If you really think you have a treasure site, you shouldn't advertise it. There are people out there who will do great harm to get the information from you.
If you really think you have a treasure site, you shouldn't advertise it. There are people out there who will do great harm to get the information from you.
Here in PI this is a catch 22. The searchers know the risks but most of them have only a shovel and a home made wrecking bar fashioned out of 3/4 inch rebar for tools. Most are extremely cash strapped but believe they have hit the big one so they take the risks of advertising to get somebody to back them. These guys are not just digging a small hole in the ground on a week end jaunt. These guys are going down 70 80 feet and even much deeper all by hand depending on rock and tree signs to guide them. I personally have one friend who is 180 feet down refusing to believe he has a dry hole.
There are a lot of back stabbers con men and predators here on both sides of the fence but there is the possibility of a niche business here for an honest man with the proper equipment that will rent out for reasonable fees or percentages of the find if the person really has a viable discovery. Most people are wrapped up in the golden lily/yamashita legends but there is much more here than just WW2 lost treasures. The Spanish were here for a long time also. All kinds of historical sites old churches etc Lots of stuff for a person to look for besides lost war gold. About 10 years ago we were in the back country of Negros Oriental visiting with some friends of my wife just on a Sunday drive. All remote country side just the usual views and I am bored to death but pretending to be interested Oh look another banana tree gee how cool. Our hosts asked us if we wanted to see a WW2 collection some local had put together and I figured well that would be more interesting than more rice fields and banana trees so I said sure.
We pull into the yard of this place and it is pretty non descript and I am not expecting much but then we enter the place and I am floored by what this guy has put together Japanese regimental battle flags hanging from the ceiling. A complete set of some generals dinner china. An actual working heavy machine gun radios knick knacks family pictures of Japanese soldiers uniforms diaries log books camp equipment weapons swords all this out in the middle of the jungle in the middle of no where. The fellow was in his late 50's and had been collecting things since he was a kid and buying from the local farmers what ever they dug up on occasion in their fields. I have been to the WW2 museum in Guam and it can't even hold a candle to what this guy has put together. I have no idea what it is all worth but it must be a fortune.
We have recently found some odd human made rock formations on our own land here in Luzon that has me scratching my head as to what it may all be or mean. I am not a treasure hunter myself we just happened to buy a piece of land and while developing it stumbled across some pretty strange stuff as far as human made signs go. This is what has brought me into the contact with some of these people trying to find someone with the knowledge to be able to decipher what we have found. For many of them this is not a hobby or a pass time. It is the shining path out of grueling poverty.
My name is Nataly Lam and I am an associate producer for the Travel Channel original series EXPEDITION UNKNOWN. The show is hosted by Josh Gates who is a life adventurer with a degree in archeology. The show follows Gates as he investigates iconic mysteries around the world.
We are preparing to travel to the Philippines to film and I wanted to reach out to any current treasure hunters in search of Yamashita's Gold or anyone with information that they would like to share.
Please contact me at anytime at [email protected]. Thank you so much!
for those of you who have failed miserably, that interview would be a good avenue to share your stories about how you unsuccessfully chased the fabled myth of yamashita treasure.
but for those who have it made (I don't know if there really is, except for Rogelio Roxas), sharing your successful stories to a stranger would be like putting a nail into your head. it will be a security nightmare.