JCollins-Black's mother had always dreamed of living in a log cabin. So when his father, a pastor, was given 20 acres of land by members of his congregation, he built hers in North Carolina. “I literally did it with my bare hands,” Collins-Black said. On sweltering days, young Collins-Black chased lizards, stalked snakes and dug holes. On balmy nights he wondered what he would find the next day. But closest to his heart are the days spent at the Emerald Hollow Mine, located in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains, a 20-minute drive away. So he sifted through streams and sifted through dirt in search of treasure.
More than 30 years later, Collins Black kicked off In search of millions of dollars worth of treasure, he goes on what he believes to be the largest real-world treasure hunt in U.S. history. He hid five boxes (one containing the “lion's share” and four smaller boxes) across five states in the United States. Collins-Black's new book, There's Treasure Inside, published earlier this month, serves as a 243-page treasure map, each with an origin story. item And tips on how to find them.
Some items may have been plucked from a pirate's chest, such as ruby earrings, a gold chalice, and an amethyst necklace, while others include Picasso's gold pendant, George Washington's jelly glass, an Olympic gold medal, and Michael Jordan's. Rookie basketball card, Amelia Earhart autograph, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis diamond sapphire brooch, physical bitcoin And rare Pokemon cards.
When deciding where to hide the box, Collins Black first turned to Google Maps. He read about the history of the place and studied its topography. He then hiked approximately 160 miles on a “massive reconnaissance” mission.
This hunt took years. In 2016, Collins-Black's Pokemon Go craze came on a trip to Portland, Maine. Pokemon Go is a meteorically popular game that uses augmented reality to blend the real world with on-screen activities. “There were hordes of people out on the streets looking for Pokemon,” Collins-Black said. “I thought, 'What's going on?'” But his hunting is “a completely analog adventure.” It's similar to the adventure that Forrest Fenn, a Vietnam veteran turned art dealer, began in 2010. He hid the treasure chest in the mountains. We reached the Rocky Mountains and began Fenn's treasure hunt. he left only one thing poem Also included is a companion map that guides the nearly 500,000 searchers who have begun exploring the western United States. Five people died during the act, and the police chief begged Fenn to stop it.
Collins-Black didn't know about Fenn's treasures until 2016, but was inspired by several trips in search of them, including a five-week solo stay in the Rocky Mountains. But in 2020, a 32-year-old medical student discovered this treasure trove in the Wyoming region of Yellowstone National Park. “I was depressed for weeks,” Collins-Black says. “I didn't even read the article he wrote about finding it.”
One day, Collins-Black realized that “nothing was going to stop me from hunting for myself.'' I had sold my self-help website and invested in Bitcoin early on, so I was financially comfortable. He wanted to give people a reason to connect with nature through his own hunting, just as he loved to do as a boy. “And I don't like doing small things,” he added.
First, Collins-Black needed to find a treasure to hide. He thought the perfect treasure trove would be rich not only in its value but also in its appeal to hunters of all generations and interests, including himself. He studied creative literature when he was a student. “Emerson and Thoreau were kind of my jam,” he says. “They were always in the woods, too.'' So he scrolled through the auction website and eventually found a two-page listing of Thoreau's diary. He then obtained four items from Fenn's treasury and an emerald that belonged to businessman Andrew Carnegie.
Then the task of hiding them began. “I wanted the five boxes to be as cool as the items themselves.” He found these boxes at the Smithsonian Institution. safe A work by Seth Gould, a blacksmith who researched puzzle boxes in Japan. “A treasure chest that doubles as a puzzle?” Collins-Black says. “My heart was like, ‘Bah!’” He asked Gould to create five more boxes, each unique.
This quest starts this month and has already started inspired hunter exchange theory Then start searching. Collins-Black's book is currently a top seller in Amazon's Adventure Travel category. However, Collins-Black believes the full discovery of the treasure will take seven to 10 years, and does not rule out the possibility of additional clues being shared. “This is not a legacy project where when I die people will still be looking for my treasures,” he says.
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As the search progresses, Collins-Black will be watching online from her home in the mountains west of Los Angeles. He lives there with his wife and two young children, but no one knows where the treasure is. “Kids are always digging and hiding things in the garden,” he says. “They're already collecting coins.” Do they have treasure-hunting instincts in them too?
“Many of us are treasure hunters,” Collins-Black says with a laugh. “Sometimes they don't even realize it.”
