There is still buried treasure out there!

Hey Legend Trippers, I was recently watching the movie “National Treasure” and I got to thinking “Is there any legendary buried treasure still out there unfound?” The answer is “Yes”.  Believe it or Not, there is still buried treasure out there for however finds it. Probably the most popular is the Lost Dutchman’s mine in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona.  Legend has it that a German immigrant found a large vain of gold in the mountains. His description was vague and today there are still prospectors looking for it. You can read the complete story at http://www.prairieghosts.com/dutchman.html

There is also the legendary treasure of Bighorn River. A riverboat captain by the name of Grant Marsh piloted his boat the Far West, which was loaded with gold, up the Bighorn River. But, he got word that Gen Custer and his army and been massacred by the Sioux Indians, he then located a spot along the river and hide the gold. Legend has it that the gold was never recovered. You can read the complete story at http://www.jamesmdeem.com/treasurestory3.htm

My favorite buried treasure is the Oak Island money pit. Though technically not in the US, it is located on Oak Island and it’s nicknamed the “Money Pit”. The reason for the name is a lot of money has been spent looking or it and everybody to date has come up empty handed. There are a lot of theories to what the treasure is. Everything to the Holy Grail to the crowned jewels of France has been proposed. Some even think it is pirate treasure. In the late 1600’s, the famous pirate, Captain Kidd was known to prowl the area and legend has it that he buried his treasure on Oak Island. But, most historical researchers believe Kidd actually buried it on Gardiners Island, off Long Island, New York, before he was hanged. Today, Oak Island is privately owned but they do offer tours. A lot of the areas are roped off and off limits, due the fact that there are mine shaft all over the place from previous attempts at the treasure. There is also a small museum to look at the history and all the progress that has happened on the island for the treasure.  Not to mention, it is a beautiful part of Canada to see. You can read more about the Money Pit at http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/

You can also go look for the long lost ransom that DB Cooper when he hijacked a plane at Portland, Oregon in Nov 24 1971 and with a parachute, jumped into the Washington state forest, near Mount St Helens. To this day nobody has seen DB Cooper or his ransom money. The area is also a popular hiking and camping area and many treasure hunters have taken up the hunt. The area is so dense and thick; you can easily get lost let alone find the money. Of course this is to assume that Mr. Cooper did not survive the parachute fall. You can read about the whole case at http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/scams/DB_Cooper/index.html

There is $100,000 in gold currency, buried when Confederate soldiers robbed two wagon trains from a Union bank in 1865 at Chennault Crossroads in Lincoln County. Legend has it that the gold was hastily buried on the original grounds of Chennault Plantation at Washington, Georgia, and remains there today. The plantation is under private ownership and you need to get permission to go dig for it. You can read more about it at:  http://hnn.us/article/49088

I found this interesting article about a legend of a treasure related to Tom Sawyer’s creator Mark Twain. The small town of Hannibal is best known as the hometown of Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens. The Clemens family moved to Hannibal from Florida, Missouri, in 1839, when Samuel was still a boy. It was here that Twain experienced the adventures in the cave that he later wrote about in "Tom Sawyer." The cave, now known as Mark Twain Cave, is located about two miles south of Hannibal and is privately owned, but it is open to the public for an admission charge. It was originally known as Sims Cave after Jack Sims, who found it in 1819. It was later called Big Saltpetre Cave and then McDowell's Cave, the name by which young Sam Clemens knew it.

In the 1840's, an eccentric St. Louis physician, E. D. McDowell, placed the corpse of a 14-year-old girl, said by some to have been his daughter, in a glass and copper cylinder which he filled with alcohol and suspended from a rail bridging a narrow passage in the cave. McDowell claimed that this was an experiment to see if the limestone cave would petrify the cadaver, but it is said that his real purpose was to create a tourist attraction. Many tales of a treasure buried in the cave originated during the Gold Rush in 1849. Clemens himself spent many hours searching for treasure in the cave, probably having heard the legend that returning Forty-Niners had buried gold there.”

           

Living in Florida, My family and I like to go look for buried treasure in the state. There is a lot of lost treasure from sunken ship wrecks but that is more difficult to go look for. We like to look for the treasure on dry land. There is supposed to be lost confederate gold in the Florida Everglades, but it is supposed to be on the Seminal Reservation.  Sanibel Island and St. George Island are reported to have buried treasure on them. There is even supposed to be the stolen loot from the notorious bank robbers, the Ashley gang, which is said to be buried on the southern banks of Lake Okeechobee.  I have been to this location and there are plenty of spots to go look for the treasure.

If you check the internet, you will find a legend of a buried treasure in your area to go look for. They are located all over the United States. Treasurecache.net is my favorite. It is the most up to date site on buried treasure.  Be careful, because you might be going on private or public land. And if you by chance do find the treasure, you will have to give it to whoever owns the property or the state. Mel Fisher had a lengthy court battle with the state of Florida over the treasure he found in a sunken ship.