Ware Treasure Hunter Dreams of $1 Million
Reprinted from the Waycross Journal-Herald
Friday, August 25, 1989
By Bill Maher

Professional treasure hunter Kenneth Logan of Waycross has a goal, find $1 million.

Logan got a little closer to that goal last weekend at Oregon Hill, Pa., when he captured the title of "world's best treasure hunter" from the Treasure World Sporting Association and won more than $25,000 in cash and prizes.

"There were people from all over the world and a dumb ol' Georgia boy went up there and won," Logan said. "I've never done anything like that before."

Logan, who said he prefers to search for buried treasure in swampy and marsh-like areas, felt he was aided by wet weather during the three-day competition.

"It was raining when all this competition was going on. It might have psyched out a lot of the competitors but I like working in wet conditions," he said. "I was in wet grass sometimes up to my neck."

Wins '89 Automobile

Logan, 31, who attended Ware County High School and Ware Tech, won a 1989 Ford Fiesta, $10,000 in cash, and $5,000 gold-coin necklace, a free vacation and more than $4,800 in treasure-hunting equipment.

Logan also got to keep the 31 pieces of pure silver that he found during a three-hour hunt on the special courses set up for the competition.

Logan said many of the historic items he finds while searching for treasure in the Southeast are given to local governments for their museums or displays of local artifacts.

Treasure Trove

Logan said some of his most interesting finds have included "pieces of eight" Spanish coins, Barber coins, 20 pounds of melted silver, melted gold nuggets, silver watches and silver spoons.

Logan said he once found a whole case of silver spoons while treasure hunting, and another time found a box of silver watches.

Unlike the novice treasure hunters who use a sweep-type metal detector, Logan uses small hand-held units that can pick up precious metal that are buried as deep as 30 feet, he said.