Secrets of Treasure Hunters
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Steve Gillman asked:
It is true that treasure hunters know a few things the rest of us don’t usually know. They are familiar with common hiding places where people put their valuables and money, for example. They know the usual locations for buried treasure. More generally, they know that we humans like to hide things far more often than most suspect, and that many of us die without ever revealing to a soul what we have hidden or where.
Still, there is more to being a treasure hunter than having a bit of special knowledge. So if you want to start your own hunt for hidden and buried treasure, don’t think that reading a few books on the subject will be enough. You also have to develop the right mind set. Patience is a requirement, for example, or you’ll never dig up those fifty almost-worthless pennies just to finally find one old and valuable one.
You also have to think a certain way. You’ll need the ability to mentally put yourself in the past and also in the head of the person who hides something, in order to guess where it is buried or otherwise hidden. It will also help to habitually think about how to apply and expand what you learn from one treasure hunt to the next ones.
Secrets Of Treasure Hunters
To help along those lines, here are some of the ways to find treasure, the “tricks of the trade.” These examples each suggest something useful to apply in other areas. They are essentially short lessons from and for treasure hunters.
Hidden In Rivers
When we were children, my friends and I occasionally saw bicycles in rivers. We never really knew why they were there, but I later learned it was because rivers are easy places to hide things, very useful knowledge for thieves. They were likely stolen and dumped there. Criminals throw things off of bridges routinely, because it is a fast way to get rid of incriminating evidence.
I have read about one treasure hunter who makes a living from this criminal habit. With magnets and other tools he retrieves guns, money, and other things of value from the bottom of murky rivers. Using a tube with a window at the bottom (his own design) and a waterproof flashlight strapped to the outside, he pushes it down into the water to see clearly what is at the bottom. Someday you might see a person with a strange reverse periscope floating in his rowboat, and it may be this man.
To develop a treasure hunting mentality, you should be thinking about where you can try this and what else you can learn from the story. Perhaps a good waterproof metal detector could be used to locate valuables in rivers (most are waterproof up to a certain point anyhow). You should expand on the idea and ask yourself what other things get dropped in water and where – whether or not on purpose. Lake bottoms near docks might be a good place to search, for example.
Coffee Can Treasures
It has been and probably still is common to bury things in coffee cans out in the yard or behind the barn or wherever. You probably have heard of this, but have you ever thought about how to use that knowledge to find such stashes? Here’s one way: If you’re looking around an old house or homestead look for empty coffee cans in sheds or barns. They were possibly being saved to bury things in. Consider too that although paper money can’t be detected with a metal detector, the cans can be.
Then, as you look around the target area, consider where you would bury a can full of cash. Note where you could dig without being noticed, or where the ground is easier to dig up? What locations could be more easily remembered? Consider these things as if you are the one burying the valuables, and you’ll start to develop an intuition about where to search.
There are many more secrets to learn, but also develop the patience to keep searching. Mel Fischer searched sixteen years to find the “Atocha Mother Lode,” valued at $450 million dollars, so you can try for sixteen more minutes before setting down that metal detector. Learn your lessons from each search and think about how to apply and expand on what you learned. That’s how you develop the mind set of a treasure hunter.
It is true that treasure hunters know a few things the rest of us don’t usually know. They are familiar with common hiding places where people put their valuables and money, for example. They know the usual locations for buried treasure. More generally, they know that we humans like to hide things far more often than most suspect, and that many of us die without ever revealing to a soul what we have hidden or where.
Still, there is more to being a treasure hunter than having a bit of special knowledge. So if you want to start your own hunt for hidden and buried treasure, don’t think that reading a few books on the subject will be enough. You also have to develop the right mind set. Patience is a requirement, for example, or you’ll never dig up those fifty almost-worthless pennies just to finally find one old and valuable one.
You also have to think a certain way. You’ll need the ability to mentally put yourself in the past and also in the head of the person who hides something, in order to guess where it is buried or otherwise hidden. It will also help to habitually think about how to apply and expand what you learn from one treasure hunt to the next ones.
Secrets Of Treasure Hunters
To help along those lines, here are some of the ways to find treasure, the “tricks of the trade.” These examples each suggest something useful to apply in other areas. They are essentially short lessons from and for treasure hunters.
Hidden In Rivers
When we were children, my friends and I occasionally saw bicycles in rivers. We never really knew why they were there, but I later learned it was because rivers are easy places to hide things, very useful knowledge for thieves. They were likely stolen and dumped there. Criminals throw things off of bridges routinely, because it is a fast way to get rid of incriminating evidence.
I have read about one treasure hunter who makes a living from this criminal habit. With magnets and other tools he retrieves guns, money, and other things of value from the bottom of murky rivers. Using a tube with a window at the bottom (his own design) and a waterproof flashlight strapped to the outside, he pushes it down into the water to see clearly what is at the bottom. Someday you might see a person with a strange reverse periscope floating in his rowboat, and it may be this man.
To develop a treasure hunting mentality, you should be thinking about where you can try this and what else you can learn from the story. Perhaps a good waterproof metal detector could be used to locate valuables in rivers (most are waterproof up to a certain point anyhow). You should expand on the idea and ask yourself what other things get dropped in water and where – whether or not on purpose. Lake bottoms near docks might be a good place to search, for example.
Coffee Can Treasures
It has been and probably still is common to bury things in coffee cans out in the yard or behind the barn or wherever. You probably have heard of this, but have you ever thought about how to use that knowledge to find such stashes? Here’s one way: If you’re looking around an old house or homestead look for empty coffee cans in sheds or barns. They were possibly being saved to bury things in. Consider too that although paper money can’t be detected with a metal detector, the cans can be.
Then, as you look around the target area, consider where you would bury a can full of cash. Note where you could dig without being noticed, or where the ground is easier to dig up? What locations could be more easily remembered? Consider these things as if you are the one burying the valuables, and you’ll start to develop an intuition about where to search.
There are many more secrets to learn, but also develop the patience to keep searching. Mel Fischer searched sixteen years to find the “Atocha Mother Lode,” valued at $450 million dollars, so you can try for sixteen more minutes before setting down that metal detector. Learn your lessons from each search and think about how to apply and expand on what you learned. That’s how you develop the mind set of a treasure hunter.
