On our first day at our Hope Haven project, we had an orientation to the surrounding area, and to the various groups we would be working with. One of the speakers was a man from the Historical Society of Bay St. Louis. He wove and intriguing tale about the town. Pirates, war, sex, buried treasure, the town is a veritable hot bed of history.

One of the stories he told was about a man and his horse. The horse started pawing at the ground near where the man lived, so the man grabbed a shovel and started digging, and sure enough, he found a lot of dirt. Oh, he also found some treasure, enough that no one in his family has had to work since. So on a whim, I decided to see if I could recreate history. Shovels were easy to acquire, and there were horses at Gaits.

Late that night I snuck out unbeknownst to my team and borrowed Charlie, the geriatric horse. I figured the best place to look for treasure was on the beach, so the two of us headed down until we hit sand. I didn't really know how to begin, so I just turned Charlie loose and waited for him to start acting funny. Perhaps I should have picked a younger horse; Charlie didn't even move. We rode back and split a pizza.

So maybe buried treasure wasn't meant for me. But as our speaker pointed out, the true treasure of the area isn't a pile of gold doubloons, but in fact the rich culture and history that the town has to offer.