Treasure Auras

With the common use of the digital camera comes the end of the polaroid camera. I'm 100% sold on the digital camera, but there is one use for the polaroid that some may have never thought to exploit. Dowsing with a polaroid is a little known treasure hunting technique.

If you don't have one of these cameras laying around they are easy to find. You can find them on Ebay, flea markets, thrift stores, and garage sales. The hard part is finding film these days. To try this you will need a uv filter and sx70 film.

It seems that buried gold creates a magnetic change in the earth and thus creates a shaft of light that will appear in the picture. If you have an area that you suspect has hidden treasure the best time to take pictures a half hour after sunrise or a half hour before sunset. I've been told that a foggy day is a good time as well.

Does this work? All I will say is I have a friend that had taken pictures of an area that he wasn't treasure hunting in and one picture had a shaft of light. He went back to the area in which the picture was taken and sure enough there were treasure signs that he had overlooked.

If you want to read more about this Louis Matacia has written several books that covers this and much more. Finding Treasure Auras and Finding Treasure Combining Science and Parapsychology are the titles.

Interpreting Spanish Faces

If you have ever worked a Spanish trail to anything, be it treasure or a camp, you know that they used all sorts of markers to point you in a direction or give you specific information. One of several markers you can find on a Spanish trail is a face. Most of the faces you find will be in profile but occasionally you will come across a full face.

Most of you will think this explanation is pretty much a given but I’m going to give it to you anyway because some people like to read more into signs than what is actually there. Faces almost always look or point in the direction you need to go. They are made to be seen from the trail, therefore most of the time they will not be directly on the trail like some other markers.

What I mean by this is that a face can usually be seen as you are walking on the trail and before you actually need to do what the face tells you, which usually is to change directions. You may be walking in a gully and see a face 30 feet or more in front of you as you are on the trail but you won’t actually go in the direction the face is looking until you get closer. In most cases the direction to go is obvious because you are seeing the face in profile and it is simply looking in the direction you should travel. Nothing more, just “go this way”.

There are some exceptions to this rule and sometimes these exceptions are obvious and sometimes they aren’t. One exception to this rule is if the face isn’t giving a direction. A face can be looking at what you want to find or at something that is very important in taking you to what you are looking for. In other words, a face can be looking directly at the location of a treasure or it may be looking at an important marker or sign that you will need to find the treasure. If this is the case, the face usually can’t be seen from too far away and you usually don’t see it until you are almost right on it. A face can also be used to “oversee” a treasure location. You may go into an area where there is a large face or head on the side of a hill or mountain or even on a cliff and the face or head is looking out over the area where the treasure is. In this case the face probably won’t be looking directly at the treasure but at an area where you will find additional clues that lead you to the treasure in the area the face is looking over.

A face can also be giving you specific information as I talked about in a previous article. In the event the face is looking at the location of the treasure, the face will more than likely also give you some very important information about the hole and how to find it. It all depends on where the face is located. In the same previous article I explained that a face with one eye could be pointing you in a direction to go and telling you which side of the trail to look on. If it is looking at the location of the treasure then the parts of the face such as the mouth and eye can give specific information. There may even be something on the forehead or chin that gives information, all specifically designed to take you to the hole. Remember the KISS theory. Don’t get too elaborate in your theories and break each piece of information down to its basic meaning. Don’t try to read something into it that isn’t there. You have to remember these signs were made so that the person following them could look at them and know what they mean. In most cases there isn’t any surprise information in the sign. You also need to keep in mind where the sign was meant to be seen from. If it was meant to be seen from a distance then any small detail you might notice by going up to the sign and studying it is probably not important.

In the case of the photo I have posted with this article, because of the location and where it is looking, this face is simply telling you to go to the right, the direction the face is looking. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering just how the hell do I know what the face is telling me? Sometimes this is a trial and error thing and sometimes it is obvious. In the case of this face it was very obvious because the ground in the direction the face is looking is basically flat and wide open. Because of that I couldn’t be looking for anything on the right (the side of the face that the eye is on) so it was a matter of going in the direction the face was looking. By going that direction I found another clue about 100 yards a way, in a straight line in the direction the face was looking. I will also say that the next clue could be seen from the face but it was far enough away that you couldn’t see the detail until you got closer.

This face also told me that there was a covered hole in the direction I was to go.

Interpreting faces or heads is as much about where they are located and where you can see them from as it is about the faces themselves. Sometimes you get more information from the face based on where it is and where you are when you see it than the face itself. In the case of the face in the photo I have posted with this article, the face is what I would consider low to the ground and can only be seen from one direction and you have to be fairly close to it before you can see it because of the terrain. This indicated to me that this particular face was giving me a change in direction and I should go in the direction the face was “looking”.

Keep it simple and you will go far.

Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979

“AN ACT To protect archaeological resources on public lands and Indian lands, and for other purposes.”

It’s that “other purposes” line that will get you every time!

For those of you that hunt on or even near federal public lands or Indian lands you should acquaint yourself with this federal law. This particular law does not seem to apply to those of us looking for buried money but then again, I’m no lawyer and some suit working for Uncle Sam may see things differently.

According to Section 12 of this Act, subsection “b” says that “nothing in this Act applies to, or requires a permit for, the collection for private purposes of any rock, coin, bullet, or mineral which is not an archaeological resource, as determined under uniform regulations promulgated under section 3(1)”. Doesn’t that make you feel so much better?

In short, the Archeological Resources Protection Act 1979 or ARPA 1979, says that anything 100 years old or older found on public or Indian lands could be considered an archeological resource. Removing any of those resources could put you in jeopardy of some pretty severe criminal and civil penalties that range from one to five years in prison and fines up to $100,000.00. Ouch!

Supposedly this act does not cover the finding of arrowheads that “are laying on top of the ground” or “non-fossilized and fossilized pale-ontological specimens, or any portion or piece thereof” as long as they are not found in “an archaeological context”, what ever that means. I’m sure that if you were to ask two archeologists and two government suits the definition of “archeological context” you would probably get four completely different answers.

I personally know of at least one person who found some of those “fossilized pale-ontological specimens” that were off by themselves with no “archeological context” and when he reported the specimens, dinosaur bones, they were quickly scooped up by the archies, never to be seen again with no benefit to the man who found them.

The act is pretty specific about certain things that shouldn’t be looked for or messed with on public lands. Those items include “pottery, basketry, bottles, weapons, weapon projectiles, tools, structures or portions of structures, pit houses, rock paintings, rock carvings, intaglios, graves, human skeletal materials, or any portion or piece of any of the foregoing items”. For the most part I would agree with the purpose of this Act but I always fear how certain things will be used by an over zealous bureaucrat. And there is always one of those around somewhere!

The Act does say that permits can be applied for and supposedly issued to individuals who wish to hunt these archeological resources but if you know anything about archeology then you know to get a permit will probably take some pretty good credentials.

It would seem that if you are hunting treasure and come across a carving left by the Spanish or an outlaw more than 100 years ago (I know, Duh??) then this carving would be covered under the ARPA 1979. Now normally there would be no need to harm a carving and I would say you should never harm a carving but that over zealous bureaucrat might consider chalking or pouring water on a carving to photograph it “harm” so you should be very careful of this. I would also say that if you are hunting Spanish treasure and are opening a tunnel you have at least a 20% chance of running across a skeleton or two. Again, I’m all for the archies doing their thing, especially if the bones turn out to be Native American, but I’m sure if I notified the archies of some bones in a tunnel, the bones would be the ONLY thing in the tunnel when the archies got there and those bones would have been the only thing I saw.

If you want to make yourself more familiar with this Act you can find it here: http://archnet.asu.edu/Topical/CRM/usdocs/arpa79.html

I should point out that this Act has no bearing on anything found on private lands but there are a few other laws out there that might, so do your homework!

Pillsbury Crossing, Kansas

Here is a spot that would be good for a day hunt using a metal detector to find coins, relics and maybe some jewelry. This would be the perfect place to get some practice in with a new detector.

You will want to check with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to make sure you aren’t breaking any rules.

Pillsbury Crossing is located in Riley County, KS and is named after Josiah Pillsbury who homesteaded near the crossing in 1855. He later moved into Manhattan, KS and started the Manhattan Independent newspaper. The crossing was used by many people, especially those in wagons, to cross Deep Creek. At this point Deep Creek flows over a limestone ledge and just down from the crossing, about 100 feet, is a waterfall that drops four to five feet. The crossing is passable year round with just a few inches of water flowing across except during heavy rains, when the water level goes up. I would think this would be one of those “DUH” statements but I thought I would add it in just in case.

Besides being a crossing place for wagons the crossing and falls were used as a picnic area in the past and continues to be used as one today. During the warm months the crossing is used by all sorts of people, including college kids from the area, as a place to congregate and cool off and in the case of the college kids, I’m sure more than one of them has taken the opportunity to be stupid!

Since the area was homesteaded in the past and has been frequented by people for more than a century the opportunity to find some old coins, along with some new coins, jewelry and probably a beer can or two would seem to be good.

If you want to visit Pillsbury Crossing you can find it by traveling approximately 2 miles east from Manhattan, KS on K-177 to Riley County Road 911. From there travel east 3.9 miles to the intersection of 911 and Pillsbury Crossing Road. Turn left onto Pillsbury Crossing Road and travel almost two and one half miles. At that point you should see signs directing you to the crossing that is very near where you are.

Because of the overgrowth and the amount of people that visit this place during the summer I would suggest doing your metal detecting during the winter months. There will be no bugs or snakes and probably no people. Just the way I like it!

One Man's Toy.....

I took this one straight from today's news. It's not necessarily about treasure hunting the way most of us think of it but it is one way to look for gold!

LONDON (AFP) - An ancient gold cup mysteriously acquired by an English scrap metal dealer is expected to fetch close to a million dollars at auction after languishing for years in a shoebox under its current owner's bed.

Owner John Webber says his grandfather gave him the 5.5-inch (14-centimetre) high mug to play with when he was a child, back in 1945. He assumed the golden cup, which is decorated with the heads of two women facing in opposite directions, their foreheads garlanded with two knotted snakes, was made from brass.

But he decided to get it valued when he was moving house last year and was told it was actually a rare piece of ancient Persian treasure, beaten out of a single sheet of gold hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Experts said the method of manufacture and the composition of the gold was "consistent with Achaemenid gold and gold smithing" dating back to the third or fourth century BC. The Achaemenid empire, the first of the Persian empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Iran, was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

Auction house Duke's, in Dorchester, southwest England, will put the cup under the hammer on June 5, with an estimate of 500,000 pounds (630,000-euro, 988,000-dollars).

Webber, 70, told The Guardian newspaper that his grandfather had a "good eye" for antiques and picked up "all sorts" as he plied his trade in the town of Taunton in south-west England. "Heaven knows where he got this, he never said," he added, revealing that as a child, he used the cup for target practice with his air gun.

I guess it's a good thing an air gun was all he had!!

A Treasure Tale From Oklahoma

In the winter of 1869 a group of outlaws, supposedly numbering 17, attacked an army caravan carrying a payroll of gold near Mill Creek in south central Oklahoma. The gold was supposedly being transported from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma and the attack left all of the soldiers dead and five of the outlaws dead or dying.

After loading the gold from the caravan onto mules that the outlaws had brought with them they formed the wagons of the caravan into a circle and set them on fire. This was done to make any other soldiers looking for the caravan think the attack was by Indians. The outlaws then supposedly rode for several hours before stopping and splitting up the gold. The gold was split into three piles. Two of the piles were put into sacks and cooking pots and buried in two separate sites along a creek. (The original story says these two burial spots were along Mill Creek so this would indicate the outlaws must have followed that creek to make their get away.) The third pile, supposedly the largest of the three piles was put into several coffee cans and loaded back onto the mules.

The outlaws then headed into the Arbuckle mountains where they spent the night in a cave. The story goes that the outlaws buried the coffee cans full of gold in the floor of the cave before leaving the next day. When they left, they split into three groups, one headed for Mexico, one headed toward Arkansas and the third headed for Missouri. Their intention was to meet up two months later and recover the gold.

The group riding for Arkansas was found and apparently all killed while trying to be apprehended. The group headed for Missouri was also found and all but one of the outlaws in that group was killed. The one that escaped death spent nearly 20 years in prison for the robbery. This is supposedly the origin of this story. As he lay dying in Saint Joseph, Missouri this old outlaw told his caretaker about the robbery and drew a crude map showing where the robbery took place, the location of Fort Arbuckle and the three spots where the gold would be found.

I should mention that the third group of outlaws that headed for Mexico apparently made it there but never returned for the gold.

The caretaker of the old outlaw in St. Joseph, Missouri was convinced that with the map, he could find the gold so he sold his business and moved to Davis, Oklahoma where he began his search. Davis, Oklahoma was apparently the closest town to the area where the gold was buried. After several years and no luck the well worn map passed to Samuel Davis, the founder of Davis, Oklahoma as he had become friends with the owner of the map.

It is said that Samuel Davis looked for the treasure on occasion and on one of those occasions he ran across a rancher who owned land where one of the first two caches was supposed to be buried. In talking with the rancher Samuel Davis was told he was aware of the treasure story and that several people had been to the land before looking for it. It is said that one of those times a group of Mexicans arrived and wanted to go fishing in the creek. The ranch owner became suspicious after noticing the Mexicans apparently didn’t have any fishing gear and went to check on them later. Upon arriving at the spot they were at the rancher noticed several holes dug in the ground and one of them still contained an empty pot with the impressions of coins on the inside of the pot.

It was thought by Samuel Davis that the Mexicans were descendants of one of the original outlaws. Samuel Davis continued to search for the second buried cache along the creek but was said to have had no luck in finding it.

It would appear that this story has some merits since it involved the founder of a town and a story of treasure found. Could a person get lucky enough to find the cave with the coffee cans full of gold in the Arbuckle Mountains with nothing to go on but that little piece of information? Is the other burial spot along the creek still out there? Were both burial spots along the creek actually on Mill Creek? There is a belief among some people that one of the burial spots was on Guy Sandy Creek and not Mill Creek but without further research you may never know. I’ll leave that research for you.

There is a version of this story in Steve Wilson’s book although that is not where I found this information.

A Hoax with a Brick Foundation?

I will start off by apologizing for the really bad photos posted with this article. The only ones I could get my hands on were photocopies from an old newspaper.

No matter who you are, especially if you are a treasure hunter, I’m sure you have heard the stories about Jesse James faking his death in St. Joseph, MO and living on under an assumed name someplace else. And causing lots of headaches for people like you and me I might add! If you are a regular reader of this blog you will also know that I DO NOT believe J. Frank Dalton was Jesse James. You may not know that I am still unconvinced that Jesse James actually died in 1882 as history reports it so I am keeping an open mind about his alleged death.

With that in mind I am presenting some information that I’m not quite sure what to make of and I will let the readers draw their own conclusions. The story goes that Jesse James faked his death and in some stories, Charlie Bigelow was killed in his place. In the book “Jesse James Was One of His Names” Del Schrader and Orvus Lee Howk go on to say that there were some carvings made in wet bricks, I believe it was three bricks and the carvings were made by John Trammell, the Jesse James slave that traveled with the gang. These carvings were to stand as testament that Jesse James was not killed in St Joseph, MO but it was in fact, Charlie Bigelow. The bricks were supposedly left behind on purpose to prove that Jesse James did not die that day.

On 11 July 1967 a young boy named Danny Hargrave found one of those bricks. One of the inscriptions on this brick was “3 killed here April 3 1882 John Bigelow Charles Bigelow Bert Bigelow”. Other carvings found on the brick included “777”, a horseshoe and a star. There are the initials of “J J” on this brick in one corner. There was also a dagger, an 8 or infinity sign along with other symbols on this brick. If you look closely at the photographs I have posted (and squint with one eye) you can see most of the carvings.

Now for the logical side of my brain to kick in, does it stand to reason that John Trammel or anyone else associated with Jesse James would find “wet bricks” to carve in with all of the commotion going on around the home because of the death? Also, there was no mention of John Trammell even being in St. Joseph, MO at the time. Did Trammell or someone else come back at a later date, maybe a much later date, to bury these bricks as “evidence” of a cover-up?

I guess you could logically assume that maybe they came back sometime later and placed the bricks there but that brings us to another problem. According to the local St. Joseph newspaper, old photographs of the spot where the one brick was found show that the grading of the land had been lowered more than ten feet “in later years” and prior to the brick being found. That would mean that the brick would have had to have been buried more than ten feet deep on the site of Jesse’s home in St. Joseph, MO when it was hidden. If you were leaving a clue behind for someone to find would you really bury a brick ten feet deep? The writer of the newspaper article surmises that the brick was placed at the site a long time after the grade was changed in an effort to confuse history. Personally, I think history is confused enough as it is and didn’t really need the brick.

That brings us to Orvus Howk and Del Schrader’s book. The book wasn’t written until the 1970’s, published in 1975, so Howk and Schrader would have been aware of the bricks existence because of the newspaper article and could have included it in the book as “proof”.

One problem with that so-called proof is Orvus Howk said that the brick had an inscription on it of “KGC”. This was a blatant lie because as you can see, even in my crappy photos, KGC is nowhere to be found on this brick.

Now it’s up to you to decide if the brick has any real part in history or if it affects how you hunt for that elusive treasure.