Almost every kid dreams of finding a pirate’s treasure and being rich beyond their wildest imagination. For some people, that dream never dies even as they reach adulthood. The thrill of the hunt keeps them going through months, and sometimes years, of searching for those treasures.
This treasure hunt on Oak Island, just off the mainland of Nova Scotia, has been going on for more than two centuries. While it’s never been out of the public eye, in recent years a television show, The Curse of Oak Island, has brought it back into the spotlight and has fuelled the treasure fever there.
Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, along with a crew of investors, are attempting to find treasure that’s long been believed to have been buried in a deep hole known as the Money Pit.
Just what the treasure might be is up for debate, with theories including the treasures of the Knights Templar, Marie Antoinette’s jewelry, pirate’s treasure, and even manuscripts by William Shakespeare.
If the idea of pirate’s treasure is irresistible, Crystal Coast is a spot to visit with a metal detector. The notorious pirate Blackbeard was known to hang out off this North Carolina coast on his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.
To date, Blackbeard’s fabled lost treasure has never been found, although a sword believed to have belonged to him has been located nearby. One of the locations that has been investigated as a possible spot for Blackbeard’s treasure is Crystal Coast.
Now a popular Caribbean wreck dive site, the RMS Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship that wrecked off the coast of Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands in 1867 in a hurricane
Would-be treasure hunters who find themselves in the Caribbean on Peter Island will want to stay on the lookout. This island was a well-known pirate hideaway back in the day, and it’s reputed to be the site of buried treasure.
But there’s more than just pirate treasure believed to be hidden there.
If local legend is to be believed, two tobacco magnates hid their fortunes from each other here in the 1800s.
Pirate Jean Lafitte. Photo courtesy: History is Now Magazine
Jean Lafitte was one of the most legendary pirates in history. Louisiana residents believe he left his treasure hidden in the bayous of their state when he and his band of pirates used Lake Charles and the coastline as a hideout.
But when looking for buried treasure, nothing is ever as simple as it seems – rumors of the resting place of Lafitte’s treasure also include Galveston Island in Texas and Florida’s Suwannee River.
Pictures courtesy: Mel Fisher’s Treasures Facebook Page
Mile for mile, Florida is one of the best treasure hunting spots in the world because of the number of ships that have gone down there while carting treasure. The state has also been home to some of the biggest treasure finds in history, including Mel Fisher’s well-documented discovery of the shipwreck, The Atocha, in 1985.
Vero Beach is a treasure hunter’s dream with millions of dollars already recovered from the shallow water along the coastline.
In 2015, $4.5 million in gold coins was found from a 1715 shipwreck, and there have been many more finds on the beach and in the water.
In 2015, divers recovered 4.5M worth of sunken Spanish treasure in Vero Beach
Even beachcombers who didn’t get their feet wet have found valuable items and artifacts simply while walking the beach or while using their metal detectors in Florida.
SHANNON SERPETTE is an award-winning journalist, having received 10 Illinois Press Association writing awards across a wide variety of categories. An avid metal detectorist, Shannon spends most of her vacations at the beach searching for buried treasure. Follow her daily adventures on Twitter.
