Following the Clues: Finding Hidden Treasure in an Old Farmhouse

Eric, the principal character in this story, inherited his grandparents’ house. It had been nearly 20 years since his grandparents moved out, and between that time and the moment we’re picking up Eric’s story, the old farmhouse had sat alone and unoccupied.

Eric checked out the house in general and made a quick mental calculation of how much work would be needed to restore it. This was an important step that had to be done before he could list the property for buyers in the Tennessee area.

Eric wandered around the front and backyard to view the old farmhouse from multiple angles. He was trying to estimate the present value of the house and determine how much he could sell it for after making all the improvements.

The farmhouse was an ideal place for his grandparents to live. They felt at ease in their quaint little home surrounded by open space. This all changed, however, when Eric’s grandfather was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of lung cancer.

Eric’s grandmother’s health slowly deteriorated following her husband’s passing. She followed him not so long after. It seemed like the grim reaper was following Eric’s family with morbid curiosity because shortly after his grandmother died, his father became sick. He died in 2009.

The logical thing for him to do was to move on by selling the farm. Not only did the house require a lot of work to be done, but the maintenance costs would be too much for him to handle. This wasn’t something he felt he was equipped to do.

After coming to terms with what he had to do, Eric took the first concrete step towards his aim of selling the property: a thorough cleaning. He climbed up the ceiling and crawled under dark recesses to scrub off decades of accumulated dirt.

While working on restoring the house, Eric began to reminisce about the times his grandfather read Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” to him. This memory provoked a sense of nostalgia for his childhood and a desire for the kind of adventures enjoyed by the characters in the book.

Eric couldn’t figure out the source of it, but he felt a curious sense of excitement while cleaning his grandparents’ farmhouse. That curious feeling eventually grew into a hunch – his grandparents must have kept a secret in their home, he thought.

As Eric searched through the closets, he found that they were just like the rest of the home – filled with dust, odd smells, and creaky floorboards. However, the last closet had an out-of-place section of carpet on the floor.

Eric’s heart pounded as he started to suspect something unusual was lurking beneath the floorboards. He told himself it was probably nothing, but he pulled up the carpet just to make sure. Like a child playing detective, he was following every lead – perhaps as a way to fight off the boredom of cleaning.

The concrete, however, didn’t take up the entire floor. As you can see from the picture below, it took up less than half the closet – the rest was filled in by wooden floorboards. A bent-up piece of copper was laid on top. When Eric tried to move it with his hands, it wouldn’t budge an inch.

Eric wanted to wave away his thoughts as utter nonsense. Part of him considered that he might have been watching too many adventure movies. However, another part kept nagging – why would his grandparents go through all this effort to install a piece of concrete?

The more he thought about the mysterious slab of concrete, the more interested he became in his grandparents and their lives. They were known to collect antiques and artifacts, so it wasn’t out of the question that they might hide some of them under their beloved farmhouse.

Eric thought about ways to learn more information about the past. Were there any old newspaper articles or town records that could give a clue as to what this buried box might be? His mind was racked with uncertainty.

This mysterious slab of concrete was starting to make more sense. Eric was certain it held some fascinating secrets. Was this a game intended for him to play, preplanned decades ago? His father had never mentioned anything about a vault when he was still around, but Eric’s mother believed that he could still provide a clue.

Eric ran back to the cabinet and followed his mother’s instructions. The birth date of his father failed to open the safe, and so did his father’s social security number. When the third attempt came around, Eric was in for a surprise.

Eric didn’t have the skills to crack a safe, and it irked him that he was left helpless and alone in the old farmhouse. A locksmith from town was what he needed, but just as he was about to call, he had another realization – it was Sunday.

When Monday rolled around, Eric was in high spirits. He eagerly called the locksmith and anxiously waited for him to arrive at the farmhouse. Once there, Eric showed him to the closet with the concrete box and stepped aside – trusting the specialist’s skills.

Both men managed to stay positive and not be overwhelmed by the difficult situation at hand. At some point, the locksmith might have thought it impossible to break into, but he refused to be discouraged. They both took it one step at a time.

A gap in the middle of the concrete was revealed to be the key to unlocking the safe. They frantically worked on it as if it were a magical revelation that was gently fading away, soon to be out of their reach.

After the safe was unlocked, they opened the latch. Inside, it was like a black hole, and Eric’s mind raced to make sense out of the darkness. Was this indeed a treasure box that his grandparents had cleverly stashed away for posterity?

He reached inside the safe to investigate the boxes. They were far from the glittering gemstones, sparkling diamonds, and gold bars that he had been imagining while they were working on the safe. Eric was disappointed when all he saw were old books and boxes.

He sighed and picked up an item on top of the heap. It seemed to be some kind of book. The cover was discolored – a reminder of the flood that had ravaged the farmhouse a few years back – and the surface was partially damaged. Otherwise, it was in surprisingly good condition.

It took a moment for Eric to realize that he was now in possession of some extraordinary items. He allowed the book to fall open in his hands, and there, staring up at him, lay a collection of old coins. Heart racing, Eric knew he’d found something valuable – this was a genuine treasure trove!

Eric removed the soggy bills only to find more underneath. The safe seemed full of old money! He placed the banknotes close to the window in hopes that the sun’s rays would gradually dry them up, so he could salvage as much of it as possible.

Eric was careful not to cause further damage to the damp dollar bills, so he took time in spreading them out to dry on the floor. To his surprise, there was so much more in the safe than he had expected. A small assemblage of rare coins was now growing into a larger pile.

From the dollar bills to the stack of rare coins, every discovery gave Eric the feeling of being inside a mine shaft and following its twists and turns to the mother lode. Could all these pieces be worth as much as he thought?

Eric couldn’t believe his hunch about hidden treasure had been so on point. Following that instinct led him to this cache of rare artifacts that his grandparents had secreted away. The excitement only grew as Eric dug deeper and uncovered more valuable artifacts.

Examining all the various items kept in the safe gave Eric a chance to celebrate both his family’s history and their intellectual interests. Opening each box provided an enlightening experience for him that brightened his day.

This had to be one of the ugliest boxes that Eric found inside the old house – it was rusty and filled with mold. However, its contents made Eric’s heart swell – this ugly, decaying case held his grandmother’s most precious jewels.

Eric’s grandparents must have had the time of their lives in this farmhouse. They gave in to their whims like mischievous children and set about burying artifacts, jewels, and silver bars. He was thankful that the remnants of their treasure hunting were still around.

Still bemused by his recent discovery, Eric decided to take a second look at the wooden table he’d found earlier. The first time around, he thought it was just a crate. However, on close examination, he realized there was far more to it. Eric was astounded at what he discovered when he pried it open.

Eric’s grandparents had lived an ostensibly simple life on the outskirts of town, yet for years they were stashing away rare artifacts and antiques of considerable historical value. What inspired them to accumulate so much stuff?

Eric needed a professional assessment to determine the value of his findings – it was no use trying to do it on his own. The old coins were sure to fetch a high price, but the real prize was the rare bills found in the second safe.

Once Eric had uncovered all the valuable items his grandparents hid at their farmhouse, he set himself the task of figuring out precisely what it was all worth. The biggest question on his mind was what to do with all these precious things.

The story caught the attention of many Reddit users, but none of them were able to give Eric sufficient knowledge regarding his discoveries. At times, he was left with more questions than answers. He knew he had to do a little more digging to ascertain their monetary worth.

Eric became preoccupied with seeking out information about his family’s old treasures. His grandparents went through so much trouble to protect all these items, and he wanted to understand why. He hoped the answers would make him feel closer to them.

A coin collector befriended Eric on social media. He explained that the coins Eric had found in the safe would have more value to collectors than coins that had not been protected with such a high degree of care.