Another Man’s Treasure

Jake Koehler has become Youtube’s most unlikely star—by searching riverbeds and drainage ditches for whatever riches they might possess.

JAKE KOEHLER is in Helen, Georgia, clad in full scuba gear, dead-man floating in a shallow section of the Chattahoochee River. He’s hoping to strike gold, preferably in the form of a wedding band. But the host of the popular Youtube treasure-hunting channel, D-ALLMYD— pronounced D-almighty— would settle for just about anything. Even a lost cellphone would suffice.

In warmer seasons, this stretch of the Chattahoochee is crowded with tubers. But today, Koehler hasn’t seen many people on the water aside from his cameramen, Beau Darkens and Joseph Talerico. With their camouflage wetsuits, bug-eyed cameras, and metal detectors, they look like a band of misfit superheroes.

Just when it seems like the morning might be a bust, Koehler emerges, victorious. “You’re never going to believe what I just found!” he says, pausing to heighten anticipation. “A penny!”

Koehler might be playing up this mock find, but his enthusiasm over even the tiniest discoveries is contagious. During his waterborne expeditions—which are as likely to take place in drainage ditches as actual rivers—he’s discovered gold, human remains, diamonds, tombstones, a Rolex, knives, megalodon teeth, laptops, and drones. “You never know what you’re going to find,” he says. “It’s the not knowing that pulls me.”

Koehler, 27, began posting videos to Youtube in 2011, mostly about gaming. But one day as he was paddling down the Chattahoochee on his surf board, he took a pair of goggles along and found himself amazed at the universe of detritus he saw below the river’s surface. Soon after, he found a working Gopro in the river and began filming his adventures, changing the focus of his channel. In 2016, he came across a pistol and called the police to report a potential murder weapon; later the cops informed him that the weapon’s serial number had been scratched off, furthering his suspicions that it might have been involved in a crime. The related video—featuring meditative underwater sequences and fist-pumping moments of discovery—went viral, transforming DALLMYD into one of the top-ranked sports channels on Youtube. Koehler now boasts a library of more than 500 videos and nearly 10 million subscribers.

DALLMYD is about dogged pursuit of the unexpected. And Koehler is a perfect guide for the journey—the sort of person who can spend hours scuba diving in icy, knee-deep water, looking for gold but knowing that he might only come up with a penny. Both onscreen and off, his enthusiasm is hard to resist. In 2018, Columbus, Georgia, declared Jake Koehler Day. In 2019, the U.S. Navy, calljust