Oak Island Money Pit
The Would-Be Treasure: Two-million pounds of gold
Estimated Value: $29-billion (today)
Possible Location: Somewhere under Oak Island, Nova Scotia
The Legend: In the 1700s, in an area known for pirate hiding places, a big bonfire on Oak Island attracted the attention of locals. Four nosey neighbors went to the island and two disappeared and the surviving two described a scene with men digging. in 1795 a boy on a hunting expedition on the island and noticed a large depression near a big tree that had strange pulley marks on it. Convinced something lay underneath, he returned the next day with two friends.
They started digging and every 10 feet found a man-made layers of wood which seemed to prove they were on the right path. After 30 feet, they realized they were in over their head, literally so they left to get help. It took 9 years for them to return with an investment to continue digging. They uncovered early promise in the re-dig effort when they found a non-native stone inscribed with the statement "Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds Are Buried." They kept digging and digging and only found more wooden layers. Soon after, the pit flooded with water and repeated schemes to drain the pit failed and so this effort came to an end.
Later excavations brought in machinery with similar results. Below the water level, they've found man-made caves and cement vaults, flood tunnels and a severed hand. When they reached 230 feet down, the clues ended and somewhere, all of this money is still there, unless of course it slipped into the Earth's core. It could be a wild goose chase, albeit an elaborate, labor-intensive one, but for $29 billion of gold, it's worth the hunt.
The Clues: Oak Island is privately owned so you have to get permission to visit it, but there are periodic 'Island Days' where treasure fans can visit the island and plans are underway to start regular tours of Oak Island. The current company excavating the pit is planning on continuing digging for the treasure in 2009 as their 2008 permit expired and is in review with the Nova Scotia government. For more, clues, check out Oak Island investor Bill Milstead's site for photos, DVDs and more
Maximilian's Millions
The Would-Be Treasure: Mexican Emperor Maximilian's Gold
Estimated Value: $5 million (1864ish)
Possible Location: North Mountain area near El Paso, Tex.
The Legend: Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, there lies the gold of Max-i-mil-ian. That goes really nice if sung to the tune of Marty Robbin's 'El Paso,' but I digress. This treasure story starts when the Austrian Maximilian was made Emperor of Mexico as part of some European political maneuvering by Napolean III. When he leaves Europe for Mexico, Max takes all of his massive wealth with him. Max was not well liked by the peasants who saw him as an outsider and there were constant threats of revolution. In 1867, with real threats pending on him and his wife, he sent his wife back to Europe and made arrangements to have his gold, $5 million worth in the 1860s, shipped back as well.
Max just couldn't call up Fed Ex or send on a royal wagon since the peasants would find out and aggressively procure the treasure. He hid the loot in flour barrels and hired some extra security to escort his own men to take the treasure through Jaurez, into the border neighbor El Paso and then on a long trek to a Texas port.
The only problem is that this was one of the most lawless areas at the time. Finally, the hired guns were curious why flour needed so much protection so they looked at the cargo and found the treasure. They killed Max's guys and claimed the gold. They buried it near Castel Gap around El Paso for safe keeping lest they find the same fate as their Mexican employers, but all of them died in various methods before they got back to enjoy their windfall.
The Clues: The last living outlaw shared the location with his doctor on his deathbed and the doctor got some men and the map from the dead outlaw's instructions and headed off to Texas. They never found it, but landscapes change over decades and the map didn't fit the current terrain.
Landscape integrity is a common theme in lost treasue and subsequent hunts for said treasure. That's why old cartoons used to use paces as measurements and maps with Xs. If only Bugs Bunny were real, he could probably find Maximilian's millions.
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