A man bought an island in the Indian Ocean and secretly searched for treasure on it for 40 years

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Brandon Grimshaw clearly knew something when he bought a small island in the Indian Ocean in 1962 with all his modest savings. Practically never leaving the place, the man became known as a hermit, but in reality, he spent 40 years searching for pirate treasures. Not even millions offered by an Arab sheikh made him give up his dream.

With a total area of only 0.089 square kilometers, the island could be walked around in less than an hour. Therefore, having stepped foot on Muayen for the first time, which cost him only 13 thousand dollars, Brandon thought that the search should not take much time. How wrong he was.

His new possessions had been abandoned for over half a century, and of course, everything had fallen into disrepair. Even the wells had dried up, and at first, drinking water had to be brought in from the neighboring Seychelles islands.

A man bought an island in the Indian Ocean and secretly searched for treasure on it for 40 years

Immediately starting to search for treasure, Brandon also planted fruit trees along the way. At first, it was just to divert attention, but soon it became his main hobby. Years went by, but the treasures of the famous pirate Olivier Lavasseur, whom the East India Company caught just near Muayen, were still not found. At least, the treasure hunter would stick to this version in conversations with reporters much later.

But Brandon Grimshaw's efforts were not in vain. Together with his assistant Rene Antoine Lafortune, who later became his adopted son, they planted 16,000 trees, which attracted a large number of exotic birds to the island, brought in and nurtured a colony of giant tortoises, and eventually opened the island to tourists, achieving its designation as a National Park.

Even if Grimshaw never found the treasure, he could very well have received its monetary equivalent from the Arab sheikh who offered to sell him the island for 50 million dollars. The owner's refusal indicates that he did indeed find, or rather – created with his own hands, his treasure.

When the adventurer and dreamer Brandon Grimshaw passed away in 2012, the island, designated as a National Park, came under state management, and all attempts to search for treasure were legally banned.