A true story of the "telephone game" and how it plays into cache stories

[Tom_in_CA]

Here's a story that happened in my area, that illustrates how cache stories (treasure legends) are a) so full of bologna, yet b) so well entrenched and believed in.

There was a city near me about 10 yrs. ago, that tore out their downtown old-town sidewalks for replacement streetscape. A buddy of mine was "all over that" for sidewalk tearout hunting. They would tear out a 1/2 block section of sidewalk before lunch, then cement it back up THAT SAME DAY with new walk . So in order to get the naked original dirt beneath, he was forced to hunt during the lunch hour.

So every other day, when a new section got started, he became a familiar sight to the construction workers. And in order to "grease the wheels" (get on their good side so as not to be questioned or booted), he passed out common V nickels, barbers, etc.... as a gratitude to the laborers and tractor drivers.

Since this project went on for mutiple blocks, up and down each side of the entire downtown, it went on for more than a month. And each time he was there for a new tearout, the workers would always go to him to see what his latest goodies were.

One day, he was showing them his latest finds . One of which was some sort of a gold colored owl amulet pendant pin thing (like a lapel pin). It had some sort of red jewels in the owls eyes. As he showed it to the workers, he mused that it "might be gold". And based on the age of most of the coins, he mused that it's "probably over 100 yrs. old". And as for the eyes, he mused that they "might be rubies". The workers were beside themselves in fascination!

That night, when my friend got home, he cleaned and sorted his stuff. When he got to cleaning and studying the owl pendant thing, he could see that it was only gold PLATED. And as for the red eye jewel things: turns out they were only glass chips. Thus he had only found 1920's cheap costume jewelry, and promptly threw it in the trash can.

The next day, my buddy was out there again doing his thing. And off in the distance, he could see a tractor driver eyeing him intently. Eventually, the tractor operator got the time and curiosity to come over and see what the my friend was finding. My friend could see that this was a new crew member, that had not been there on any of the previous days. My friend told him that this day, he wasn't finding anything, except some metal junk.

With that, the crew member launched into a story about how, the previous day, a guy with a detector had been out here and found "gold coins!". My friend was stunned ! Immediately he thought "oh no, someone came out here after I left, and must've found a gold coin!" So he quizzed the worker as to the particulars of the gold found there the day before. The worker talked about "gold" and "coins from the 1800s". And when elaborating on the "gold" he slipped with a curious detail: He said it was shaped like an owl. My friend busted up laughing and said

"Oh, that was me you're referring to. And no, there was not "handfuls of coins from the 1800's, just a couple. And no, none of the coins were gold, nor was the owl gold. It was cheap costume jewelry from the 1920s"

But to no avail. The worker would not believe him. He merely assumed that some other md'r therefore must've come later on the prior day, and found the vast goodies he was listing. Because he had it on good authority: His fellow workers, that morning before the work commenced, had all been talking around the water cooler. And the other workers had told this new crew member about the "gold" and the "coins" and the "priceless vintage gold owl pin" and so forth. Therefore this worker had it on good authority from first hand witnesses! Thus there simply must've been another md'r there later, and my friend is mistaken.See how this played out over a single night ? Imagine what happens in 100 yrs?

See how this const. workers story, if it had been written down, would some day be passed to a grandson, complete with maps drawn etc.... And how could it be questioned ? These were construction workers authorized to be there, duly hired by the city, who saw FIRST HAND the "treasures". And 100 years from now, the md'r who requests permission to dig up the city sidewalks to find the rest of the treasure, if he is denied permission, then that will simply be ALL THE MORE EVIDENCE of certain treasure (because the city wants to keep it for themselves, right ?)

My friend and I got a good laugh about that. Kinda makes you become a kill-joy when reading of all the "sure fire treasure stories" that well-meaning people come up and tell you about. Once they learn you're into md'ing, they've got a lead on where someone buried a treasure. And sure enough, it's iron clad, with eye-witnesses, a few faded newspaper clippings, perhaps a map, etc.....

 

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[TheHunterGT]

If I didn't know any better I'd say Tom_in_Ca has a master plan to keep all of the treasure for himself.

Always telling us to go hunt without permission so we can all go to jail....treasure all for himself.

Telling us that that treasure stories are not real....treasure all for himself.

Telling us gold bars buried 50 feet deep are not plausible.....treasure all to himself.

Next thing you know he will tell us LRL's are crap....


All goofing aside...good story Tom. I agree 100% that 95% of those stories are 99% bunk. Whether it's a telephone game mix-up or just an outright lie...bs is bs.

I recently read up on a couple local Colorado treasure classics. The 1907 dimes and the Las Animas treasure...both bunk stories after only an hour of reading.

Makes for fun time killing I suppose...human brains love to fascinate on such thoughts of grandeur.

It makes you wonder how many we scoff at that are actually true. Perhaps the story nobody believes is the one that actually exists.....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

haha, yes hunter GT, you're on to me It's all a scheme to ensure more treasures for myself. At no point is the treasure legends not "most certainly there". And any hint, factoid , or explanation to the contrary, is merely part of the conspiracy theory to keep YOU from going and looking for it . MUHAHAHA

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Another example: There is an author in my area, who likes to weave history, legend, tales, etc... into colorful books, that sell to local tourists (we're in a touristy part of the coast of CA). Somethings he gleans from history, legend, etc... One such story was of a cave filled with skeletons, one of which was supposedly suited with spanish armor. Thus leading to wild speculations of "lost mines" and "hidden mission treasures", blah blah blah.

The truth was, it was just pre-european contact burial site. A hole in the ground, or cave, where apparently indians buried their dead. Then when a highway construction worker had been killed during the coastal highway const. in the 1930s, his remains were put in that cave, hence a "European descent" person's bones are now in the cave (found in the 1950s?). Which eventually gets spun into Spanish. Then someone suggests suit of armor, and so forth. Before you know it, it's a full blown treasure story! Because lo & behold, you can spin other facts of how the mission trail or explorations in mission times did indeed include that area. Here's the book, of which one chapter is this cave story:

So one day, I'm talking to an acquaintance at a party. He finds out I'm into metal detecting, and offers to show me this cave, a few hour drive away, where he's heard there's treasure. When he was a kid, they explored the cave, and he can get us into it. Most certainly a metal detector would make child's play of finding the treasure afterall. And he knows RIGHT where the cave is !! As I talked to him, it became apparent, as he told more details of the particulars, that he was referring to the story in this book! So I alerted him to the fact that the book is fiction. (I've met the author personally). But to no avail, he counter-informed me that the book draws on facts (never mind that it might START with facts, but that all thereafter is pure conjecture).

See how it confuses the faithful, the moment you add ANY sort of fact as the starting point. Ie.: such & such bandit was known to frequent the area. Then presto: put it in print (anything in print HAS to be true, right?), add a drawing of a miner posed next to his burro, throw in a few faded newspaper clippings, and PRESTO: It's gospel fact

 

[TheHunterGT]

LRL's are crap? What the heck? Every time I go to google earth, I'm like, "OH, there's a park, I should hunt there." and now you're telling me that doesn't work? *sigh*... now I'm going to have to drive around now looking for parks...
DANG.

I see...what you did there....

 

[TheRingFinder]

If I didn't know any better I'd say Tom_in_Ca has a master plan to keep all of the treasure for himself.

Always telling us to go hunt without permission so we can all go to jail....treasure all for himself.

Telling us that that treasure stories are not real....treasure all for himself.

Telling us gold bars buried 50 feet deep are not plausible.....treasure all to himself.

Next thing you know he will tell us LRL's are crap....


All goofing aside...good story Tom. I agree 100% that 95% of those stories are 99% bunk. Whether it's a telephone game mix-up or just an outright lie...bs is bs.

I recently read up on a couple local Colorado treasure classics. The 1907 dimes and the Las Animas treasure...both bunk stories after only an hour of reading.

Makes for fun time killing I suppose...human brains love to fascinate on such thoughts of grandeur.

It makes you wonder how many we scoff at that are actually true. Perhaps the story nobody believes is the one that actually exists.....

Like.......that's your opinion man.

 

[cudamark]

Another example: There is an author in my area, who likes to weave history, legend, tales, etc... into colorful books, that sell to local tourists (we're in a touristy part of the coast of CA). Somethings he gleans from history, legend, etc... One such story was of a cave filled with skeletons, one of which was supposedly suited with spanish armor. Thus leading to wild speculations of "lost mines" and "hidden mission treasures", blah blah blah.

The truth was, it was just pre-european contact burial site. A hole in the ground, or cave, where apparently indians buried their dead. Then when a highway construction worker had been killed during the coastal highway const. in the 1930s, his remains were put in that cave, hence a "European descent" person's bones are now in the cave (found in the 1950s?). Which eventually gets spun into Spanish. Then someone suggests suit of armor, and so forth. Before you know it, it's a full blown treasure story! Because lo & behold, you can spin other facts of how the mission trail or explorations in mission times did indeed include that area. Here's the book, of which one chapter is this cave story:

So one day, I'm talking to an acquaintance at a party. He finds out I'm into metal detecting, and offers to show me this cave, a few hour drive away, where he's heard there's treasure. When he was a kid, they explored the cave, and he can get us into it. Most certainly a metal detector would make child's play of finding the treasure afterall. And he knows RIGHT where the cave is !! As I talked to him, it became apparent, as he told more details of the particulars, that he was referring to the story in this book! So I alerted him to the fact that the book is fiction. (I've met the author personally). But to no avail, he counter-informed me that the book draws on facts (never mind that it might START with facts, but that all thereafter is pure conjecture).

See how it confuses the faithful, the moment you add ANY sort of fact as the starting point. Ie.: such & such bandit was known to frequent the area. Then presto: put it in print (anything in print HAS to be true, right?), add a drawing of a miner posed next to his burro, throw in a few faded newspaper clippings, and PRESTO: It's gospel fact

Hence my tag line quote.........