b3yOnd3r, To give an example : I went to Mexico in the early 1990s, with an employee of mine who was a native of Mexico. He had learned I was into md'ing, and invited me to travel back with him to his native little towns, high up in the Sierra Madres of Mexico. Because he was convinced he knew where some treasures were. And as he spun the facts of the stories, they were quite compelling ! So off we went.
After several weeks of chasing various stories, it became apparent to me that the culture there is steeped in superstitions. They seem to think there's a treasure in every cave or ruin. And they've all got fabulous stories of what they heard from an eyewitness, blah blah. But when you track down that eye-witness to talk to, well, ... guess what, they didn't actually see the treasure either. They got it on good authority from another eye-witness. So you track down THAT person. And guess what ? Turns out they heard it from yet another person. And so on and so forth back to permanent regression. But at no point in the links does anyone receiving the story NOT consider it "first hand" and "iron-clad".
And to the point of your question quoted above:
I'll never forget accepting the invitation of one young boy (about 13) who ... upon learning an "americano with a metal detector" was in the village, came and invited me to please come check a cave that he believed a treasure was in. The boy and I hiked about a mile into the canyons, where we arrived at his cave. I could see that he'd been digging there quite a bit (evidence of past holes effort on his part). So I turned on my detector, and scanned. Nothing. Totally sterile. So I told him there's nothing here. But he would not be dissuaded. He figured that we'd simply need a detector that goes deeper. So I asked him "what makes you think there's anything even here?". To which he replied that he'd "seen sparkles on the ground".
That, and the Mexican stories of "smoke" (or vapors or fumes or whatever it is) coming from the ground were lines I heard multiple story originations from.
Anyhow, whenever I hear the Oak Island story of "the 13 yr. old boy" (who was no doubt quite sincere), I harken back to my experience from Mexico. And .... same thing: A sincere 13 yr. old boy, who saw something, interprets it in certain "treasure fever eyes", and presto, a legend is born.
