From Indiana Jones to National Treasure, Hollywood has always loved its treasure hunts. Who wouldn’t be captivated by the idea of fortune and glory hidden right under our very noses—or, you know, on the back of the Declaration of Independence? Sadly, these amazing expeditions rarely end up as successful in real life—but never say never. On the Discovery Channel’s new docu-series Cooper’s Treasure, professional treasure hunter Darrell Miklos is on the trail of an unbelievable discovery: a series of shipwrecks—hundreds of them, in fact—discovered by the late astronaut Gordon Cooper during a space expedition. And yes, there is a treasure map.

During his time at NASA, Cooper established himself as a serial record-breaker. He died somewhat suddenly in 2004 from heart failure—but not before he gave Miklos a life-changing piece of information: while on the Mercury 9 Faith 7 expedition, Cooper discovered a series of anomalies, which he deduced might be shipwrecks. When he arrived back on Earth, the astronaut began a decades-long research process, making a map of his discoveries and tracking down any information he could about which sunken ships might correspond to the locations he had seen. Now Miklos is picking up the trail where he left off.

“I’m probably the only person on the planet that’s in this particular situation,” Miklos told Vanity Fair. “It’s a one-off story. There is nothing like it. I doubt there will be anything like it in the future. And I’m extremely fortunate to have been gifted this information from a friend of mine who entrusted me with this. . . . I think we’re about to embark on something so historical it’s definitely going to make news.”

According to Miklos, Cooper said he discovered the treasure while using equipment to spot nuclear threats according to magnetic anomalies. Cooper discovered several anomalies that were too small to be nuclear silos, Miklos explains in the first episode of the series, which premieres April 18. He soon deduced that they must be shipwrecks.

So far, Miklos said that he and his team have looked into five of the anomalies Cooper listed—and at each one, they did, indeed, find shipwreck material. With hundreds of sites left to investigate, Gordon Cooper’s treasure map is filled with tantalizing possibilities.

Treasure hunting is a time-honored trade in Miklos’s family; he actually first met Cooper when he was a child, when his father—also a treasure hunter—appeared on the Merv Griffin Show. Cooper was a guest on the same episode.

“I met him in the back room, and I was awestruck by his presence because he was an astronaut and actually went into space,” Miklos said. Years later, they would share an office together and form a father-son-like bond. “I think that’s why he entrusted me with the chart, or treasure map from space, as well as all the files that went along with it,” Miklos said. As seen from the very first episode of Cooper’s Treasure, Miklos’s relationship with his own father is highly strained—and for that reason, Miklos was even more grateful for his relationship with Cooper.

Miklos said he is unsure exactly why the rift formed between him and his father, but as discussed in the first episode, the nature of their family’s traditional profession didn’t help. Treasure hunting is much tougher than one might imagine while watching Nicolas Cage or Harrison Ford hunt down precious valuables. Miklos’s passion for the field is palpable, but as he describes it, the research phase is much longer and more tedious than most of us would guess.