In June 2020, a medical student found treasure worth an estimated $1-$2 million in the Rocky Mountains, around 10 years after a man named Forrest Fenn famously buried it and wrote a poem containing clues to its location in a book. While the Fenn treasure might have been found, did you know there is still millions of dollars in cash, gold, and jewelry buried across the US? From mini-art masterpieces to treasure chests containing $1 million-worth of jewelry, click or scroll through to discover the treasures you can hunt for in America today. 

Artist Steve Wasterval has been hiding miniature paintings around his beloved Brooklyn for months. Measuring two by one-and-a-half inches, these canvases are the little cousins of Wasterval’s full-size Impressionist paintings, which usually sell for $2,000 to $3,000. 

Wasterval’s weekly treasure hunts have led people to local landmarks, cafés, and streets. Each painting shows its location and is hidden inside a plastic Easter egg, ready for local art lovers to track down via some hints from Wasterval’s Instagram page. The miniatures aren’t for sale, so if you want to get your hands on a one-of-a-kind canvas you need to join the treasure hunt.

In July 1971, Oregon passed the so-called Bottle Bill, an act that required grocery stores to accept empty drinks containers for recycling. Today, Oregon recycles more than 80% of its drinks containers, which is double the national average. To celebrate the bill’s 50th anniversary, BottleDrop – a program that collects used bottles and cans and refunds their value to customers – has launched the Hidden Bottle Hunt.

BottleDrop selected six of the refillable bottles sold as part of its refillable beverage program. Each bottle was painted gold by local artists, given a commemorative label and tag, and wrapped in a reusable burlap sack. Then, BottleDrop hid the bottles in six secret locations throughout Oregon, dividing the state into different zones.

Between 7 and 11 July 2021, BottleDrop released a series of clues to point people towards each location. If you find one, you get to keep the bottle and choose a charity to receive $500 from BottleDrop. There are over 3,000 selected charities to pick from, and with the final bottle still to be found, it’s all to play for

When Byron Preiss published a book called The Secret in 1982, he started a treasure hunt that has intrigued people for almost 40 years. The Secret contains clues to the location of 12 casques, buried in cities throughout North America at sites of historical importance. If you find one of the casques, you can exchange it for a jewel worth around $1,000. But finding the treasure has proved more difficult than Preiss, who died in 2005, probably thought. 

So far, just three of the 12 casques have been found: one in Cleveland, one in Chicago, and one in Boston. An excavator discovered the Boston casque accidentally while renovating a park, leading many people to fear that remaining casques have been built over or destroyed.

Armchair treasure hunters believe they have cracked the clues in The Secret and know the rough location of the casques. But from Roanoke Island, North Carolina to New Orleans, Louisiana, many of these cities have changed dramatically since the early 80s. Has this treasure hunt turned into a wild goose chase? 

Unlike Byron Preiss’ casques, the general location of Johnny’s Treasure Quest is known for sure. Johnny Perri, a Michigan-based jeweler, was sadly forced to close his store due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But instead of selling off his stock, he decided to have some fun. Inspired by Forrest Fenn, Perri and his partner buried around $1 million-worth of jewelry throughout Michigan, and Johnny’s Treasure Quest was born.

The treasure hunt is divided into 28 different quests, each located in a different Michigan county. The first quest took place in Oakland County in August 2020, where participants searched for two silver bars worth $4,200. The quests will continue until October 2021, eventually coming to an end in Kalamazoo County.

To join in, you’ll need to register for a particular quest. Spots cost $49 to $65, which includes a treasure map and clues to help you find the treasure. On his website, Perri wrote: “I could have sold everything I owned and retired but what fun would that be?”

Blackbeard was one of the most notorious pirates in the world. Since his death in 1718, people have searched for his lost treasure, supposedly buried on the Atlantic coast. But if the idea of 18th-century riches (which may or may not exist) isn’t enough to tempt you, check out the new Blackbeard Treasure Hunt – which has a total of $10 million up for grabs.

Inspired by the infamous pirate, the Blackbeard Treasure Hunt is spread across 10 states from New York to California. Each state contains $1 million buried in a treasure chest. To find it, you will need to buy a map and riddles for $49.99. None of the chests has been found so far, leading to some to claim it's a scam, which the organizers have unsurprisingly denied.

Dating from the 1800s, the Beale Ciphers are a trio of ciphertexts that supposedly reveal the location of buried treasure. Although the exact location of the treasure hasn’t been cracked, we do know its contents: gold, silver, and jewelry thought to be worth a staggering $43 million today. 

According to a pamphlet from 1885, a man named Thomas Beale buried the treasure somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia, in the 1820s. Beale wrote the ciphers to encrypt the location of the treasure, gave the ciphers to a local innkeeper, and disappeared forever.

Many people believe the ciphers are a hoax. There’s very little information about Beale and nobody has managed to decode two of the ciphertexts in over 100 years. Only one thing is for certain: if the treasure does exist, it could make somebody very rich indeed. 

Now take a look at some of the best treasure finds in every state