Jase Robertson: Treasure Hunting & Beyond
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Jase Robertson on Duck Dynasty, Duck Family Treasure & The Unashamed Podcast
Most American outdoorsmen and women are familiar with Jase Robertson and his family from the hit television show Duck Dynasty, where faith, family, and facial hair were at the forefront of the Robertson family’s outdoor antics. While Jase Robertson’s new show, Duck Family Treasure, is another television program about hunting, ducks aren’t a big part of the equation this time around.
Having watched every episode of Duck Dynasty a number of times, when Hook & Barrel’s editors gave me the opportunity to interview Jase I quickly jumped at the chance. I finally caught up with Jase at a rare idle moment between filming the newest television show and the popular “Unashamed” podcast to find out what led him into the treasure-hunting game, how the show came about, and what the future holds. I quickly found him to be a genuine guy. In fact, talking to him was like catching up with an old friend.
A Show About What?
Season 3 of Duck Family Treasure will soon begin airing on Fox Nation. If you’re not familiar with the show (Jase calls it “the best show nobody’s ever seen”), it’s a reality show where Jase, brother Jep, treasure hunter Murry Crowe, and sometimes Uncle Si travel to locations around the country, metal detectors in hand, looking to unearth hidden treasures from their longtime resting spots. Of course, while the guys locate and unearth those treasures, a healthy dollop of humor finds its way into the show.
A lifelong hunter of ducks and other game, Jase had never given thought to treasure hunting until a friend of his father, Duck Commander Phil Robertson, became quite ill.
“Dad’s friend, Murry Crowe, had been diagnosed with cancer,” Jase said. “He knew that I had acquired a property that we turned into a bed-and-breakfast place out here south of Monroe. It’s really old, and he started asking me about treasure hunting my property. To tell you the truth, I had no idea what he was talking about. So, I was like, ‘Yeah, we might do that one day.’
“Then when I heard he got diagnosed with cancer, I thought, ‘Let me try to help this guy and lift his spirits,’ because he’s a great guy. I saw him at church and I said, ‘Hey, you kept asking me about treasure hunting my property. What, what are you talking about?’ So, he explained to me about the hobby of metal detecting. And I said, ‘You come out there and find whatever you want to. You’ve got my permission.’”
Jase had intended to show Murry around the property and then turn him loose to pursue his treasure-hunting passion, but his guest surprised him by bringing along an extra metal detector.
“That was the first time I ever tried treasure hunting,” Jase said. “He walked out there and in about five minutes found an 1875 silver dime! I was like, ‘That was in my yard?!’ I just couldn’t believe it. Every time he would need a break from chemo I’d meet him out there and we would just hunt my property. We’d laugh and cackle and find stuff. Turns out there was a lot of stuff in my yard.”
Jase mentioned the treasure hunting on the “Unashamed” podcast one day (more on that later), and his cousin, Zach, who is a producer and one of the central figures of the podcast, told him he needed to make a TV show about hunting treasure.
“I thought, ‘Oh yeah, great. I’m sure people would watch us go around looking for treasure. Great idea.’ Then I forgot about it,” Jase said.
However, on the next podcast, Zach wasn’t there, so Jase brought up the idea just to poke fun at his cousin and podcast co-host.
“I said, ‘Now he wants me to do a show about treasure hunting,’” Jase recalled. “I told the audience, ‘I tell you what, if y’all think it’s a good idea and if y’all want to watch this TV show about me hunting treasure, contact Zach,’ and I revealed a way to get hold of him. Then, I forgot all about it because they air those shows a few days after we film them.”
One night a short time later, Jase got a call from Zach frantically asking, “What have you done?”
“He said, ‘I just got 72,000 emails about you doing a treasure hunting show,’” Jase said with a chuckle. “I said, ‘Are you serious? I think I said if 10,000 people contacted you I’d do a show.’ So, I tell you the truth: That was literally how the show got started.”
Fun Finds, Priceless Memories
While there are a lot of things regular viewers like about the show, Jase believes that the program being unscripted is the key to making it informative and entertaining.
“I was just really adamant about that, because you know how Hollywood is, they just want something that they can repeat when you’re working in that environment. But I said, ‘Look, we’re just going to make this show and whatever happens, happens. We can get places to go.’ And we actually included a lot of the fans of our various podcasts and sent out an appeal for locations.
“But just the challenge of doing as many shows as we’ve done became very tough. I like a challenge, and I look back on all the episodes we’ve done and it’s just borderline supernatural intervention that we pulled it off and found tons of great stuff. I think it is very entertaining and family-values-oriented. It’s just a very good, safe place to go and feel better about life, have fun, and have a healthy distraction.”
Jase said that when he first started treasure hunting, the thing that drove him was finding something valuable. Then, after treasure hunting on many peoples’ property and giving what they found to their hosts, he realized there was more than just finding coins and trinkets.
“There’s just something really cool about finding something that’s lost,” he said. “And there’s a lot of stuff in the Bible about that, which is kind of what I base doing this show on. Because the irony of the show really is, ‘What is the true treasure of life?’ And I think we kind of walk that ledge because we’re out there finding valuable things and then we give it all away.
“You know, life is more than just stuff. Finding the lost stuff is really fun. But sharing it with other people is the best.”
Throughout the course of the show, Jase, Murry and the crew have found lots of cool stuff, including rare coins, gold, and even a sunken steamboat, which caused a lot of controversy because it was located on the border between two states.
“Also, we found a meteorite, which, no matter what else we find—which is a lot as you journey with us on the show—I felt like that gave us some credibility because that was a big risk. We went to Kansas to look for them. Murry had done that 25 years ago and found some, but we only have a couple of days of actual filming while looking for treasure so our expectations were really low.
“But like I said, we had already decided no matter what happens, a train wreck or we find something worth millions of dollars, we’re just going to do it. And we found this meteorite that we think hit the earth over 2,000 years ago, maybe 3,000. That was just incredibly cool. I could not believe I was holding that in my hand.”
Unashamed Podcast
Of course, the Duck Family Treasure show doesn’t take up all of Jase’s time. The “Unashamed with the Robertson Family” (unashamedtruth.com) podcast is even more labor intensive, but Jase’s passion, and that of the other family members involved, pushes him and them to continue with the super busy filming schedule. As of this writing, they have completed 874 episodes of “Unashamed,” and all are available online.
“I’m going to say something profound that may shock you,” Jase Robertson said. “I really believe our podcast is just as big as Duck Dynasty. It’s just not on a TV network show. After Duck Dynasty, when we went out in public, everybody that we met who was a fan, it was all about Duck Dynasty. But now it is overwhelmingly about the podcast.
“I mean, most of those people have seen Duck Dynasty, but I’m just saying, I noticed that transition, and that has been shocking to me because really, at the end of the day, we’re just having a conversation and a Bible study. So, it’s been just an incredible run. I started off just as a guest on the podcast with my dad and brother. And now we do four 50-minute episodes a week, which doesn’t sound like too many. But you do the math: That’s 208 a year. So, it has turned into a major part of my life. I’m either talking or studying about what I’m going to talk about because you don’t want to get the Bible wrong if you can help it.”
Jase said the podcast has changed his life because of the studying he does to make sure he gets it right every time they film an episode.
“I will tell you this: I’ve been following the Lord for 40 years, but I’ve learned more about the Bible in the last four years doing that podcast than the rest of the 36 combined because I have studied hard. I think I’m on my third Bible in the last four years, just literally from the pages coming out. But it’s been enjoyable and it’s been fascinating to learn a lot of the details that I just missed through the years.
“I feel like if people are going to study the Bible with us, I should be setting a standard that I’m going to study this thing as hard as I can.”
Along with treasure hunting and the podcast, Jase keeps family at the center of everything he does. While Duck Dynasty fans might remember his kids as small children, he’s now a proud grandpa—and that’s something he enjoys talking about.
“I love being a grandpa,” Jase said. “The first few months are a little tricky because you have to get over the fact that you’re here now. So, I was a little sad. I was like, ‘Am I getting this old?’ But just like anything in life, it’s not about you.
“And we have a really weird situation, which is another God thing. My wife is involved in a lot of ministries and does different things. So, at the same time I became a grandpa, we became foster parents for a baby we got when he was two days old. So, all of a sudden it got weird because here we thought we were empty nesters and we have a little baby and then we have a grandbaby. So, my wife and my daughter-in-law are walking this journey together.”
Still, according to Jase that journey has been an incredible one for all involved.
“It’s just been fascinating to see the joy that babies bring, and it’s made me appreciate life in a whole new way,” he said. “Now we have two grandbabies, we’re still involved in this little boy’s life and a little birdie is telling me maybe there’s another one on the way. So, see how this gets going? I start looking around and saying, ‘Let’s slow down a little bit, take a time out.’”
What Is The Mia Moo Fund?
Another big interest of Jase’s is the Mia Moo Fund (miamoo.org), a charity organization his family started after learning firsthand the challenges of having a child with a cleft palate. He’s super proud that their daughter, Mia, has stepped up to lead the organization.
“Our daughter is the president of Mia Moo,” he said. “Because of her craniofacial issues, she’s had multiple surgeries. And for her to step up, mainly because of her relationship with God, was incredible. She just felt a responsibility to spread some joy and kind of be a leader with kids who have to suffer. So, she leads us, and I’m telling you, those events that we do for those kids in the community that’s created for the families that are going through this are fantastic.
“You may not be emotional, but if you come to one of our events, you can’t help but cry.”
The Dynasty Continues
So, what does the future hold for Jase Robertson—a man who has already had a hit TV show, now has a treasure-hunting show, does a four-times-a-week podcast, is involved with several charities, and also has family duties as a father and grandfather?
“At this stage of my life, I’m literally living one day at a time,” he said. “I’m just open to what the Lord has prepared. In the immediate future, I’m missing our fix to go see our grandkids. I’ve just been on the road doing the show a lot and doing a lot of podcasts and a lot of special events and speaking.
“You’ve got to get back to your roots, and our main priority is our family. So, whatever we do, we’re going to do it together with our family.”
Bonus Q&A With Jase Robertson
DUCKS OR TREASURE? That’s an unanswerable question. You know, duck hunting is just part of my DNA. I mean, I’m just going to go duck hunting, and that’s only a certain part of the year. But you can treasure hunt every day, even in bad weather, as long as it’s not lightning because you don’t want to have a detector in your hand. But I love them both for different reasons. I guess the ultimate day would be to go shoot a limit of ducks and then go treasure hunting and find something spectacular on the same day, which I have done.
HOW CRAZY IS UNCLE SI? That’s the number 1 question I get no matter where I go, and I always say the same thing: It’s actually worse than you would think. He’s hard to describe because he’s like a rollercoaster ride—he’s either acting crazy or he sleeps for six hours. But he’s not crazy where you’re disturbed about it. There’s crazy and then there’s Si—he’s harmlessly crazy. He’s just funny.
Getting Started In Treasure Hunting
Jase encourages anyone interested to make the plunge into treasure hunting. There’s not a lot of equipment involved, so the barrier to entry is fairly low.
“You really only have to have one of the big metal detectors, a pinpointer, and a shovel,” Jase said. “What happens is this detector that’s handheld gives you a sound by the beeps and a number based on what it’s detecting. But then you need something to kind of pinpoint it once you start digging your hole.”
When the show planning was in its infant stages, Jase teamed up with Garrett Metal Detectors in Texas to produce the Garrett Jase Robertson Signature-Edition Apex Metal Detector that Jase uses on the show.
Jase said that treasure hunting has its own code of ethics, so those just beginning need to know a few things before they get started.
“Obviously, our trespassing laws are in place for a reason,” he said. “So, you’ve got to get permission wherever you go. Then you’ve got to look at state-to-state differences in laws for historic parks and such. Some let you go, and some don’t.”
Once you have a metal detector, pinpointer, and shovel, where’s the best place to start? Jase had a quick answer to that question.
“Most people that I’ve run into either know somebody or they’re living in a house that is pre-1900,” he said. “Those are the go-to places. You just wouldn’t believe how much stuff you can find. I’ve been hunting our place for four years now and I’m still finding stuff.”
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