Tonight, Friday July 17th, residents across the state will get to watch one of our own embark on an epic adventure in the jungle’s of Brazil. That is when Discovery Channel will debut a new series called Treasure Quest-Snake Island. It follows a team of treasure seekers searching for a payday while deciphering centuries-old clues, all the while trying to stay ahead of others looking for the same treasure trove. One of the team is Lafayette resident Meghan Heaney-Grier.
Like a modern day Indiana Jane, dive master and archeologist Heaney-Grier was able to flee our landlocked state and head south of the equator in search of lost Incan Gold. How she ended up on the deck of a boat searching for clues to the missing horde while dodging pirates is an interesting story.
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Heaney-Grier relocated to the Florida Keys shortly after her tenth birthday. Like most residents of that tiny string of islands extending off the Florida coast she fell in love with the ocean. “I grew up diving and swimming in the ocean, it was second nature to me,” says Heaney-Grier. “Where Colorado residents grow up playing in the mountains, Floridian’s grow up playing on the sea.”
After high-school graduation on a whim she decided to see how far she could free-dive (diving as deep as you can go on just one breath of air). Due to her extensive free diving experience hunting fish off the coast she was a natural. She soon established the first ever U.S. Free Diving record when she successfully descended to 165 ft. It is a feat for which she is enshrined in the National Women’s Diving Hall of Fame. From there she spent the next ten-years of her life chasing one adventure after another. From working with marine predators, to doing stunt diving for movies, to working on a show with Animal Planet, she crisscrossed the globe searching out pelagic quests.
When she decided to go to college to pursue a degree in Ecology, Anthropology, and Evolutionary Biology in 2007, she unfortunately had to leave her beloved ocean behind, and relocate to the high, and dry alpine climate of Boulder. But, sometimes-good things happen when you leave your comfort zone. “I met my husband during my first semester at CU, and that led to the next phase of my life, motherhood,” says Heaney-Grier.
After graduating with honors form CU she started to work with the Colorado Ocean Coalition Ocean Ambassadors program, amongst other endeavors, helping to educate people about the beauty and fragility of our planets seas. But, the ocean kept calling. So when she received a call from professional treasure hunter Cork Graham last July about an expedition he mounting to search for lost Incan gold plundered by the Spanish she knew she had to go. The search for the “Treasure of the Trinity” as the horde is known, led her to be standing on the deck of a swaying ship this past January off the Brazilian coast, preparing to dive down to a relic from a sixteen-century shipwreck. It was one of many clues to the location of the trove that they must decipher.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you view it, all indications pointed to the gold being hidden on a remote island miles off the coast that only had one inhabitant—thousands upon thousands of Golden Lancehead Vipers—only one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. One bite can actually cause your flesh to melt, before you succumb to a horribly painful death. Best estimates are that there is one snake for every six square yards on the 110-acre island. They are so deadly that no known animal lives on there but them; they have killed everything else and subsist on migratory birds. It sounds like hell, but the perfect place to have hidden a treasure.
In the opening episode the team of six are searching for clues to back Cork’s hypothesis that the treasure is hidden on this deadly island. As they dive the shipwreck debris they are constantly on the watch for modern day pirates and storms. The show looks to be quite exciting. “It was one of the greatest adventures I have ever partaken in,” says Heaney-Grier. “There was never a dull moment during the three-months we were down there.”
Whether they were successful is unknown. But, if the first episode is any indication it will be great T.V. finding out. So tune in to Discovery and watch Meghan Heaney-Grier and her compatriots tackle a puzzle that would leave Indiana Jones bamboozled.
