All language subtitles for The UnXplained s04e17 Americas Lost Treasures.eng

- A
- vault buried in the middle

of the Mojave Desert.

Plundered pirate gold

at the bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean.

And a forest in Upstate New York

that may conceal a
bootlegger's forgotten fortune.

For hundreds of years,

there have been legends
about vast treasures

that are hidden throughout
the United States.

Stolen gold and
other ill-gotten gains

connected to wars, piracy

and even deadly acts of revenge.

But are these
legends of lost treasure

simply tall tales?

Or is it possible
that the valuables

are really out there, just
waiting to be discovered?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

This wooded region, located
in the Allegheny Mountains,

is a popular destination
for wildlife enthusiasts,

and also for treasure hunters.

Because, for more
than 150 years,

Dents Run has been
believed to be the hiding place

of a vast amount of stolen gold.

There's been a lot of attention

on the Dents Run treasure,

and that's tied to
something of a legend

that came out of the
time of the Civil War,

when it's believed
there might have been

a wagon with lots
and lots of gold on it,

hundreds of millions of
dollars' worth in today's money,

that was used to
pay Union soldiers

that was being transported
through Pennsylvania.

According to the legend,

in early 1863, a
shipment of 26 gold bars,

property of the U.S. government,

was loaded onto a
Union Army caravan

in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The caravan was under
orders to take the gold

to the United States Mint, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

where it would be used
to pay for the war effort.

Gold shipments were
incredibly important

for the Union and its
success under Lincoln.

He was reliant on that
gold to pay soldiers,

and to pay off some
debts to foreign lenders.

And so these operations of
transferring gold were secret,

and they were
protected by troops

to watch it and guard it.

That was the only
way it could be shipped.

11 union
soldiers and three wagons

began the 350-mile
journey to Philadelphia,

but just 60 miles
into their trek,

an unexpected turn of events

forced the caravan
to change their plans.

The wagons
were dead headed for Philadelphia,

but then Southern soldiers

were getting close
to Pennsylvania,

and they were afraid
it would get robbed,

so that's when they detoured.

So, they went up
the Allegheny River,

and when they got to Dents Run,

the story says one of
the wagons broke down,

up on the mountainside.

Unable to continue as
planned, three of the Union soldiers

escorting the caravan
reportedly left to get help.

But when they
returned days later,

they found empty wagons.

The other soldiers...
And the gold...

Had vanished without a trace.

Now, according
to the gold story,

the Union soldiers
robbed the gold.

They took part of the
gold that they could carry,

and they buried the rest
someplace around Dents Run.

That's what brings the
enthusiasm to the story.

Could there
be stolen Civil War gold

buried somewhere in
the Allegheny Mountains?

It's certainly an
intriguing thought.

But there's just one problem.

No official government records

of the lost gold have
ever been found.

People
would assume that it would be

in the record of the
U.S. government,

in the national
archives, but it's not.

And the reason it's not is
because it would have been

a huge embarrassment
to the Union, to Lincoln.

And it might have
caused an economic panic

to have this amount
of gold go missing.

It wasn't
until 1974 that an article

in Treasure magazine
brought the mystery

of the Dents Run treasure
into the public spotlight.

The story reported that in
1865, government detectives

recovered two and
a half bars of gold

buried under a pine stump

near where the empty
wagons were found.

In the years since the
article was published,

a steady stream
of treasure hunters

have done their own prospecting

in the hopes of finding
gold at Dents Run.

We're talking
about 26 bars of gold.

We've had several
people come to us,

one claiming that they
found one bar of gold,

another claiming that they
found a bar and a half of gold,

and you don't know
if any of them's true.

They're out there
looking for it,

but I don't think they found it.

Are there
more gold bars still buried

in the hills of northwestern
Pennsylvania?

Gold that has been
hidden for over 150 years,

as treasure hunters believe?

Well, while exploring
a dry riverbed in 2005,

deep in the backwoods
of Dents Run,

treasure hunters Dennis
Parada and his son Kem

discovered some
intriguing artifacts,

and a possible hideout,
that may hold the answer.

Right at this location here,
we discovered a bonfire pit.

And when we dug
down about six inches,

we found a lot of bottles,

broken glass, an animal trap

and bullets all over
the place up there.

All the bullets, the glassware,

everything here was dated
around the Civil War period.

And then I looked
off to the left,

and there was a
hole in the mountain.

As soon as I came down
here and I saw the cave,

I was just drawn right in.

I had to go in immediately
to see what was in there.

After descending into the cave

to search for more
Civil War artifacts,

Dennis and his son found signs

that they weren't
the first people

to enter the secluded hollow.

My son's looking, and he says,

"Dad, there's a hole
carved into the ceiling

for a torch up towards
the back of the cave."

He put a flashlight in there,

and 32 feet back
from the entrance,

there is a vertical shaft.

Dennis and his
son were unable to fully explore

the narrow cave.

But they spent years
drilling exploratory holes

into the ground above it
to search for traces of gold.

And then, in 2014,

their efforts finally paid off.

We drill down eight feet,
hook up the equipment.

Gold. Off the scale. Our
machine's going, "Gold."

It's saying,
"Large gold item, ten inches."

So I says, "100% the
treasure was here."

The Civil War treasure.

And I'm, like, screaming,
"We found it, we found it."

Dennis Parada
had been working with the state,

getting permission
from government

to doing it the right way,

being correctly permitted,

but they would not
allow him to dig it up.

And so I called Denny
and I suggested to him

that we work together.
I can help him with it.

I said, "The only way
you're likely to see it

come out of the ground
is to bring the FBI,

the Feds, in to retrieve it."

What happened
next is subject to some debate,

but according to Dennis Parada,

the FBI took
control of the dig site

in late January of 2018.

They conducted a
series of scans of the area

using a device
known as a gravimeter.

A gravimeter measures density,

and the density of gold is 19.5,

and the density of sandstone,
which it was hidden in,

in a cave underground, is 2.5.

The differential
would show up hugely

in a heat map of that site.

They did those
measurements over a full day,

and they came
back with the results,

that showed a very
high reading of gold.

That's when things get crazy.

The FBI kicked us off,
and they said, "Go home."

And then they returned
at 8:00 pm that night,

and dug till the next morning.

When the FBI dug,

I come up here, and I
could see what was going on.

There was 20-some
to 30-some agents

up here at all times,
standing around.

The backhoe was
digging constantly.

When the FBI left, I
came back up to the site

the next day to retrieve
my hidden cameras,

and then I ran some
tests on the site area.

And the readings we had
before of metal underneath,

gold and silver, were all
gone. Everything was gone.

Is it possible
that the FBI took possession

of the Dents Run Treasure?

For now, that question
remains unanswered.

In part because the
FBI refuses to comment

on what they recovered
from the underground cave

in Dents Run in January of 2018.

We want the truth to come out.

This is a big moment
in U.S. history.

If the FBI did take
the amount of gold

that we think was there,

based on our instruments
and our readings,

this would be, by far,
the biggest treasure

ever recovered on American soil.

Until more information
is disclosed,

the Civil War gold,
rumored to have been

hidden in the
hills of Dents Run,

shall remain an incredible
American treasure mystery.

Just like another legend

involving a notorious
pirate and his plundered gold

that may lie off the
coast of North Carolina.

Every year,
thousands of people gather

at the Ocracoke Pirate Jamboree

to experience a taste

of swashbuckling
life on the high seas.

The fair commemorates the defeat

of the most famous and
feared pirate in colonial history,

known by the name of...

Blackbeard.

Edward Teach,

also known as Blackbeard,
is a legendary pirate.

Now, not much is known
about him in his early years.

But it's believed that
he grew up in Bristol,

which is a town in England,

and from there, he
moved on to Jamaica,

where he worked as a privateer
in the War of Spanish Secession,

and that was where his
career as a pirate really began.

During the
War of Spanish Succession,

from 1701 to 1713,
the English government

gave captains of
private merchant ships

permission to attack
and plunder vessels

that were owned
by Spain and France.

Blackbeard was
one of those captains,

who were referred
to as "privateers."

After 1713, when the war ended,

if you continued
to be a privateer,

you were no longer a
privateer, you were a pirate.

Blackbeard, and a lot
of them, became pirates

because there was no
other way of making a living.

In 1717,
Blackbeard got his own ship,

and became one of the most

infamous pirate
captains who ever lived.

He made himself look
as terrifying as possible.

He had a very long black beard,

he had very long black
hair, and during battle,

he would put fuses,
or even candles,

into his beard and hair

so smoke would,
kind of, rise up,

and it looked like he
was coming out of hell.

Imagine this huge,
towering figure

with this big,
burly black beard,

and slow-burning
fuses coming out

from underneath
his hat, just sparkling.

That really created
his reputation

as the legendary
pirate Blackbeard.

Blackbeard and his
fellow pirates were plundering

and stealing loot
from ships all the time.

In fact, so many,
we don't even know

the exact number of ships

that Blackbeard
was able to loot.

But they're able
to take a lot of loot.

In 1718, after spending years

capturing and plundering
ships on the high seas,

Blackbeard's notorious career

came to an abrupt end
when he was attacked

off the southern tip
of Ocracoke Island.

The governor of Virginia
told his coast guard

to capture
Blackbeard at all costs.

And so the job went to
Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

And on November 22nd of 1718,

Maynard came upon
Blackbeard's ship

and immediately
engaged him into battle.

And Blackbeard engaged
in a fight with one of the men,

who ended up stabbing
Blackbeard in the thigh.

And, supposedly, Blackbeard
shouted, "Well done, lad!"

And then Lieutenant
Robert Maynard ends up

beheading
Blackbeard on the ship.

And Blackbeard's head was
placed on the bowsprit of a ship,

and sailed up and down
the Eastern Seaboard

so everyone would know

that Blackbeard had
been killed in battle.

In the centuries
since Blackbeard's death,

the mystery of his lost fortune

has captivated generations
of treasure hunters.

If someone went out to
find Blackbeard's treasure,

they would find
approximately $12.5 million

in today's currency.

And so, all kinds of rumors
and legends about his treasure

are definitely still out there,
and people are looking for it.

And, reportedly, what
Blackbeard said was,

"Only the devil and I know
the whereabouts of my treasure,

and the one of us who lives
the longest should take it all."

With little information
to go on as to where on earth

Blackbeard's treasure
may be hidden,

fortune seekers began searching
the waters of Onslow Bay

for the legendary pirate ship,
the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Just four months
before his death,

Blackbeard ran
his frigate aground

near the outer banks
of North Carolina.

Some speculate that the pirate
wrecked his ship on purpose

as a way to cheat his
crew from receiving

their share of
the latest plunder.

The sunken vessel
eluded discovery until 1996,

when Mike Daniel
and a team of divers

used their treasure
hunting skills

to pinpoint exactly

where "X" marked the spot.

Over the years,
I have found a lot of treasure.

A lot of gold,

a lot of emeralds,
a lot of silver.

For instance, I
found a shipwreck

called the Maravillas,
1656 Spanish galleon,

one of the richest ever to sink.

The whole process
of finding a shipwreck

is first, you get
the documentation

that gives you a
pretty good idea

of where you should be looking.

And so, in order to go search
for the Queen Anne's Revenge,

you know, we
started looking through

the various
historical documents,

and it was said that the
Queen Anne's Revenge

supposedly ran
aground trying to enter

Topsail Inlet, up
in North Carolina.

Even though it's
Beaufort Inlet today,

it was Topsail
Inlet at the time.

And once you've
got that pinned down,

now what you do is
you set up a grid system,

and then travel down that
line towing a magnetometer,

a electronic piece of equipment

that measures very
minute magnetism.

If there is an
anomaly in the water,

it would tell you
something's there.

And we had a pretty major hit.

I go down, take a look,

and I spot the three
cannons right away.

They're sitting off to the
side of this big mound...

And that's when we actually
said, "Yeah, we've got it."

Today, over 400,000 items

have actually been excavated
off of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

And these include things like
24 huge cannons came out of it.

They've also found other
goods such as personal effects,

and they've found
weapons as well.

But despite
the vast number of artifacts

archaeologists have salvaged
from the Queen Anne's Revenge,

they found no sign of
Blackbeard's treasure.

Where could it be?

It's a mystery
that still fascinates

treasure hunters to this day.

The big question
is what happened to the gold

on the Queen Anne's Revenge?

It's possible that some
of it has just been,

kind of, dispersed into the sea.

It could be, perhaps,
that Blackbeard

offloaded much of it before

actually abandoning the
Queen Anne's Revenge.

It's one of the big
mysteries about Blackbeard

that we just don't really know.

It's extraordinary to think
that the treasure of Blackbeard,

the most notorious
pirate in history,

could one day be recovered.

But there's another gold fortune

that may have been hidden
in the mountains of California

that is no less compelling.

It belonged to a Mexican
American vigilante

who was known as the
"Robin Hood of the Old West."

Here, 13 miles outside
the small town of Coalinga,

stand three jagged
sandstone outcroppings

known as the Joaquin Rocks.

They are named after
an infamous outlaw

named Joaquin Murrieta,

who, according to legend,

hid a treasure
beneath these peaks

worth millions
of dollars in gold.

Joaquin Murrieta was
my fifth great-grandfather.

He was an outlaw, a vigilante,

a robber, in the 1840s.

And that is where the legends
of, not only his adventures,

but the gold of Joaquin,

and where he put his
treasure, come about.

Did Joaquin Murrieta
hide a stockpile of stolen gold

in the Diablo Mountains?

Perhaps, but
according to historians,

Murrieta did not start out
as a dangerous criminal.

In fact, he reportedly
immigrated with his family

from Mexico to
California in the late 1840s

to mine for gold.

In 1848, gold was
discovered up in the foothills

of the mountains
here in California.

And Joaquin Murrieta,
so we are told,

he established a mining claim

to make his fortune
with his wife, his brothers,

and perhaps other family
members from Sonora, Mexico,

and started making
money in the early years

of the California Gold Rush.

By all accounts,
Murrieta and his family

soon amassed a
substantial fortune.

But then a gang of
American prospectors

attacked him and stole his land.

According to the
story, his brother was lynched,

His wife was brutally
raped, and then murdered.

And Joaquin himself
was left for dead.

Having just barely survived

this harrowing circumstance
where he lost everything,

Joaquin began to organize

other bands of
dispossessed Mexicans,

and then they began

a series of attacks
for revenge...

from Los Angeles
to San Francisco,

to Sacramento,
to the gold fields.

Over the next three years,

Joaquin Murrieta and
his band of vigilantes

delivered their brand of
justice throughout Gold Country.

In doing so, they acquired
huge amounts of treasure.

Joaquin had a lot
of gold that he had amassed over time.

And during the process of
that, he started to build a network

of people that were
giving him harbor.

And that's where the
legend starts of Robin Hood,

of somebody who would
take money from white people,

and then give it to a family
that gave him safe harbor.

Word of Murrieta's exploits
soon spread throughout California.

Eventually, the governor
offered a $1000 cash reward,

and called upon the newly
formed California Rangers

to hunt Murrieta down.

Joaquin knows that these
rangers are closing in.

He's starting to figure out
he's got to do something.

He's got this treasure
that he carries with him.

What's he gonna do?

The most prominent
idea would be that

he buried his
treasure somewhere.

According to the story,

the California Rangers
eventually caught up

with Joaquin
Murrieta and his gang

in the Diablo Mountains.

The Rangers reportedly
returned to Sacramento

a few days later with
a severed head in a jar

as proof that Murrieta
had finally met his end.

But that wouldn't be the end

of Joaquin Murrieta's legacy.

The way that we
know about Joaquin

is that there was a young writer

living up in the gold fields, a
guy named John Rollin Ridge.

And he published a book called

The Life and Adventures
of Joaquin Murieta.

And when that book came out,

it was the equivalent of a
New York Times bestseller.

It was a blockbuster.

Joaquin
Murrieta's story is the story

that Johnston McCulley
used to create Zorro,

and, of course, Bob Kane
used the story of Zorro

to create Batman.

And so, if you ask
a lot of scholars

who's the first
Latinx superhero,

they say, "Oh, that's
Joaquin Murrieta, no doubt."

Today, Joaquin
Murrieta is celebrated by many

as a folk hero, but
the question remains:

What happened to all
the gold he was rumored

to have stashed in
the Diablo Mountains?

Well, some historians
believe Joaquin Murrieta

never buried his
fortune in the first place.

They claim he wasn't killed
by the California Rangers,

but rather escaped to Mexico.

A powerful
part of the legend in our family

is that the same people
that he gave help to,

and gold to, and that hid him,

also gave this
great last act of care

by going to a courthouse
where there's a head in a jar,

and saying, "Yeah, that's
totally him, I swear to it."

And that was how he was
able to get away and live,

because that wasn't his head.

The biggest mystery to me

is where did that gold go?

We certainly don't know where,

but it's got to be somewhere.

Did Joaquin Murrieta
stash his gold treasure

in the Diablo Mountains?

Or is it possible
that, as some believe,

he escaped with it to Mexico?

Either way, the fate
of this storied bandit

and his treasure is a
fascinating mystery.

As is the case with
a notorious gangster

and a vault that
he reportedly buried

in the Catskill Mountains,

filled with millions of dollars.

Phoenicia, Upstate New York.

This quaint town at
the base of the Catskills

is primarily known for being
a popular vacation destination.

But it is also known
as the hiding place

of an incredible lost fortune.

Because, according to
legend, somewhere in this area,

a safe was buried that contains

tens of millions of dollars
in cash, bonds and jewelry

that belonged to
a gangster named

Dutch Schultz.

Dutch Schultz was
one of the most iconic

early 20th-century
mobsters in America.

He was someone that had
a name and a reputation

that spread across the
country as a real tough guy,

and he became a
millionaire during prohibition

on bootlegging and
various other rackets.

Dutch Schultz
became what was known as

the "Beer Baron of the Bronx,"

because during prohibition,
it was hard to get beer,

and if you wanted beer,

you had to get it
from Dutch Schultz

because he controlled
everything above 57th Street

and in the Bronx.

In the early 1930s,

the FBI started building a
case against Dutch Schultz,

in an effort to crack
down on organized crime.

The investigation was led by
U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey.

Thomas Dewey was a
very smart prosecutor.

He went methodically
after all of the criminals.

So, Dutch became so paranoid

that he wanted
to bury his wealth

before they could take it.

Supposedly,
while he was under indictment,

Dutch Schultz had
a customized safe

constructed for him
that was airproof,

soundproof, weatherproof.

Him and his bodyguard
put what was thought to be

anywhere between $5
and $10 million in that safe,

as well as jewelry and bonds,

and they allegedly
took that safe

up to the Catskills and
buried it somewhere.

The Dutch
Schultz treasure is an intriguing notion

because one of the items

allegedly put into
the treasure box

were Liberty Bonds,
and these are simply

bonds that could be
redeemed at a future date

for more than the
value you paid for them.

But no Liberty Bond
associated with Dutch Schultz

or any of his accomplices
has ever been redeemed.

This is used as one of the clues

that this treasure
is still at large.

If it's true

that the Lost Treasure
of Dutch Schultz

does, in fact, exist, then
where could it be hidden?

Well, according to
many researchers,

the most likely place
is somewhere along

an old brook named
Stony Clove Creek.

Even
though Dutch was a city kid,

he knew the Catskills
well because that's where

he had his stills
making the whiskey.

He'd stay at the
Phoenicia Hotel,

and then drive up and
look at all of his stills.

Back in 1935, there was a train

that went from New York
City up to the Catskills.

It went through this area

near Stony Clove
Creek and Phoenicia.

One station was
called Lanesville,

which was really nothing
more than a little shack.

At that time, Dutch was afraid

of being nabbed in a
checkpoint with the treasure.

So, treasure hunters
have theorized that

he got off the
train at Lanesville,

buried the treasure
somewhere along the banks

of the Stony Clove Creek
because it's extremely remote.

Is it possible that
the Lost Treasure of Dutch Schultz

is buried somewhere along
the banks of Stony Clove Creek?

We may never know for
sure, because in 1935,

a rival gangster named
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano

ordered a hit on Dutch Schultz.

Dutch Schultz
had set up his operation

at the Palace Chop House,

a small restaurant,
bar establishment

in Newark, New Jersey.

And two assassins,
Charles "The Bug" Workman

and Mendy Weiss,
walk into the bar.

Charles shoots Dutch twice.

And there's that famous
picture of Dutch Schultz

with his head on the table
after he's been shot twice.

He's grievously
injured, but not dead.

Dutch Schultz was
immediately rushed to the Newark Hospital,

and some researchers
believe that, on his deathbed,

Dutch left a final
clue as to where

his treasure vault is buried.

During his deathbed
rant, he's giving little tidbits

of possible information
about his treasure.

At one point he says,

"Don't let Satan
draw you too fast."

That could just be a ramble,

but some treasure
hunters believe

this line could be a reference

to a geological formation
in the town of Phoenicia

called the "Devil's Rock."

There have
been scores of treasure hunters

trying to find this treasure

up in the Catskills
around Phoenicia.

It is worth so much

that today you
could probably buy

a fleet of jumbo jets

with just what's in
that treasure box.

And that's why
everyone's looking for it.

Will the alleged clue

that Dutch Schultz
left on his deathbed

reveal the location of
his hidden vault someday?

It's a fascinating possibility.

But there's another
famed treasure vault

that was buried in
the Nevada desert

that is just as intriguing.

It was built by the owner
of a Las Vegas casino,

and is believed to
contain 20 tons of silver.

Just beyond the Vegas Strip,

in the affluent neighborhood
of Rancho Circle,

detectives are called
to 2408 Palomino Lane.

There they find the owner of
the popular Horseshoe Casino,

54-year-old Ted Binion,

lying dead on the
floor of his den.

Ted Binion was
made to run a casino.

He had a big personality,

and lived a life
on the wild side.

Definitely a big partier.

And so, when police
first examined the scene,

they thought that Ted Binion

probably died of
a drug overdose.

People thought
that Teddy's lifestyle

had caught up with him.

Binion's
Horseshoe casino and hotel,

located in the mesmerizing
neon section of Las Vegas

called Glitter Gulch,
was founded in 1951

by gambling legend and
career criminal Benny Binion.

Benny
Binion opened up the Horseshoe

as the great gambling
club of Las Vegas.

Benny was part of this
wave of mobsters, racketeers,

coming into Las
Vegas at this period.

Moe Dalitz, Moe
Sedway, Bugsy Siegel,

they were coming to Las
Vegas where gambling was legal,

and they could set
up their operations

without having to worry
about being arrested.

In 1964, at only 21 years old,

Ted Binion became casino
manager for the family business.

And for 30 years, he lived
a life filled with parties,

drugs and connections
to organized crime.

But by 1996,
Ted's fast lifestyle

and criminal activity
finally caught up to him,

ending his career at the casino.

Ted Binion
was arrested in a drug bust,

and the FBI believed that
he was laundering money

out of the Horseshoe.

So, he had this whole
array of problems,

and which ultimately
culminated in him

losing his gambling license.

After being
forced out of the casino,

Binion was faced
with the challenge

of where to stash a massive
collection of silver and cash,

which he had
accumulated for himself,

and had locked in a
vault at the Horseshoe.

Ted Binion had, in the basement

of the Binions'
hotel and casino,

large bundles of cash,

40,000 pounds of silver coins,

silver bars, bullion,

and when he lost his license,

he obviously had to
move the silver out.

There were
rumors that Ted buried

$7 million to $14 million worth

of silver bars and coins
somewhere out in the desert.

And so, what
happened to the silver?

Are there still millions
of dollars' worth of silver

floating around out
there somewhere?

Shortly after
Ted Binion's death in 1998,

there was a surprising twist
that proved that the rumors

concerning his buried
silver were, in fact, true.

A deputy investigating Binion's
ranch in the Nevada desert,

caught a team of workmen
loading a dump truck

with more than $4
million worth of silver bars.

Their leader was a
man named Rick Tabish.

Rick Tabish operated
a trucking operation

that was very successful,

and he knew a lot
about construction,

and the story is that
Teddy had Rick help him

construct an underground
vault on his property,

about 80 miles
outside of Las Vegas,

where Teddy put millions
and millions of dollars of silver.

And so, Rick was subsequently
arrested in that case.

Rick Tabish knew
what was inside the vault,

and right after
Ted Binion's death,

he got a group of
guys, a belly dump truck,

and went and dug up the silver.

Rick Tabish was found guilty

for stealing $6 million
worth of silver bars and coins.

The stolen silver was
returned to the Binion family,

but that's not the
end of the story.

Because there are many who claim

that the recovered
silver bullion

was only a fraction
of the hidden fortune

that Ted Binion had buried
out in the Nevada desert.

We recovered all
the silver that Rick Tabish had,

but it isn't a stretch
of the imagination

to think that there may
be other items of value

that we don't know about.

People have hopped over
the fence at Ted Binion's ranch

and tried digging in
the middle of the desert

to find the buried treasure,

but nobody knows where
Ted Binion's silver went,

and nobody really knows
how much is missing.

Only Ted knows, and he's dead.

What is it about buried treasure

that compels people
to risk everything

in search of something
that may not even exist?

Perhaps the answer lies

in examining another
modern-day treasure hunt,

one that took place deep
in the Rocky Mountains,

where, against all odds,
a fortune of hidden gold

was actually found.

The Thrill of the Chase
hits bookshelves across the country.

The book, written
by an eccentric

80-year-old man
named Forrest Fenn,

traces his
incredible life story,

from serving as a pilot
during the Vietnam War,

to becoming one of
the most successful

art dealers in America.

But even more excitingly,

the book also reveals
that Fenn buried

an incredible treasure somewhere

in the Rocky Mountains.

The treasure chest
that Forrest hid

has actually been
photographed and put in his book.

It was a bronze chest,

ten inches by ten inches
by five inches deep,

and it contained
hundreds of gold coins

worth more than
half a million dollars.

To entice treasure
hunters to look for the hidden gold,

Forrest Fenn
composed a cryptic poem

with nine clues
pointing to its location.

And just as Fenn hoped,

the poem inspired people

to take him up on his challenge.

Forrest Fenn's treasure
became a real phenomenon,

a worldwide phenomenon.

People would come
from everywhere

to seek this treasure.

Forrest Fenn liked to say
that he thought there were

something like 350,000
people looking for his treasure.

There were some people who
became a little too obsessed

with Forrest Fenn's chase,
and it cost them their lives.

A man fell down from a mountain,

another was washed
away in a river,

and a third man died from
exposure to the elements.

And so, at a certain point,

there were a lot of calls
for Fenn to end the hunt.

Forrest begged people not to go

where a 79 or 80-year-old
man could not go.

Unfortunately, I think

the larger the
financial incentive,

the more common sense
goes out the window.

Ten years after
Forrest Fenn launched the hunt

for his treasure,
on June 6th, 2020,

he announced that a
32-year-old medical student

named Jack Stuef had
finally found the fortune

in the Wyoming desert.

After it became
known that Jack was the finder,

initially, people
were very excited.

And then they figured out
that he wasn't gonna tell them

where the treasure was found,

and so, that put
him in opposition

to the community
in lots of ways,

and that's a perfect ground to
breed conspiracies and questions

and all that because you
don't have all the answers.

Probably the most
prevalent conspiracy theory

is called the "nudge,"

which is the hypothesis
that, in some way,

Forrest Fenn quickened
the end of his treasure hunt,

that he singled out Jack Stuef,

and, in some way,
pushed him towards

the actual spot where
the treasure was.

Did Forrest Fenn give away

the location of his
hidden treasure,

perhaps because numerous
people had died looking for it?

We may never know for sure

because Forrest Fenn passed
away on September 7th, 2020,

and Jack Stuef has refused
to address the rumors.

Whether or
not Forrest helped Jack,

in the end, there could
only ever be one winner,

which meant there would be
hundreds of thousands of losers.

It's mysterious that
people will devote

their time and
energy to something

where they are, in all
likelihood, going to fail,

and will do it with
such energy and life,

as if they know
they're going to win.

But treasure hunting
is innately human.

It's part of our curiosity.

It doesn't matter
if the treasure

is really out there or not,

it's the adventure
of it that matters.

Are we captivated by
legends of hidden riches

because we truly
believe they're out there?

Or do such tales exist

only to fulfill our
dreams of adventure?

Well, while some lost
treasures may be mythical,

others are almost certainly

stashed somewhere
in the United States.

And it's that possibility
that compels people

to keep digging and
diving and searching

for those incredible fortunes

that, for the moment, remain...

unexplained.

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