Relates local legends of hidden fortunes and lost treasures left behind by outlaws, pioneers, and prospectors

Collects legends of buried treasure in Texas, including the gold of Haystack Mountain, a missing Incan hoard, and the Deer Island shipwrecks

Discusses buried treasures located in New England, describing the types of treasures and attempts to retrieve them

W.C. Jameson, a geographer and environmentalist, has toured much of the country in a battered, green Ford pick-up truck, collecting legends and searching for the elusive riches that treasure hunters believe await them. His sources include his own fieldwork and archival documents, as well as the reports of die-hard treasure seekers and their descendents.

The twenty-four tales in this book are of the most famous lost treasures in America, from a two-foot statue reportedly made entirely of silver (the “Madonna”) and a cache of gold, silver, and jewelry that was rumored to also contain the first Bible in America to seventeen tons of gold—its value equal to the treasury of a mid-sized nation—buried somewhere in northwestern New Mexico. What makes these tales even more compelling is that none of these known-to-be-lost treasures have been discovered, although modern detecting technology has made them eminently discoverable.

Collects legends and lore of buried treasure in the southern Appalachian Mountain area, with maps showing locations

Relates local legends from Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma about abandoned mines, hidden stashes of plunder, and lost fortunes

Recounts tales of hidden treasures in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and describes attempts to recover them.

Discusses buried treasures along the Atlantic coast, describing the types of treasures and attempts to retreive them

Do Indians living today know the location of the supposededly cursed Lost Gold of Devil's Sink? Did Sir Francis Drake bury millions of dollars'worth of ancient Incan treasures? Has anyone found the box of gold coins buried by a reputed giant in the Washington rain forest? Is there a noble family's fortune buried near an old log cabin in the Cascades?