Photo by N. on Unsplash
Have you always fancied the idea of looking for buried treasure? Scouting deserted beaches for clues or sinking your shovel into a muddy river bank, always believing that the next shovelful will reveal a glittering diamond or a rare and invaluable coin?
Well, given that the days of the swashbuckling pirates are long gone and eye-patches are not in vogue, the chances these days are slim.
Unless of course you’re in America, the land of the weird.
A jeweller in the Midwestern state of Michigan, near the Canadian border, has hit upon the idea of launching his own treasure hunt, starting on 1 August.
He says he and his wife have buried silver bars, silver coins, gold, rings and diamonds at various locations in Michigan’s wilderness areas. The treasure at each location is worth upwards of US$5 700 and, in total, the whole haul is valued at around US$1.4-million.
Johnny Perri has called the whole concept Johnny’s Treasure Quest and he’ll be selling tickets at US$49 a time for anyone who wants to try their luck.
For your money you get a series of clues and thereafter it’s a case of finders-keepers.
Perri and his wife Amy have been running a jewellery store in an area called Washington Township for many years. In fact, his father had the business before him.
But the pandemic and local lockdown have made the store unviable, so they decided to close down, but to take the stock and have fun travelling around the state burying it.
“We went through waterfalls, streams and we kayaked everywhere. We’ve been all over,” he told local media. “My [late] dad would think I was nuts, but he’d be totally be up for it.”
Perri added: “As soon as I release the clues the race is on.”
Perri thought of the idea while sitting at home during lockdown and reading about a treasure hunt arranged by an eccentric, but wealthy, antique dealer.
The man, Forrest Fenn, published a memoir in 2010 that contained vague and cryptic clues to the treasure’s whereabouts within a poem in his book.
The treasure, valued at possibly up to US$5-million, was only found this year – 10 years after being buried – in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
“I thought it was cool,” Perri told the Oakland Press newspaper. “I’ve always dreamed of searching for that [treasure] myself but never had the time.”