Side Note

What’s up with all the buried treasure lately?

Earlier this year, the world’s oldest message in a bottle was discovered in Australia. The actual “message” just consisted of some boring coordinates that a German sailor had scribbled down, but that was less important than the opportunity it gave us to remember that there are still unexpected discoveries to be made in this world that can be wonderful, no matter how teeny-tiny they might be.

Tuesday, meanwhile, the FBI showed up in a northern Pennsylvania forest and started digging, reportedly looking for a stash of lost Civil War-era gold �� a cache of riches that, over time, has become the stuff of (eerie) legend.

For whatever reason, buried treasure and mysterious finds are having a little mini-moment. In Wales, a guy with a metal detector just discovered a trio of 3,000-year-old axes. On March 1, a group of Dutch construction accidentally dug up a literal pot of gold. And in Yakutsk, Siberia, locals are scouring the frozen tundra looking for $368 million in gold, diamonds, and platinum that dropped off the back of a plane in the middle of the air.

A Siberian man uncovers a brick of gold in the snow.

The only explanation I can think of for all this gold we’re unearthing is that our planet is sick of hosting our useless yellow rocks and is spitting them back in our collective face.