TRUE OR FALSE?

[Tom_in_CA]

The stories are normally bogus to begin with. Hey guys, here's a true story, to illistrate that it won't matter how many versions of a story you look at to compare, no matter how much you try to weed out embellished parts, and no matter how much you think the government is involved in a cover-up conspiracy. The stories are normally bogus to begin with. This is a true story to show how the psychology works:

A friend of mine was detecting an old town urban sidewalk demo, with the daily permission of the const. workers. As the end of each day, he shows the workers his finds, and everyone exchanges ooohs and aahhaas (seateds, V's, barbers, etc...). One day, he finds an odd owl head-shaped charm pendant, with what appears to be jewels for the eyes. The metal appears to be gold. My friend shows it to the workers, and .... speculates that it could be gold, and it looks like jewels in the eyes. And if commensurate with the age of the coins, is over 100 yrs. old! The workers were QUITE impressed. That night, at home, my friend studied the piece more, and discovered that it was nothing but pot-metal cheap costume jewelry from the 1920s, perhaps. And the "jewels"? Nothing more than glass. In other words, junk.

The next day, mid-afternoon, when my friend showed up to check the next block of tearouts, he noticed one tractor worker eyeing him very closely. My friend figured it must be a new worker. After awhile, the new worker gathered up his bravery, and went over to talk to my friend. My friend told the worker that nothing super valuable had turned up in the last few days, just the usual coins, period targets, etc.... The worker then told my friend that a guy had been there the day before, and had found a super valuable antique thing, solid gold! At first, my friend thought "cr*p, someone must've come after I left for the day, and found something good!" As he listened to the worker more though, the worker mentioned that the solid gold item was "shaped like an owl". At that, my friend realized that the worker was talking about him (must've over-heard other workers talk at the water cooler), and he simply didn't understand that the "owl" turned out to be nothing. So he told the worker this.

Here's where the human psychology comes into play, so pay attention: The worker refused to believe him! When my friend told him "that was me, and no, it wasn't gold, and the eyes were just glass, not jewels, etc..." The worker simply assumed then, that there must another md'r. Because, afterall, he works there, and his buddies saw it FIRST HAND! (and perhaps the size now had also grown from walnut sized, to base-ball sized owl, eh?

Now the reason I tell you this, is that was the course of events over a single night! Now imagine adding 100 yrs., and some newspaper reporter in an 1890s newspaper, who "gets his information on good authority" (can't argue with an employee eye-witness like the one in my story, right?) The human mind wants so hard to believe (so that you don't get "left out"), that no amount of common sense or reason, will dissuade people from believing the stories.

Probably the best way to find a cache, is not to chase the "legends", but instead, get yourself a 2-box machine, and wander around old ruins of habitations, cellar holes, ghost towns, etc....

 

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[Frankn]

Al: They dug the hole at Dents Run and found that what the GPS had located was WATER. If I remember correctly it was Finderskeepers.
Tom_in_ca: I do have a 2 Box and have found things with it. As far as the stories. I believe a lot of them are based on facts and have been "scrambled" along the way. My assignment as a treasure hunter is to sort out the assumed truth and put it in a logical order. Sure, the BS is hard to pick out but that is part of the fun. It's like putting a jigsaw puzzel together that has extra pieces and maybe a few missing. It's like life, nothing is easy unless your daddy was a millionair and mine was, but it didn't help me out any, but that's another story.
Frank

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[Tom_in_CA]

Frankn, whenever the issue of these "big fish story legends" comes up, the believers will say, just as you say: "but there's some facts in these stories, it's just a matter of sorting them out". And to those that want to believe, it's a statement like that, that keeps the "carrot dangling", that ......... "there may still be a treasure there, so long as I am smart enough, to weed through the errors, embellishments, and downright fabrications". So you see, at no time does the believer think there ISN'T a treasure there, it's just that "he must weed through the errors". Do you get it?

So using my true story to test this, let's say, 100 yrs. from now, a treasure mag. runs a story on the "lost treasures of the sidewalks of podunkville". And it cites the worker's "firsthand account" of the treasures brought to the surface, which "sources say, was just the tip of an ice-berg of treasure still waiting to be found".

Now if someone 100 yrs. from now says: "the story is bogus superstition, embellishments, and bologna", someone else will say exactly what you did: "no, it's just a matter of weeding through to root out the errors", right? But think of it: There IS no treasures under the sidewalks of podunkville, right? Becuase it was all a mis-understanding, and the newspaper reporter who might have interviewed that worker, the day after my friend left him, was simply parotting mis-information. And even though the newspaper reporter would *seem* to have iron-clad sources. You can't ask for better than the construction co. rep. who ........ got it firsthand at the water cooler from his coworkers, who ..... saw it with their own eyes!" I mean, we're not talking passerbys here, we're talking authorized const. workers with cool vests and hard-hats. Who had granted him permission and were the only ones allowed to be behind the yellow tape (you can even check with a lawyer if you doubt me about the yellow tape rule!). And on and on I can go with the "truths" of my little story. But none of it means a THING. There is no treasure under the sidewalks, and the story leads nowhere, just like 99% of the stories you read.

 

[maipenrai]

Are you sure there is no treasure under the sidewalk? I think it has been a good cover up, and you are part of it, trying to keep all the gold and jewels to yourself! People with funny hats and behind yellow tape do not lie.

If there is anyone that would like to invest, we could do a 50/50 split. I'm sure we can find that side walk, and I have seen construction workers acting strangely when I get my detector out of the car. I think they have something to hide. When I tried to get permission from the county to dig up the sidewalk, they refused. They could all be in it together!!

Yes, there are treasures out there, but I would hate to spend the rest of my life looking for the "Lost Whatever mine". It might be a great adventure, and even find things that you would have missed if hadn't left on such an adventure, but.......also might be very disappointing.

Just do the paper work, thats the begining.

 

[deepskyal]

I didn't hear that conclusion Franklin. Kinda funny tho...

The one I spent time on was the burried gold of the Jesuits. I scoured the mountains looking for areas close to the story and looked on old topos and read a half dozen logs of the Jesuits from that era. NADA! Not one written record.

But...The Jesuits did bury lead plates along the river to mark territory for the King of France about that time. Well documented.
I believe that event morphed into the gold story.
Lots of folk insist there was a big rock with a cross at one time. I doubt it. 300+ years has a way of covering up things like that if it ever did indeed exist. And one story even says the rock was demo'd by the road crew making the highway. Well...how come through excavation for the road the gold wasn't found?

I do know 2 true treasure tales.
One was an old miser that died in Pittsburgh and when the found him, they also found thousands of dollars in pennies in jars all over his house and cellar. His family said he had a lot more money but it wasn't found.
His shack was just an old courragated house on a concrete block foundation which was flattened to keep people out.
I tried detecting the property quite a few years back but huge sheets of the steel still littered the area. Now I only have a vague recollection of where the house was exactly but still think there's a cache around the foundation of the house. This article was in the paper, The Pittsburgh Press, when it used to publish news. Sometime back in the mid 80's I believe and in the Troy Hill area of Pittsburgh.

The other is a personal family treasure that will probably never be found because the exact location is unknown where it was left....or even if one sordid family member found it and just spent it on drugs He darn near demo'd the entire house in which the last know address was of the person that burried it but he claims he never found anything.
Myself and another family member believe it's still out on an old farmstead. Imagine a military footlocker full of silver dollars from the 30's and earlier. Probably a bit heavy to move without someone asking about it.
Only problem we had is the jerk that bought the farm is an old military retiree with a big chip on his shoulders about strangers on his property.


There are true stories out there, just got to research the facts and see that they make sense...or not.

Al

 

[Tom_in_CA]

"just got to research the facts and see that they make sense...or not"

Oh they make sense alright. All of them. Right down to the last hair-raising drop! It's easy to make a story "make sense" when you build the story backwards .... STARTING with the assumption that a treasure is there. Then simply fill in the facts, and it becomes un-assailable. Therefore, even "researching the facts" and "seeing if they make sense", all falls into the same psychological "I gotta believe this" trap.

Take political conspiracy theories, for instance. The proponents have them riddled with facts. And every single fact will always be 100% true. Thus all the dots must therefore connect, and thus, it's true. Sort of like, "if you can't disprove it, therefore, by default, it must be true". And once you add treasure, we all melt further into the subconscious tendency to believe ... "lest we be left out".

 

[Frankn]

Tom: look at it this way. If I didn't think there was a possibility of a treasure being there, I wouldn't even research it. I always try to start with a reliable source. After a little research I make a decision about dropping it or going on.
You never actually know until you look for it. Yes, I have found holes in the ground at the end, but I have found "other" things in the ground at the end also. I don't go out and think I am going to find a treasure, I go out and think I am going to look for a treasure. There is a big difference. I always set a time limit on the hunt. Usually 1 week. the longest has been 1 month.

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[Scar]

Sometimes the treasure is in the story. Many try to read the story as fact, when in reality they should be reading between the lines. I am not a treasure hunter but a story teller. One day, not in my lifetime, my story may be worth something, not as valuable as the treasure but worth something. The treasure, I think, will be there but might not be where I think it may be, maybe close and it will be big. This post is just part of the story.

 

[Frankn]

Scar, If you could say exactly where the treasure was, It wouldn't be there!

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[Scar]

Frankn, you may be right but there are missing pieces to this puzzell of mine and it has nothing or something to do with other treasure stories. As I have said I am not a treasure hunter so I would feel that I am lite in the back pants pockets on treasure stories. I do know my story and it doesn't have an ending as of yet but may be getting near or close.

 

[Frankn]

Scar, I only deal in true stories. Once I detect that a story is fiction I drop it. Some stories start as truth and get "added to". I try to strip away the additions and possibally find a few more facts. Since I was a small boy I have only been interested in facts. I am basicly a technical type person and technology gets my attention. So facts are the thing for me.

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