A close friend of my parents, Charlie S., was a treasure hunter/prospector. At the time he seemed to me that he was a lot older than my parents, but I was pre-teen, and I have no idea of his actual age. I know he was the man that found the jade at Willow Creek on hiway 1 in California. It's now called "Jade Cove." Side note, there is a ledge of jade up stream from the hiway, and Charlie tried to mine it using powder. The explosion shattered or fractured the rock, making it look milky, totally ruining the jade, which was why there was some talk at the time that the jade from there was no good, which has since been proved wrong. My brother paid for his diving equipment, tanks etc. by recovering jade under the ocean at the mouth of Willow Creek. That's beside the point, Charlie did have a mine or two, and it seemed like all he could talk about was mining gold and searching for treasure. Charlie was always just an inch or two away from Joaquin Murrieta's treasure. I never got to go with him on a hunt, but I sat very quietly and absorbed everything he said, and he used a probe, I assume one long enough to be driven deeply into the ground. What I never understood was if he hit a rock, did he dig it up. Of course I couldn't ask, because I would have been sent away. Children were seen, not heard in our household at that time. Anyhow, Charlie had found the signs carved into the trees and rocks that led him to the spot. When he passed away, it didn't seem to me that he had a lot of money, so I don't think he ever found it, but he was using a probe hunting for the treasure chest.
Read about it as a kid. hahh!
