The real treasure in treasure hunting

Steamboat

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Feb 20, 2018
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There are a few exceptions like Mel Fisher, but most of the time the real treasure in treasure hunting is in getting investors.
If a "Treasure hunter" can get investors to support his "Search" or a TV show to bankroll him then he has found his treasure. Then the longer he can drag things out and keep making promises he knows he can not keep the more $$$$ he makes.
There is also money in leasing an area to treasure hunters. In Menard TX where treasure hunters have searched for Jim Bowie's silver mine some landowners have made a good living off leasing their land. One land owner was quoted as saying, "Some land owners make money off oil leases, I make money off leasing my land to treasure hunters."
In the past a treasure hunter would lease property then claim some sort of deep metal detector or something else showed there was gold or silver on the property and then use that claim to get investors.
 

franklin

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Mel Fisher used tactics to get his New Jersey investors and other investors. He was even able to get National Geographic.
 

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Steamboat

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What I meant by Mel Fisher was, he actually found some treasure.
 

Ol' Kentuck

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Don't forget Books. Thousands of dollars made off writing & selling books about Treasure. I have yet to see a single soul make a dime using them, only many who have emptied their pockets using them to search for it.
 

Charlie P. (NY)

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What I meant by Mel Fisher was, he actually found some treasure.

He was looking for two specific ships from the 1622 fleet and knew what they contained from the manifest and the approximate position where they sank, because a portion had earlier been salvaged (by the Spanish). He refound the Atocha.

Oak Island is just folks guessing there might be something of value there. No one knows what [except Franklin].
 

franklin

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Mel Fisher searched for years in the Alligator Keys probably 100 miles from where the Atocha and Margarita went down. Had it not been for Eugene Lyons going to work in the Archives in Seville, Spain, Mel Fisher would never have been put in the area. Also he would not have found the Mother Lode unless a bicyclist from Tennessee. The biker found the Mother Lode after years of Mel Fisher and his crews inability to locate the treasure.
 

gazzahk

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Don't forget Books. Thousands of dollars made off writing & selling books about Treasure. I have yet to see a single soul make a dime using them, only many who have emptied their pockets using them to search for it.

More than fifty books have been published recounting the island's [oak Island] history and exploring competing theories. Several works of fiction have also been based upon the Money Pit, including The Money Pit Mystery, Riptide, The Hand of Robin Squires, and Betrayed: The Legend of Oak Island.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island

We all love to read a story about the possibility of finding a lost treasure....
 

gazzahk

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Does make you wonder why the Laginas have been so successful at spinning their TV show out. We are up to EPISODE 109 .... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Curse_of_Oak_Island_episodes) and they have found NOTHING treasure related.

Other treasure shows tend to fizzle out after 6 or so episodes ie Legend of the Superstition Mountains or Snake Island. Even though they are more likely looking for actual treasure...

As a kid I dreamed about going looking for The Lost Dutchman's mine or finding a hidden Inca/Aztec treasure hoard...

Maybe I should float an idea to History channel for a TV show "The Curse Of Lasseter's Reef "..... I am pretty sure I have at least a somewhat vague idea where it is meant to be.... :icon_thumleft:
 

lokiblossom

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Other treasure shows tend to fizzle out after 6 or so episodes ie Legend of the Superstition Mountains or Snake Island. Even though they are more likely looking for actual treasure...

As a kid I dreamed about going looking for The Lost Dutchman's mine or finding a hidden Inca/Aztec treasure hoard...

I was in the Superstitions and I do believe the legend, (there are different several paths the legend follows). Another thing I have come to believe is that the Superstitions are a dangerous place to search for treasure.

Cheers, Loki
 

dognose

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In my view, the Laginas and Oak Island show is nothing more than cheap reality TV. Junk TV for the masses. Find nothing, but hint at something soon.

Gilligan Island with a treasure twists.

I stopped watching that a long long time ago.
 

ARC

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Also he would not have found the Mother Lode unless a bicyclist from Tennessee. The biker found the Mother Lode after years of Mel Fisher and his crews inability to locate the treasure.

? ? ? :/

Franklin... I often wonder where you get this stuff.

Beings i personally knew the Fishers and some of the crew as a young boy... I personally know this to not be true.
 

franklin

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You had better go back and read some of Mel Fisher's books and Eugene Lyons books then. Mel Fisher told the guy if he could get to Key West before the boat went out to the site, he could go diving with them. The diver made it in time to get aboard and he was the one that found the "Mother Lode" Do you want me to look it up for you and give you book, chapter, page and verse.
 

ECS

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? ? ? :/
Franklin... I often wonder where you get this stuff.
Beings i personally knew the Fishers and some of the crew as a young boy...
I personally know this to not be true.
WE all wonder where Franklin gets this stuff that he posts as "fact".
You know what is said about information from a single source that has no outside collaboration.
 

franklin

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I don't have the book right now. But I read it in the green covered book that Mel Fisher sent me for helping him find over one million dollars in gold and yellow diamonds off of Sebastian, Florida. I still have his signed autograph and message, thanking me for all my help. I believe the book was called "The Mother Lode" either by Duncan Matheson or Eugene Lyon.
 

ARC

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Perhaps there is some mix-up here... I was referring to the part of ... Particularly the specific = "Also he would not have found the Mother Lode unless a bicyclist from Tennessee"

They were on the "trail" and would have found regardless... if not THAT day... then perhaps the next... or the next... Believe me when I say... no one was missing it.

So it was not "solely" any ONE person that find is "owed" "bragging rights"... OR even insight to.

He just happened to be the diver that day in that direction on that hole.

Luck of the draw.
 

ECS

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... I read it in the green covered book that Mel Fisher sent me for helping him find over one million dollars in gold and yellow diamonds off of Sebastian, Florida.
I still have his signed autograph and message, thanking me for all my help...
You helped Mel Fisher find over one million dollars worth of treasure and all you received was a letter and autographed book as compensation for your help?
Now that's a good one! :laughing7:
 

ARC

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" for helping him find over one million dollars in gold and yellow diamonds off of Sebastian, Florida."

Wonder if I ever saw or held items you found for him then... What year was this you refer to Franklin ?

I saw a lot of things Mel had in his collections... my avatar is from those days you refer to... although I never heard or saw anything about "yellow diamonds".

Too bad this is the only picture that was taken of me holding treasure... In those days I hated my picture being taken... still not really fond of it... but my mother was picture happy and insisted on that one.

Glad she did take it... looking back.

No one here would believe it otherwise I am sure... sorta the whole "online thing" ya know.
 

franklin

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Then you admit that the bicyclist found the large stack of silver bricks, yes. I thought you would see it my way. But like ECS you always try to place a little jam on your end.
 

franklin

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You helped Mel Fisher find over one million dollars worth of treasure and all you received was a letter and autographed book as compensation for your help?
Now that's a good one! :laughing7:

What have you got for all your negativity? Have you helped anyone to find anything? I have his autograph and his thanks for helping, that is all I need. I am not greedy like the rest of you.
 

ARC

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Then you admit that the bicyclist found the large stack of silver bricks, yes. I thought you would see it my way. But like ECS you always try to place a little jam on your end.

? ? ? :/

I don't follow... please explain.
 

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