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rarely, if ever, marks that spot, but that doesn’t mean that there are no
hidden treasures out there just waiting to be discovered. Though
many reports and rumours undoubtedly fall more within the realm of myth,
others are incredibly real, like the £155 million pounds of silver bullion
discovered on a wartime shipwreck in 2012. And while it’s hard to know
what to make of many historical reports in our rational modern world,
occasionally there really are maps and carefully worded clues, all just waiting
to be deciphered. Unlock their secrets and perhaps you’ll get your hands on the
loot. In this article, we’ll examine 10 hidden treasures that haven’t yet been
found.
Forrest
Fenn’s Treasure
Forrest
Fenn is a retired art dealer from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and if he’s not
certifiably awesome, then no one is. Diagnosed with cancer in 2010, he
decided that he was going to leave behind something epic. So he filled a chest
with gold nuggets (some as big as eggs), pre-Columbian gold animal statues and
17th century jewelry. Then, he buried it somewhere in the American west.
His
cancer is thankfully in remission, but he still had no idea how long it was
going to take anyone to find his hidden treasures – even with the clues he left
behind. Coded into a poem are supposedly the directions to find the lost
treasure, but no one’s gotten there yet. Knowing that he very well may die
before anyone finds his loot, he included a copy of his autobiography in the
chest, along with a life’s worth of pictures and a few strands of his hair, so
DNA testing could unlock every mystery about the man who buried his treasure
out west.
So
far, he’s offered clues to help narrow down the search. It’s somewhere in
the Rocky Mountains, north of Santa Fe, and not in Canada, Utah, Nevada or
Idaho. It’s more than 5,000 feet above sea level.
He’s
received tens of thousands of emails asking for more help, but he’s not giving
up his secrets. Even his wife doesn’t know where Fenn’s treasure is hidden, but
with its value increasing every year it’s out there, Fenn says he’s going back
for it when it hits the $10 million mark.
The
Hidden Treasures of Cocos Island
The
tropical paradise of Cocos Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sits off the
coast of Costa Rica. According to legend, it’s the final resting place of
millions of dollars of buried pirate treasure.
The
most notorious of this hoard is the Treasure of Lima. Worth an estimated £160 million,
it was supposedly buried on the island in 1820 by a trader turned pirate named
William Thompson. Thompson was hired to take the treasure – which included more
than 100 gold statues, 200 chests of gold and countless gold and silver bars –
from Peru to Mexico. Instead of transporting it, he stole and
allegedly buried it on the island – only, it’s never been found.
Cocos
Island is also rumored to have been a haunt for pirates as they patrolled
the Caribbean in search of riches. Captain Edward Davis is said to have used
the island regularly to stash his loot until the heat died down, and Portuguese
pirate Benito Bonito is said to have left a massive treasure hoard on Cocos.
The
island has been explored by countless treasure hunters over the decades. One
man, August Gissler, spent 19 years searching for Cocos Island’s lost
treasure. He walked away with a couple of gold coins for his trouble. In 1856,
a group of treasure hunters were reported to have been successful when they
unearthed a chest full of gold doubloons.
Now,
treasure hunting is forbidden on Cocos Island, although scientific research
isn’t. There are regular expeditions there, not only with the intent of
finding hidden treasures (though that would be a bonus), but also to
study the island’s unique ecosystem.
The
Irish Crown Jewels
The
term “crown jewels” can be a little misleading, as in this case. The Irish
Crown Jewels didn’t involve a crown of any sort and weren’t even associated
with the coronation ceremonies that are usually thought of in connection with
such regalia. Instead the set, which included a jeweled star, five gold collars
and a diamond brooch, all belonged to the Order of St. Patrick. The jewels were
the responsibility of the Ulster King of Arms, and on July 6, 1907, it was
discovered they had been stolen.
For
years, the jewels had been kept in a bank vault – it was only four years before
the theft that they were moved to a safe in the library of Dublin Castle. At
the time, the master of the keys was a man named Sir Arthur Vicars.
Vicars,
holding a position that had been instituted in 1552, was immediately accused of
not taking all the proper precautions when it came to securing the jewels.
There were two keys for the safe: one he carried with him all the time, and a
few months before the theft, he’d rather lost track of the other. The second
key, normally kept in a locked drawer in his personal desk, got attached to a
key ring with a series of other keys. They were found by a maid, and returned
to his possession. That was in May of 1907 – two months later, the jewels were
gone. They were last seen on June 11, and confirmed missing on July 6.
According
to Vicars, the culprit was one of his other heralds – Francis Shackleton,
brother to the famed Arctic explorer. While it’s never been confirmed (in spite
of Shackleton’s rather checkered life and poor reputation), it was Vicars who
got the worst of the blame. He was ultimately removed from his position amid
rumors of being at the center of some rather sordid, scandalous orgies at
Dublin Castle. In 1921, Vicars, who was living at an estate house in County
Kerry, was shot and killed by the IRA.
The
jewels have never been recovered. Today, it’s thought that it’s pretty likely
that Shackleton (who disappeared in 1915 after being imprisoned on another
charge) was responsible for the theft. With the high profile of the jewels,
it’s likely that they were broken apart and sold, but they’re still out there…
somewhere.
The
Lost Confederate Gold
According
to legend, the southern part of the United States is filled with hoards of Confederate
gold just waiting to be discovered. Throughout the Civil War, Georgia was
producing massive amounts of gold; when Union troops were threatening, much of
the gold was hidden to keep it out of northern hands. When Richmond, Virginia
was captured by the Union, the Confederate treasury was empty – and much of it
is still said to be up for grabs.
At the
end of the war, Jefferson Davis was heading south with nearly half a million in
gold and silver coins. The money was destined for the pockets of loyal
Confederate soldiers, and some of it reached the men it was meant for. Before
it could all be distributed, though, the caravan was attacked and robbers made
off with what was left – about half. While some was recovered, a good amount is
still missing.
And
this treasure isn’t mythical. In 1977, an Arkansas man decided that it was
about time he did something to find the treasures that his grandfather told him
stories of as a boy. Bob Brewer has retraced the steps of a Civil War era group
called the Knights of the Golden Circle, and in the process of following in
their footsteps – and unraveling the secrets that have been passed down through
his family – he’s unearthed hundreds of thousands of dollars in Confederate
gold coins.
The
Oak Island Treasure
This one’s a bit different, in that we theoretically know where the treasure is, we just don’t know what it is.
In
1795, a group of men came across something odd on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island.
They found a pulley, and nearby was a section of ground that looked rather
sunken. They started digging, and found what seemed like a man-made hole that
had been purposefully blocked by a layer of logs every 10 feet or so.
Over
the next decades, others have had a go at excavating the pit. The deeper it’s
dug, the more it flooded, though, and it was thought to be booby-trapped. But
no one would have gone through the trouble of protecting the hole if there
wasn’t something truly amazing at the bottom of it, so digs continued.
Now,
more than two centuries later, the treasure hunt continues. What started
out with a dig using picks and shovels has been updated to use computer imaging
and ground-penetrating radar, but the mysteries of the pit haven’t been cleared
up in the least. Skeptics say that it’s nothing more than naturally occurring
phenomenon, but believers that there’s something down there have a whole slew
of suggestions as to what it might be. Theories are all over the place – some
people believe that the pit was dug by early visitors to the island, like the
Vikings, while others think it’s the location of pirate treasure. Others
suggest it has something to do with the Knights Templar, and that it’s the
hiding spot for the Holy Grail.
The Bones
of the Peking Man
In the
1930s, archaeologists working near Beijing uncovered one of the most important
finds in the history of our species. They discovered the remains of 40 people,
dating them to 770,000 years ago. The oldest examples of ancient humans that
have ever been discovered, the remains were packaged and shipped to the United
States in 1941.
They
never got there.
Before
they were packed off and shipped on their way – presumably for safekeeping
during the eminent war that was looming – casts were made of the bones. When
you see an exhibition of the Peking Man today, all you’re seeing are the casts.
Over
the following decades, there have been a number of theories as to where the
bones are today but, at the end of the day, we don’t even really know how far
along their journey they made it before they disappeared. One statement made by
a Marine indicated that he found the fossils while he was in the city of
Qinhaungdao. Not knowing what else to do with a box of human remains, he buried
them.
Other
theories suggest that the bones were destroyed one way or another on their
journey, another casualty of the war. They may have been seized as trophies, or
they may have been sunk with the rest of the cargo on their doomed ship, or
they may have been destroyed. Formal inquires from governments and scientific
organizations have uncovered no trace of the fossils and no new information
that’s anything more concrete than speculation.
The
Ivory Coast’s Crown Jewels
Much
like Ireland’s Crown Jewels, the collection of artifacts that was stolen in
2011 was much, much more than a crown and a sceptre. More than 80 pieces
belonging to the Ivory Coast royalty was stolen from the Museum of
Civilizations in what experts suspect was a theft planned with help from the
inside.
Among
the oldest items were 12 necklaces from the 17th century, and 35 gold ones from
the 18th century. There were also gold boxes, swords, tribal masks, religious
artifacts, and a head dress.
There’s
still considerable hope that the treasures will show up. Unlike treasures past,
all of the artifacts are completely documented, and documentation is shared
with museums around the world – along with organizations that thieves might try
to use to move the artifacts through. While timing for a theft like this is
never good, this one was particularly unfortunate. Recently through a
governmental power struggle, museum curators say that the crown jewels were a
symbol of a nation – and a people – in desperate need of reestablishing their
cultural identity.
The
Missing Faberge Eggs
Around
the turn of the 20th century, members of the Russian Imperial family
commissioned and purchased a series of exquisite – and expensive – Faberge
eggs. The eggs, all unique, were presented as gifts to different members of the
family. There were about 66 eggs in total, and when the Bolsheviks came to
power and the royal family fell, the eggs were scattered.
Most
of them were stored in the Kremlin Armoury, while family members took others
with them as they fled Russia. A handful of others were looted, and disappeared
completely. When Stalin rose to power, he saw the eggs not as cultural
treasures but as a way to make some pretty serious money, and put many of them
up for sale – in spite of attempts made by Kremlin curators to hide some of the
eggs to keep them in their homeland.
We
know where many of the eggs ended up, but some are still missing – and, unlike
some treasures that seem to show little sign of being found, we know that the
eggs are absolutely still out there. In March 2014, an anonymous man from the
Midwestern United States took a gamble on a gold egg he saw at a rummage sale.
It turned out to be the third in the series of eggs, the long-missing token of
love given to Tsarina Maria Feodorovna by her husband, Tsar Alexander III.
His
swap meet purchase turned out to be worth millions.
Other
eggs are still missing, and while it’s thought that some have been destroyed
over the decades, it just goes to show that you never know what you’re going to
find at a rummage sale.
Nazi
Gold and Hitler’s Diamonds
There’s
plenty of lost treasure from World War Two; rumours of Nazi gold, stolen
artifacts and long-lost paintings continue decades after the war. One very
specific treasure are the gold bars and diamonds from Hitler’s personal stash –
and according to some, the clues to find it are out there.
According
to the story, at the end of World War Two Hitler’s elite took possession of his
personal treasure – including more than 100 bars of gold and a set of diamonds
known as the “tears of the wolf”. The treasure, assumed to be bound for
Heinrich Himmler’s hands, disappeared somewhere in Bavaria, and for decades,
people have been scouring the area looking for the lost gold and diamonds.
Recently,
a Dutch writer revealed that he had uncovered what he believed was essentially
a treasure map, cleverly coded into a piece of sheet music. The music,
Gottfried Federlein’s Marsch-Impromptu, was annotated with strange markings and
seemingly random scribbles. Convinced that the margin notes of the sheet music
refer to the treasure’s ultimate location, entrepreneurs think they’ve narrowed
the location down to Mittenwald, Bavaria. A few test holes have been dug and
nothing’s been found so far, but that hasn’t stopped groups from all over from
descending upon the town with treasure-hunting equipment in hopes of finding
Hitler’s lost gold.
Of
course, there’s more than a piece of sheet music that ties Bavaria to the lost
Nazi treasure. The region was once destined to be the home of an elite SS
fortress built by Himmler; it’s a logical place for treasure to have ended up,
and in some cases, it’s the last place some of it was seen.
Other
Hidden Treasures: Hundreds of Lost Films
Not
all treasures consist of gold, silver and jewels, and not all treasure hunters
have to go off to some exotic island or scour the bottom of the ocean to find
their stash. In fact, these lost treasures might be sitting in your attic right
now.
It’s
estimated that somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of all films made before
1950 have been lost – the farther back you go, the higher that percentage gets.
And that doesn’t just mean there are missing film starring people that no one’s
ever seen or heard from since. There’s missing films from Alfred Hitchcock and
Orson Welles, and until recently, there were a handful of missing Peter Sellers
films, too. In 2014, two of his movies made their debut after being saved from
a dumpster – after they’d sat in a janitorial closet for decades. No one had
given the canisters a second look until an office renovation, when the
long-lost movies were discovered.
So
what’s missing? It’s hard to tell, really, as there’s countless movies that no
one remembers that are simply gone. The British Film Institute has a site for
their most wanted films that we do know about, and they include some pretty
hefty titles. Missing is the first film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, A Study
in Scarlet. There’s the 1919 The First Men in the Moon, notable as being the
very first of H.G. Wells’ films. Alfred Hitchcock’s second film, The Mountain
Eagle, is long missing, along with The Last Post, the first film by Britain’s
first female director, Laurence Olivier’s first British film, 1930’s Too Many
Crooks, and the first film of Errol Flynn, 1935’s Murder at Monte Carlo.
There’s
hundreds, if not thousands. Missing films have turned up in archives all over
the world, they’ve surfaced in basements, in attics, in museums.
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