Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Gold!

     I've been amazed at how many stories of gold discoveries have popped up in recent years -- some by using a metal detector, some from researching locations...and some from sheer dumb luck, being in the right place at the right time. 





Nine amazing treasures found in recent years.

Gold bars, marked with a Jesuit symbol, found in Arizona -- 82 of them.

Gold bars found by a bunch of guys riding ATVS in Utah. Here's the story, in shortened form, told by one of their friends. Spelling and syntax are his.

3-5 guys from Davis County, Utah, were riding there ATVs in the Unitas above Kamas heading out of a rain Storm spring of 2010. One of them spy's something shinning yellow in the muddy tire tracks on the trail. They find not one but three GOLD BARS. They are described as 1 inch by 5 or 6 inch's long and have Spanish marking on them. Most like Spanish gold bullion bars made hundreds of years ao... Exciting and Cool find right?

But here is the rest of the story.
   ...one of the finders showed employees pictures of there amazing finds. The story was confirmed and then the employee said but they bragged it up so much and showed the bars around so much that soon after finding the bars the Forest Service investigated and charged them with basically looting the antiquities of the National Forest under the Antiquities Act. They have confiscated the Bars (I would like to know where they are and what will happen to them) and are prosecuting the finders.

     (In other words, keep your mouth shut next time -- if there is one. I'm reading a book by W.C. Jameson, on finding treasure, that would argue these bars are legally the finders. On the other hand, as he points out, once the treasure should be returned...it often 'disappears.' He cites the case of a rancher who won back the 30 gold bars he'd discovered -- except they were suddenly 'missing,' so couldn't be returned. Go figure.)





An airport cleaner finds $325,000 worth of gold bars in the trash -- and can keep them, according to authorities. Not so the next guy...

An Arizona man finds treasure while out in the desert hiking -- but won't tell anyone where it is, since the government has already announced it's taking the find away from him. (The bars were marked as U.S. Military.)

A half-pound gold bar is found, using a Garrett metal detector:




A gold bar found in the mud during construction in Mexico City -- thought to be some of the gold lost during Cortez's conquest.

A gold bar is found by a 16-year-old while swimming in a German lake. (May be Nazi gold-- or maybe not.)






A worker busted for high-grading -- his takeout method is *ahem* unusual.

A tank is purchased via Ebay. (I know -- who buys a TANK on Ebay nowadays??) When the fuel tank is cleaned in 2017, out pops three gold bars. (They're thought to have been hidden by Iraqui soldiers on the run.)

A man finds millions of dollars of gold -- in his own house. Fortunately, he inherited it from the owner, a family member. So it looks like the gold stays as his. Or did other family members demand their share?






More than three TONS of gold bars accidentally dumped at the Yakutsk airport in Siberia...when a Russian cargo plane's back hatch flew open. The report says "most" of the bars were recovered. I wonder how many weren't?

Millions of dollars of gold coins -- found in shallow water just off the Florida coast. The coins are said to be from the 1715 Fleet shipwreck, and were found on the 300th anniversary of the wreck.

If you're enjoying these, you'll like this video, as well: 10 awesome metal detector finds.







There are still plenty of lost gold treasure stories to follow up on -- like this Civil War era tale from Pennsylvania.  Or the caches thought to have been buried all over the San Francisco area by an absent-minded miner. 

If you open the door, who knows what you'll find when you step through...





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