Author name: Jason Smith

While South Dakota is not the richest state in treasure and lost mine sites, neither is it the poorest. While several of the known treasures and lost mines of South Dakota are told here, there are doubtless many more that have yet to come to light. But for the searchers of artifacts and relics, the […]

The first white man known to visit Tennessee was the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto in 1540. No important exploration was done until 1673 when the British and French penetrated the area. Father Marquette and Joilet laid claim to all of the Mississippi Valley for France. Jams Needham and Gabriel Arthur laid the claims for

Texas ranks high on the list of states where what is known as treasure today can be found. These stories, or “leads,” some of which are well known, others that are not, have been taken from numerous sources. Many are based on a legend dating back to the Spanish conquest, while others are of a

Utah’s importance as a mining state since the arrival of white men there spawned many stores of lost mines and buried treasures, some among the best documented in the United States. Gold, silver, copper, galena, zinc, alunite, and other abundant minerals gave every county in Utah at least one mine and the state 135 mining

Although it is rich in treasure and metal detector sites, the state of Wisconsin is often overlooked by most authors who write about the treasure-hunting hobby. The state’s more than 500 miles of lake shore and almost 4000 interior lakes, with thousands of visitors each year, make it especially enticing to those interested in beachcombing

Although West Virginia does not offer as many treasure sites as some of the other states, there are still hundreds of miles of rivers, which played a great part in the development of the state, abandoned coal and lumber camps, Indian and Civil War battle sites, forts, trading posts, old churches, steamboat stops along the

The most northwestern state in this country offers all types of treasure for the interested person; lost gold mines, bandit, Indian, pioneer, and miner caches, plus deposits of minerals that geologists believe have not been discovered. Also, for the underwater treasure hunter, Washington’s coastline is second only to North Carolina’s in the number of boat

Virginia has been called the “Mother of Presidents,” having sent eight men to that office. Lead, zinc, copper, nickel, and cobalt occur in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. The Blue Ridge Plateau and northeastern Piedmont were the first gold mining areas in the eastern United States. A few glacial diamonds have been found in the

South Carolina has many treasure stories, some of which involve pirates who lived along the coast and buried treasure just a short way inland. Also, there are many underwater sites of sunken treasure along the coastline. During the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, there was a lot of military activity in South Carolina. As a result,