Editorially speaking...
I told you so!
In last week’s post I itemized numerous chance finds of lost treasure—no need to hike Death Valley with your burro, no diving deep to a sunken shipwreck, no having to risk life and limb looking for Slumach’s accursed mine.
Not when you can find treasure virtually underfoot!
Last week’s post drew this response from veteran freelance writer and historian Tom Parkin.
“I found treasure once, in Castlegar, and my experience serves as a lesson to anyone who is asked to serve as an executor/executrix. My last uncle, a widower, had asked me whether I would act on his behalf, and I agreed. Even though he and I weren't strongly linked, he had no other family close enough to do the task.
“He showed me a few items of interest in his cluttered house of 'treasures' (many commonplace domestic items) and passed away a few years later. My story of searching for the hidden will, dealing with rapacious relatives, and disposing of the relics of a lifetime packrat would take an entire article—too much for here.
“After two weeks spent clearing out the old house, and disposing of possessions in such ways [as] to raise funds for uncle's disadvantaged child, I hired a cleaning lady who did a very thorough job, including washing walls and vacuuming ducts, before the house was put up for sale.
“During those two weeks, myself and helpers often fantasized about finding hidden money, knowing that many seniors have the habit of keeping cash close at hand. We had gone through the pockets of all clothes donated to goodwill stores, flipped through thousands of pages of books, and had broken open a locked trunk only to find old Reader's Digests.
“On the very last afternoon, the cleaner lifted the wooden grate in the hardwood floor which was the covering of the cold air return to the basement furnace. Huge dust balls were rolling up the vac when something out of sight obstructed her nozzle. She pulled it back, and be damned if it wasn't a bulging sock! It showed a rectangular shape of something inside.
“Laughing, she handed it to me with a remark about finding ‘lost treasure.’
“'Who knows?', I thought, and went outside to have a private examination. The shape was simply a box. Inside the box was a new wallet. And inside the wallet was $16,000 in 1,000 and 100-dollar bills! The cash could have remained hidden for decades before later discovery...
“The sock could have been surreptitiously kept by the cleaner... The house could have been knocked down by subsequent owners. All benefit of uncle's treasure would have been lost but for the thoroughness and honesty of the individuals involved. It might be said the moral of my story is: there are good reasons to share the hidey-hole of one's horde!”
Coincidentally, I received a Christmas letter from friend Clare Singleton who recently moved to Fort Fraser which is situated near the base of Fraser Mountain, close to the village and municipality of Fraser Lake and the Nechako River. Previously Clare had lived for a few years in the Quesnel area.
Attached to her letter was a clipping from the Barkerville Highway News, dated June 13 of this year. There’s a picture of an outhouse beneath the catchy headline, ‘Resident of Hillcrest Road strikes gold while digging her outhouse!”
I quote: “The single largest nugget found since Billy Barker’s day [was] found on Hillcrest Road by artist Clare Singleton.
“Ms. Singleton, a recent resident, having moved here a short time ago from Endako, was digging a hole for her new outhouse when she made the amazing discovery.
“’I had just hit about four feet in depth and was going to call it quits for the day when my shovel hit something hard. Thinking it was just another rock, I tried to pick it up and realized it was unusually heavy. When I got it up to the light, I saw it was a giant gold nugget!
“’I was so happy. Now I will have enough money to be able to hire someone to dig the rest of the hole for me.’”
She planned to buy toilet paper with the rest of the money, she concluded.
Now you know that whatever you read here in the Chronicles you can take to the bank!
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