Most Random Finds

Found an X-rated token by the front steps of a church!...Someone must have felt awful guilty and pitched it before entering!?

Northern Nevada

Here is one that you might be able to use.

When I first began treasure hunting (1988) I lived in a small town in Northern Nevada by the name of Elko. This town is located far enough north and at an elevation that makes winter hunting difficult, so I would turn to research during the coldest winter months. One such research episode took be to the local library, where I found a book about lost treasure in Nevada. I read the book from cover to cover, and the one story that stuck with me was a story about the Donner Party.

The route that the Donner Party traveled took them through that part of Northern Nevada where I lived, so I decided to pursue the following treasure; History says that a prominent member of the Donner Party was a wealthy business man from Illinois by the name of James F. Reed. I would not think that the entire story of Mr. Reed would be of great interest to most readers, so I'll just jump to the part where he buried his money and other small valuables some where between Elko & Winnemucca, Nevada. I spent years reading anything I could get my hands on about the Donner Party, and I believed that I had narrowed down the location in which Mr. Reed buried his gold & silver coins, etc.

By the time I thought that I had figured out where his treasure was buried, I had moved from Elko to Winnemucca (another small town in Northern Nevada). Although I had moved, the spot where I believed I would locate the "Reed Treasure" was actually closer to where I lived at the time. My research took me to a remote area just outside of the town of Golconda, NV in a small range of mountains that formed a natural barrier on the south side of the Humboldt River. This is important due to the fact that the year that the Donner Party crossed Nevada, it was unusually wet, forcing them to take a route over these mountains rather than through the canyon which was normal.

It is thought that this was the location of an altercation between Mr. Reed and another male member of the party took place and resulted in the other member's death and Mr. Reed's expulsion from the party. Being forced out of the party, Mr. Reed was forced to bury his fortune or rely on his wife to keep it safe. The story indicates that he choose the former.

By all accounts from the different books that I had read, the area that I needed to find was a long, sandy incline near the Humboldt river. As I said, this led me to the location near Golconda, NV. The surroundings were just as described, and my anticipation grew as I approached this location. I found a rather large "sandy" draw that went up into the mountains in a direction that would lead back to the river on the other side. Although the sand was packed hard enough for me to drive my Jeep on, I could certainly understand how a wagon with the type of wheels they had would have difficulty.

I drove up the draw until it began to narrow to a point where I felt I would be better off walking. All the time looking for a "rocky" outcrop that was described in several books that I had read. I soon realized that being in the mountains generally speaking meant that there were rocky outcrops everywhere, so I decided to begin using my metal detector to assist in locating the treasure.

I am now at a point that is more than 10 miles from any populated location, and some of the most desolate terrain one can imagine. Undaunted, I park the Jeep, and get out my White's 6000 Di Pro, fire it up and start swinging. I figured "what the heck", I might even find something that could have fallen out of the wagons as they traversed this difficult route. After going up the wash for less that 15 feet, I got a signal that was a solid 82 / 84 VDI, smooth and repeating in all directions! I just knew that I had hit the jackpot. Maybe not the Reed treasure, but certainly a sweet reward for all of my research. I dug down the 3 to 4 " indicated, and I was rewarded. I pulled out a 1984 Kennedy Half! Now don't get me wrong, I was excited, as most anyone would be pulling even a clad half dollar, I am just perplexed as to how it got to that particular location! The rest of the hunt resulted in another Kennedy Half Dollar (1985), and some square nails. So as far as I know, the Reed Treasure is still out there!


I hope that you will be able to use this story! HH, Dave............

That's an Awesome story Dave, thanks for sharing.... I found myself sitting on eht edge of my chair hoping you had found the Reed treasure

HH
Del

Okay, here's one for you. I was hunting the old play yard of an elementary school built in 1930. The building is now used for adult education, so all the play equiptment had been removed and it was just a large grassy area with a huge tree in the middle. I had started gridding from the fence and was finding plenty of modern clad coins, but I knew that I would never cover the whole area in one visit and I really wanted to get to that tree, so I just took a right angle from where I had been swinging and started moving toward the tree all the while swinging my Bounty Hunter Tracker !V. I had maybe gone a total of 15-20 feet when I got a very loud high tone, which tells me to DIG! At this time, I didn't have a pinpointer so it was dig and scan, dig and scan. The hole was about 7-8 inches and it was still down deeper. I looked around, nobody but me here, and decided I'd dig to China if I had to, but I was going to find out what this ??? was. The dirt was nice and moist so the digging was fairly easy and I started enlarging the hole and digging from the sides and up from the bottom because I didn't know how big this ??? would be. At about 9-10 inches I gathered all the loose dirt from the bottom of the now pretty big hole and dumped it like a huge snowball onto my towel and re-scanned the hole. Finally, it was out and on the towel in that last dirtball, so I picked up the whole ball and started breaking away the dirt till I saw the rolled edge of what looked like a tin can. As more dirt fell away, I saw the rounded 'puppy paws' on the back and I instantly knew what I had, because I've seen them on Antiques Roadshow. What I had found was a US civil war belt buckle!!! All we can figure out is that it was probably brought for show-n-tell by a school kid, back in the day, and lost at recess on the playground. I know this area had been hunted by better MDers than me over the years, but this was left for me because it would have shown up as junk (lead and brass) on most machines. Since mine was only a lowly BH with nothing to go by but tone, I dug the best treasure I have. : ) If you need any further info, just send me a PM and I'll be happy to answer any other questions. : )