by Frank Graham

Richard Reiher loves buried treasure. But what Reiher calls treasure might not be everyone else's pot of gold.

Reiher, whose friends call him a prospector, is an avid treasure hunter and historian. He employs a variety of skills in the hunt for handicrafts of the artisans of history along with cash, coins, jewelry and ammunition. He mines libraries and courthouses to study old maps, newspapers, land records and old tales to discover the secret locations of artifacts from the past.

Reiher, a Red Cloud, Neb., native who calls North Platte home, worked for a mining operation in Arizona after his tour in Vietnam. He developed his love for the treasure hunt by searching for gold flakes and nuggets washed out of a vein.

When Reiher left mining behind and returned to Nebraska, he brought with him a spark of romantic adventure: the mysteries of searching for buried artifacts.

"It's like solving a mystery," Reiher said. "When it happens, it really makes your heart thump."
Reiher said that to be successful, a serious hunter must become an amateur archaeologist.
"You also have to be patient," Reiher said. He said successful research is 90 percent of the hunt.
"I like to talk to old-timers," Reiher said. "They're a great source of information."

But, he said, it is increasingly hard to find eyewitnesses to history as time passes.

"You've got to have an inquisitive mind," Reiher said. "Take Burnt Cabin Creek. There's got to be a good reason for that name. The trick is to find the burnt-cabin remains."

Once an old homestead or potential site is chosen, Reiher contacts the landowner to gain permission to search. He said trespassing on property is unprofessional, and real treasure hunters always leave the property the way they found it.

"I usually make an agreement to split the value of whatever I find with them," Reiher said. "Most of them are curious, too, and are more than happy to let me search."

Reiher uses several high-tech metal detectors, standard grid-search techniques and common-sense knowledge gained from more than 20 years of excavation to locate the buried loot.

"Many people in the 1930s buried cash near fence posts," Reiher said. "These hiding locations of these ‘post-hole banks' are remarkably similar from farm to farm."

Reiher has found old jewelry and gold coins long discarded. He's also recovered old bullets, brass, pieces of cannonball and grapeshot from sites near Fort McPherson.

Reiher also searches landmarks from the Oregon and Mormon Trail campsites.

"Some people estimate 3,000 to 4,000 wagons a year passed through Nebraska from 1847 to 1849," Reiher said. "Oftentimes they would discard items they discovered they really didn't need or decided not to carry any longer."

The trick is to think like those long-ago travelers.

"Human nature hasn't changed after all," Reiher said.

Reiher said the artifacts he finds are not always of value but are usually interesting. He commonly finds old stoves, tools and other items discarded or dropped years ago.

Buried loot from old bank and train robberies and hijacked payroll money offer other potential sites for Reiher.

It's not how much he finds that makes the adventure exciting, Reiher said. It's standing in the same place people stood 150 years ago and finding pieces of their lives in the ground.

"I like holding a piece of history in my hands," he said.

Searching for historical artifacts is far more than a hobby for Reiher. To him, it's a time machine that lets him step back into history.

"The spirit of adventure is in the search," Reiher said. "It combines history, patience, perseverance, fantasy and passion all together.

"When I'm concentrating on the hunt, the rest of the world just slips away."

The scope of Reiher's adventures is not measured by the dollar-and-cents value of his finds, but by their place in history.

It's not about greed; it's about curiosity.