Please offer what experience and knowledge you have to this unusual request.

PatrickD

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Hi Everyone,

I am consolidating some information and am following a treasure trend. However, I would like some additional insight so I don't just start buying into my own research if it is off the mark.

Many buried cache sites have rumors of unusual activity. This includes ghost lights, ball lighting, foxfire, odd magnetics, lightning strikes, odd sounds, etc.

Can you please share some of what you know, experienced, have heard of in this venue? I am trying to identify all of the different things that have occurred on suspected treasure locations.

Don't worry about sounding crazy. (I mean, isn't it crazy to chase treasure already?)

Thanks,

Patrick
 

UncleMatt

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Can you site some specific examples? I have never heard anything about this.
 

Old Bookaroo

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Dec 4, 2008
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Patrick:

There is a lot of folklore about buried treasures. Look at some of the WPA books - Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales by Robert Tallant and Lyle Saxon (1945) is one. J. Frank Dobie, I believe, wrote about these, as well.

Interestingly enough, one of the common folk legends is that a search for buried treasure must be conducted in absolute silence. As soon as anyone in the party speaks the treasure will vanish.

There's something to think about - words to conjure with, if you will - right there!

Good luck to all,

~ The Old Bookaroo
 

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PatrickD

PatrickD

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Hi Uncle Matt,

Yes, I can give some examples. Mostly the descriptions are like folklore.

Many sites thought to be haunted by the Native Americans were described as having odd floating lights (usually at night after a thunderstorm). The same thing has been described as an event the Spanish would look for to identify places to mine.

I actually thought it was BS until witnessing it myself once in Colorado. A buddy of mine and I were camping in the Valley of Secrets and saw the lights up on a ridge. We hiked up the next day and I found some Spanish Signs in the area but there was no evidence of people having been in that rugged terrain the night before.

There have been other thing associated with lost treasures including sightings of ball lightning, some described odd sounds we would compare to tales of hauntings or wind through caves.

I theorize that these are caused by natural electrical discharges or magnetic interruptions due to concentrations of highly conductive metals.

There are some places I have been where the compass just spins. (No, it wasn't the north or south pole.) It was like trying to read a compass laying on a map across the hood of a car. Except, it was just in areas hiking around. My personal experience with this has only been in Colorado.

Although, I did find one area in southern Utah that was covered in fulgarites. There had to be a reason for that many lightning strikes in one vicinity. There were scorches everywhere from lightning strikes in this one location. (This place was just north of hovenweep.) The ground was covered in an odd white smooth stone for hundreds of feet and the stone was littered with these. I have some photos somewhere that can be scanned to show what I am talking about. You can check out the location on Google earth if you want.
The coordinates are: 37o25'18.52" N x 109o02'49.10" W elevation 5529 (I am using the lower case 'o' since I can't figure out which key does the degree dot.)

My thinking is to compare the odd sighting anomalies with geophysical explanations during my next trip. You get the idea. Find where this stuff happens that coincide with a location being researched to help isolate a specific spot.

Patrick
 

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PatrickD

PatrickD

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Here is a description I found on wikipedia:

Atmospheric ghost lights are lights (or fires) of unknown origin. Examples include the onibi, hitodama and will-o'-wisp. They are often seen in humid climates.[1]

According to legend some lights are wandering spirits of the dead, the work of devils (or yokai) or the pranks of fairies. They are feared by some humans as a portent of death. In other parts of the world, there are folk beliefs that supernatural fires appear where treasure is buried; these fires are said to be the spirits of the treasure or the spirits of humans buried with grave goods.[1] Atmospheric ghost lights are also thought to be related to UFOs.[2]

Some fires of unknown origin (such as St. Elmo's fire or the shiranui) have been explained as optical phenomena of light emitted through electrical activity. Other theories concerning the origin of these fires include the combustion of flammable gases, ball lightning, meteors, torches and other human-made fires, the misperception of human objects and pranks.[2][2][3]
 

smokeythecat

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I hadn't heard of lights, light balls, etc. associated with treasure caches. I've read all the "ghost" legends in my county. None were related to buried treasure and I've never heard of treasure from this particular county, so I guess I'm not a lot of help here. My great great grandfather supposed buried the family gold on their little farm in Louisiana so the Yankees wouldn't get it. They barely could afford shoes, so I really doubt there was anything to that legend, but as far as I know I'm the only person alive that even knows about the legend. I visited the farm once. Long time ago. I've seen ball lightning before, it bounced on the ground in a very heavy mineralized ground. There was a chrome mine on the property once. You might research the mineralogy of your area also.
 

Rebel - KGC

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There are some "stories" on the "Psychic Sub-Forum", I think; Legends of HAUNTED WOODS in Virginia; Pirates' GOLD along Eastern Sea-board, etc. Check 'em out...
 

cactusjumper

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PatrickD,

Anyone who spends any time in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona, has heard booming sounds. It's been going on for many years. Does it signify that there is a treasure in the area?:dontknow:

Take care,

Joe Ribaudo
 

somehiker

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Joe:

If such phenomena was known to make a particular area off limits to the superstitious, would that area not be a good place to hide your treasure ?
Especially if it's caused by a geological anomaly related to the volcanics of the range. I wonder if the "booming" occurred more frequently in the past.

Regards:Wayne
 

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Oroblanco

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One of the odd coincidences (to me) about the Superstitions is the strange booming sounds with no known cause - this is also well known in the Black Hills, and among some plains tribes were the "home of the thunder god" as well. However the Black Hills are heavily mineralized, while the Superstitions are supposed to be barren of minerals. :dontknow:

This phenomenon of ghost lights over treasure is fairly common and was even used for a Twilight Zone episode for a basis to a story. Mitchell recorded one example where a ghostly light was seen and a man decided he would mark the spot with a stake, so that he could return in daylight to dig it up. When the light appeared, he hurried to pound in a stake, but when he stood up to leave, something was holding him fast! He screamed for his friends to save him and they managed to pull him away, and in the morning they found that he had pinned his own coat to the ground with his stake.

There is even a Jesuit invocation to force the spirit to reveal its treasure, someone posted the link in another thread some time ago.

I have seen ghost lights, but not where there was any treasure or legend of treasure. I have no idea if there is anything to it.
Oroblanco
 

Rebel - KGC

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I also had an experience with a LIGHT ORB (Ghost Light); I was @ 6 years old; LIGHT came into kitchen (Ma saw it, too). Like under "intelligent control", it glided SLOWLY through the kitchen, into an adjacent room, and out the OTHER window. SILENT, no thunder, nor flash... Pa said it was BALL LIGHTNING... BS! It went in a STRAIGHT Line, through TWO rooms! HA! BTW, our home place was said to be HAUNTED; what I experienced during the 23 years, I lived there... I can believe it; (there was a suicide in the attic). Pa brought house CHEAP in 1938, built in 1911; nephew HATED visiting... gave him CREEPY feelings. Such a SENSITIVE lad...
 

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Longranger

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"Ball Lightinng"

I have seen this on the North side of the Haggard and New Chromium Mine ,at the end of Dog Creek Road between John Day and Prairie City Oregon.
The formation is an Ultra Mafic Intrusive Island Arc Complex just West of Strawberry Mountain. The Geologist T.P. Thayer thought this Ophiolite was formed in the upper mantle where Midway Island in the Pacific is, and scraped upward instead of being dragged under to be remelted during tectonic plate movement when it was the edge of the North American Continent.It is reported to be the most intact Ophiolite coplex above surface level in the world, even better than Troodos in Greece. Most are fractured and by faulting.
It was really cool to see these balls of light go from one place to another on an West East axis if I remember correctly. It was sometime during the 1980"s so my recollection may not be perfect.
I don't think it is related to the auras the spanish used to locate gold as this was more bluis white rather than red-yellow. May have something to do with the conductivity of the metal.
 

Nov 8, 2004
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Gentl men I have recovered a mule train of 9 mules with a light being the first indicator then finalizing the location with a detector. This has been covered before in one of the forums. Here is a picture of one of the coins recovered - my share was one mule load. that skinny gal was destined to be my wife after I had fattened her up a bit
 

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Nov 8, 2004
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Hola, my friends,to answer an e-m, that wheel in the background was from a Gardner mtal deector, an off resonance type. One of the first that was able to distinguish different metals and also able to eliminate "tepueste' iron ores ( black sands ) it was almost prefect with the exception that large coil could not be used in 90%of the places,too big, yet effective to 15 ftyet very fast where it could be used. I often wonder why other detectors manufactors never followed up on his desigh.. Course it cost sround $ 1,000 US when most others cost around $ 100 - $ 200. and were of the beat frequency type of circuity.

It was manually balenced, although later models did have a balancing featurw. Phyisically it was almost a perfect balance
 

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bonuntr

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On many occasions while alone and quiet in the wilderness, I have heard loud booms from deep inside the earth. I always attributed them to geologic action deep underground. One place that is great for hearing them is the Drum mountains in central Utah. Just wait for a while, be patient, and be still.....they are louder than you think. Almost subsonic in nature....

I have had strange occurences while treasure hunting in central Nevada. We were camped at a site last year that something very strange happened. We hike in for, (what the gps reads) 3.1 miles. No roads, wheeler trails, or horse trails. It was on the third night of what was a 16 day stay in the area, that my son got out my infrared binos to mess with. He called me over to see what he had been looking at for over 5 minutes. Three figures were making thier way along the hillside above us, in a north to south west direction above our camp. We took turns that night, sitting guard, but nothing happened. This happened on 4 consecutive nights. The first moring after we had seen them, we went up the mountain to look for tracks, and realized where we had seen them was in a place so precarious that it was impossible to walk in the daytime. Every night after that one of our party would watch for them, only on the four nights did they appear. The distance they covered was, (at our best guess), approx. 1700 feet. These were not animals, they appeared human in every way, (i.e. movements). I don't know if we will ever witness this again, and am not sure I want to. I do know one thing...on this years trip, one of our group will be watching....
 

flyadive

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A couple years ago there was a guy who claimed of seeing will-o'-wisp over a reservoir in southeastern Pennsylvania that he claimed had buried treasure. I never heard of or witnessed this myself but I thought it was interesting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o'-the-wisp
The thread was deleted because most thought it was a hoax . It was a very well planned thread! Too bad we can't view it!


I just realized this thread is just as old! Lol
 

Nov 8, 2004
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In Mexcio the lights are common, perhaps because that people believe that a treasure emiittts a secific color ofr each metal' I experimented and used a electornic detector and eventually ended with a no. of burro loads of coins, my share was i burro load Ghosts etc are incuded also.
Your experience reminds me of the Sasquash sightings.

8 REALES Alamos minted. 1885.jpg
 

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sdcfia

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Widespread anecdotal evidence seems to support one of the phenomena - blue lights seen above buried gold. It seems to have something to do with a phosphorescent gas emitted by gold. If the gas migrates to the surface, an electric charge in the atmosphere seems to be able to cause the glowing. That's why the reports often describe the lights being seen on "stormy nights" when the atmosphere often carries a charge - the same conditions that cause lightning. The lights are also only seen at night because they seem to be similar to the faint blue light of a methanol flame, which is hard to see in daylight.

methanol.jpg
 

audigger53

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I've heard more than one story from Mexico about "Dancing Lights" showing where treasure was buried. Some of them were recovered by family members of the people that told them to me. They had to put stakes down in a circle so that in the daylight they could find the center area to dig. If they walked towards it, it either moved or disappeared.
 

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