Where to pick up the shovel for the buried treasure
The shovel is back home in Dust Creek, your first settlement. In the demo, the open playtest and the builds creators played before launch, the scouts reach the treasure spot, the party realises nobody brought one, and the objective switches to fetching the shovel left behind in Dust Creek: find it on the ground near your houses, click it, then go back to the dig site and dig.
How you end up at a dig site with no shovel
The quest starts at home. While a house is going up, one of your settlers turns up an old treasure map, and following it is a side mission for your scouts. Once they reach the spot and try to dig by a pile of stones, the dialogue reveals that the shovel never left town. (Shown in Let's Play With Marty (Toplitz Productions)) If you have not built a Scouts’ Cabin yet, that comes first; the scouts page covers expeditions and their supplies.
The wording of the new objective reads slightly differently from one recording to the next, but it always points to the same place: the shovel left behind at Dust Creek. Dust Creek is the name of your starting settlement, shown at the top of the screen while you are in it.
Where exactly the shovel is
It lies somewhere around your buildings, and it is small. During the demo the publisher said it sits next to a wooden house, with an arrow over it: “The shovel is not easy to find, but an arrow above the shovel should make the search easier.” (Said by the publisher in Steam discussions: Where is the Shovel?)
It was just as easy to miss in a pre-launch build a YouTube creator played. When his expedition returned he went looking and remarked, “It's a little difficult to see, but there it is.” (Shown in Build Your Own FRONTIER TOWN (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) Zoom in, pan slowly around your houses, and look for the arrow rather than the shovel itself.
In that pre-launch build the objective sits in the Journal under its own heading, Fortune in the Foundations, so if the Journal is closed, open it and look for that entry rather than under the main debt quest. The Early Access build still has the quest: in the launch footage, the second tier of the Journey’s Progression tab has a Treasure card for completing the side task Fortune in the Foundations. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers Gameplay (PC) (GameZine, YouTube, launch-day footage)) Its Steam achievement, X marks the spot, names where the treasure lies: “Find the treasure buried in Hidden Grove”. (Listed on the game's Steam achievements page)
Do the scouts have to come home?
No. In the demo the publisher explained that the scouts don’t carry the shovel: they can wait at the treasure spot, you find the shovel in the settlement, and then you go back to the spot without sending them again and start digging. (Said by the publisher in Steam discussions: Where is the Shovel?) Some creators brought their scouts home anyway and sent them back out once the shovel was picked up, which also works; it just costs another trip. (Shown in Build Your Own FRONTIER TOWN (Surtr Plays, YouTube))
If the game still says you have no shovel
Demo players hit a bug where the dig refused to start even after they had picked the shovel up. The publisher’s workaround was to send the scouts back to the settlement and then out to the treasure location again. (Said by the publisher in Steam discussions: Where is the Shovel?) It is the first thing to try if the same thing happens to you in Early Access.
What the treasure gives you
Gold. In the creator recordings that show the dig, the party digs up real gold. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers Full Gameplay (RonEmpire, YouTube)) Gold is what the debt storyline keeps asking for, so this is a welcome boost; how the rest of the debt gets paid is on the gold page.
Related
Still early in a run? The first two hours guide gets you to the Scouts’ Cabin in order. Exploring the map also earns journey points, and scouts and expeditions covers what else the map holds.