Buried Treasure Is Not Just For Pirates

After watching a few TV shows and movies lately about buried treasure, I've come to realize it's not just for pirates.

When you think buried treasure, you think pirates and chests full of gold, jewels and trinkets. Something out of the movies. There’s something so exciting about the idea of finding buried treasure. And heading out with a map in one hand and a shovel in the other, you start to dig, with anticipation of finding something with every shovelful of dirt. I really enjoy going geocaching which is kind of like modern day treasure hunting with a GPS or app, but not only is the adventure fun, but the payoff is too when you find the cache, sometimes even with little trinkets inside. But recently, I've been inspired to go out and do some real treasure hunting.

One of my favorite more recent treasure hunting stories goes back to 2010 when a man named Forrest Fenn hid buried treasure estimated to be worth between $2-$5 million. He wrote a book with a poem in it with clues to lead people to find the treasure, and was even on TV giving out extra clues here and there. I remember at the time thinking that I wanted to set out and go look for myself. There's a new docuseries about the hunt on Netflix called Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure that goes into why he did it and has interviews with some of the treasure hunters. It's really interesting, but I'm glad I didn't start, because the dedication these people had to find this treasure was intense. They devoted their entire lives to it. And some, unfortunately, even lost their lives in the process.

But after seeing that show, while I'm not exactly inspired to head west into the mountains, I do want to head to the beach. I started looking into buying a metal detector. I figure not only can I get some steps in walking on the beach, I can get some sun, and who knows what I may find. Actual buried treasure from pirates of Florida's past? Maybe jewelry? You just never know until you try.