- It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for all the wannabe Indiana Joneses out there!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find an actual buried treasure? Just like those that the pirates in Hollywood swashbuckling blockbusters bury all over the place?
Thanks to a jeweler from Michigan, you now have a chance to do just that. And out of all things, you can thank the coronavirus pandemic for the opportunity.
The treasure hunt is organized by Johnny Perri from Washington Township, MI. For the past 23 years, he has been working as a jeweler at J&M Jewelers, a business founded by his father.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 lockdown took its toll on the shop’s finances and Perri was forced to turn off the lights for good. The treasure hunt is a creative way for him to liquidate the surplus inventory from his store.
Together with his wife Amy, Perri has buried most of the store’s leftovers all over Michigan. Each treasure cache – containing vintage jewelry, coins, gold and silver – is worth around $4,000.
In total, Perri has stashed away roughly $1 million worth of real deal treasures, according to WXYZ Detroit. That’s certainly a memorable farewell to the business his father started.
And it’s all up for grabs. Johnny’s Treasure Quest kicks off on August 1, and anyone with a valid ticket can participate.
You might want to hurry, though, since the tickets are going for $49 a pop and there’s a limited supply. Some of the treasure hunts are already sold out.
Making Something from Nothing
But how did Perri come up with such a unique way to liquidate his surplus inventory? Wouldn’t it have been much easier to just sell the treasures for cold hard cash?
The answer is that to Perri – as weird as this is when talking about gold – it’s not about the money.
“I’ve been serving the Washington Township community and trading gold, silver, diamonds and antiques for over 23 years. During that time, I have collected a vast treasure trove of remarkable riches,” Perri says on his website.
“Although I enjoyed being in business for myself and have been blessed serving our wonderful customers, I’ve discovered that I was never truly happy.”
Perri reached this conclusion after the coronavirus forced him to shutter his store. Confined to his home, the walls soon started closing in on him.
“I was going stir crazy being at home with nothing but time on my hands. I was literally pacing back and forth anxiously wanting to do something but finding nothing to do,” he says.
One day, when he was having a cup of coffee and scrolling through the news, he found a fascinating article. It was about an anonymous person who had finally found the famed Forest Fenn treasure.
To those unaware, the Fenn treasure was a buried chest of gold and valuables worth $1 million. It was hidden in the Rocky Mountains by art dealer and author Forest Fenn.
Fenn launched the hunt in 2010 by giving the public cryptic clues about it in his memoir. After a decade of searching, an anonymous person finally found the chest this past June.
More Precious than Gold
Reading about the story set Perri’s gears a-turning. If Fenn could host his own treasure hunt, then what was stopping him from doing the same?
“’Wow! How cool is that?’ I thought. I’ve always dreamed of searching for the Fenn treasure myself but never had the time,” says Perri.
But now, he had nothing but time – and treasure – on his hands. Perri and his then-fiancée began traveling up and down Michigan, leaving treasure caches in their wake.
During the trip, the couple found something even more precious than all the gold and jewels they buried. They got married.
Whether the rings came from their own stash, we don’t know.
X Marks the Spot
Finally, the treasure was all in place. To try and keep his treasure hunting throng from turning the entire state upside down, Perri has clearly marked each cache.
“People will literally be unearthing physical, real treasure from the ground, with the exception where I did not hide it in the ground but left it hanging from a tree, for example.
“All treasure that I have buried or hidden will be directly under or next to a literal painted ‘X’,” he says.
The participants who successfully unearth a treasure chest can opt to keep its contents or sell them back to Perri for their verified market value in cash.
Each chest is also fitted with a GPS tracker so that Perri can know if and when they’re discovered.
But, as said, it’s not about the money to him. The real treasure he wants people to find is a sense of genuine adventure.
“The best treasure you can get from this quest is the adventure of the hunt with your loved ones. I want families across land to experience the quest and the adventure of a lifetime!” he says.