The Treasure Legends

By Dmitry Nuzhenko

Everyone has heard a treasure legend. We usually associate them with books about pirates. Every kid has dreamed of finding treasure. My father always fueled my interest in history by collecting newspaper articles about archeological finds. But as time has passed, I lost my interest. Due to other commitments, it was harder to just get up and go into an archeological expedition.

One day my friend called me and asked if I wanted to go with him to the countryside, to visit his relatives. I wasn't working at the time, so I agreed. Twelve hours on the train and we were there. It was a usual village, not abandoned yet - nothing special. During the dinner, while talking about the local legends, one of the locals had told a story about a rich lord, who had lived in the village before the Revolution of 1918, but was forced to leave. Before leaving, he hid a huge treasure of everything he owned. He never came back, and the treasure was never found. What's more, the man continued, he knew where it could be hidden. "The Lord had a mistress, whom he loved. But he was married. Before leaving, he has told his mistress where he hid the treasure. She kept it secret, but after a few years got married, and together with her husband dug it up. They found an iron pot with a note, describing where the treasure was. After searching, and not finding anything, they gave up. Then the whole village found out about their secret. Everyone has searched for the treasure, but couldn't find it. The Lord has lied, he didn't leave anything." He then said, the text of the note is still written down somewhere, and he could find it for us. I said I was interested, but deep inside I had my doubts. It sounded too much like the classical treasure story made up and altered by generations of townsfolk.

Our new friend woke us up in the morning and took us for a walk in the woods. In five minutes we had reached the ruins of Lord's mansion. The back yard looked like "No Man's Land of WWI", with countless holes and trenches. It was literally turned upside down. The people really searched for that treasure! There was nothing to search for here.

On the way back we walked by a river. Our friend has told us about how the village residents learned about the treasure and what tensions it has caused. Generations of men have looked for it, but nothing could be found. The Lord was obviously a crook and took everything with him. One thing was not clear, why would a Lord make such a joke on his beloved mistress?

When we reached our friend's house, he brought out the note. This is what it said:

"Dear ..., In case I shall not return, remember where we used to see each other. I left you a clue here, hope it helps. I left everything I can not carry in that place. Use it wisely. If I come back, it will be the wedding present. Love NN."

Nothing spectacular in the note. No secret maps, trees, maps, etc. But I became intrigued by the "favorite place." Where could it be? It was obviously somewhere away from the village, but not too far, so they could see each other and have some privacy to themselves. I tried to find out where that place could be, but all residents kept pointing to the back yard, where the note was found. The poor girl and her husband were the first to dig around the whole yard. The entire mansion was then examined by the entire town population. No one found anything resembling the treasure. As far as the clue goes, it was completely mysterious. Along with a note a branch was found - another pointer to the park. Although I had doubted the story in the beginning, after asking a few elders in the village, it became clear that it was true. Descendants of the mistress have confirmed the note text and described the clue as being "some stick". It was a dead end. I soon forgot about the story and spent the remaining time enjoying the outdoors.

I remembered about the treasure back home. Along with some professional treasure hunters we found an old map of the region. Analysis of the map revealed an old dock on the river, which wasn't present on the modern map. I called the relatives and they confirmed the dock was deconstructed right after the Revolution when the ships stopped coming, and the rest burned down half a century ago. I got together with my friend once again, and armed with metal detectors and a map, we took off. The dock was only a ten minute walk from the mansion ruins, and was named "Branched."

And there it was! A few minutes yielded the long awaited results. The cache mostly consisted of disintegrated paper, money and what can only be assumed to be financial documents. But there were a few gold coins, silver rings, and a beautiful diamond ring.

Every legend is based on a true story. It takes a great amount of time, patience, and effort to get to the basis. But the rewards may be great!

Translated by Dan Osipov, exclusively for Coindetector