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Treasure hunters know things that most people don't know. They know the most common hiding places for money and valuables, for example. They know where things are commonly buried, and that people regularly die without telling a soul they have buried something. They know where to point their metal detectors when at the beach. In other words, they have developed special knowledge.
However, there is more to being a treasure hunter than knowing a few tricks and reading a few books. It also takes the right mind set. You have to have patience, for example, to dig up fifty almost-worthless coins just to find that one old rarity. You have to have the ability to mentally put yourself in the past and in the head of the person who buries a stash, in order to guess where to dig. You have habitually think about how to apply what you learn from one treasure hunt to the next.
With that in mind, here are some of the ways you can find treasure. Each suggests lessons that can help you find other kinds of treasures.
Rivers Hide Things
As a child I saw bicycles in rivers several times, but I never guessed why they were there. Only later did I learn that rivers are easy places for criminals to hide things. The bikes were likely stolen and dumped there when the thief was done with them. As it turns out, criminals and kids throw things off of bridges routinely, because it is a way to get rid of incriminating evidence fast.
A treasure hunter (name withheld) who learned this secret early claims to make a living collecting this watery treasure. He uses magnets and other tools to retrieve guns, money, and other things of value from the bottom of murky rivers. He even designed a tube with a window and flashlight at the bottom, which he pushes down into the water to see clearly what is at the bottom. If you see a man with a strange reverse periscope floating in his rowboat, that may be him.
Now, if you have a treasure hunting mentality, or want to develop one, you should be thinking about where you can try this and what else you can learn from this. For example, perhaps a good waterproof metal detector could be used to locate valuables in the river (most are waterproof up to a certain point). Also, you might ask yourself what other things get dropped in water and where - whether on purpose or not. In the bottom of lakes near docks might be a good place to try.
Coffee Can Treasures
You may know that it has been and probably still is common to bury things in coffee cans. But have you ever thought about how to use that knowledge? How about if you are looking around an old house, you look for empty coffee cans. That might indicate they were being saved to bury things in. Also, though paper money can't be detected with a metal detector, the cans it is buried in can.
Finally, think of where you would bury a can if you had to. Where you could dig without being noticed? Where the ground is easier to put a hole in? Where you can easily remember the location? Think about these things as if you are the one burying the stash of cash, and you'll get an idea where to search.
Gold Collects In Certain Places
Gold particles collect in the grooves of corrugated drainage pipes under roads, as though they were meant to be a sluice. Not even many treasure hunters know this, but one learned about it and started flushing out the sand and gravel from these pipes in areas with gold-bearing streams. He did it with a special device he made from a power washer. He then panned out what he collected and found enough gold to do this as a regular source of income.
Now, that makes you wonder where else gold might collect, doesn't it? It should, if you are developing the right mind set for treasure. As a matter of fact, gold does collect in the moss which grows in streams and rivers. Perhaps it would collect in a piece of carpet weighted down and left on the bottom of a stream for a season.
Learn the secrets (there are many more). But also develop the patience to keep searching. It took Mel Fischer sixteen years to find the $450 million dollar treasure cache, the "Atocha Mother Lode." You can try for sixteen more minutes before setting down that gold pan. Finally, consider what each search teaches you and how you might use it. That's thinking like a treasure hunter.