A group of Costa Rican park rangers
patrolling in the Parque Nacional
Isla del Coco after a recent storm have discovered one of the most
amazing treasure hoards in modern history. The treasure consists of gold
and silver coins and ingots, jewelry, candlesticks and religious items,
and is estimated to be worth almost $200,000,000.
Cocos
Island is a small island designated as a National Park, located in the
Pacific Ocean, approximately 342 miles from the Pacific shore of Costa
Rica. It was well known for possibly holding various legendary treasures, but
its “protected area” status had forbidden treasure hunting since 1978.
A group of
six rangers who were walking around the island to evaluate the damage
done by a storm on the nesting colonies of migratory seabirds, when they
noticed that the tide had unearthed what looked like an old wooden box or
chest. The began unearthing it, only to discover that there were actually five
different chests and other items, that they had
been buried there for a very long time.
We were walking on the
beach, and we saw something protruding from the sand” says park ranger Ignacio Ramirez. “We dug it out
and found a bunch of old wooden chests. They were all filled with gold and
silver! Then we dug out two incredible golden statues of the Virgin Mary,
and other religious symbols. We called our
bosses and said ‘we just found a treasure!’ They thought we were kidding, but
we explained what we had found and they decided a team of experts.”
the
treasure contains an astronomical 89,000 coins, ingots and artifacts of
gold and silver.. Many religious items made of gold or silver and adorned with
precious stones were among the findings, including 36 crosses, 3
chalices and two life-size solid gold statues of Mary holding the baby
Jesus.
Many
treasure legends have been associated with Cocos Island for centuries.
The first claim is associated with the pirate captain Bennett Graham
who allegedly buried 350 tons of gold raided from Spanish galleons on
the island in the 18th century. Another pirate captain, the Portugese Benito
Bonito, is also supposed to have buried treasure on the island, this time in
the 19th century.
Archaeologists
and historians believe, however, that the discovery is actually linked to the
best known of the treasure legends tied to the island: that of the
treasure of Lima.
According
to the legend, with the army of José de San Martín approaching Lima in 1820,
Viceroy José de la Serna is supposed to have entrusted the treasure of the
city to the British trader, Captain William Thompson, for safekeeping until the
Spaniards could secure the country. Instead of waiting in the harbor as they were
instructed, Thompson and his crew killed the Viceroy’s men and sailed to Cocos
island, where they buried the treasure.
Hundreds
of attempts to find treasure on the island have failed. Prussian adventurer
August Gissler lived on the island for most of the period from 1889 until 1908,
hunting the treasures with the small success of finding six gold coins.
Since it
was discovered in a National park, the totality of the treasure is
now the property of the Costa Rican government, and it should be exposed at the
Museo Nacional de Costa Rica,
in San José. The rangers who discovered the treasure have been promised a
reward for their role in the finding, but the amount of the
reward remains undisclosed.
