web page," said Rachel. "Suddenly, people started giving us ideas about who to ask and what to look for. It really helped us find out where the treasure might be."

When the evil professor caught wind of their investigation, he tried to sabotage the kids' progress by closing the Civil War archives. The kids turned their search to the phone book and found a Shegog living in Oxford. It turned out to be Mildred Shegog, great-great granddaughter of the Civil War general. She invited the kids to rummage through her ancestor's old records, where they found a poem written by the general that gave clues to his treasure's hiding place in a series of tunnels beneath the university.

The kids were virtually ready for their treasure hunt when the last clue fell into place, an actual treasure map. "It was a stroke of luck," said Rachel. "We were following one of Dr. Lowry's assistants, who happened to have the map. He scanned the map at the computer lab, and Zach knew how to retrieve the file after he left. After that we just studied the map and followed the clues."

But when the kids finally set out to claim the hoarded treasures, their journey through the dank, dangerous tunnels resulted in near tragedy. "We followed all the clues and found the treasure room, but there was no treasure," Hunter explained. "Instead, we get down there and a flood of water comes gushing in. We couldn't get out or anything. Thank God Zach brought his cell phone, and we called my dad to let him know what was going on."

Mrs Shegog, suspected

Luckily, Rachel had remained above ground to maintain contact with the amateur spelunkers. She was able to assemble the clues and pinpoint her fellow treasure hunters on the map, which gave emergency rescue workers the exact spot to dig and retrieve the soggy sleuths before the treasure room was flooded.

After Hunter, Zach and Mel were rescued from the tunnels, the kids explained to the police about the treasure, and by studying their clues one last time, they figured out where the missing treasure was located.

"The whole thing hit me when Hunter and the others were already in the tunnels," Rachel said. "Old Lady Shegog had already found the treasure. When we went to visit her, she told us we could look in the attic, but that she didn't have a basement. But in the General's poem, he specifically mentions being in his basement, and this was the exact same house Old Lady Shegog lives in today.

"On top of that, we found an article about Old Lady Shegog winning a senior beauty pageant, and it mentions her wearing a red-heart locket. This necklace was mentioned in a Civil War letter from a wounded soldier named Beauchamp, who was afraid the General would bury it with the other treasure."

Just as the kids had predicted, police discovered a basement filled with treasure at Mildred Shegog's home. Among the artifacts was a jewel-studded, gold crucifix, which dates back to the 16th century during the time Hernando DeSoto and his fellow Spanish explorers passed through Mississippi.

Police intervened in the mystery just in time, as Mildred Shegog's grandson, Jerry O'Brian, was loading the treasure in a U-Haul for a quick getaway. O'Brian, who was on parole from Washington's state prison, had misled the kids during their investigation by planting the bone and posing as a janitor for their witness interviews. O'Brian was taken in for breaking parole and attempting to steal the Civil War treasure from his grandmother.

Investigators found out that Dr. Lowry and his crew had caused the flooding in the tunnels when they ruptured a water main while digging for the treasure.

"I swear, I wasn't trying to hurt those children," Lowry insisted. "Sure, I was upset that they interfered with my excavation, but I had no idea they knew as much as they did about Shegog. I didn't even know they were in the tunnels at the time the water main was ruptured."

Lowry was fired from the university for destroying university property and acting in a manner unbecoming of an Ole Miss professor. The professor reacted with outrage. "This university still hasn't forgiven me for being related to William Lowry, a soldier in the University Greys who stormed the Lyceum with a bullwhip and challenged the chancellor after he was expelled," Lowry told the school newspaper following his own expulsion. "That was over one hundred years ago! I offer a challenge of my own to the Lyceum, though mine is in an intellectual challenge: Come to terms with your own history, and don't be afraid of past defeat. For victory answers the call of the righteous and brave."

In the meantime, the "Kudzu Kids" returned to their everyday lives, going to school and doing homework. Though they didn't get a share of the treasure, the university expressed its appreciation for their exemplary research and courage, and they have the memories of a job well done.

"Anytime we want to remember this, we just have to go to our Website, and it's all right there," said Rachel.

"Yeah," added Zach. "And who knows what'll happen next summer. [ Continued --> ]