Stone Linked to Famous Bucks County Outlaws Coming to Doylestown Museum

DOYLESTOWN, PA—Local researchers think they’ve found a stone inscribed by one of Bucks County’s most famous outlaws.

A piece of stone with the date “1775” and the letter “M” inscribed on it was found in Buckingham Cave, which historians think was used by the notorious Doan Gang. The group of brothers, also known as the Plumstead Cowboys, was part of a network of people who supported Great Britain during the Revolutionary War.

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The group robbed tax collectors, militia members and citizens who supported the revolution. Its members are believed to have used caves in the area, including Buckingham Cave, to hide their loot.

Researchers found the piece of stone, which looks like it could have been a part of the cave’s wall, in Buckingham Cave. The letter “M” on the stone is believed to be the first initial of Moses Doan, one of the brothers in the gang.

The Doan Gang was the subject of a Discovery Channel episode of “Expedition Unknown” in early July. In that episode, a Bucks County Historical Society researcher Clint Flack can be seen digging in the Buckingham Cave with the show’s host, Josh Gates. The two visit the Mercer Museum in that episode to view artifacts from the Doan Gang that are currently being exhibited at the museum.

After the TV crew had left, Flack kept digging in the cave with the property’s owner, Frank Lamitina, and Mercer Museum librarian Rayna Polsky. That’s when the trio hit paydirt in the form of the inscribed stone. During a later search, they also found a colonial-era bottle.

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A news release from the Mercer Museum noted that this likely wasn’t the first sighting of the inscription. A 1959 article published in the Bucks County Intelligencer said that a schoolteacher and his sons spotted a carving on the wall of the cave that read “1775 M. Doan.”

At some point in the 1860s, the cave was filled in with dirt and debris. The inscribed stone was most recently found in a pile of dirt and debris. The team thinks it likely fell from the wall of the cave since it was seen nearly 165 years ago.

“We found the ‘1775 M’ stone deep in the cave, near the chamber when Josh Gates and I were digging on the show,” Flack recalled in a press release. “It was part of a pile of debris that had fallen off the wall over the years. It was actually Frank Lamitina who saw the carving on a stone lifted out of a bucket and said, ‘Hey, is this something?’ It was just the most amazing moment.”

Flint has said that finding the caves used by the Doan Gang has been “his life’s dream.” Flint said he grew up reading about Buckingham Cave and is thrilled to have discovered some evidence linking the gang to it.

“The inscription leaves open the possibility that Moses Doan may have actually been in this cave,” Flint said. “We may ultimately never know for sure, but just finding these pieces of evidence suggests intriguing possibilities.”

The stone will be on display at a special presentation this weekend at the Mercer Museum. A limited number of tickets for the event, “Outlaws in the Underworld: Bucks County Caves and the Doan Gang” are still available on the Mercer Museum website. The presentation will be held at the museum on Sunday July 28 and via Zoom on Monday Aug. 5.

The museum also plans to display the inscribed stone in its exhibition, The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution, which runs through December of 2026.

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