Anyone else noticed these common threads in treasure legends ?

Post script. I put this same musing/topic on the "other" forum. Without naming any one individual legend as an example. But .... I guess a mod. took offense, and deleted it.

Cant be saying anything that might cast dispersion on that one individual who is making a fortune from his involvement in the "Reality" Show since he is a sponsor. I have never heard a single one of those theories about hidden treasure that I believed. I am hard to convince.

Tom_in_CA said:

Was thinking about the various treasure legends that get bandied around on md'ing forums. And have noticed a variety of ingredients, that seem to be common to each of them :


a) "tips of icebergs" . Eg.: a single gold bar, that is said to have come out of a cave that's stacked to the ceiling with them. Or a thumb-sized nugget a miner brought to the wild-west saloon, and he claims that there's a 4 ft. deep pile of them back in his mine. Or the "gold bit" that comes up from a drilling rig, that .... is no doubt ..... evidence of a giant treasure vault ! I call all of these "Tips of icebergs".

b) Insane depths. Why is that ? It's almost as if: " The bigger the treasure, the deeper it must be". Why ? A treasure is equally hidden whether at 1 ft. deep, or 20 ft. deep. As long as the surface is covered up and fluffed, then making it deeper, doesn't "hide it better". Yet, for some reason, all the legends invariably contain accounts that they are at insane depths.

c) skeletons. Sure as heck, someone currently, or in the past, came up with bones or skeletons.

d) Cryptogram clues, ciphers, secret marker symbols, etc...

e) Conspiracy coverups with sinister groups. Eg.: Templars, freemasons, jesuits, evil politicians, etc....

f) Lone survivor accounts. Eg.: the dying miner drags himself into the wild-west saloon. The lone survivor of an indian attack. And before passing away, spills the story of fabulous riches back at his mine. And here's the 5 clues to the location ...

g) Unconventional TH'ing methods (which shall remain nameless, but ... I think you know) seem to be part & parcel to them. As if ... the legend category stories, for some reason .... appeal to that crowd ?


What other common themes do you see in the legends ?

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Upon traveling back to an area, the lone finder of fortune can never remember the butte or valley the gold/silver was in or on and cannont recognize the area because it has changed.

One of my favorite books is by Thomas Penfield (sp) that describes short little stories of lost gold and treasure.

Bajanick said:

Upon traveling back to an area, the lone finder of fortune can never remember the butte or valley the gold/silver was in or on and cannont recognize the area because it has changed.

One of my favorite books is by Thomas Penfield (sp) that describes short little stories of lost gold and treasure.

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Ah yes. That ingredient too. The person goes back to reclaim a treasure , but ...... durnit ........ he gets lost & can't find the right cave or rock or tree, etc....

Ok, I just thought of another important ingredient :

H) They're invariably peppered with real names, dates & events. Such that anyone can go look up the history of whatever battle, or mining district, or explorers, etc... And ...... wow ....... they can actually confirm all those parts of the story. Eh ? Hence making the stories very believable.

In other words, none of the treasure legends ever starts with "Once upon a time".

And the appeal of having the treasure centered around real names, dates, and events, is that it almost seems like : It's merely a matter of sorting fact from fiction, eh ?

But this fails to hold water logically : A story can be 99% TRUE ! (names, dates, events). But if there's no treasure (the 1%), then what the heck good does it do to turn over heaven and earth debating fuel capacities of ships, buoyancy rates of fibers, ocean currents, dates of real estate transactions, etc.. ?

How about the extreme optimism and dogged determination, and full backstory of the heroic treasure hunter currently telling the story/seeking the treasure.

Let's not forget utter contempt for any non believer.

Lost Dutchman comes to mind.

But dang it, why wasn’t this me?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_Ridge_Hoard

Tom_in_CA said:

Was thinking about the various treasure legends that get bandied around on md'ing forums. And have noticed a variety of ingredients, that seem to be common to each of them :


a) "tips of icebergs" . Eg.: a single gold bar, that is said to have come out of a cave that's stacked to the ceiling with them. Or a thumb-sized nugget a miner brought to the wild-west saloon, and he claims that there's a 4 ft. deep pile of them back in his mine. Or the "gold bit" that comes up from a drilling rig, that .... is no doubt ..... evidence of a giant treasure vault ! I call all of these "Tips of icebergs".

b) Insane depths. Why is that ? It's almost as if: " The bigger the treasure, the deeper it must be". Why ? A treasure is equally hidden whether at 1 ft. deep, or 20 ft. deep. As long as the surface is covered up and fluffed, then making it deeper, doesn't "hide it better". Yet, for some reason, all the legends invariably contain accounts that they are at insane depths.

c) skeletons. Sure as heck, someone currently, or in the past, came up with bones or skeletons.

d) Cryptogram clues, ciphers, secret marker symbols, etc...

e) Conspiracy coverups with sinister groups. Eg.: Templars, freemasons, jesuits, evil politicians, etc....

f) Lone survivor accounts. Eg.: the dying miner drags himself into the wild-west saloon. The lone survivor of an indian attack. And before passing away, spills the story of fabulous riches back at his mine. And here's the 5 clues to the location ...

g) Unconventional TH'ing methods (which shall remain nameless, but ... I think you know) seem to be part & parcel to them. As if ... the legend category stories, for some reason .... appeal to that crowd ?


What other common themes do you see in the legends ?

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So where’s the hoard your looking for? Come on man, come clean. This won’t lead us astray!

Don't forget Famous Name Dropping to add credence to the er.. Legend

Roosevelt comes to mind having searched a particular island of our Neighbors to the North..

Tom_in_CA said:

Post script. I put this same musing/topic on the "other" forum. Without naming any one individual legend as an example. But .... I guess a mod. took offense, and deleted it.

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it is a wonder that he did not delete you. Hah! Tom I think you want another suspension. Over there you keep your mouth shut or preach to the choir.

My wife wanted me to help her put pinestraw on her flowerbeds, but I told her I had something important to do so here I am.

Tom_in_CA wrote…

Was thinking about the various treasure legends that get bandied around on md'ing forums. And have noticed a variety of ingredients, that seem to be common to each of them :


a) "tips of icebergs" . Eg.: a single gold bar, that is said to have come out of a cave that's stacked to the ceiling with them. Or a thumb-sized nugget a miner brought to the wild-west saloon, and he claims that there's a 4 ft. deep pile of them back in his mine. Or the "gold bit" that comes up from a drilling rig, that .... is no doubt ..... evidence of a giant treasure vault ! I call all of these "Tips of icebergs".

To get personal attention and be important and to spin a good story the above is necessary.



b) Insane depths. Why is that ? It's almost as if: " The bigger the treasure, the deeper it must be". Why ? A treasure is equally hidden whether at 1 ft. deep, or 20 ft. deep. As long as the surface is covered up and fluffed, then making it deeper, doesn't "hide it better". Yet, for some reason, all the legends invariably contain accounts that they are at insane depths.

The depth angle is to explain why nobody had found said treasure and we will just have to wait for the magic future deep deep detector.


c) skeletons. Sure as heck, someone currently, or in the past, came up with bones or skeletons.

That is supposed to indicate that in the past people have died looking for the great treasure and adds an element of spookiness to the legend and how risky it is for anyone to try.


d) Cryptogram clues, ciphers, secret marker symbols, etc...

this absolutely adds to the mystery of the story and makes it a better story also indicates mere mortals cannot break the cipher.


e) Conspiracy coverups with sinister groups. Eg.: Templars, freemasons, jesuits, evil politicians, etc....

in every good story there has to be a bad guy or group of bad guys. In the Dent’s story it is the Federal gov which fits into a lot of local feelings about the Feds.


f) Lone survivor accounts. Eg.: the dying miner drags himself into the wild-west saloon. The lone survivor of an indian attack. And before passing away, spills the story of fabulous riches back at his mine. And here's the 5 clues to the location ...

this is another element of the hero who tried and died and gave away a few general clues but not enough to find the actual treasure. Remember all these treasure stores are probably fiction so the people who created them or passed them on don’t want them to be proven false. It is easy to prove them true, just find the said treasure. But if they are never found it is hard to prove that they don’t really exist.

Remember one Cherokee Indian buried gold legend in North Georgia. There was a rock in the middle of the river somewhere that was shaped like a horse with a saddle and if you sat on the saddle rock you would be within eyesight of the treasure. Hmm, it was that simple why was the treasure not found?


g) Unconventional TH'ing methods (which shall remain nameless, but ... I think you know) seem to be part & parcel to them. As if ... the legend category stories, for some reason .... appeal to that crowd ?

That allows the recipients of the story to think, well I could find that treasure if I just had this or that wonderful detector that would reach down 30 feet. I wonder why these people who claim to have the wonderful TH’ing methods don’t post their finds?


What other common themes do you see in the legends?

It is real simple MOST HYPED LEGEND TREASURES ARE NEVER FOUND with the exception of the 1715 Spanish Treasure fleet disaster where 11 Spanish ships were sunk in a hurricane carrying unbelievable amounts of treasure and some sunken treasure ships in the Fl keys and Caribbean area. This treasure was real and is well documented in history and parts of it have been found and silver and gold items being found actually washed up on the Florida Treasure coast beaches after a good storm from time to time.

Tom you left out one important item. On a certain metal detecting forum being skeptical in a post about these stories will get you banned. I thought you knew that one.

These treasure stories are like the global warming proponents in that all their predictions are based on models and most of the predictions are to come about when we are dead but must do something now or we are selfish SOB’s. The treasure stories are such that the recoveries are just out of our reach by being too deep, two remote, to well hidden. Each time a story gets repeated, the repeater adds his little embellishments to the story.

I think some of these legends have some truth to them. One I never hear about is the Blue Bucket mine. Kids found gold on the wagon trail to California and placed it in a blue bucket. None of the adults realize what it is until after the fact. True? A lot of people went back to try and locate the location. The kids couldn’t remember.

A real life Blue Bucket scenario occurred in Nevada. A town and a mining boom occurred due to the find. The story goes like this. A sheep herder makes camp on a mountain. He digs a hole to place his Dutch oven in. He notices the rocks he dug out of the hole are strange in appearance so he gathers them up and takes them to a local establishment and asks the people there if they’re of any value. Being told they are just junk he leaves them. A few years later an assayer stops at the establishment and sees the abandoned rocks and asks about them. He ends up taking the rock and determines the rock is almost pure silver. The assayer returns and finds out the general area the sheep herder camped. The assayer locates the sheep herders camp and the hole he dug for his fire. This site becomes one of the highest grade silver strikes in Nevada history. The sad part is nobody ever found the sheep herder. The strike became Fairview Nevada.

The photo of the sheep was taken nearby to Fairview NV. The sheep herders still graze sheep out that way.

I used to subscribe to all of the Treasure and Metal Detecting magazines until they started repeating themselves.

h) The treasure amount grows from year to year. The "lost Civil War gold" was originally 26 fifty pound gold bars (1,300 pounds). The guy on the other site is now claiming there was 9 tons of gold and probably silver as well! By next year, it will be 12 tons of gold and a few tons of silver!

Some view these tall tales as harmless, but I disagree. If this guy is earning income or taking in investors with this BS story, then he is committing fraud. Maybe if a few people complained to the PA attorney general's office, they would look into this story.

The other thought is this guy is just plain nuts with gold fever and needs to hang onto this tale. If that's the case, then I feel bad for him and wish he'd get some help for the problem.

Another dead giveaway to a BS story LOL. "I had pics BUT...." or "I tried to get pics before...."

Once I see those, I usually roll my eyes and move on.


Now I *DO* believe in some of the treasure stories, The Superstition Mountain Gold being one of my favorites. I firmly believe if someone wanted to hide anything out there, no one would find it unless they happened upon it out of sheer coincidence and that might take a while. LOL. Here in Montana, there's more than one "Lost Treasure" story, actually one of the reasons I bought a MD LOL but I dont realistically expect to find a treasure chest full of gold..... Not with a metal detector anyway. Thats why I bought a PIN POINTER ahahaha

Funny thing about this subject...Lost Treasures and all....

The Modern Day Lost 'treasures' stories are posted on Facebook or Craigslist...There was one up here a few years back that got us all wee-weed up and on the hunt! Seems a young girl 'lost' and heirloom 3 OZ 24k bracelet at a popular beach in a specific area and reward was offered...

Well Sir, about every advanced and savvy coil swinger in a 5 county radius including myself was out in rabid pursuit for this lost treasure, I mean hey, 3OZ of 24K? Sure! We descended on that place hammer and tongs!

All the time and in all weather, all trying to be the Mel Fisher of West Michigan, and make the evening dispatches!....As far as I know, nobody ever found it! Makes a guy wonder if it was an insurance claim deal, and that bracelet was sold/traded for dope....Or it was indeed honestly lost but found by some stupid unscrupulous kid with an AtPro!...

This is all too common! I went and hunted for a gold ring a lady swore she lost on the sledding hill when she took off her glove to take pictures of her kids..."I lost it RIGHT HERE!" For 3 days of early mornings sweeping and communicating asking her "Are you SURE?"...I didnt find it!

Then, a few months later she called me and said "I have Wonderful News! I found my ring on my front walk when the snow melted!"...I'm like, Good News? DAMN! Thats like 5 miles from the Snowhill! I didnt get a nickle for all that Lost Treasure effort!

So yeah...I like busting clad, its more profitable than chasing Lost Treasures in my experience, with a little easy unreported lost clad, at least a guy can get himself a can of beer or a cup of coffee...

Mud-puppy said:

Funny thing about this subject...Lost Treasures and all....

The Modern Day Lost 'treasures' stories are posted on Facebook or Craigslist...There was one up here a few years back that got us all wee-weed up and on the hunt! Seems a young girl 'lost' and heirloom 3 OZ 24k bracelet at a popular beach in a specific area and reward was offered...

Well Sir, about every advanced and savvy coil swinger in a 5 county radius including myself was out in rabid pursuit for this lost treasure, I mean hey, 3OZ of 24K? Sure! We descended on that place hammer and tongs!

All the time and in all weather, all trying to be the Mel Fisher of West Michigan, and make the evening dispatches!....As far as I know, nobody ever found it! Makes a guy wonder if it was an insurance claim deal, and that bracelet was sold/traded for dope....Or it was indeed honestly lost but found by some stupid unscrupulous kid with an AtPro!...

This is all too common! I went and hunted for a gold ring a lady swore she lost on the sledding hill when she took off her glove to take pictures of her kids..."I lost it RIGHT HERE!" For 3 days of early mornings sweeping and communicating asking her "Are you SURE?"...I didnt find it!

Then, a few months later she called me and said "I have Wonderful News! I found my ring on my front walk when the snow melted!"...I'm like, Good News? DAMN! Thats like 5 miles from the Snowhill! I didnt get a nickle for all that Lost Treasure effort!

So yeah...I like busting clad, its more profitable than chasing Lost Treasures in my experience, with a little easy unreported lost clad, at least a guy can get himself a can of beer or a cup of coffee...

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I bet we all have a good deed story that did not work out. I answered a local post where a guy threw a bunch of potted plants off his deck and off went his 24K heavy signet ring. So I offered to hunt it for him just for the experience and being a good neighbor.

got to his home and his home was on a steep hill. I mean steep like 45-50 degrees steep. The back deck was from one end of the house to the other and he pulled out the flowers and dirt from about 30 pots and threw them over the embankment. Did I mention that the embankment was covered in english ivy all the way to his property line about 50 yards from his deck.

Nice guy. It was somewhere in August 2018 in GA with the temperature in low 90's. Hunted it for an hour and a half and gave up. Felt like a failure and gave him the name and phone number of a detectorists here in Atlanta that a few of us don't really care for. End of story and last good deed offered up by me.