Treasure, historical sleuthing key of pilot

By RICK OLIVO
The Daily Press, Ashland

ASHLAND, Wis. – Ever since Scott Mitchen unearthed his first Indian-head nickel at the site of an old country store parking lot in Benoit at the age of 10, he has been infected with allure of treasure hunting.

“It just sparked my imagination, and from then on I knew that I was going to be involved in some kind of exploration and hunting for treasure and antiquities.”

But unlike many who seek the riches of lost booty, Mitchen has always wanted more than mere artifacts, he has wanted to know who lost these things, why they wound up in lake and swamp, ocean and hidden under the ground. It’s an insatiable curiosity we can all relate to — who hasn’t found a misplaced valuable and wondered how it could have gone astray, to be lost and then found again through luck or fate.

Therein lies the premise for a reality based television series Mitchen hopes will one day result in the world sharing his fascination for finding treasure, whether they be gold and jewels or a lowly GI dogtag lost for decades.

“It’s been in the making for several years,” Mitchen said. “And now it is coming to the point where we are getting a pilot episode.”

The main premise of the show, to be entitled “Handing Over History” is something of a cross between the historical appeal of “Antiques Road Show” and the emotionally charged elements of a docu-soap like “The Crocodile Hunter,” Mitchen said.

“It could involve anything from a lost class ring to a shroud we found for a Synagogue in Illinois,” he continued.

Mitchen is the first to say that the series isn’t about him, that it involves a team affiliated with his International Explorations organization. It is being produced by LifeLike Entertainment Corp. of Valley Glen, Calif., a firm with lengthy credentials in creating programming for many television networks.

However, Mitchen is uniquely qualified to head up a project like “Handing Over History.” With over 25 years of treasure-diving experience, and a one of a kind resume that goes from finding sunken Spanish treasure to raising lost old growth timber from Lake Superior, his real life experiences read like something out of a Clive Cussler novel.

But for Mitchen, it has never been just about the dollar value of the treasure he seems to have an uncanny knack of finding.

“Over the years I have collected so many neat things that I have wanted to try and find who they belonged to,” Mitchen said. “I don’t know that I have ever been in it just for the gold. Some people are in it solely for the material things, to convert it into cash, and though I have a collection of things, I have always wanted to return things that could go back.”

The pilot episode is a remarkable tale of just such an occurrence, outlining the story of a Zippo lighter Mitchen found on the floor Lake Delavan in the southern part of the state in the 1985. Mitchen was diving in the area of an old swimming beach at the site of a lake lodge that dated back to the 1880s.

“It was dirty, encrusted with crud and tarnished,” Mitchen said. He set it aside in his collections until the winter of 1991 when he finally got around to cleaning it off.

He was astonished to find the name of Spc. 4th Class Don Sunstrom on the lighter, as well as the emblem of the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles.” More time passed as Mitchen couldn’t begin to figure out a way to contact the former trooper. It wasn’t until November, when thanks to dogged determination and some Internet sleuthing that Mitchen was able to contact Sunstrom, now 65 and a resident of Blaine, Minn., and speak to him about it.

“I asked him if he had been in the 101st Airborne, and he said yes,” Mitchen said. “I asked him several questions and the pauses between his answers got longer and longer. Then I asked him if he had ever had an engraved cigarette lighter with the 101st Airborne crest on it and he got all choked up.”

The story Sunstrom told was even more amazing than the fact that Mitchen had recovered the lighter.

“I told him that I found it in a lake in Southern Wisconsin, and he told me that was impossible, because he had lost it in the jungles of Vietnam,” Mitchen said.

Mitchen said Sunstrom recalled the day he bought the lighter from a vendor, attracted by the Screaming Eagle logo on the brushed stainless steel side of the lighter. The vendor embossed his name onto the side, adding the motto “I’m sure to go to heaven because I spent my time in Hell. Viet Nam 68-69.”

The motto was the clincher, Mitchen said. There was no question it was Sunstrom’s lighter; returned 40 years after he lost it in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

How did it find it’s way to southern Wisconsin?

“Some other soldier probably found it and kept it, and lost it again at the lake,” Mitchen guessed.

While that part of the story may never be told, Mitchen takes immense satisfaction in returning a simple lighter, which cost only a few bucks, but is priceless in the memory of a combat veteran.

“He said he would keep it with his other mementos, but that he would probably take it out 20 times in the next couple of weeks and recall the memories of that time,” Mitchen said.

Sunstrom’s lighter is only the beginning of the possibilities, Mitchen said. Among the artifacts he has to research is a bracelet of the kind worn by World War II aviators, clearly identifying “Lt. Richard C. Hobbie AAF Pilot,” along with a serial number. The collection to be checked also includes a shipbuilder’s brass identification button with a stamped serial number.

“They all have their own story,” Mitchen said.

The unmistakable appeal of such a show has put “Handing Over History” to the top of the pile of story ideas being pitched for production at LifeLike.

“We went to number one out of 24 shows, being considered,” said Explorations International Secretary-Treasurer Pete Viater.

“That’s because, as they said, you can put a face to the treasure,” said Mitchen. “No one has ever done that before.”

That makes it different from the traditional treasure hunter’s quest.

“I can’t return a ring intended for the Queen of Spain in 1750, but I am sure to get a smile from a prom queen when I return her class ring from 1939,” Mitchen said.