Bill Bailey Bjornsson

William "Bill" Bailey Bjornsson (18 February 1918 - 28 October 1997) was an American cattle rancher who is best known for discovering the Crockett Hoard in 1995. The Crockett Hoard was unusual because it contained several coins of no known origin, leading to multiple conspiracy theories about the hoard's origin and sebsequent disappearance. Bjornsson died in 1997 of an apparent heart attack, in circumstances that some consider mysterious.

Early Life

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Bjornsson was the grandson of Swedish immigrants Erik and Freja Bjornsson who settled in Blair, Minnesota in 1858. He was of mixed Irish and German descent on his mother's side. His father, Johnathan Bjornsson, left Minnesota to enter the dying cattle drives in the early 1890s, eventually settling in Crockett, Texas in Houston County. Jonathan Bjornsson purchased 286 acres near land that would eventually become the Davy Crockett National Forest. He found mild success in turning this land into a cattle farm, a business that his son Bill would eventually take over after World War Two.