Answer: Truffles. No, not the chocolates. . .

Don’t ask me how, because I’m really not sure exactly, but one way or another I ended up looking at a very expensive type of mushroom on Wikipedia.org.

I know what you’re thinking - “How does this relate to treasure hunting?” Well, these mushrooms, known as “Truffles” are extremely valuable and highly sought-after. In fact they’re worth almost as much as gold. In my opinion, that qualifies as treasure!

Oregon White TrufflesThese mushrooms, or Truffles, are considered “ectomycorrhizal” - which means they grow near the roots of oak, elm, chesnut, pine and willow trees. The most common places to find them are in the states of Oregon and Washington, or France, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. Duplicating the growing conditions for truffles commercially is not feasible or cost-effective on a wide scale, hence their high price.

So how much is a Truffle worth? Well, in 2005 at an international charity auction in Italy a 2.5lb. Truffle sold for $112,000.00!

Now I know you can’t find a Truffle with a metal detector, but I figured that you all should probably know about them. The next time you’re dirt-fishing and you come across something strange buried around an oak tree,… remember this post. You may have stumbled onto a different kind of treasure entirely. And trust me, there’s a market for them.

Check out the Truffle Wikipedia Page, or the wiseGEEK Truffle page for more information. It’s worth wasting a little time.