Lost Loot

It’s all in the journey’

He’s been a stockbroker, sales manager, sales engineer, U.S. Navy man

and graphic design artist. But for Anokan Don Carter, it’s treasure

hunting that stirs his blood, feeds his inner soul.

Anoka resident Cache Carter has penned a book “Lost Loot” on

searching for buried treasures. (Photo by Elyse Kaner)

By Elyse Kaner

Staff writer

He’s been a stockbroker, sales manager, sales engineer, U.S. Navy man and graphic design artist. But for Anokan Don

Carter, it’s treasure hunting that stirs his blood, feeds his inner soul.

Anoka resident Cache Carter has penned a book “Lost Loot” on searching for buried treasures. (Photo by Elyse Kaner)

Now, he can add another notch to his burgeoning resume: author.

Carter, who goes by the name “Cache” and whose youthful appearance belies his 68 years, has been hunting for

treasures since he was eight years old.

But never mind if you unearth a fortune or not, he says about the hunt.

“The journey is the treasure,” Carter says.

Throughout his many years of treasure hunting, he got so many questions from curious seekers, he decided to write a

book, one that took 13 years to research.

His just-released tome titled “Lost Loot” is available, for now, at J. O’Donoghue’s Books in Anoka. (Carter is in the process

of marketing it.)

The 325-page book details tips on how to find treasures, a code of treasure-hunting ethics, tax tips, proper equipment

and clothing and personal adventure stories that he never would have experienced had it not been for his healthy

curiosity, keen eye and determination to find outlaw gold and other treasures. The book also features 3,300 treasure

symbols.

He started early

At the age of eight, Carter was determined to find the gold he had heard was buried at his parents’ farm (he calls it a

ranch) just outside of Anoka. The ambitious child rigged together a sluicing box made of wooden orange crates and wire.

However, when his father found out about his intentions, he smashed the box into pieces.

Still, Carter’s dreams were not dashed. Some 20 years later, he had an extra hundred bucks in his pocket and paid a

caterpillar driver to dig a 40 by 40 by 40 foot hole at the ranch. He panned and found 20 percent gold in the earth. But his

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mother, an environmentalist, put a stop to his search.

That didn’t quash Carter’s thirst for treasure seeking either. While other kids headed to Daytona on spring break, Carter, a

student at Anoka-Ramsey Community College at the time, drove to Mexico, and snuck over the border looking for a lost

mission and other treasures.

‘What the heck?’

In his book, Carter details some colorful adventures treasure hunting has brought. Like the time he sat under a tree and a

cadre of bumblebees flew in and landed on a pine tree just 20 feet from him. The bees proceeded to put on an air show,

flying sideways, in circles and in formations. They rested for a while and flew off.

“I thought, what the heck is this?” Carter said. “It was an experience that you’ve got to be there to explain how wonderful

that was.”

Then there was the time about five years ago when he came across Al Capone’s hideout in Finland, Minn. The particular

hunt led him to the ruins of a wooden-sided pool, main lodge with two fire places, servants quarters and much more. He

stumbled across two babbling brooks in the process. The experience? Priceless.

Just more proof to Carter that the journey is the treasure.

“If I found a billion dollars right now, I’d throw it into a corner and go off and start another (treasure hunt),” Carter said.

So has Carter found any great treasures throughout his years of searching?

He’s not telling. We did manage to dig up the fact that he has discovered some gold coins. But Carter, in his vast

knowledge of treasuring hunting, declined to disclose any further information. Want to find out more? Read his book.