Another 18 months later, Beale again returned home to hide more gold and silver, plus some jewels. Beale did so while the men continued to work the mine. After 18 months of work, the crew sent Beale home to Virginia to bury the treasure so that their families could enjoy the fortune for generations. After arriving in New Mexico, they supposedly discovered gold and silver, which they decided to mine.

In 1817, Virginian Thomas Jefferson Beale and 29 others headed west on a cross-country trip. Some value the ship and its treasures at more than $2 billion. The fastest ship in the fleet, it would have been loaded with the most treasure as its speed would have made it the most likely to reach Spain. But the San Miguel ship is still missing, which intrigues fortune-seekers. To date, seven of the ships have been found, and the Spanish recovered about half of the treasure. One thousand sailors and enslaved people perished, and the ships and all its precious contents sank to the depths of the ocean. Not such a great idea as it turned out, as just a week after leaving Cuba a storm hit, destroying the fleet. The plan was for the ships to sail from Havana, Cuba, just before hurricane season was due, hoping that would deter pirates and privateers from trying to steal their cache. So, in 1715, the country filled 12 ships with riches from the New World to help fill its coffers: silver, gold, pearls, jewels and other treasures. Some people create complex clues and ciphers to help others find the loot - or befuddle them some more.Īfter Spain's War of Succession (1701-1714), the country was in desperate need of cash. The existence of some riches seems to be closer to rumor. Other valuable caches were lost at sea or stolen. Plenty of valuables - gold, silver, jewels - have been buried over the centuries and are just waiting to be uncovered. Fenn died three months after the treasure was found.Īlthough Fenn's treasure is no longer hidden, there are many other treasure hunts still going on. Stuef sold the treasure to Tesouro Sagrado Holdings, LLC, which subsequently put most of the items up for auction. It took a decade, and hundreds of thousands of seekers, before 32-year-old Jack Stuef found it in 2020.

He left a cryptic note with hints regarding its locale.

In 2010, art dealer Forrest Fenn told the world that he'd buried a bronze chest filled with about $2 million in coins, jewelry and artifacts somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The quest to find riches through treasure hunts is always so thrilling.

Real life treasure hunt game