Why do I treasure hunt in the winter?

Some of you have noticed that my posts here have slowed down. It is not because I do not love you or enjoy sharing ideas. It is because winter is when my world kicks into high gear.

Most people only treasure hunt in the spring and the summer. I avoid these times because many reasons. For one thing the snakes are in hibernation and there are no chiggers and ticks outside. But my main reason for winter treasure hunting is to avoid people.

The less people who know about what I am doing the better. Other people are your greatest danger. To avoid this I go out when it is cold and uncomfortable. Most other people are warm and cozy inside and they stay there.

I realize at one point I am going to have to tackle the uneasy subject of treasure hunting ethics. But for now just realize you are safer if less people know what you are doing. It makes them less likely to rob or kill you if you make a large recovery. It also avoids other problems but that will have to be covered later.

Enjoy yourself. My little for "fun" project might begin soon if the timing and weather are on my side. I will update you on my progress after the fact.

I am very busy with my other treasure hunting projects and they need to take priority. But I will attempt to update this site more often.

Go get you some treasure!

Use Flea Markets to get relic leads.

Use Flea Markets and Junk Shops to expand your relic leads. Here in the south there are tons of junk shops and swap meets just outside of small towns.

One day I found one that had civil war bullets and a cannon ball. Using my people skills I bought the bullets and then found out where they found them. It was on a lake on Private Property that a man charged people to fish on the lake.

By being nice and overpaying for a few bullets, I found the source for hundreds of bullets and relics. The owner was happy to take my money for my fishing for relics. Later he bought a detector and would hunt with me.

Always be friendly and ask questions at swap meets and junk shops about any neat relics you find.

This tip has made me thousands of dollars.

If Today was not the day...Well there is always Tomorrow .

It can be such a emotional roller coaster being a treasure hunter. Everyone remembers Mel Fishers famous words "Today is the day!" Upon hearing them we often forget he said it every day for over 10 years. Even after loosing his son and his son's wife, he somehow kept going.

We all know the vision and enthusiasm is necessary to see a project through. It is easy to get frustrated when things don't go our way. It seems that things always take longer than we think. Unexpected obstacle's get in our way in our search for the ultimate rewards.

It took me over 10 years of struggle to get to where I can call my own shots in this business. Looking back I sometimes wounder if it was worth all the price that I paid. My best guess is that it was not, but I know all that I experienced shaped who I am now. So I will accept my choices, regrets and mistakes and wear them with honor.

I am still amazed I came out alive. My goal with this blog is to reach out to those of you who have dreams. It is my hope I can make you path easier than mine. When I really jumped into the world of treasure hunting the Internet was not what it is now. Exchanging information with others was really hard. It still is hard. There is more information out there than ever before. The downside is there is 300 times more crap up there.

There is plenty of websites for treasure hunting information now. But I still find there is more rocks than gems in the various forums and websites. It seems the full time treasure hunters world is closed to all that are not in the fraternity. It has always been that way and will likely be that way. Secrets are guarded closely by those that know the answers, at least to the "Outsiders". The ironic thing is that once you pay the price in this world, everything opens up and people freely share information. It is like they know one of their kind. I can spot a serious treasure hunter a mile away. We know where to find each other, it is kind of odd.

Do not think that just because someone has 2000 or more posts on a treasure forum, that they have a clue to what they are saying. There is so much bad advise out there it is sickening. However there is gems among the rocks on the forums. It will take a while to sort through what is bull and what is real.

You can assume if it is a Treasure lead or Legend that is is totally fake, unless you can verify the story. Do not go chasing rainbows. I will go into this later as I have time.

I would not advise doing full time treasure hunting to anyone unless you have a ton of cash (or rich friends) or sponsorship from a corporation. Yes, there are companies that will bankroll you on your adventure.

The only sane way to do this is by keeping your job and doing this part time until you can make the leap financially after you recover a few big ones. This will take a few years and some learning on you part.

This is what this site is about. I wish you success in treasure hunting. I can give the information, you must take the steps.

Lets expand your Treasure Horizons

So many people think in terms of just using metal detectors in treasure hunting. Although the metal detector is important and should be mastered. The real secret key is research and understanding people, and the ability to network with other people.

Want to find a cache but do not have a clue where to look. In my little town, that I live in has a history book for its 100 year celebration. I went to the library when I moved here to read and study it. From this book I learned about when the town was founded and the events that took place when it was just a few people. I learned of the Civil War and what happened later on as the area formed into a community.

What did I learn about cache locations from studying a dusty book?

I learned when the first bank opened in the town. Any house that was built before the bank opened had a reason to cache money. There was no safe place to put it.

I learned what the great depression did to the local people. Any house that was around or built within 20 years after 1929 is a possible cache location because they no longer trusted banks.

I learned who the early politicians and moonshiners were. I learned about early sheriffs and merchants and all kinds of interesting things. All of these people had a reason to stash cash.

I could see photos of the early days of the town. There were family names and historical houses all in this book. It had early maps and social events. Some of the houses and streets still exist.

I can use the history as a reason to get to know the current owners. People love to talk about their stuff. Suddenly they are taking me through there houses and gabbing all about themselves and the house. Listen and look around. Think treasure but scan the house for clues about common interests that you might have with them. The idea is to create a friend.

I have more leads than I can handle. My town has about 3000 or so people.

Am I over simplifying things? Of course I am. Are there other techniques that people more shy than I am can use? You bet there is. But people skills are important in this game and you will find it easier to treasure hunt if you can be nice to people.

Lets raise a few hundred for your Treasure Project

I talked recently about a for fun project that I am going to do. I have a budget of $300. I can't use any of my own money or equipment. All money needs to be raised just for this project with no borrowing.

How will I do it? Well after I figure out what I want to do I can see about 4 ways that will easily get the moola rolling in. There are actually more ways that I will go into later.

For now figure out your budget and what you need. Then realize there are other ways to get what you need.

Check out http://www.freecycle.org/. This is a place where you can post what you need and give away what you don't need. There is no buying or selling, it is all about keeping stuff out of landfills and recycling. Join the group that covers your area. There is groups all around the world. Figure out your needs and post a wanted message. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't but you might be surprised. Also watch what is offered and snap it up if you need the item. I have seen people get camping equipment, cars and yes metal detectors on this handy group.

You can also sell items on eBay(TM) and amazon(TM). This is an easy way to earn extra cash for items you no longer need.

Finally for now there is a yard sale. Two days might be all you need to raise a few hundred and get rid of what you do not need. Always place an ad in the papers and have tons of signs. Pay back the money you spend on the ads from what you make at the sale.

It is amazing how much stuff we have that we really do not need. Simplify your life.

I will keep you posted on how I raise the cash and start my for fun treasure adventure.

It will take a few weeks or so, but remember I can only do the for fun project on my spare time.

My current treasure projects must take priority. But when I launch the for fun project you will be updated on everything.

Three Secrets to Recovering Treasure

Get IN- Get Treasure- Get out!

In the world of treasure hunting you will have to develop your own set of ethics. I will not tell you what is wrong or write. I only know what works for me. In the shadow world of full time treasure there is no set black and white. Each person lives by their own code. It is not my job to choose your moral point of view. I can look at myself in the mirror with no guilt. I have made my share of mistakes. I can live with that. We learn and move on.

That being said all large treasures are discovered in research first. Getting permission comes later. So in my world the research first and then moving it to secure permission to be on the land is done.

Once you target your area and have an idea on where to look, the rest is easy.

I am not a coin shooter. I will not waist my time. However if you are new to my world you need to learn the tricks of the trade. Detecting at parks and beaches is useful. Also a recommend detecting in you own yard. For the first few times dig everything. Better to spend a few days digging up trash. You will learn how to scratch metal objects in the ground. This is good, I would rather spend time scratching up a can, as opposed to a silver dollar. Also you will learn soil conditions and your detector sounds and signals. It is important to learn to dig something so you do not destroy lawns or landscaping. This is vital, leave no trace that you were there.

Master your detecting and retrieval of targets. There is no replacement for experience and you will not learn to find real treasure unless you have used your detector.

So you will spend time learning the technique. As you do that, you must look into history to provide the leads. History understanding and people understanding. You will look back into the past for a person that had a reason to stash his cash. You will also look into events that might have caused people to bury there valuables.

After the place is located the operation moves into a Networking mode and then a tactical mode.

I will fill in a lot of the details over time there is so much to share.

The recovery is the most vital part of this operation and will be expanded on later. For now the goal is to recover and get away from the area, leaving no trace that you were there.

Simple really. It only gets more interesting.

The Creation and Financing of a Bootstrap Treasure Operation.

Want to have a treasure adventure? But short on cash. You may not have the moola for a Mine lab or a dime for a digger. But you can experience treasure hunting adventures of your own.

I will prove it to you. Over the next few months I will be updating all of you on a for fun project that I am doing. This is for all the people that say," I would love to treasure hunt but I have no money".

Treasure hunting full time is an expensive endeavor. Metal Detectors, Transportation, Lodging, Gas, GPS and numerous expensive little toys and gadgets. The costs as a business per day would scare most people away from this lifestyle.

However did you know you can start will nothing and still have a treasure hunting adventure. You might actually hit it big, it has happened before. What I am going to do is take you along the planning, financing and launching of a bootstrap treasure adventure.

Since all of my needs are met I am going to place rules on myself to make it fair. Here are my rules:

Adventure budget: $300
I cannot use Credit cards or bank accounts to pay for this. The $300 has to be raised by me without dipping into any savings.

I cannot take away any time from my other projects to do this. This means planning and doing of adventure must be on free or leisure time. I will not change my schedule for this adventure.

I will create a budget for the Project. This Budget will be posted prior to me raising funds. Then without cramping my good lifestyle I will raise the money and buy the things I need.

This will prove to some that anyone can raise the fund necessary to do their own adventure.

As this goes forward I will share the details as to the type of project that I will do.

But the whole point is that you can do the same thing right where you are in life. You can raise the money you need for your adventure and it will not crimp your personal budget or take away from regular life.

What do I want to dig up or find?

I would be seeking old bottles, arrow heads and relics. Might even hit it big, you never know. I will find something. The goal is to see if I can find enough to cover the money I spent on the project.

Now I must figure out what my adventure is going to be. I will let you know as I can about my progress.

What ya want to dig? Choose your Treasure.

Are you looking for? Is it Gold, Silver, Relics, history, etc.? You need to identify your target and you need to become an expert on it. You need to educate yourself in the world of what it is you seek.

If you seek arrowheads learn the history of the tribes and what they used. Where did they travel and why.

If you seek caches learn what kind of people stashed money and why. Learn their world see through their eye's.

If you seek gold deposits learn geology and history. Know everything about how it forms and how it to get it out of the ground and water.

If it is shipwrecks understand the history and become and understand who and why of the shipwreck. Learn how to recover items from the depths of the ocean.

To all of you: Treasure, Gold, History is all a Business if it is a full time. You better live and breath your objective. It becomes a spiritual quest and something that is a lifestyle.

Research what ever it is that you want to dig up. Then find local contacts and experts that can point you to the right derection. Use the internet to brainstorm and exchange ideas.

Simple really.

Then you will learn the art of recovery and then the transition into a business.

Life can be fun sometimes.

Personal Networks to Treasure. Treasure Map part 1

Your ability to thrive in prospecting or treasure hunting lies in your ability to form relationships with others. It is easy for me to get cocky and forget I do not know it all.

Because I can't know it all I have to find experts that have the answers I need.

This can be in many ways. Through personal contacts I meet every day and on the Internet.

Local people will give you local knowledge and personal contacts. These personal contacts are the most valuable. It is these people that will give histories and introductions. Being introduced through a friend is the key to getting permission to hunt an area. If you seek out local experts in the areas that you are interested in, they can often make the phone calls. But you must become a friend to the expert.

Who are these experts? They are people who either study or sell the items that you want to dig up. It is that simple.

If you want to be an arrow head master you need to become friends with someone who sells or collects arrowheads. They will guide you on what you need to read and be aware of. They will give you information, if you know how to ask the right questions. They will tell you of their professor friend at the local University and they can introduce you to them.

There are Networks of information out there. Locally and on the Internet you can learn from others what you need to do to make your treasure hunt happen.

For fresh ideas and new approaches try the Internet. Look for new ways and different approaches from others. It is called Brainstorming with others. It is healthy to look at different ideas from others. Treasure hunters think in terms of possibilities, and then test, question, test, look for different viewpoints and approaches. Having others play devil advocate can help you not make silly mistakes.

Yes people on the Internet will think you are strange at times. But there are others out there who are just like you. They can encourage and give you new ideas.

Put yourself out there to people in your local area and on the Internet. Exchange ideas and ask questions. Do not believe anything until you verify it yourself.

People hold the other part of that treasure map you have Ben looking for. The other half of the map is research. That will be part 2

Prospecting with the Black Light.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=49666.msg354789#new
It is all very well to use a black Light for looking for treasure hidden inside walls, but can the black light aid the prospector? You bet it can.

It is common knowledge that certain gemstones can show up brightly under UV lights. You can research the different colors that gemstones have on the Internet. There are several good books to read about this as well. You will need to research and get a few books because the topic is so big I cannot cover it all here.

How can the Gold prospector use this knowledge? Gold does not have fluorescence, after all. Before I go into how to do this you need a shortwave UV lamp with the safety glasses. Short waves are better for this than long waves. Always wear the safety glasses with the shortwave lamp (seeing is a good thing). You don't want to damage your eyes.

Okay we are panning for gold and getting a little color in our pans. We are in a gold producing area that is known for gold. Would it not be interesting to trace the source of the gold to its original source?

Although gold does not show up under UV light there are minerals that are likely to show up in gold placer areas. We all now the heaver minerals and sometimes gemstones show up in pans because they are heaver than most of the common river elements.

The Florescent minerals that are usually likely to show up with gold placers are:

Agate, Beryl, Chalcedony, Cyrtoline, Huttonite,Opal, Petrified Wood,Ruby, Scheelite, Spinal, Sapphire, Quartz, Zircon and fossils and bones.

These do fluoresce.

Want to find the source of the outcrop?

Walk up the stream or river and sample with your pan. Wash and swirl the light material off then remove the black sand with a magnet.

Then cover yourself and the pan with a blanket and shine the black light on the pan. Notice the colors the black light gives the gemstones and minerals. I am assuming again you are in an area known for gold.

Well, you might ask how these pretty colors can help you find the outcrop. It is simple really, follow the river upstream and take samples. You will notice more and more florescence as you get closer.

When the florescence disappears you are near your outcrop. Then you can look for the lode or go down the river sampling and when the colors appear again, that is where you need to sluice or dredge.

Just because gold does not show up under a UV lamp does not mean you can't use one to find golds source.

Treasure hunting with a Black Light

There is a easy way to treasure hunt and prospect without using a metal detector. The item is called a black light or more correctly a Ultraviolet light. They come in two forms, Shortwave and a Long wave. You will need one that operates on batteries.

A long wave is probably a better choice because it is safer to use. You do not need eye protection. With a Shortwave it is necessary to use eye protection so you do not hurt your eyes. Do not stare into the shortwave light. Vision is a good thing. Always read the instructions that come with the light.

What can you do as far as treasure hunting with a black light? If you are in a searching in a house and suspect that there is something hidden in it,turn out the lights and shine the black light on the walls and floors. If someone has patched a wall it will be brighter than the rest of the wall. It is hard not to notice it. It also works with many other types of material on walls and floors. It was common for people to make holes in the walls and hide something and then patch the wall. The unassisted eye may not be able to see it, but the UV light brings it out.

There are also uses for testing relics to see if they are real. But that is beyond the scope of this article.

My next post will deal with using a black light for Prospecting

Can You make a living by Treasure Hunting?

This is a question I am asked more times than I can remember. The answer depends on who you are and how you go about doing things.

There are two major types of people who ask this question.

1) The Rouge-The people who live by the saying "No guts no Glory"

2) The Seeker- People with normal lives and jobs but they seek something more.

The Rouge

If you have not figured out I would be classified as a Rouge. When I jumped into treasure hunting, I burned all bridges and immersed myself into to the world of a treasure hunter. There was no turning back and I paid a huge price for that. 10 or more years of heartbreak, frustration and pain. Some Rouges do not make it,they end up dead in the desert or starve to death. I was one of the lucky ones.

I was having a conversation with a soon to be Rouge a few months ago. I can spot Rouges from miles away.When he asked me the question if he could succeed in in becoming a treasure hunter I said to him

"You can succeed at almost anything in life if you are willing to pay the price.

The price is heavy on this one. But I know it can be done.

The people who are willing to pay the price are doing it. They will make it happen. Yes there are people doing it. They paid their dues for years.

As costly as the price is- the ones that have made it- believe it is who they are. They are treasure hunters and no amount of logic will stop them. The real world and what people think and say is meaningless to them.

The ones that give up were not willing to pay the price.

I would not recommend this lifestyle to anyone. But that will not stop the ones that are willing and know who they are."

He understood the message. God help him.

The Seeker

The Seeker is for all practical purposes a normal person with a normal life. But within their normal lives they have a dream and a quest. They are more grounded than the Rouge and often have families that depend on them. They have the same dream as the Rouge but cannot take the radical steps like the Rouge. They are also smarter than the Rouges and their path is an easier one.

To the Seekers I say "Keep your job and Subscribe to this free blog, I will show you how in 2-3 years you will be able to quit your job and treasure hunt full time."

Bold claim, perhaps but I am not selling anything. You will have to do the work. But it is an easier path than the Rouges.

To the Rouges: Go to it, seize the day!

When I metal detect I dig everything...

The modern Metal Detectors often have different ways of identifying targets. Some have different sounds, some have target id meters, it all depends of the model of detector.

I am not a coin shooter. I hunt caches, relics and troves.

A person should not rely on target id meters because sometimes a pull tab signal will mean a gold ring. Target id's are not fool proof. Do not totally rely on them to tell you 100% of the time what is in the ground. They also loose accuracy when the object is more than 6-8 inches or more in the ground.

But the reason I dig all signals is because already know what I am looking for and I know I am in the right area to find the object.

If I am looking for a cache I do not even pull out my detector until I know where I am going to look. This comes through research and understanding people. That is to big of an area to go over here but in later posts I will explain that in detail.

The point is when I pull out my detector it is only to search certain areas. A foil signal may make other people ignore the signal, not me. I will dig the foil and then check the hole. My cache could be under the foil. It has happened before. The foil totally masks the signal of the cache. I can't afford that mistake.

The same principle applies for relic hunting and trove hunting.

The price I have to pay is digging 50 times more junk than most metal detector users. No guts no glory folks.

Starting a Civil War project. The adventure begins...

I am working on a new Civil War project. This is one of the two Civil War adventures I am working on now.

This one is for underwater relic surveying and recovery.

I went down to the general area yesterday. I was trying to see the conditions I would be working and to try to solve any logistical problems that I might have.

This area is on private property with owner permission.

My original idea was to do a Magnet drag of the waters floor. As I was testing it out, it because clear to me that there was no way the Magnet would connect to anything metal. The bottom is so muddy and soft any item that had any weight would have sank deeply into the soft mud.

I also saw that my visibility underwater would be zero.

I will try to solve the magnet problem in time. However it occurred to me the bottom of the water was so soft I could use a wire probe to look for larger items. The wire would go in deep into the mud and a clinking sound would tell me if I hit a target.

This is going to be one wet project and it seems it will take more planning and experimentation to make it work.

ericwt

One factor to Success in my world

Sometime last June I was sharing some information with some friends.One of the topics was what makes a successful treasure hunter. The date was June 12 but the date does not matter, it could be any date. But the message is clear.

Here is what I said.

"A few more random thoughts. History and a knowledge of what is going on today is what will make someone a real treasure hunter. If you are just out for the wealth,well you could actually get lucky and make it. But it is history that is the key,well and some hard work.

What do you think June 12 means to me? Is it just another day? When I hear June 12 I see Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart starting his ride around the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular campaign. I hear the the horses I feel his heart racing,not knowing if he will make it out alive. I hear cannons,muskets firing,I smell the gunpowder lingering in the air. I know history and I feel what they might have felt. Because I know this I can logically figure out who and why. That makes treasure hunting easy for me(well now anyway). I know how they lived and I am an expert on the items I seek.

If you show me a cannon ball that you say is from the civil war I know within 30 seconds of you are trying to sell me a rusty ball bearing or an old shot putt.

Become an expert on what you seek. It will serve you well."

Good Luck out there!

ericwt

Learning to Mine the Internet for Treasure Leads

The Internet is a massive information source. However there is a huge amount of garbage that does not apply to what you might want.

Unfortunately you will have to sort through the unnecessary stuff to find what you want. Kind of like removing the overburden and getting down to the pay dirt of the bedrock. But if you can sort through the worthless stuff there are gems of information that you can find.

The two sources of Internet information I am going to give you will require massive searching and sorting. About 97% of the information will be useless for your treasure hunting. But that 3% you find will be priceless. It will be overwhelming at first, but after you get the hang of it you will wounder why you did not try it before.

The First tool is Google Alerts. To learn about this go to: http://www.google.com/alerts/faq.html?hl=en

Read the FAQ and sign up. Then key in search terms that you want to be emailed to you. Since you are looking for caches and treasure in your area, you need to choose the right search term.
Some examples might be:

Lost treasure in (your state)
Arrow heads in (your state)
Found treasure in (your state)

For type of search put News and Web, as this will give you more results.

The search terms are only limited by your imagination. You can also put your city and state in your search term. But be as specific as you can and include whatever you are looking for in the search term. Be it history, civil war,bottles,Indian mounds or whatever you wish.

At first you will be flooded with all the emails and most will not apply to what you want. But keep searching and refining your search information. You might be surprised at what information you might find.

Email me your search term suggestions and I will pass them along to others.

The second tool is U.S. Library of Congress' Living Memory web site at:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mdbquery.html

Unlike google alerts your email will not get packed with useless links and story's. But you will still have to use search terms and learn how to use the site.

But once you have learned the site there are hundreds if not thousands of old historical books that you can search through. These have been scanned and can be viewed at your leisure.

Some of these books are not for sale anywhere at any price. This is a trove of history information. Again email me and let me know your successful searches.

These are but two tools you can use on the Internet. There are many more that I will go into later on as I get time.

ericwt

The 2 Greatest Dangers in Treasure Hunting.

There are dangers in Treasure Hunting. However the two greatest dangers are:

1) Your Mouth

2) Other People

These two dangers have caused more people to loose a fortune than anything else.

If you find a trove, do not tell anyone about it.

Tell no one here, there or anywhere. Don't even tell you mom. Do not post it and never mention it to anyone, EVER. Even your closest friend does not need to know. If you tell one person within a week a few hundred people will know. Trust me I made that mistake once. It cost me big.

Once everyone knows your problems have just begun. Gold and wealth can do strange things to people. There are some desperate people out there folks. Some would not think twice about killing someone for a fortune.

The ones that don't try to kill you or hurt your family will likely try to sue you. They will claim it is their money and take you to court. Even if you win the cases you have lost. Legal bills will eat your fortune away.

This does not include the Federal and State governments that have passed laws making anything they decide as an archaeological object, therefore subject of confiscation. If it is more than 50 years old they can take it away if they want to.

If you find a large cache, best keep it to yourself. Less problems that way.

ericwt

The importance of research in Treasure Hunting

I frequently get phone calls and emails from treasure hunters. Sometimes their common sense goes out the window when in comes to treasure legends.

Here is my response to a email I received:

"According to verifiable records the James gang might have robed a total of $80,000 in their entire careers. This is inflated by me. In reality it was much less.

This can be checked from real records and court documents.

You also can expect they spent some, gave away some, and cached some.

So with that in mind it is not possible that they cached $100,000 is some cave near you.

The travels of Jesse James and his crew were also well documented. So it is highly unlikely that they stashed $100,000 in an area that they were never in.

However I suspect that your local history will give you the answers you seek.

Wrong gang dudes."

No matter how good the story is you must verify it by historical research. Old story's get repeated so many times and each time details are added.

It is the treasure hunters job to sort out fact from fiction. History will provide the truth and prevent you from going on a wild goose chase.

ericwt

The 70 mile or less Cache

I posted this on a treasure Hunting website a few years ago. Some people understood it, others did not. The whole reason I posted it is because so often we think treasure is in some far away place, when in reality it is within driving distance.

Here it is enjoy...

This is a unpublished but verified lead. Within 70 miles of anywhere,any-town is a vast cache of lost loot.This will give you instructions to pinpoint the target. Recovery is your problem.
But there is a curse to this story.

The Curse.
No person of evil will ever possess this treasure and live.
Sometimes we are our own downfall. Greed is stupid it will also destroy you.

Also be careful of what you ask for, you might get it.

Times were different back then,or were they? Someone,somewhere had a large amount of loot. Security back then was important.Many places did not have banks or was it that they did not trust banks? I don't remember which one it was.

As they had all this loot by nature others knew about the wealth as it has to be handed to our hero by other people,for him to acquire it.

Well times were dark back then. There were evil people that wanted what he had. Our hero was aware of the evil. So in order to protect his wealth he took steps.

I can't remember how he earned his wealth. It was a businessman or a robber or someone who worked hard all his life and saved. Anyway that is not important. Our hero is concerned about providing for his family as he approaches the twilight of his life.

So our hero, understanding human nature went out alone because he could trust himself. And he concealed his wealth. No one knows if he put it in one or many places. But it is a good guess it was somewhere on his property.

He hid the loot carefully so he would not forget where he put it. It was noted in the mind carefully. He placed it close to certain markers, or maybe he placed an object like a large flat rock on top of it,or it could be in the middle of three objects like trees or something. The important thing is this money was intended to do good things.

He might have told a family member or maybe he died unexpectedly with out telling others. But the loot still waits to do its good things.

This tale is true. So is the curse

Ericwt

Raising Money for Treasure Hunting

I was talking to a guy in Florida that I know. He has this Shipwreck project he is working on, and he was rambling on about raising money to help him. I kind of felt sorry for him. I have been where he was,many times.

The world of treasure hunting and gold can posses people. It has me and many other people. But the fact remains that treasure hunting can be funded and successful if they step back from the enthusiasm of the project, and operate on a rational level.

Treasure Hunting is a business as well as a passion. If you can be grounded on the numbers and the research, your enthusiasm will sell the project.

Anyway this guy and another guy were trying to raise money in $20-$100 per person. I simply could not understand why the were trying to raise such a small amount of money from like 500 people. It just seemed like a waist of time when they could have asked for $2-$5,000 from each person. I would not have invested and money with these 2 people because they are lost in a dream and not organized.

They had no plans and there research was weak. They also had no idea on how much is needed for treasure recovery or even how much money they needed at all. They had no planning so there is little to no chance of them being successful.

Just because you think you know where a treasure is does not mean you have any idea on how to pinpoint and recover it. That takes money...Lots of it.

For an underwater pin pointing and recovery takes time and money. The fact is they were looking for about $6,000 total from 500 people. There is no way this is enough money for their projects. Also getting 20 bucks from 500 people is going to be a huge problem.

It would be so much easier to find 5 people who want to invest $2,000. They would have fewer people to deal with and $10,000, that is 4 thousand dollars more than they would have got at $20 from 500 people.

They are disorganized and trying to get money from the wrong people. There are people who have thousands of dollars lying around just looking for the right way to invest it. They can be sold the dream if your numbers and organization is sound.

I just do not understand some people.

Treasure Hunting Partners to watch out for.

Hunting treasure with other people can be fun. But you need to be aware of the different kinds of people that you might encounter.

I have several steps that I take to screen people I work with but that is not relevant right now.

These are the major personality's of Treasure Hunting. There are more I am sure I will forget but this will give you a good idea.

1) The Party Animal- This creature has no real desire to find treasure, he just wants to get away from home and party in the desert. His gear consists of a metal detector he has never used and beer,lots and lots of beer.

2) The jokester- Similar to the party animal but he just wants to laugh and joke around. He does not want to work he just wants fun.

3) Johnny Armageddon. Stay away from this one. He is paranoid and armed to the teeth. He wants to go out in a blaze of glory. If you do find treasure with him, those guns will be aimed at you. (been there,done that, No thank you.) These ones are easy to spot. They can not act any different than they are. They cannot fake who they are. A true desert rat.

4) The Cool Professor Gentleman: I love these ones but they are higher maintenance and best suited to watch the camp area. They are store houses of information and handy as heck. But they are not in top physical condition. Because of this they cant hike 5 miles up a mountain. Again have him watch the camp. They are happy as heck to do this and can be counted on to be honest, and give you valuable information and guidance. I wish I could find more of them, allot more.

5)Wiley Greenhorn- These are my favorite, they want to learn and they are ready for action. You will have to be patent with them and teach them things, but they are so worth it. They need encouragement and guidance. If you take one on you better have the right temperament. They are allot of work.


6) Mr Findmetreasure- They don't want to work or learn anything. But they are all over you for their share if something is found. I do not tolerate them and neither should you.

7) Covert Operative Man: They spend months planning there operations. They have back up plans for any perceived threat. They can use "Covers" and they plan them well. Recovery of caches is a military operation for them. Git in,Get cache, Get out. That is who I am. To be honest my type freak out a lot of treasure hunters,because for us treasure hunting is a business and lifestyle. It is not a hobby.

Hope you have enjoyed my thoughts. If you can add any other types please feel free.


ericwt