Information on Guam?

newbieprospector

newbieprospector

Full Member
Jun 22, 2006
152
30
Williamsburg, VA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello, I've been limited to coin shooting on the beaches in Guam and I am trying to find out if anyone has heard of any lost treasure/buried caches/anything dealing with Guam. The island is rich in history from the Spanish occupation, through the Japanese invasion, back to a US territory. Unfortunately, due to heavy bombing in WW II, a lot of the paper history was lost and some of the areas I won't even consider MD'ing because they still contain un-exploded ordnance :o I did see a comment on another website that mentioned the possibility of buried Japanese payroll but have been unable to find anything else referencing a story like that. Thanks!
 

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Newbie, I was at Anderson AFB 1979 to 1983 and spent a lot of time in the jungle hunting deer and pigs. The only treasure I ever heard about was gold and silver coins found on Cocos Island. Your right to be worried about finding unexploded ordnance but most are inert now due to age and the wet climate there, I had found a few grenades above Tarague beach and out by Northwest Field. There is a cave on the cliff below Ritidian point that I found some nice relics in, jap helmet, bayonet and a few other items. Would love to see the Island again, I'm sure things have changed.

MSgt
 

The beaches near cocos are the only ones I've ever seen other people MD'ing....guess that explains why, thanks!! Funny you should mention Ritidian...it was closed recently to remove some of the unexploded ordnance that was found...From what people say not too much has changed in the past decade but now we are expecting to get a Home Depot!!! ;D My daughter took me out to a place she found in the jungle near our house...the kids call it "the trench" it looks like a crater with some sort of old engine in it, but I couldn't find any other wreckage...I plan on posting a pic on the what is it portion of this site when I can get back out there with my camera.
 

I remember about 100 yards short of the cliff there was at one time a controlled detonation to get rid of left over munitions from WW2. The area was covered with raw explosives, we had already hunted the area and were on our way out when on of the guys yelled stop. We were walking right on top of the stuff. Another time a guys was above a valley and had a pig in the bush below but couldn't see him so he picked up a small cone shaped piece of metal and threw it into the jungle below at the pig, boy was he supprised when it went boooom, turns out it was a nose fuse for 500lb bomb. EOD came out and closed off that particular section from hunting.

Have you been to the Tank farm?

MSgt
 

Wow...that's the stuff I try to avoid because my 11 year old daughter loves to go out MD'ing and treasure hunting with me and I tend to be a bit over protective when it comes to something that can explode...We've boonie stomped to the tank farm but didn't want to dig anything over a few inches just in case ;) Can't wait for the next big storm now so I can try my luck on that gold and silver at cocos ...lol
 

Newbie, Heres a good link on Cocos Island with info on a Spanish galleon that went down on the reef in 1690, unfortunately the Government of Guam has a claim and has already awarded the salvage right. I wish I knew about this in 1980 because I dove the reef there many times.

http://ns.gov.gu/cocos.html


MSgt
 

Gentlemen: It appears that my post did not go through, sorry.

When I was at Guam, metal detectors were only dreamed of. I was at Agana, we flew A26's, which had just repaced our B-26's.

I vaguely remember that when the Japanese were taking the Mariana islands that a Naval Lt on Guam had the job of disposing of a large amount of US silver coins in order that they would not fall into the hands of the Japanese.

If I remember correctly, none have ever been recovered. I have more data at home in Alamos,Sonora,Mexico.

I will be there in about 7 days and will look for the data and post it.

Tropical Tramp

p.s. You might check with the Naval Disbursing office there.
 

Wow!!! Now that's the kind of story I've been looking for ;D Can't wait to hear more!!! I have already checked with disbursing but they didn't know of anything like that and of course looked at me like I was crazy; they suggested I try the Naval Museum on base. There's only one volunteer working the museum, and he said he heard the story both ways...a US Naval Officer hiding silver coins before the invasion and then a Japanese Officer hiding silver coins before the invasion. I did meet someone though that has a friend that is trying to get me access to all the historic photos and files that are not on display! ;)
 

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