No matter how outlandish a story, there will always be some who believe it. That’s why people have flocked to the Supes from all over the country since Oren Arnold started publishing local treasure tales in national newspapers. The tales just grew louder as more people flocked in and wrote books, mostly untrue.
Many have died. Nobody, that I know of, has made their fortune there. Most just have fun following up their theories and spending time in the mountains, alone or with friends. Great memories are made there, and some really cool things can be found and seen.
There have been, though, many deaths and suicides because people believe they can find the answers to their financial problems out there. Financial problems are the second worst kind, after health, and people can believe strange things when they’re desperate.
So posting fake gold bars, fake jewels, fake nuggets the size of baseballs, placer gold that supposedly came out of crushed ore, and attributing these to photographs of empty tunnels, or found at the end of some map trail, is a very mean thing to do. Most people will see this for what it is, but as history proves, there will be some that WILL be harmed.
Then there will be those who spend thousands on plane tickets, rentals, hotels, etc. trying to find something like a huge quartz pegmatite because they believe there must be some valuable minerals there. Or whatever they’ve been led to believe by some false claim. This form of deception is costly in dollars, and costly in the form of lost time and research. Caveat emptor.
If we let such outlandish claims such as we’ve seen here go unanswered, it won’t be long until this forum is filled with a bunch of guys trying to “out-lie” each other with tales of their prospecting/treasure-hunting prowess…it will also become a place for desperate people to look for answers to their problems.
It’s OK and normal not to share your theories, clues, and places you’re investigating…those are yours and yours alone. If someone asks and you don't want to answer, just don't. But there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Don’t mislead, don’t post pictures of fake riches, don’t make up a place in the mountains and post fake pics about it. Don’t post fake coordinates. It just wastes everybody’s time, money, or worse.
