31. Atari’s “E.T.” Video Games Unearthed from New Mexico Landfill

Location: Alamogordo, New Mexico
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $5-$10 million*
This story is a shocker with a lot of twists and turns. In the fall of 1983, video game maker Atari realized that its much-maligned E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game was a huge flop. So, Atari decided to do something about its excess inventory, and it secretly buried much of the stock in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill.

Atari’s \E.T.\” Video Games Unearthed from New Mexico Landfill” /wikipedia.org
The “Atari Dump” became the stuff of urban legends, as no one believed that the E.T. game had been that much of a failure. That is, until 2014, when an exploratory dig in Alamogordo revealed that the Atari Dump had been real all along. Atari’s game was so hated that burying millions of copies in the New Mexico desert was the best alternative to trying to sell them.

32. Israel Finds New Dead Sea Scrolls – 75 Years Later

Location: Murabba’at Caves, Nahal Darga Reserve, Israel
Year Discovered: 2021
Est. Value: Priceless
Israel is a common site for religiously-significant, historical finds, but it’s safe to say that no one expected this. During an exhaustive, intensive survey of the Judean Desert, The Israeli Antiquities Authority revealed that it found new fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the first find of its kind in six decades.

Israel Finds New Dead Sea Scrolls – 75 Years Later @nprpins/Pinterest
These new Scrolls contained pieces of the book of the twelve minor prophets, including Nahum and Zechariah. The new discovery was thought to be part of the Minor Prophets, a scroll found in the early 1950s that contains information about the End of Days. The Scrolls survived for thousands of years, thanks to the hot, arid conditions in which the fragments were found.

33. WWI Soldier’s Love Letters Found Hidden in Wall

Location: U.S.
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: N/A 
World War I was an intensely traumatic time for societies all around the world, as the intensity of the weaponry and the death toll made many people believe that Earth as they knew it was ending. All soldiers fighting in the bloody battle had to hold onto were their fellow fighters, as well as correspondences from loved ones back home.

Wwi Love Letters Found Hidden in Wall @imgur/Pinterest
One man was excavating his home and found WWI love letters from 1918 in his attic wall. The letters were written by a man named Clement to Mary, his love. Happily the homeowner, Phil Mathies, tracked down Clement’s family, and they confirmed that he did, in fact, end up with Mary after the War.

34. Couple’s New Home Comes With Secret Hidden Room

Location: U.S.
Year Discovered: 2022
Est. Value: $3,000-$10,000* (Cost To Install)
Finding a hidden room in your new home is never a good thing, and, if scary movies tell us anything, you should be wary of such a discovery. One couple was left horrified when their Logan, Utah home unveiled a strange secret room hiding in the lounge. The entryway was located behind a bookcase.

Couple’s New Home Came With Secret Hidden Room ©u/gundam2017/Reddit
The room was listed on the blueprints of the home, which was constructed in the late 1970s. The concrete room consisted of just one folding chair inside. Theories ranged from the room being a dungeon to being a panic room, with one Redditor saying it looked like the latter. Still, that doesn’t really explain the solitary folding chair.     

35. Largest Diamond in the World Found in Arkansas

Location: Murfreesboro, Arkansas
Year Discovered: 1924
Est. Value: $1 million*
When you think of diamond mining, you probably think of African mining. However, in America, there have been some pretty unique finds of these spectacular, valuable jewels. In 1924 in Murfreesboro, Arkansas during an early digging operation, one minor found the largest diamond ever discovered in America.

Largest Diamond in the World Found in Arkansas @Lance and Erin Willett /internetstones.com
Later named Uncle Sam, this diamond weighed 40.23 carats. It was white with a pink cast, and it was sold by a dealer in Boston for $150,000 to a private collector in 1971. In today’s money, that makes this diamond worth $1 million. Arkansas State Parks described Uncle Sam as a “one in a billion gem.”

36. Family Finds Bags Stuffed with $1M Lying on Road

Location: Caroline County, Virginia
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: $1 million*
Picking up trash on the side of the road sounds like a very unglamorous hobby, but, for one family, it definitely paid off. While traveling in Virginia, a family saw two white sacks on the side of the road that they believed were garbage. Intent on fixing what they thought was litter, they threw the “trash” bags into the back of their car.

Virginia Family Finds $1M @WJZ/YouTube
When they opened them, they discovered that it was not a litterbug’s castoffs that they had found—it was one million dollars. The family did the right thing and turned the money over to the sheriff’s office. Alas, the money doesn’t seem to have come from a glamorous or blockbuster-movie-esque source. It allegedly was the property of the post office, and the bags fell out of the truck on the way to the bank.

37. Man Discovers Sprawling Tunnel System Filled With Bats in His Home

Location: Southern Italy
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: Unknown
A homeowner in Southern Italy discovered that his house had a real-life Bat Cave in it, telling his wild story on Reddit. He purchased the two-bathroom, six-bedroom house in 2020. He knew there were a few tunnels, but they were listed as “storage.” On the deed plan, the tunnels were listed as dining rooms.

Cave /iStock Photos
When the purchaser got the chance to explore, he was amazed at how deep the tunnels went. The subterranean system was three levels spanning thousands of square feet. Unfortunately, many of these underground caverns were infested with bats, meaning that the homeowner had to be careful even attempting to explore this fascinating, creepy find.

38. Man Finds Hidden Attic Full of Valuable Antiques

Location: Geneva, New York
Year Discovered: 2020
Est. Value: $5,000* (Susan B. Anthony Photograph Value)
Talk about a gift that keeps on giving. When David Whitcomb bought a building in Geneva, New York in December of 2020, he planned to use it solely as a law office. It wasn’t until he and a friend began exploring his new buy that they discovered the structure had a hidden attic that was full of valuable, historical antique treasures.

Man finds Hidden Attic in New House Full of Valuable Antiques @Thierry Anglès/LinkedIn
The attic wasn’t in the home’s paperwork, as the third floor had not been used in decades. The attic, as it turned out, was the former workspace of James Hale, a historically significant photographer. In the workspace, Whitcomb found original prints of photos of figures like Susan B. Anthony.

39. Mysterious Earthen Rings Found in the Amazon

Location: Amazon Rainforest
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: N/A
The Amazon holds the distinction of being the largest jungle in the world, and it is home to more than 4,700 different animal species and a whole lot of secrets. There have been things discovered in the Amazon that have defied scientific explanations. The Amazon Rings are one of these unusual findings.

Rings Found in the Amazon @TheSunOnline/Pinterest
Circular rings, pressed into the landscape of the Amazon, were found in the jungle by aerial view. Researchers determined that these rings predate the rainforest itself. It would be unlikely for ancient peoples to create these rings, as that would harm the Amazon, so the history behind these unusual features is, for now, inexplicable.

40. Ancient “City Of Giants” Uncovered In Ethiopia

Location: Harlaa, Ethiopia
Year Discovered: 2017
Est. Value: Priceless
Archaeologists excavating in Harlaa, Ethiopia came across an ancient city that shed light on the history of trade between Asia and East Africa. These researchers became interested in the site after hearing local Harlaa legends about a “city of giants” that existed there a long time ago.

Lost City Of Giants @NewsFc/Twitter.com
Locals had come across the city’s ruins and, because the city was constructed out of such large stones, they assumed that the builders were a race of giants. Though no evidence points to such a people, the centuries-old site has yielded findings like rock crystal, glass vessels, glass beads, cowry shells, carnelian, pottery, and more from China, India, and Egypt. These findings led archaeologists to conclude that the ancient city was a major cosmopolitan destination in East Africa.

41. Giant Reservoir of ‘Hidden Water’ Discovered on Mars

Location: Mars
Year Discovered: 2021
Est. Value: N/A
A Chinese space probe called Zhurong landed in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, in 2021. It landed in the same spot that Viking 2, NASA’s lander, arrived in 1976. Zhurong’s mission was to find ancient life, and the craft is still orbiting Mars now.

Giant Reservoir of ‘Hidden Water’ Discovered on Mars @ESA/Twitter.com
Data came back from Zhurong that excited scientists and believers in life on other planets. The probe found data that indicated that the Utopia Planitia Basin was filled with water, meaning that Mars was not as cold and dry as investigators once thought. Finding wet minerals indicates that there could be life, whether presently or in the past.

42. American Declaration of Independence Found in Thrift Store

Location: Pennsylvania
Year Discovered: 1991
Est. Value: $2.18 million*
You can find a lot of weird things in thrift stores, and some people are even lucky enough to find items of serious value. That was what happened to a collector at a Pennsylvania flea market. He bought a “dismal” painting for $4 because he liked the frame surrounding the artwork. When he took the art out, he discovered a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

American Declaration of Independence Found in Thrift Store @listverse/Pinterest
After having it authenticated, he learned that this copy was the first printing of the historical relic. When it went up for auction in June of 1991, it was valued at $1 million (about $2.18 million in today’s money).