The Secret Treasure Hunt Explained for Beginners
No, not that Secret.
Are you a fan of impossibly hard riddles? Then you might be interested in joining an elite society of treasure hunters centered around a book called The Secret.
Mysterious painting by John Jude Palencar
What is The Secret anyway?
Not to be confused with the popular 2006 self-help book about using the laws of attraction, this Secret could manifest you some real cash. Okay, onto the good stuff.
In 1982, author Byron Preiss published a puzzle book that combines 12 short poems and 12 elaborate paintings by renowned fantasy illustrator, John Jude Palencar.
Paired together correctly, each painting and verse leads to different north American cities, where Preiss, often disguised as a construction worker, went to local parks and buried ceramic casques encased in plexi-glass boxes. The key inside each casque can be exchanged for a jewel - and even more valuable, bragging rights.
According to the book:
"The jewels collectively are worth over ten thousand dollars. The treasure casques themselves are of incalculable value, never having been owned by man or woman." - The Secret
Pretty enticing stuff.
Solve the riddle, find the location of a buried key. Sounds easy.
It's harder than it sounds. Seriously. So far, only 2 of the 12 boxes have been found since the book was published.
That's just 2 boxes in over 3 decades. Preiss may have overestimated how complicated the riddles were. Still to this day, there are treasure hunters dedicated to solving all 12 riddles.
So how were the first locations found?
The first of the 12 puzzles was cracked not long after the book was published by a group of young students in Chicago. In 2004, a second box was uncovered in Cleveland. Then, in a tragic turn of events, Preiss died in a car accident, taking the locations of the remaining 10 to his grave
Alright I'm intrigued, but why is this all coming up again now?
Over the last few years Expedition Unknown host Josh Gates has received thousands of messages with people claiming to have solved The Secret, but one fan just cut through the chatter with an image that made Josh’s jaw drop: the broken corner of a ceramic clock-face. Josh is one of only a handful of people to have seen Byron Preiss’ puzzle boxes in person, and there’s no doubt that this is part of one - causing Josh to drop everything and fly half a world away to join the new investigation
Josh and Coy Lothrop dig for treasure in Charleston, South Carolina (2006). No box found.
Where did the box come from and how the hell did this guy get it?
The puzzle-solver won’t say much other than that he believes he’s located one of the hidden treasures and has part of the box to prove it. Josh is on a mission to find out if the next chapter in the world of The Secret is about to be written.
Find out if the third treasure has been located in the Expedition Unknown season finale event, Wednesday Oct. 30 at 9p on Discovery and the Discovery GO app.
