How Do I Get Started? Tips On Researching That Treasure

Countless stories of treasures lost, buried, or hidden have been published down through the years, along with sunken treasure galleons and buried pirates loot.

They make exciting reading, and that's what they are for - to curl up with in front of a roaring fire on those cold winter nights and let your imagination carry you away on an exotic treasure hunt. But no writer who is reasonably sane is about to draw you a verbal map leading you right to a treasure. If he knew where it was he would already have it, or his editor, publisher, or printer would have it.

These stories, informing you of the treasure and its general whereabouts, should only be used as a starting point to lead you to research the original clues by a process of elimination.

If you are reading books on treasure, check the bibliography and references at the back of the book, where you will find the names of books and publications the writer used as his sources. If you can round these up then you may advance closer to the original source and pick out clues the author may have missed, or this information may lead you to even better sources. Researching a treasure is a treasure hunt in itself.

Some worthwhile books may not always be listed under treasure trove at your local library. If your book of choice isn't on the shelf at the library, have the library obtain it by interlibrary loan or check your county library or the library of any nearby college or university.

A good place to start for treasures buried on land is the Explorers Ltd. "Guide to Lost Treasures in the United States and Canada," that lists and provides valuable information on about 300 major treasures that were investigated by the authors and found to be credible treasures that actually exist.

Older books are your best shot for treasure and hunting for it, as footnotes were common then and can lead you to old documents, letters, maps, diaries, etc., which could possibly lead to the treasure. Check your library for the old, privately published books dealing with local and family histories that may be stashed away in a storeroom or basement, requiring the librarian to go on a treasure hunt. These old publications are loaded with detailed information and accounts of events usually not reported elsewhere.

Historical societies publish detailed and accurate histories, often with photos, that are a wealth of information to the researcher. I have used information from these sources for many articles.

Older books can contain information that can help you locate old mines in your area or verify that valuable minerals exist. They can reveal the location of the mines and the routes traveled by the gold-seekers, making it possible for you to recover relics at old campsites along the trail. You may have to have your librarian round this one up for you, "The Prairie Traveler," a handbook for Overland Expeditions With Maps, Illustrations and Itineraries of the Principal Routes Between the Mississippi and the Pacific, by E.B. Marcy.

Magazine articles offer another avenue for your research. Available at most libraries is the "Readers Guide to Periodical Literature" which lists about 135 publications from 1900 to date, by author and subject matter. You will want to look under the heading "Treasure Trove." For information prior to 1900, you will need to check out the "Nineteenth Century Guide to Periodical Literature" which lists articles published from 1800-1899. Then there is "Poole's Index to Periodical Literature" covering articles from 1802-1906.

Once you locate the article or articles of your choice and find your library is minus that copy, then you must consult the "Union List of Serials," a catalog that basically lists where and in which library that publication may be, whether in the U.S. or Canada. If your magazine isn't at a nearby library, then you must write to the library that has it and request a Xerox copy of the article of your choice, and pay the accompanying copy fee and postage.

There is a service you might write to (if they are still around) that publishes information about where recent discoveries have been made and notes them on state maps. If you feel that no treasure site is ever exhausted, then these maps could lead to sites worth checking out. Write to: Treasure Index of Current Finds, P.O. Box 101 Bronx, NY 10468.

For better sources than old books or magazines, check out old newspapers. Since newspaper articles were written for the general public and not as treasure leads, you might consider them as the beginning of the trail to the original source. Your library should have old newspapers on microfilm or microfiche, or your library can tell you where they can be obtained. They may have to be borrowed from state historical societies, university libraries, or state archives. Most major newspapers are stored on microfilm, and your librarian can borrow them from the Library of Congress or the main branch of the New York Public Library. If you need help locating old newspapers, contact the International Newspaper Collectors Club, Box 7271, Phoenix, AZ 85011.

Treasure hunters specializing in recovering outlaw loot rely mostly on old newspaper accounts to lead them to the site of stashed loot. Some articles to particularly pay attention to are those depicting treasures recovered before metal detectors existed, because odds are they didn't get it all.

Newspapers are a great source of accounts of mines closing down. These could be a real bonanza, as those unprofitable mines could be worth a fortune today. All accounts of old gold and silver strikes are well worth checking out.

If you are into sunken ships, several publications are worth checking out. For shipwrecks after 1800, try "A Guide to Sunken Ships in American Waters" by H.R. Kaplan and Adrian Lonsdale, and the "Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks" by Donald G. Shomette. Moving on, we come to "Shipwrecks in the Western Hemisphere 1492-1825," by Robert Marx, that lists information on 8,000 wrecks, where they went down, cargo they carried, and date of sinking. Civil War era shipwrecks will be found in "The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion," published in 1894 by the Government Printing Office.

For sources at the local level, check out state libraries, state universities (university at Berkeley, California, has six libraries), state archives, archives of secretary of state, state, county, and local historical societies, documents in county clerk's office, county registrar, county assessor's office, building bureau, sheriff's office, surveyor's office, archives of the state treasurer, archives of state land office, and state geology department.

Old city records can be seen in the archives of street or planning commissions, mayor's office, and engineer and police departments, and don't forget those plat maps available at the assessor's office, or the records of doing business as to find out what used to be where and when. Old records can often be viewed at private libraries and museums via permission, of course.

Original documentation for most everything can be found in the National Archives; Historical Sections of the Department of Defense; The Justice, Interior, or Agriculture Departments, and the Manuscript Section of the Library of Congress.

For Civil War buffs, check out "War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," "Official Atlas of the Civil War," "Authentic Civil War Battle Sites - Land and Naval Engagements" by E.S. LeGaye, "A Compendium of the Confederacy" by John Wright, "The Bibliography of State Participation in the Civil War" by the U.S. War Department, "In Tall Cotton" by Richard Harwell, "The Union Bookshelf" by Mullins & Reed, "A Military Bibliography of the Civil War" by Charles Dornbush, and "Civil War Books - A critical Bibliography" by Nevins & Wiley.

In this article I have laid out enough research leads for you to chew on for several winters.