“I’m comin’ mama”
Cemeteries contain enough metal in the ground and the markers themselves to render such concerns moot.
Yup, the ultimate cheap, easy and very effective long term cache container is an 8 inch PVC pipe with slip fit end caps glued on with PVC plumbing solvent. Very strong and crush resistant, absolutely water/ vapor proof, and it can’t rust like an ammo can. Also, less metal in the ground (plastic) is a good thing if you are seeking to avoid discovery via metal detector.
The container is the easy part. The part that requires thought is where to locate your buried cache while considering what the location will be like in the future. My vote: national forests. Deep and off the beaten path where a hill slide will not move it or cover it up. No condominiums or shopping malls will be built over your stash.
Has this ever been solved? I’d all but forgotten it.
The last evaluation of it I read considered it to be basically a hoax/legend that accrued around natural geologic phenomena.
But National Forests are logged and roads are built in them too. They are managed by the National Forest Service for commercial and private uses.
Perhaps you mean a Wilderness Area where all road building and development are banned.
Another problem with hiding stuff way the hell out in the boonies is that you can’t get to it quickly when you need it. A large cache of weapons I could see hiding in such a place for use in arming an insurgency. Cash, gold, a handgun and other small stuff you are going to want to have where you can retrieve them on short notice.
FWIW, a relative who is a building contractor notes that they have found all kinds of stuff hidden in the walls of old houses during remodeling jobs. It had lay there undetected through many changes of owners. Stuff can be sealed up in a wall easily enough as part of your own home remodeling. Just don’t try to get clever with secret doors and shit. Houses have metal wiring and plumbing to help confuse those who might want to find your goodies, too.
1986 article by Cecil.
More:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-31860.html
2000: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_oak_island
2005: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-347262.html
One easy solution is to place small chunk of dry ice in your waterproof/airproof container. Then the CO2 will displace the air, ensuring a nice dry bug-unfriendly environment.
Forests, woods, and wilderness areas also burn down, leaving no markers and no trace of what used to be where.
But if you want an awesome version of reality where the Oak Island Money Pit is REAL, and includes a treasure beyond your wildest dreams, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have the awesome book Riptide, now available as a well-made ebook and an audiobook as well as paperback. I think I first heard about it in one of the threads Measure for Measure links to.