If you are like me, you never get enough of the hunt, whether on the search for rocks and gems, fossils, or treasure. Now that the cold, wet weather is putting a damper on outside searches for those in the north, it is prime time for indoor searches. After all, while you can, every once in a while, stumble upon a great place to hunt for treasure while just hoofing around in the wilderness, most productive treasure searches start inside.

The first task in treasure hunting is to figure out where exactly it is that you want
to hunt. It’s best to be realistic. You may have a dream to hunt in the South Sea
Islands, but if you have no means to get there you have much better ways to
spend hours and hours of research. Productive searching close to home may
just help you fund some of your dream searches. So to start, keep it close — somewhere you will actually be able to spend some time searching. Once you
have your target area pinpointed, it’s time to hit the history books and old
newspapers.

The information you are seeking is about old boom towns, mining areas, battle
areas or routes, ghost towns (whether structures still stand or not), town areas
leveled by natural disasters and never rebuilt, pilgrim migration routes, and
anything else that can lead you to spots that were once inhabited or attacked,
and are now deserted. If you are on shorelines, you might also be interested in
information about pirate localities, sea battles, landing areas, old settelments,
and anything else that might point you to buried artifacts along a coastline, or
even in the water if you are into underwater search.

Once you pinpoint the areas that look good to search you want to find out what is
on public land, and what is privately owned. The last thing anyone needs is
people roaming around private land without permission. Not only can this cause
trouble for you personally, but it can hinder all who want to search as mass
trespassing can lead to complaints that in turn lead to laws limiting searching for
everyone. City halls or a local branch of USGS will be able to provide you the
information about public and private lands, and will be likely to appreciate your
efforts to be respectful about searching. Chatting with people who have been
employed for long periods in these places can sometimes get you some bonus
leads, too, especially in less populated areas where people are more likely to
know in depth histories and legends from their areas.

When you find information of interest, you will want to dig up any old pictures
you can find so you can get an idea of what was located where. Some
landmarks may still exist even if the town itself doesn’t. County offices
sometimes have records of town layouts that will actually give you coordinants of
old buildings and other useful information.
Now that you have all the hard information resources you can dig up on battle
routes, massacre areas, stage coach robberies, settler camps, towns leveled in
natural disasters, and so on, it’s time to start using your imagination.

This
exercise just goes like this:

Hmmm. They never located the relatives when the old guy that lived there died
- I wonder what he may have hid or lost around his place.

Hmmm. There was a saloon located right there – I wonder where the outhouse
was. (A place where a lot of drunk men were taking their pants off might turn up
some quantity of nice pocket artifacts – especially old coins.)

Hmmm. Look at that rock right behind that train wreck in this picture – I know
where that rock is.

Hmmm. The Northern armies passed right through here in the civil war. I
wonder how many people buried money and valuables to hide them. I wonder
which of them never made it back to them.

Now you get to draw yourself a few of your own maps to take with you when the
nice weather comes back around. These maps can be valuable all on their own.

When your hunting season is over, you can add your stories about what you
found in the areas you have mapped and searched. By compiling these maps
and stories, you have created an archive which may be sold to other hunters, or
saved for future generations.

©2005 Sally Taylor: Sal is an avid gem and treasure hunter, explorer, writer, and is the owner of http://www.rockhoundstation1.com

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Where can you find hidden treasure? Almost anywhere. How can you find it? Here are some new ideas on that.

I was once involved in tearing down an old house. In the attic, hidden underneath the insulation, I found a glass piggy bank of old pennies. I also found a rare old magazine and a few other minor treasures.

Treasure is not always things of obvious value, though. Hidden in the walls of that house was a treasure that at the time never occurred to me: copper tubing. I later discovered that the water lines we paid to have hauled away were sold as valuable scrap by the junk man. It made me wonder what else could be “treasure,” and where else I might find it.

New Ideas On Hidden Treasure

Hidden in a warehouse in the small town where I used to live, was a mountain of old boxes. It was the leftover inventory of a wooden clock factory that had gone out of business. The owner of the clocks had let them sit there for at least ten years. Finally someone explained to him how he could sell them on Ebay, and he realized the treasure he was sitting on.

An old Mayan Indian we met at a hot spring in Arizona showed us how to find arrowheads and metates (used for grinding corn or mesquite beans) in the desert. They’re hundreds of years old. He sold one of his metates for $200 during a yard sale, but this may be illegal now. Check with authorities on this one.

I have hidden money several times in my life. Many people do. What happens when people die unexpectedly? The money and valuables they hid remain where they are until discovered. There is an estimated several billion dollars in hidden currency alone in this country, and who knows how much in silver, gold, jewelry and other things. Here are some of the places people have discovered these hidden treasures.

- Under sinks (money).

- Hidden inside the pages of books (bills).

- Buried in crawl-spaces (all sorts of treasure).

- Above ceiling tiles.

- Buried under the edges of cement patios.

- In walls behind outlet plates.

- In pump houses.

- Under floors in sheds.

- In old heating oil tanks (coins).

- Under rocks in highway rest areas.

That last one is a favorite hiding place for drug dealers and other criminals who need to hide cash fast. If they never get out of prison, or die, the money waits for a treasure hunter to find it. Sometimes you just have to look to find hidden treasure.

Steve Gillman has been hunting down obscure knowledge and useful secrets for years. Learn more and get a free gift at: The Secret Information Site (http://www.TheSecretInformationSite.com)

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An example of buried treasure? As a young man I buried 100 ounces of silver under my parents house. There was a crawl space that could be accessed from the basement. I pulled the plastic back that covered the dirt, and roughly five feet out from the west and south walls dug a hole. I put my plastic container with it’s ten ten-ounce bars of silver into it, covered it up and left it there for years.

Did I tell anyone where it was, or even that I had buried it? Of course not! The point of hiding things is so nobody knows where they are, right? By the way, I have long since dug the silver up and sold it, and keep my money in the bank now instead of the ground. However, what if I had died while I still had this buried treasure under my parents house?

My guess is that it would be at least a couple hundred years before anyone found the silver. there was no reason for anyone to be digging under that part of the house. There was also no way for anyone to know they should be looking. The obvious question arises: How many people have died and how many die every year without ever telling a soul about their hidden money or buried treasures?

Many. The treasury department estimates that billions in currency alone has “disappeared” in recent years. Where is it all? Here are some of the places to start looking.

Places To Find Buried Treasure

- Under rocks in highway rest areas. There are many reports of criminals and drug dealers to burying large amounts of cash under rocks in the woods at highway rest areas. Hide the evidence, get sent to jail, and what if he never comes out? Treasure hunting time!

- Under the edge of cement slabs. Look for sagging or cracked cement where the ground might have been loosened up.

- In old pump houses. People used to hide things in the pump houses, in the ground underneath, and even inside of pipes that connect to nothing.

- Caches buried near signs. The point was to have a way to remember where the treasure was buried.

- In hotel rooms. Hotel owners report that cheating spouses on business trips hide their rings before going out for the evening, and then forget them. Look under mattresses, on top of light fixtures, and behind pictures.

- In rivers, especially next to bridges. Criminals and kids throw things off bridges to hide them quickly. I have seen several bicycles laying in the bottoms of rivers, and I hear that guns are a common find.

- Inside old books. This has been a common place to hide money for years.

- Inside walls, usually by outlet covers. An outlet cover usually has just one screw to remove, and you might se something by shining a flashlight inside the wall.

- Buried under rocks in backyards. The rock is for remembering where the buried treasure is, and backyards are more common because the person is less likely to be seen burying something here.

Have you ever hidden anything? Do you have anything hidden now? If you wanted to hide money or other valuables, where would you put it? You can understand how things get buried and forgotten. Now start to think like the person who hides things, and you’re ready to search for buried treasure.

Steve Gillman has studied unusual ways to make money for thirty years. To learn more, including more places to find hidden treasure, visit his website, Unusual Ways To Make Money: http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

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Treasure hunting begins at home. People regularly find famous old books and valuable antiques in their attics, so get up there and look. One couple opened their walls while remodeling, and found them insulated with thousands of old and valuable movie posters. In the thirties a theater owner ahd put them there. The couple sold $200,000 worth of the posters, the last I heard.

There are many more ways to go treasure hunting. I used to take the old telegraph pole insulators form along train tracks, to sell for $4 each at an antique store. They were otherwise being shot to pieces by hunters over the years. The colored glass ones are usually the more valuable ones.

Panning For Gold

For $10 you can buy a gold pan, and start prospecting. It’s easier to see the gold in the green plastic ones. Most federal lands are open to prospectors without a permit. I’ve only seen gold in my pan in Canada (there isn’t much gold in Michigan), but people have better luck in the mountain streams of the southeast and southwest. It’s a nice way to spend an afternoon in any case.

Treasure Hunting With A Metal Detector

Metal detectors start under $200. I’ve found a few hundred coins, but none of them have been valuable ones. When the city tore up old sidewalks, a woman in our town used her detector to find coins . She sold one to a local coin shop for $700. A friend tells me that her husband and her have found many pieces of gold jewelry at the beach with their detector. It’s also common to use metal detectors to find gold nuggets in the southwest.

Treasure Hunting In The Streets

Collecting cans for 37 cents a pound is a tough way to make a living. Here in Michigan and other states, however, there’s a 10 cent deposit on every beverage container. During festivals I see people with bags of hundreds of cans they collected in the parks and garbage containers. Some travel here every year during the Cherry Festival, just to collect returnable bottles and cans that week.

I spoke to a man who went to the big concerts to collect beer and pop cans in the parking areas. He said he makes over $100 in a few hours (plus the time to take them to the store). Collecting “returnables” can be an unpleasant way to make money, but an old guy in town here tells me he pays the rent doing this.

Treasure hunting is about having the right frame of mind. There are treasures to be found everywhere. I once found a chest with foreign notes and coins in the crawl space under our house. Hotel owners report that visitors tuck money in the bedside bible, and forget to take it with them. Sometimes you just have to look.

Steve Gillman has been studying every aspect of money for thirty years. You can find more treasure hunting ideas, and more interesting and useful information on his website; http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

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