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The Secret (treasure hunt)

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Cover of 1982 book The Secret

The Secret is a treasure hunt created by Byron Preiss. The hunt involves a search for twelve treasure boxes, the clues to which were provided in a book written by Preiss in 1982, also called The Secret. These boxes were buried at secret locations in cities across the United States and Canada that symbolically represent events and peoples that played significant roles in North American history. Anyone who uncovered one of the treasure boxes was entitled to exchange it with Preiss for a precious gem.

Preiss died in a car accident in 2005.[1] His estate assumed the responsibility of honoring the terms of the treasure hunt. As of 2024, only three of the twelve boxes have been found. Preiss kept no record of the treasure boxes' exact locations before his death, leaving it a possibility that the remaining boxes may never be recovered.

Book

Clues for where the treasures were buried are provided in a puzzle book named The Secret produced by Byron Preiss and first published by Bantam in 1982.[2] The book was authored by Sean Kelly and Ted Mann and illustrated by John Jude Palencar, John Pierard, and Overton Loyd; JoEllen Trilling, Ben Asen, and Alex Jay also contributed to the book.[3] A Japanese version was published in 1983, and the English version was re-issued in 2014.[2] The book contains 12 images and 12 verses; an image must be linked to a verse, with the information they contain used to locate a buried "treasure casque".[4]

The Secret book variants
Year ISBN Language Format Publisher
1982 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). English Paperback Bantam
Hardcover[2]
1983 0276-831122-7339 Japanese Paperback Futami-shobo
2014 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). English Hardcover ibooks.com
Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Paperback

Treasure boxes

Template:As of, three of the treasure boxes have been recovered.[5][6] The first was found in Chicago, Illinois; the second in Cleveland, Ohio; and the most recent treasure box was found in Boston, Massachusetts.[6] The remaining nine treasure boxes have not yet been recovered.[5] The Boston treasure box's recovery was filmed for Discovery Channel's television show Expedition Unknown and aired on Wednesday, October 30, 2019, a recovery which only occurred due to the puzzle being featured in two previous episodes of the series.[7][8][9]

Over time, some of the cached casques may have been destroyed, or been built over, as was happening with the Boston casque, which was buried in Langone Park, in Boston’s North End which was undergoing renovation, resulting in the casque being dug up by an excavator. Clues would no longer match in cases where the surrounding area has changed since the book was originally published.[9] Similarly, boxes in like New Orleans (which faced mass destruction due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005[10]) and New York City (which has undergone major renovations[11] since the 1980s) have become extremely difficult to track.

Note: This table is the consensus from the majority of searchers.

Image No.[12] Verse No.[12] Verse opening Status Location (solved, or likely) Ref.
1 7 At stone wall's door Unsolved San Francisco, California [13][14]
2 6 Of all the romance retold Unsolved Charleston, South Carolina [15]
3 11 Pass two friends of octave Unsolved Elizabethan Garden, Roanoke Island, North Carolina [16]
4 4 Beneath two countries Solved (2004) Greek Garden, Cleveland, Ohio [17][18]
5 12 Where M and B are set in stone Solved (1983) Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois [19][20]
6 9 The first chapter Unsolved St. Augustine, Florida
8 1 Fortress north Unsolved Hermann Park, Houston, Texas [21][22]
10 8 View the three stories of Mitchell Unsolved Milwaukee, Wisconsin [23]
9 5 Lane Unsolved Montreal, Quebec, Canada
7 2 At the place where jewels abound Unsolved French Quarter/Lafayette, New Orleans, Louisiana
11 3 If Thucydides is North of Xenophon Solved (2019) Puopolo Field, Boston, Massachusetts [6][24]
12 10 In the shadow Of the grey giant Unsolved Queens/Coney, New York, New York [25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ↑ The Secret (1982), pp. 7–8
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ↑ Template:Cite press release
  8. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  13. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  14. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  16. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  17. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  18. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  19. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  20. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  21. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  22. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  23. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  24. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  25. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Further reading

  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). (links Image 9 and Verse 7 to St. Louis)
  • Template:Cite magazine
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