Secret Note Prompts Treasure Hunt

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Oct 1st 2009 at 8:01PM

I love a good treasure hunt and the AP has a great story of one that is going on in Illinois. Patty Henken bought an old rocking chair for $200 at an auction and when she removed the seat she found an envelope with "Finders Keepers" typewritten on it. Inside, a key was taped to a note which gave directions for finding a lead chest filled with gold coins buried underground. So far the treasure hasn't been unearthed but that's not for lack of trying. A search of the site, now a vacant lot, with a donated backhoe last week did not yield any major discovery, only a cistern with bricks and antique bottles. The note was signed by a "Chauncey Wolcott" and appears to have been written sometime after World War II since it says the chest "cannot be located by metal detector" and that is around the time that metal detectors first became popular. It could all be a hoax but Henken plans to dig at the site again. Here's hoping she finds something great.

UPDATE: Could this be a prank from beyond the grave? It turns out that the alias belonged to a notorious prankster.

Tags: gold coins, GoldCoins, treasure hunt, TreasureHunt