Apr 28 2009
Google Earth used to find gold - Treasure Hunter Denied!
A California man by the name of Nathan Smith attempted to hunt for treasure on a Texas land owner’s property. The wreckage supposedly contains abandoned gold and silver, as identified by Smith’s metal detector. The treasure hunter claimed to have found a “19th century ancient shipwreck” near the Mission River outside of Houston, Texas.
The interesting thing is, Mr. Smith got the idea of treasure hunting by watching the movie National Treasure with Nicholas Cage. His goal was to finance his music and film career by hitting the jackpot. The jackpot in this case was the once famous Barkentine vessel that was lost in an 1822 hurricane over South Texas.
So how did he find the spot for this lost treasure? Google Earth! Yes, the free to download Google application was responsible for helping Smith locate the apparent shipwreck. He is said to have checked up on the location using Google Earth, everyday to monitor its changes. The spot apparently had a “shoe print” design and bared the resemblance of a boat.
The U.S. District Judge (David Hittner) in the court case had this to say in a report:
“Smith has received no artifacts, and presents no evidence, other than his own testimony regarding metal detector readings, that anything of value or historical significance actually exists where he claims it exists.”
So interesting enough, the case was ruled against Mr. Smith for not having enough evidence to support his claim. Nathan Smith plans on applying the Maritime Law “finds” and “salvage” to go back to the site. His goal is to use more powerful equipment and find solid evidence to back his claim. So what are your opinions in this case?
Incredible, however I don’t see how Mr. Smith has any chance to dig out his purported discovery. The location is on private property. Unless, Mr. Smith makes a deal with the landowner.
BTW Nice site keep up the good work.
If the owners feel that its there property then they owes some back taxes and penalties.
Paul
Exactly which ‘back taxes’ do you demand for people who own property, and may or may not have undiscovered mneral values located there?
Also, since the single source of your information about this case seems to be the article itself, which taxes do you see subjected to scrutiny, and how did you descern that they are, in fact, late, or timely in their upkeep?
More importantly, the landowner owes no prospector free access in order for the prospector to prove a claim.