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An article was recently published on KSL.com that referenced a "Nephite Coin". I remembered seeing the picture of the coin in one of the treasure books. The author of the treasure book shows it as being a Nephite coin (as it was once believed to be) and uses it as evidence [...]

As a young boy, I remember looking at this picture (from George Thompson's book Faded Footprints) and thinking how cool it would be to find an old Spanish bell hidden in the Uintah's somewhere. George states that it is "A Catholic Priest's brass bell, found along the old Black Robe Trail [...]

Treasure Hill is located on Indian land and you must receive permission to visit or be accompanied by a Ute member.  There is a lot of mystery surrounding this little hill.                   This is a picture of Treasure Hill looking across the old [...]

George Thompson tells of a mine located in Riley's Canyon in his book Faded Footprints on page 33: "Near the head of Riley's Canyon only a few miles north of Wolf Creek road, there is a shaft typical of those dug by Spanish miners. A row of shallow footholds cut into [...]

LOST INDIAN MINE IN UTAH VALLEY By:  George A. Thompson (Originally appeared in Lost Treasure, June 1977) Utah Valley is an unlikely place for a lost mine, but it has one. It's a mine that was known to the Ute Indians centuries before white men came into the Great Basin. Somewhere, [...]

Chalk Creek near Fillmore has many interesting things to see. Your first stop should be at the Fillmore Office Interpretive where some of the glyphs have been moved. The sign located around the back of the building reads: "Chalk Creek Hieroglyphics These unusual symbols were found in 1939 by two prospectors, [...]

This amulet was found at Iron Springs west of Cedar City, Utah along the Old Spanish Trail. The amulet is believed to have been from the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition that camped at the springs in 1776. You can see it in the San Rafel museum in Castle Dale, Utah.

The first image is from the book "De Re Metallica" showing the construction of how vertical shafts should be made. If you haven't read it, it is an essential read if you are trying to understand how the Spanish used to think and locate and work different bodies of ore. I [...]

American Fork Canyon is riddled with mines and old prospects from miners who began filing claims there after the discoveries in Little Cottonwood Canyon in the late 1800s. The remains of Forest City, a once active mining town located on Dutchman Flats in the upper reaches of American Fork Canyon, are [...]

We came across this shaft in the west desert of Utah and decided to drop some rocks down it and see how long it took to hit the bottom. We determined that a rock falls at 32.2 ft/sec. and increases by that amount every second of free fall until it reaches [...]

In George Thompson's book Faded Footprints he relates the story of two men relocating an old Spanish mine near Silver Meadows. This is the picture he shares in his book.  Gale Rhoades shares the following photo taken a little later on in the mines history in his book Footprints in the [...]

There are several old mines on Mt. Mahogany, as well as a plethora of caves. This mountain is steep and very hot to explore from spring to fall, which only leaves a few good months to really cover a lot of territory. While most mines along this mountain did not produce [...]

There is a legend that was once told by the Timpanogos Indians of a treasure buried inside a cave not far above the valley floor. A friend of mine who was familiar with this story located this cave and believed it matched the details of the story. He and some friends [...]

A fellow treasure hunter shared this image with me. It is of his Uncle and two others in the basement of the Utah Historical Society looking at an old Spanish Helmet that was found in Utah. We are working to determine exactly where this helmet was found and where it is [...]

North Fork Cave would have been formed as part of an ancient underground water system. When the canyon eroded out it exposed a portion of this system. It really does not have anything very interesting to see inside, it is simply a pocket about 150' long and about 40 ft. tall [...]

There is an interesting location in southern Utah county called Water Canyon that hides some intriguing history. Not far into the canyon, there is a cliff face with some pictographs on it. One shows a line of large animals headed in one direction and a separate line with smaller animals heading [...]

The "Stone Face" is located in the ledges along the North Fork of the Duchesne River. It has been speculated to be a carved feature indicating the location of an ancient treasure. If you ask me... it is completely natural, but this is the thing many treasure stories are made of. [...]

Over the years many smelters have been found throughout the Uintah mountains. I do not believe that every smelter is of Spanish origin but there are a few that definitely are. A decent article was written on the topic by By Cristina Bailey, Tami Merkley and Byron Loosle and they discuss [...]

Miners Gulch is one of the eeriest places I have ever searched for treasure. Every time we begin exploring around Bear Lake, we all get the feeling to run back to the car and get down the mountain as fast as possible. I'm not certain of what went on here in [...]

In 1993 the Deseret News published the following article concerning a treasure hunt venture with the Ute Indians.  We will likely never hear if anything was discovered during the venture. Deseret News Tuesday, October 12, 1993 UTES OK PACT TO HUNT FOR LOST TREASURES Company to use new technologies in search [...]

This old mortar and pestle was found near Straight Creek on the east flank of Mt. Pennell. it was made by early Spanish explorers who were likely the first to discover gold-bearing deposits in the Henry Mountains. The slab is of ignious rock into which the mortar grooove was [...]