...He mentioned that a friend of his found a box of gold at so and so’s cabin.....
Imaudigger, great conversation. Let me comment on the stories that we md'rs hear from others of past treasures found that they heard of . I can tell you first hand, from my 42+ yrs. at this, that I too have had people (friends and strangers) spin stories of treasures that they know of that were found. But it turns out, they were mistaken (albeit sincerely).
Let me give you an example: A buddy of mine got permission from const. workers, to work an oldtown sidewalk tearout. It progressed 1 or 2 days per week, they'd tear out a new section. Yet they'd cement it all in the same day. So he had to hit it during their lunch hour. Each day, when the workers came back from lunch, they'd inquisitively check to see his latest finds. He would "grease the wheels" by passing out common V's, IH's, etc... to the fascinated workers.
One day, he found a little owl shaped amulet, about the size of a chess piece. It looked gold, and had some sort of red stone eyes. When it came time to show the worker's his daily take, he brought the owl out of his apron and mused "might be gold". The workers were spellbound! Then he pointed to the eyes and said "might be rubies". They were bowled over ! Then said "probably 1800's (as some of the coins from this block were that old).
That night, he got home and cleaned up all his stuff. Looking at the owl under magnification, he could see it was only gold plated. And looking at the red eyes: Just chips of glass. It was nothing but 1920s costume jewelry lapel pin, so he promptly threw it in the trash.
The next day, he was back at a new tear-out section. Off in the distance, he could see a tractor driver watching him intently. Eventually, the worker walked over and gawked for a minute. My friend could see it was a new worker at the site he'd never seen before. The guy drew closer and asked "what have you found ?" Turns out my friend had found nothing at all this day so far. At that, the worker launched into a story about, how the day before, some guy had been there and found "gold coins" from "the 1800s" ! My friend was floored. He figured someone came along after him, and found something he missed. He was devastated
So he pumped the worker for details about the "gold coins", hoping to find out if it was someone he knew from the local md'ing community. As the worker listed the details, a curious word slipped out of his mouth: "Owl". My friend busted up laughing because he realized the worker was talking about HIM ! So he tried to explain that ... No, there were no gold coins found. And no, the owl wasn't gold. And no, it wasn't old or valuable, blah blah.
BUT THE WORKER WOULD NOT BE DISSUADED. Because he had gotten it on good authority, by eyewitnesses at the water-cooler that morning, who had seen it with their own eyes ! Hence certainly there must have been someone else who came by later the day before and found "gold".
See how quickly telephone game can happen IN A SINGLE NIGHT ? By sincere well-meaning eye-witnesses ?
I can give you several more stories like that. To show you that , a lot of the treasures-recovered stories that you hear (someone who told someone who told someone) can get bent up quite shortly.