Legends of a ship full of treasure lost in the California desert of Colorado have different versions and last 140 years.
Newsweek reporter Aleksandar Nazarjan made a trip with a carpet salesman who became a treasure hunter because he loves to “explore legends and fables” and find out how and why the belief in lost treasures survives.
On this occasion he learned that California was considered an island in the 18th century. It is possible that a Spanish or Viking ship (because those who claim to have seen it cannot agree which ship it is) sailed along the Colorado River, which once flowed into the Gulf of California and was wrecked. And so the legend was born.
One legend about the treasure boat says that a woman librarian claimed that she saw this lost boat in 1933 while hiking with her husband. But the next day he was buried by a strong earthquake.
There are also stories about a farmer who used the wooden planks of a boat to build a fence, but there are also stories about a Mexican who promised his wife that he would bring her a Viking shield if she made him a better tortillas.
