Treasure VS Treasure

Treasures.

We all seek them.

As they say, treasure is in the eye of the beholder.

If you don't see an item as treasure, it is not treasure....at least to you.

So, what do you view as treasure?

The Holy Grail?

A childhood toy?

Which would you recognize as treasure?

Would you know the Grail if you did see it in a pile of junk?

Considering no one really knows what the Grail looks like, probably not.

But that toy, laying amongst trash, you would spot it right away.

Maybe lying next to the Grail itself!

The point I am making, if you haven't already figured it out, is that knowledge; the ability to recognize what is "treasure" makes all the difference in succeeding in finding treasure.

Did you know that gold smugglers would melt gold and cast it into day to day utilitarian items?

Horse bits were one of the choices smugglers supposedly used, for example.

In one old treasure magazine I remember reading that a treasure hunter had found what he thought was a gray, painted, cast iron spittoon in an old gold rush town bar...a scratch revealed it was actually solid gold!  A fortune in gold, sitting in plain sight for years!

 Anyway, knowing these bits of information and many more tid bits of information you will learn over the years could be your key to finding true treasure.

Treasure Leads - The Cons

There should be a common thread you have noticed with all the treasure leads I have presented to you.

You hadn't already heard of them....

Or at least most of them. 

If you had heard of them, it could have been from myself, or you got a vague mention of the stories that accompany them. 

None of them are well known, unlike 1000s of other leads out there, which can be found in various books, magazines, YouTube, etc. 

I could easily present some of those more obscure ones to you as my own, and you would likely be none the wiser, unless you decide to spend an hour on Google digging into them. I prefer to be straight, on the up and up about the leads I have, and that they are unique and relatively unknown. It does add to the mystique of them, as well, no?

Plus, mine are all basically here in Manitoba, my home province. Manitoba really is under rated for treasure hunting, and has some fascinating history that is largely ignored.

One incident that falls into the category of lost treasure waiting to be found is about $380,000 worth of gold on the Dawson Trail in 1868, here in Manitoba. At the time the shipment was worth $10,000, and was the payroll for soldiers at Fort Garry.

It is not very well known, and there has been no well publicized searches for it, to my knowledge.  But, it is something that appears often enough in the public eye, and information on it is available to the general public. 

You can chase it, if it has not already been quietly found and has made someone moderately wealthy.

I believe that given time and money, most of these treasures I have listed can be found.

However, money is not always in ready supply.   

Some of the leads require heavy equipment, special permissions, significant travel, specialized skill sets, among other factors.

Some will require luck, and much time.

Others require combinations of the above. 

None of them are cheap ventures. If it is not money being spent, it is time....and, as the old adage says time is money.

I have worked on a few of these leads more than the others.  The most work has been done on the Mad Trapper case, with the Norse leads coming in a close second.

I'd love to get the railway china, which could be profitable. However, I do not scuba dive.  But, a miniature sub might work. Anyone have one handy?   If I had some sort of TV backing, I know of a company who might actually provide the use of one, in exchange for the publicity.

Digging up the locomotive would be cool, just for shits and giggles and to say I had done it.....but really,  the market for a rusty locomotive is pretty limited. I do have a couple homes for it in mind, but they are both museums, and their pockets are not going to be deep. A donation is more a museum's thing. Would be worth a pretty penny just in weight for scrap, but it is unlikely even that will outweigh the costs of going after it.  Corporate sponsorship by one particular company might be the way to go, but to get it, I'd want to have the site 100% determined, and evidence of the same to present to them.

The dugout canoe would be a significant archaeological find, but going after it could require some heavy equipment, and getting that equipment to the site would be quite the feat all on its own itself.

The James brother's artifacts would be a cool Canadian/American history crossover, but the trail is quite cold.

The airplane engines are not a 100% for sure, though I am sure other artifacts would be found that would make the dig worthwhile. There is a wild card in this lead, which is something I have not mentioned. You see, some of the materials put into the landfill site could be of a dangerous nature (IE: hazardous chemicals, potential for explosive ordnance).  I know there would be support for this venture from at least one source, but it would be support by way of knowledge and connections, not financial.


The lead most realistically to get worked on (or finished) this year, considering my current financial and time situation is the Mad Trapper case.

This one requires time, though there are a few things I'd like to do that would require travel time and cash.  There is a site he may have been, at which there will be spent ammunition, and I would like to obtain that spent ammunition. If they are 45 casings, I would also locate the one of the spent 45 shells he left behind in his battle with the RCMP and posse at his cabin. I could them compare the two to see if the Manitoba site is one he definitely was at.  Could be a neat metal detecting outing for sure! 


So, what leads shall I follow up in the New Year?   

Any wealthy benefactors or Television production companies out there that want to back a treasure hunt or 3?

Oak Island Treasure! - Treasure Lead #1

I said I'd reveal some of the leads in future blog postings, and I will reveal one in this posting.

Treasure comes in various forms, though typically people generally first think of pirate treasure chests overflowing with golden doubloons and precious jewels.

Being that I am landlocked, finding pirate treasure is unlikely. Yes, even though I am a 15 minute drive from Oak Island, I am nowhere near potential pirate treasure....  

Mainly because it is the wrong Oak Island. I am nearly 4000 KMS away from the right Oak Island, where the Oak Island Treasure is purported to be, and the location where "The Curse Of Oak Island" is shot. 

Don't get me wrong, there is potential to be some sort of treasures around the area of the nearby Oak Island...but certainly no pirate treasure. There is a prehistoric buffalo jump near there, and it was a Metis stronghold where Louis Riel may have stayed on his journey across the province.

History is important in the search for treasure.

 It is entangled with every treasure.

And one of the treasures I seek is part of history.

Specifically, part of the early history of the Canadian Pacific Railway's venture to link the country together with many miles of cold steel. 

As some not well known local lore states, there was a steam locomotive travelling down the tracks, and it hit a spot where the track had been built over what turned out to be quicksand once the ground thawed. Reaching this point of the tracks, the locomotive lurched to one side, tipped over and slowly sunk into the quicksand. 

I believe I have identified the most likely location of this long lost piece of important railroad history.

My research indicates the rail line was moved somewhat from it's original position in the area, which puts the age of this locomotive at about 125 to 131 years.

Now all I need to confirm or disprove my hunch is GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar)....not a cheap device.

So, without that equipment, proving the locomotive's location is not within my grasp.

Anyone happen to have some GPR lying around they'd like to contribute to the cause?