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Of Fun and Safe(ish) Treasure Hunts

  • Writer: A Crazy Little Bird Told Me
    A Crazy Little Bird Told Me
  • May 1, 2023
  • 4 min read


Did you know that even if you are not an adventurous Indiana Jones type, you can still go hunt for treasures, sometimes from the comfort of your sofa.

I am talking a treasure hunt that does not involve dangerous creatures, deadly traps, flesh eating insects or any other life endangering situations, which no sane person would want to get into.


Let's start with the treasures, or scavenger hunts that have been resolved:

1) Fenn's Treasure - cache of gold and jewels that Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, New Mexico, hid in the Rocky Mountains of the United States in 1988 after being diagnosed with cancer and given a prognosis that it was likely terminal. This inspired him to hide a treasure chest in an outdoor location with the purpose of encouraging people to explore the area. The chest was found in December 2020.

2) The Masquerade - picture book, written and illustrated by Kit Williams and published in August 1979, that sparked a treasure hunt by including concealed clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare that had been created and hidden somewhere in Britain by Williams. The golden hare was found under slightly scandalous situations in December 1988.

3) David Blaine’s Mysterious Stranger - book written by illusionist David Blaine, published on October 29, 2002 by Random House. Part autobiography, part history, and part armchair treasure hunt, the book also includes instructions on how to perform basic card tricks and illusions. The clues contained in the book lead to a treasure worth a cool $100,000. The treasure was found in 2004.


Be reassured, there are more for all of us to sink our teeth into (the list is not exhaustive):

4) Cain's Jawbone - murder mystery puzzle written by Edward Powys Mathers under the pseudonym "Torquemada" and first published in 1934 as part of The Torquemada Puzzle Book. All 100 pages of the novel are printed out-of-order. To solve the puzzle, you must put the pages in the right order, and then name the murderers and victims in the story. The solution to the puzzle under the original edition has never been made public. The publishers of the 2019 edition ran the competition a second time, saying "The prize of £1,000 (roughly how much £15 was worth in 1934) will be given to the first reader to provide the names of the murderers and the murdered, the correct order of the pages and a short explanation of how the solution was obtained. It seems only 4 people have evern solved it. The last one in 2020. It seems the competition was still open as late as 31 December 2022.

5) The Secret - treasure hunt created by Byron Preiss, involving 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. As of 2023, only three of the twelve boxes have been found (Cleveland, Chicago and Boston).

6) On the Trail of the Golden Owl - French armchair treasure hunt book created by communications expert Régis Hauser under the pseudonym "Max Valentin" and illustrated by artist Michel Becker. The book was first published in 1993 and provides clues to the location of a buried statuette of an owl, created by Becker. The book consists of eleven double-page spreads, each of which is a discrete riddle composed of a title, text, and a painting. Each pair of pages is numbered with a wavelength associated with its colors, and with an owl face. As of 2023, the puzzle contained within the book remains officially unsolved, making it the second longest-running contest in the armchair treasure hunt genre.

7) The Beacon Star - published in 2017 by Randy Pischel, The Beacon Star offers a prize of $5,000 to the first person who can solve the puzzle it contains. No one has claimed it yet, but a lot of the work has been done for you. Online treasure hunters have posted the solution to parts of the Beacon Star’s puzzle online, so you’ll have a place to start and an idea of exactly how complex the book’s puzzles are. Spoiler: They are very complex. Like, the “I’m not going to do this” kind of complex. I did not find much information about this one, except that it hasn't yet been solved.

8) Cicada 3301 - nickname given to three sets of puzzles posted under the name "3301" online between 2012 and 2014. The stated intent was to recruit "intelligent individuals" by presenting a series of puzzles to be solved; no new puzzles were published on January 4, 2015. The third puzzle is still to be solved.


So get out your Indiana Jones hat ... or create your own treasure hunt. Either way, happy hunting!



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