I was reading the newspaper years ago when I came across an
article about a local lake in Colorado that was being drained to make
improvements. The up-grade of the lake included a new brick wall near
the highway and improving the walkways and dredging the lake.

The lake was near my home when I was a young boy. Reading the
article brought back wonderful memories of the lake and those years .
When I read the article about the improvements especially that it was
going to be drained, I knew I had to take a look.

I took a drive to the lake and found a few guys looking for
treasure near two old docks that had been partially removed years
ago. You could see the old wooden poles were the old dock’s once were
because the water level was getting lower and lower each day. The
guys where using metal detectors to find treasure. I spoke to the
four guys out there and became very interested. That day I went out
and purchased a metal detector. The detector I purchased was not the
best quality but as time went on it made no difference because of so
much trash and false readings.

I was able to go to the lake daily after work because I still
lived close enough to drive there after work. When I and the other
fellows started metal detecting we found over a period of days, the
best way to find the lost lost treasure was by digging.

The first step we found was to dig deeper and wider than you would
normally do when using a metal detector. This took some practice and
some thinking. What I did after the first few days was to go on-line
and find out what I could about the lake I grew up near. The
information I was getting from the historical society, the public
library, and other resources was very interesting and well worth my
research.

It made me happy to actually find out so much information and
history about my lake. I discovered there were two docks, one built
in 1900 and the other in 1930. The dock I fished off was built in
1930. All my days of fishing, swimming, playing and other fun stuff,
I never knew about the 110 year old dock.

With all this information I began digging between the two docks
about three to four feet down and four by four squares. I did this
every day for about four weeks. As I dug and the four other fellows
dug, other people noticed what we where doing and joined in.

Before you knew it we had on average for around four weeks twenty
to thirty people digging for buried treasure.

We would talk to one another to get more information about what we
were finding and if the items may be of value or just good treasure
to tell your grand-kids about.

The weeks of digging I was able to find two hand full of old coins
with dates from the 1880’s up through the 1960’s. Most of the coins
had no value because they were so worn and ruined. The only good
things about the coins is the quality of metal in the coins. For
example the silver content was very good.. Don’t get me wrong I found
some nice quality coins that will be worth something years from now
but most the coins I sold for scrap.

While digging I also found gold rings, bracelets, watches, antique
bottles and many other interesting treasures. Others found beautiful
1800 rings, diamonds, watches, guns, toys, and more.

Other items I found by walking around the lake after getting tired
of digging was old toys, fishing poles, boat paddles, and much more.

This was the first time for me to do something like this. I found
it rewarding mentally, spiritually, and it put a few bucks in my
pocket as well.

The treasures I found the most of and have been spending time on
is soda bottles. From old root beer glass bottles, coca-cola, Pepsi,
Hutchinson, blob, 7-up, RC cola, and many other brands and names, I
am still researching the ages, prices, and resell value of the
bottles.

From a guy who never got into treasure hunting before, all I can
say is you also can find treasure in your home town.

If you know of a place that’s being demoloished ,or a lake that’s
being drained you could find treasures of your own. Check out your
local neighborhood you will find something of value. As they say
“Someones Trash is Someone Else’s Treasure”.