Alaska and the Cold War

A Sunken Treasure

When you think of sunken treasure, the last place you may think of is Alaska, but a few years ago a group of hunters traced a galleon that had eluded its pursuers and holed up in a bay off the coast of Alaska.

The ship had escaped because it was swift, and had a low draft, meaning it could run into shallows the larger dare not for fear of grounding.

The hunters knew the location of the inlet the ship probably ran to, but at this point, they ran into several issues. One was getting permission to dig the ground, but more dangerous is that during the Cold War - the late 50s - 70s the area was on the frontline with troops from Russia not more than 10 kilometers away.

The area where they located the gold turned out to on an old ammunition store, with ordnance that old there was no way the group could dig, even though they had proof the gold was there. There is so much ordnance it would have caused an explosion you could not get far enough from to explode.

If that wasn't enough, the area leading to the dump used to be a base, and is guarded by barbed wire, spikes, and any old iron the troops could find, all now rusted after over 50 years exposed to wind, rain, and the ice.