More on interpreting symbols

With the recent airing of a History Channel show about Jesse James and the KGC there has been a lot of activity on the different treasure hunting forums about how to interpret a symbol and what may or may not be a K.G.C. symbol.

For those of you not familiar with the forums or the illustrious group known as the K.G.C., the initials stand for the Knights of the Golden Circle. A not so secret group that popped up before the Civil War with the intent of taking over Mexico and Cuba so they could add to the number of Southern States.

There are true believers in the myths of the fantastic and gi-normous (it’s a technical term) treasures of the KGC and as you can tell, since I used the word “myths” I am not one of the true believers. With that said, I don’t want this article to be about whether or not the KGC had the gi-normous treasures, it’s about the symbols they may have used to hide any treasure they did leave behind.

As a side note, I do believe the KGC did leave behind a few “road caches”, small amounts of money for their members to use if needed and they may be responsible for a few supply caches, but that’s all in my opinion. Also, for the novice hunters out there the word is pronounced “cash”, not “cash shay”. Just thought I would throw that in!

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign! This is, in reality, a pretty true statement even though it is the lyrics of a song. For you young folks you may have to look that one up. When this blog first started one of our contributors that goes by the name of Rockman posted an article about how to find a treasure site. I suggest you read this if you haven’t already because it will help.

As for KGC signs, you’re going to hate me for this one but, to my knowledge there are only five symbols that were carved at sites that definitively say “this is a KGC site“. What are those symbols? I can’t tell you! Sorry, but this information was given to me in confidence not to be given out to anyone, at least not for several more years. I will say that if you do your homework you will recognize three of the five symbols if you ever see them at a site. That leaves the rest of the symbols that you find being what ever they are. No one can say they are KGC without digging up a treasure directly tied to the KGC by documents or with something in it that says positively that the treasure was left behind by the KGC.

It is my opinion that most of the treasure symbols you find carved are probably going to be outlaw or maybe even Mexican. Although you can run into just about anything, French, Chinese, Spanish, etc. Does it matter who left them behind? Yes and no. For the most part interpreting symbols is interpreting symbols and who left them there is secondary. Having a good idea of who left them there is always a good thing and may help you with interpreting them but it’s not an absolute necessary thing to have.

You will not find very many books that will help you interpret carved outlaw symbols. If you go looking for something with the interpretation already in the book it probably won‘t do you much good. The majority of books show the meaning of certain symbols, mostly Spanish and Indian but for the most part there aren’t any books out there that help with interpreting outlaw symbols. Not yet anyway!

How do you interpret an outlaw or the infamous KGC symbol? The easiest way to explain it is to look at it as a street sign. You were wondering about the picture at the top weren't you? Street signs impart information by showing you a picture of what you need to do. An S indicates an S shaped curve ahead in the road, a 90 degree arrow means a turn and so on. This is how most outlaw and some other symbols are interpreted.

Keep in mind that there are some things that are what they seem. A number can actually be a number but it can also be something else. Letters can be letters and may be used as abreviations however I have found this to be rare on carved maps. None of this is easy. If it was, everybody would be doing it.

You have to keep in mind that you are dealing with an individual map maker that made the map so that the one person or small group that made the map could get back to what they left behind. These maps weren’t made as a code in the true sense of the word because there is no “key” that unravels the meaning of the symbols. The symbols were made to remind the map maker of what to do. Some maps can be very precise and give exact point to point directions where other maps will give you a lot less information.

I have written about this on the blog before. These maps can be and generally are a kind of shorthand. It’s about giving enough information to the person who made the map so that they will remember how to get back to the spot where they stashed that money. It’s not necessarily an exact direction.

Once you have found your map and you are trying to interpret the symbols you need to keep in mind that the symbols will generally be one of two types. The first type is informational or directional. By this I mean the symbol is telling you to do something such as go down hill in a straight line or turn 90 degrees at this point or go around something, etc. The second type of symbol depicts an object. By this I mean that the symbol is a drawing of something you will find if you follow the informational or directional symbol correctly. This second type can simply be a drill hole or "dot" to indicate something is there. That something can even be the treasure you are looking for.

These types of symbols will alternate on the carved map but may not necessarily be every other symbol. How can that be you say? Contrary to belief, outlaws were rarely in a hurry to hide their loot and they were not stupid. A symbol on a map may take you to an object on the trail such as a rock or bluff or big tree. There can be more symbols on these objects that you find while working the trail. The symbols on the objects you find on the trail could give you a new direction or path to take or they could be showing you what you will find next if you follow the next symbol on the original carved map.

You have to keep an open mind about what you are doing and not get set that something just has to be a specific way. There will always be a trick or two or twelve in the maps. These would include anything from mirror imaging part or all of the map to hiding symbols on the objects you find on the trail to even putting other objects in or at the objects you find on the trail such as a metal clue, a gun, knife or a stone that is in a specific shape, just to name a few. Keep in mind that if these other clues are hidden there will be something in the map that tells you to look for them. It may not tell you what to look for but it will tell you that you should be looking for something. You have to keep in mind the topography around the object that you find when you are working the trail. The symbol on your map after the object or any symbol on the object itself will be based on the topography around that specific object.

You can’t rule out anything until you actually find what you are looking for. How do you know which symbol is directional and which is an object? You just have to work it out with the first symbol. Once you get the first few symbols interpreted you will start to see a pattern and then it will start to really come together. It will never be easy but it can be easier than what you think.

Is this all there is to working a carved map? Absolutely not. It would take a good sized book to explain the different things you can run into while working a map and even then there will always be something new come up. There were no rules in map making by the outlaws. They did what they wanted and that’s just they way it is.

For those of you dead set on finding that illusive KGC site, these will be set out the same way except you will find that these are the type of maps that are precise and give point to point directions. Those five symbols I mentioned earlier, if you run across one of those it won’t be part of the map. It will be off to the side or top of the map and be just like a stamp or sign. It’s sole purpose is to indicate this is/was a KGC hidey spot so the members would know to read the map.

What’s that you say? You have a KGC template? Well in my opinion, the only thing it’s good for is if you happen to run out of toilet paper.

We can discuss the template and it’s origins in another article. You just can’t wait, can you?

The Ultimate Detector and Treasure?

I’m a little behind the times on this one because the information I have is from 2005. I did a quick search on the internet for some updated information but didn’t find any right off the bat so I thought I would leave it to the readers if they wanted to do more.

“Arturito” Never heard of it? Me neither but according to it’s designers it is the ultimate in treasure finding equipment. “Arturito’ or Little Arthur but affectionately known as R2D2 is a robot designed by a Chilean company called Wagnor Technologies. It is said to use a mix of ground penetrating radar, magnatometry and one or two things they aren’t talking about.

According to Wagnor Technologies, during a scan of what is known as Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile they discovered 600 barrels of Spanish treasure that people have been looking for for centuries. The estimated worth of this treasure in 2005 (the date of the article I was reading) is said to be TEN BILLION DOLLARS!

How much has gold gone up in the last four years?

According to Arturito the treasure is located about 50 feet down in the center of the island. Wagnor technologies immediately began to apply for permits to recover the treasure and said they would give it away to charity. The Chilean government quickly stepped in and said “you can’t give away something you don’t own” and promised to take 100% ownership of any treasure on the island. Presumably this was done because they didn’t have a permit to search for the treasure in the first place.

Are you skeptical of Arturito? Me too but the little robot is not without it's own credits. Shortly after being put into service the robot solved a murder mystery by locating the body of a missing businessman. Arturito used some of it’s specialized sensors to analyse the soil and "identify the molecular composition of human bones". The police then dug exactly where the robot indicated and found the remains of the murder victim.

Want more, the Chileans had been trying to find a cache of weapons left behind by a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad for several years with no luck. The arsenal included several rifles and rocket launchers. Along comes Arturito and bam, (no not really, it's a figure of speech) it finds the weapons. The stash was almost thirty feet deep but the robot “saw” them anyway.

As I said before, I didn’t find anything during a quick search to update the progress on the recovery of the 600 barrels of treasure but for some reason I think we might have heard about this through the regular news channels had it actually been recovered.

Does this treasure truly exist or is it just another one of those KGC myths? (sorry, couldn’t help myself) According to history the treasure is real. The treasure was supposedly buried on the island in 1715 by Spanish Captain General Don Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria.

Apparently the General Capitan had his own plans and started secret communications with the English, in which he revealed the location of the buried treasure. These communications were eventually entrusted to English pirate British Admiral Lord George Anson, and he was told of the location of the treasure. The treasure is referred to by various names including the "Treasure of Vera Cruz" and "Lord Anson's Treasure".

So why didn’t General Capitan go back and get the treasure himself? You’ve heard of that Spanish treasure in Florida haven’t you, You know, the one from all of those ships that sank because they sailed into a massive hurricane? General Capitan Ubilla had the misfortune of being on one of those ships and perished during the hurricane.

The story continues:

“In 1761, British Admiral Lord George Anson dispatched the English sailor Cornelius Webb to recover the treasure that Ubilla buried on Mas a Tierra. According to a poor translation of The Juan Fernandez Commune, Webb arrived in Mas a Tierra in 1761 and recovered Ubilla's treasure, and set sail, however a storm split the mast of the Unicorn. Webb returned to Robinson Crusoe Island, reburied the treasure, and sailed to Valparaiso, Chile to repair his ships and then complete his mission. However, at this point, he learned the the crew planned to mutiny upon their return to Mas a Tierra, to seize the treasure for themselves. So, Webb promptly sailed from Valparaiso, and torched his ship, killing all hands at sea, and rowing himself back to Valparaiso. He was the sole survivor of the journey.

At this point, captain Cornelius Webb sent messages back to Lord George Anson, his sponsor back in England, explaining what had happened, and detailing the location of the buried treasure in code. Unfortunately, Anson died suddenly on June 6, 1762, 5 months before the arrival of Webb's envoy. These messages were presumed lost to antiquity. Then, miracuously, after 190 years, the documents resurfaced in Northern England. In 1950, a stranger contacted Chilean physician Luis Cousiño, a Crusoe Island resident, and sent him the documents.
One of the two letters that Webb had sent to Anson indicated that a third message was buried in Chile. After searching for a while, Luis Cousiño managed to find the third treasure map in the bath(beach?) of Horcón, (45 kilometers North of) Valparaiso, Chile.

In 1950, Chilean physician Luis Cousiño and the Italian Count Di Giorgio searched for the treasure on Crusoe Island, in the town of San Juan Baptist, on Powder Street, but were unsuccessful.”

And if all of that isn’t enough for you there were pirates, lots and lots of pirates arghhhh! that used this island. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of buried treasures that are supposed to be on the Robinson Crusoe Island and a lot of them are fairly large in size.

Make sure you get your permits from the Chilean government BEFORE you go looking for any of these!

Reputations

I’m sure most of you were like me when you were growing up, always dreaming of that great adventure and doing the things most people, won’t, can’t or don’t believe in. Treasure hunting was and still is one of those things. We have all seen the pirate movies, arghhhh! and thought of the day when we would make the find of a lifetime. I don’t know about the rest of you but I still have that dream.

It used to be that treasure hunters had that mysterious, swashbuckling and an almost romantic image. There was nothing wrong with treasure hunting. The people who didn’t believe in it still thought you were nuts but they didn’t mind somebody swinging a metal detector, hiking through the countryside and digging a few holes.

These days a lot of that has changed thanks to the unscrupulous few that refused to care for the land or honor their word to a land owner. We as a group have almost been vilified by the different government agencies, mostly out of greed on their own part, but also due in part to how treasure hunters have not looked after the land. Add to that the archies out there that continuously call us grave robbers or thieves and you paint a picture that most people won’t like.

Keep in mind I’m not saying all archies are bad but I have my own way of thinking and I’m sure 90% of the archies and all of the government agencies wouldn’t care for it. It is my opinion that if a person is willing to spend their own time and money on a project they should be able to make a recovery and keep what they find. It’s called finders keepers. If the archies or museums think whatever is recovered is important to society then they can cough up the cash like anybody else and buy the find. It’s that simple. Keeping sites off limits to treasure hunters because maybe, one day, an archie might get around to looking at it is ridiculous at best.

With that said, we, as treasure hunters do have some responsibility to look after history and not go tearing it to pieces with a back hoe or shovel when possible. Mistakes happen, even to archies, but for the most part as treasure hunters we should take care in our digging and documenting in the event what we find may actually be historical in the sense that it deserves to be in a museum.

This is why I always stress to take your time when digging and photograph everything a lot when working a site. Digging slow may also help you in recovering another necessary clue so it is a good thing anyway. Having contracts with land owners and keeping to those contracts will help you and other treasure hunters in the future. We are not a group of Indiana Jones, although there are a couple of people that wear the hat on occasion, we are treasure hunters and if we have a good reputation then we stand a better chance at getting access to other areas where we may want to search.

I for one don’t go looking for anything an archie would be interested in anyway. I am a treasure hunter in the true sense of the word, looking for buried treasure left behind by somebody else. I think I speak for most, if not all of our readers when I say we are not digging up dinosaurs or rummaging through Indian burial grounds, I am looking for cold, hard, treasure. The shiny kind, or not so shiny if it has actually been in the ground for a while!

I don’t believe in disturbing Indian burial grounds and I would happily turn in anybody that I knew was involved in that activity. I do look for Spanish treasure and this might give me the opportunity to find some Spanish armor one day (with any luck at all) and as I said before, I would consider this finders keepers.

There are a lot of fine lines in treasure hunting, ones that the reputable treasure hunters never cross intentionally. We all have our own set of rules we live and hunt by. What I might do someone else wouldn’t and vice versa. This doesn’t make it right or wrong, just different. Now that doesn’t mean that because you don’t see anything wrong with digging into an Indian burial ground that there’s nothing wrong with it. Fine lines people, fine lines. You all should know what I’m talking about and be able to draw your own distinctions.

I hope that our readers will adhere to a code of ethics when hunting. Greed and the need to get that treasure at all costs are not things that go well with our hobby.

Extremely Disappointed

For those of you that read this blog regularly or who know me personally you know that I’m not a big believer in the KGC mega-millions myths nor do I believe Jesse James was in control of part or all of the KGC.

With the disclaimers out of the way I can’t in good faith just sit by and not say anything about the show that aired on the History Channel about Jesse James on the evening of 9 November 2009. My problems with this show don’t even take into account anything said about the KGC.

I have lost all my faith in the History Channel as there wasn’t very much verifiable information or in my opinion, truthful information in this show. The one outstanding truth during the whole show was stated by Mr. Pastore himself when he said he didn’t know how to interpret the signs. This is true, he does not!

In case you think I am just being a spoil sport, I do know what I speak of. I had the unpleasant misfortune of working with Mr. Pastore on this same treasure site several years ago. He, in my opinion, is not someone you would want to work a site with. My own connection to Mr. Pastore was quickly severed by myself in just a couple of months because of the way he worked.

It is my opinion that the treasure they did “find” was planted before hand. Please watch this carefully and take note at how clean the coins are and especially how clean the jar is when it comes out of the ground. Anyone that has ever dug a jar or coin out of the ground will recognize this to be suspicious. Please keep in mind this is strictly my opinion and I have no proof that this is what occurred. I would ask that anyone that is tempted to contact Mr. Pastore for information or help with a treasure site be very cautious in doing so.

I could go on and on for days about the misconceptions brought about by this show but I don’t want to dwell on something needlessly.

I apologize to the readers if this article is not what you expected. As I said, I could not in good faith let this go by without a warning to others based on my opinions.

For the Die Hard KGC Folks

If you are one of the true believers in the KGC and Jesse James' involement in the group then you may want to tune in to your TV tomorrow night (Monday, 9 November 2009)

From the history Channel, http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=502912

"By the time Jesse James was killed in 1882, he'd stolen over a million and a half dollars according to some estimates--gold, coins and cash that could be worth over $50 million today. History often paints James as a clever outlaw who stole money to finance a lavish criminal lifestyle, a man whose sixteen year long crime spree came to a dramatic halt in 1882 when a fellow gang member betrayed him and shot him dead in the back of the head. But now, a treasure hunt may reveal a totally new story. Was Jesse really stealing for himself, or was he actually secreting away large sums of wealth, in order to finance one of the most clandestine secret societies in American history? Follow a team of treasure hunters searching for where he stashed his riches... and a new truth about Jesse James. Their discoveries may not only re-write the history of why Jesse stole, it could also raise new questions about his death."

This is sure to bring about some new (and old) questions and fire up all of the KGC mega-million myths. Could be fun!

Thank you Homer for the link.

A Colorado Treasure Hunt

As treasure hunters we have all had those times where a family member or friend and even the occasional on looker has told us we are nuts for doing what we do. It takes a special kind of mentality to be a treasure hunter and to stick with it. This story is about a man who is sticking to his guns and following his beliefs. Something we should all admire.

I would like to thank our buddy Homer for sending this to me.

Once upon a time there was a man and his daughter from Amarillo, Texas. OK, OK, here’s the story.

It does involve and man and his daughter and they are from Amarillo. Gary Smith has been looking for a treasure he believes to be worth “close to a billion dollars”. The treasure is said to be over 200 years old and was originally left behind by the Spanish, then found by the French and then lost again.

As the story goes, the Spanish found a rich gold mine in the mountains of Colorado only to leave it behind for some reason. According to Gary Smith the French were on an expedition from New Orleans that started in 1799 and they found the old Spanish mine. According to Mr. Smith the mine is supposedly called “ la mina perdida de la ventana”.

According to the information in the article this is supposed to roughly translate to “the lost mine”. I didn’t try to translate the phrase but it seems odd to me that the Spanish would name their mine the lost mine. If they new where it was and were working it then it wouldn’t be lost would it?

Anyway, Mr. Smith says the frogs found the mine during the expedition and in the process made new markers to take them back to it. The French markers are what Mr. Smith and his daughter are currently following. They say they have found at over 40 different markers that are leading them on the trail to their final destination, the lost mine. As far as I can tell the mine is supposed to be a rich mine and not have any pre-mined gold stacked in it but the story didn’t give all of the details.

According to Mr. Smith’s daughter Emily, some of the markers are shaped like turtles and they refer to them as “turtle rocks”. Imagine that!

Gary Smith has been looking for this treasure for 28 years now and his daughter joined the hunt about eight years ago. It appears that the Smiths may actually be on to something. In 2006 the National Forest Service and the Colorado Department of Agriculture issued a treasure trove permit to the Smiths so they could make a recovery should they find the end of their trail. This would bring up the question of what is actually in the mine. If they are looking for a mine to take raw gold out of then you think they would have been issued a mining permit but instead it was a treasure trove permit. That would indicate to me that there may be some gold already mined sitting there waiting for the Smiths to recover.

Here is the link to the original story. http://myhighplains.com/content/fulltext/?cid=89991
There is a short video with the story that you might want to watch. The story also says that there will be a follow up video showing some of the markers they have found.

This has been one of those weeks and I haven’t had time to follow up on this so you wil have to do some looking on your own if you are interested.

If anyone finds any additional video of the clues please leave a comment on the blog with a link for everyone to see.

Happy Hunting!

Scotch on the Rocks, a treasure found

Are you tired of looking for precious metals and getting rich? Do you long for an adventure that will take you to places rarely explored but offer a challenge and a reward?

Well pack your bags and a heavy coat and head off to Antarctica. In 1907 an explorer named Sir Ernest Shackleton made an expedition into the frozen wasteland in an attempt to make it to the South Pole. Being that they didn’t have things like “hot hands” and other chemical heaters to take along back then they took the next best thing, alcohol! That’s right, hooch. Besides using the occasional shot to warm the insides they also apparently used it as a way of combating the long artic nights. Sir Shackleton’s drink of choice was Mackinley’s scotch and he took a whopping 25 cases of the stuff on his expedition to keep himself and his men warm.

I couldn’t find any information that indicated how much of the 25 cases were consumed during the expedition but there were several crates left behind. Two of those cases were found in 2006 but they haven’t been able to recover them yet.

Cape Royds is located along the coast of Antarctica. The temperatures there can get to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit and as you can image, is not inhabited by anyone. On this miserable little chunk of volcanic rock sit’s a shack that has been there for over a century. I don’t know who the person was or what possessed them to crawl into the small space under the floor of this shack but when they did they discovered two cases of Shackleton’s scotch. It was frozen solid to the ground and could not be taken out.

It has taken three years but they now think they have a plan and the technology to thaw the ground around the hooch so that it can be recovered. I would think a couple of good heaters or a plasma cutter would do the trick but I guess that is too simple for the big brains to figure out. The recovery expedition is set for January which is the summertime in the Antarctic.

Now for the bad news. You knew there had to be a catch didn’t you? According to an international treaty, once the scotch is recovered it can’t be taken out of Antarctica because of “conservation“ reasons. The ignorance of the bureaucracy never ceases to amaze me.

So if you go looking for the rest of the scotch left behind by Sir Ernest Shackleton and you are lucky enough to find it, I guess you’ll just have to drink it there. You could call it recycling couldn’t you?