Timberwolf, et al. -- greetings. The question that was first proposed is an interesting one. I would hazard a guess that none of us in this forum are newbies, nor trusting, innocent babes. For any individual who makes a truly significant historical and monetarially enriching discovery, and makes it public knowledge, and/or shares the discovery with any Federal or State authorities, the consequences would certainly be personally catostrophic. One member of this site, who I personally know and respect, has searched many years for a particular treasure. He has not found it yet, but on several oft times we discussed what might happen if he did indeed find the treasure. The particular treasure that he seeks is both, 1) VERY rich, and 2) VERY significant from a historical standpoint. The general consensus that developed is that if/when the discovery is made and announced to proper authorities, what probably would happen is the following. A judge's restraining order would quickly be served on the operation by the Sheriff of the County, and quite probably all discovery personnel would be barred from the site. With an exceedingly rich vault open, and in the "protective" hands of low-paid Sheriff's Department personnel, it doesn't take much imagination to come to a conclusion as to what would happen. Following closely on the take-over of the treasure site by "authorities", one or more native American tribes would come forward as the "rightful" owners, followed by the Spanish government, the Mexican government, the U.S. State Government, and the Federal Government. Certainly there would be one or more archeaologists standing in line, along with the Catholic Church, I.R.S. agents, and Lord only knows who else. Certainly -- CERTAINLY -- the very last person in line for the treasure would be the person(s) who actually discovered it. In fact, the discovery personnel would be submerged and incapacitated by costly lawsuits, lawyers, and mutually conflicting "officials". One only needs to look at the experience of Mel Fisher and his discovery of the Atocha treasure. Fisher had a lot of monetary backing in his successful quest, and he sorely needed it to fight the legal fight (lawyers) against the State of Florida (who wanted everything initially), and against a conspiracy of Federal government and Florida State "officials". The "protective" security service for the State of Florida was not above pilferage of recovered gold and silver. Even though the recovered items went into secure storage pending resolution of legalities, a number of valuable and historically significant items were stolen.
The bottom line of my comments on this subject is this. There are absolutely NO Federal and State guarantees to safeguard and protect a treasure discoverer and his recovered cache.
The Federal and State agencies, plus any and all presentors of lawsuits absolutely are not inclined to help the discoverer, and in fact actively seek to take and/or defraud the discoverer.
Perhaps some starry eyed archeologist would choose to argue for "historical significance", but such an argument would be obliterated like a prairie dog under a buffalo stampede. There absolutely does not exist any mechanisms, guarantees, or cooperative trust that a small time treasure hunter has for that day when he/she makes a big time find.
I am happy to see that no responding members of this forum seem to be naive. Clearly the best advice is to "go quietly", do not advertise, keep to yourself. I wish that this situation was not so. It would be fantastic to be able to trust in our governmental agencies, and preserve history at the same time. In the foregoing sentence the crux of the matter has come up. TRUST. The successful treasure hunter has no trust, no guarantees, and no confidence that his hard-fought discovery will accrue to him. Rather, he DOES trust that his treasure will be taken from him, and that he may be prosecuted for some phony-baloney charge, and that he will be financially ruined by lawsuits and lawyers. Poncho33
