I. Introduction
Thomas Jefferson Beale was a gentleman of leisure, a big game
hunter, a wilderness adventurer and an enterprising capitalist.
Before disappearing in 1822, he left three encrypted messages
describing a buried treasure of gold, silver and precious stones
that is currently valued at over $30 million dollars. For 120
years, an army of determined treasure hunters and amateur
cryptologists have searched, dug and deciphered without finding
it.
The experts consider "The Beale Papers" to be the most
elaborate hoax in American history. Their reasoning: no one has
found the treasure, therefore it must not exist. Cryptanalysts
can't break two of the three codes, so they have concluded that
they are not codes, but meaningless strings of numbers.
I have, however, acquired indisputable evidence that the
treasure does exist. I also know where it is hidden. That
is, I know about where it's hidden. Therein lies the problem
and it's been the bane of my existence for twenty years. It's not
in Virginia - it's right here in southeast Missouri. In fact, it's
hidden within a few miles of my house. I know it is. It has to be.
I just can't find it.
Like Mr. James B. Ward, who published "The Beale Papers"
in 1885, I've squandered the best years of my life searching for
this elusive pot of gold. And like Ward, I'm throwing in the towel.
Quitting. Giving up the quest.
Now it's your turn, if you dare, to take up the hunt. Here
you'll find a compilation of all the knowledge and experience I've
gained while searching for the treasure. Maybe you'll see something
that I've missed for all these years. Perhaps you'll be the lucky
one to claim fame and fortune, something I've never been able to
do. Be warned! Once the Gold Bug has bitten, it will never let you
go. Its venom infects the mind and body. It will drive you insane,
with the insatiable thirst for - GOLD!
II. The Legend
To understand the roots of this fascinating story you should
read and study The Beale Papers.
To summarize, in 1817, a party of thirty adventurous sportsmen,
lead by Beale, discovered a rich gold vein (at what turns out to be
Cripple Creek, Colorado) while hunting in northern New Mexico. They
formed a partnership, began mining, and quickly amassed a fortune
in precious metal. They realized that holding such wealth in the
wild and lawless west was risky and dangerous. So Beale and his
partners hauled their treasure back to Virginia and buried it near
Lynchburg.
Their wealth secured, the partners returned to the mine to dig
more gold. Before leaving they recruited a 31st partner, Robert
Morriss of Lynchburg, and entrusted him to guard the secret of the
treasure's location. Beale gave him a strongbox, telling him not to
open it for ten years. If the partners failed to return by then,
Morriss was to open the box. There he would find instructions and a
series of encrypted messages. Beale promised to send him the
decoding keys at a later date. He was to use the secret information
in the cryptograms to recover the treasure and disburse the gold
amongst the partners' surviving relatives.
Morriss kept the notes under lock and key for 23 years, but none
of the partners ever returned to claim their treasure. When he
opened the box he found three cryptograms and a letter from Beale.
The cryptograms consisted of a series of numbers from one to three
digits long. Morriss, who never received the keys to the messages,
tried for years to decrypt them, without success.
Before his death in 1863, he gave the box and its contents to a
friend, J.B. Ward. Eventually Ward solved one of the cryptograms
(now known as Cipher #2). He decoded it using the Declaration of
Independence as the key. Cipher #2 contained a list of the vault's
contents. The other messages provide 1) the location of the
treasure and 2) a list of the partners and their beneficiaries.
Ward failed to decrypt these messages, after many years of
trying.
The fixation ruined his life. Finally, after years of
frustration and disappointment, Ward published "The Beale
Papers" in 1885, hoping to make some money from the telling of
this bizarre tale.
III. The Puzzle
Until now, one critical piece of the puzzle has been missing -
and no, it's not the keys to the still-encrypted messages. They
are, in fact, bogus; a ruse devised by Beale to cover his deceit.
Before discussing the puzzle, however, please allow me to explain
how I became involved with the Beale treasure.
In 1980, while browsing an antique bookshop in St. Louis, three
worn, leather bound notebooks caught my eye. On inspection they
proved to be the original, hand written, diaries of Thomas J.
Beale covering the years 1812 through 1846. I was not aware of the
Beale legend at this time, but I saw that the diaries contained
sketched maps and detailed descriptions of a gold mining operation.
There were also entries composed of apparently random sequences of
numbers. Perhaps some important information written in code?
The diaries were interesting to read and priced at only a few
dollars for the lot, so I bought them. Time passed and they ended
up in a trunk with some other old books and were forgotten.
Forgotten, that is, until 1986, when I came upon a copy of "The
Beale Papers" at the same bookshop. At home, I studied this
document carefully and compared it to the diaries.
It became apparent that Beale had perpetrated an underhanded
scam upon his unfortunate partners. At the same time, he foisted a
spectacular hoax upon generations of treasure hunters. Until now,
no one knew that he had secretly returned to Virginia, stolen the
gold from its vault and hidden it in the Missouri Ozarks. The
missing piece of the puzzle was the diary of Thomas Beale and I, by
sheer chance, now possessed it.
IV. My Search
Believing that I was unbelievably lucky to have stumbled upon
the original and only Beale diaries, I set out to unravel the
mystery and locate the treasure. I developed a time line that
traced the gold from Colorado, to Virginia, and finally to
Missouri. Was I the only living person aware of Beale's secret? It
seemed incredible, but true.
Beale was a clever crook. In his diaries he recorded his most
secret thoughts in coded form - a code that I have never been able
to break. I struggled for years to crack his cipher. A life of
luxurious wealth seemed so near, yet just beyond my grasp. I began
to think of nothing else. I neglected my family, my friends and my
career. Soon, every waking hour was devoted to the quest. My wife
and children left me. I couldn't hold a job. I didn't care, though,
because I knew that soon I would find the treasure.
In his diary Beale wrote that he served as an encryption officer
during the War of 1812. This convinced me that his cryptograms are
based on techniques he learned in the Army. I am certain that his
entry for April 23, 1821, contains the information needed to find
the treasure. It was posted from the village of
Avon and states, "The secret location is described
below:" Then he wrote a numerically encrypted passage that
surely describes the cache location. Using the ciphers that he
described, I have gone through the dictionary, Beale's diary, the
Declaration of Independence and even "The Beale Papers",
trying thousands of possibilities as the keyword for this
ciphertext, but with all that, I cannot crack the code.
In addition, I've spent countless months searching in and around
Avon. I've combed the region during every season and in every kind
of weather. I've surveyed the surrounding hills with metal
detectors, with magnetic sensors and with ground penetrating radar.
I've dug countless pits to test all the "hits" generated by these
surveys. My results, in every case, have been negative.
V. Your Turn
After twenty years of hard and fruitless labor, I am giving it
up. My body is broken, my spirit extinguished. Like the Holy Grail,
the Beale gold has proven to be not only elusive, but also
destructive. By publishing this brief statement, along with
pertinent excerpts from Beale's diary, I hereby pass this yoke from
my weary shoulders to the next generation of bounty hunters.
In closing, I offer the following advice to anyone who decides
to accept this challenge:
- Don't be consumed by your passion for gold, as I was. If you
fear that you cannot balance this pursuit with the regular duties
and offices of your life, then turn away now. Do not become
enslaved to this highly speculative enterprise.
- Don't sacrifice your career and means of livelihood to pursue
this enigmatic vision, as I did.
- Above all, cherish your family, your friends and every pleasant
aspect of your life, as plain and humble as it now may seem. (If
only I had heeded my own counsel!)
- Finally, wear sensible shoes and long pants when you go to
Avon.
VI. Some Thoughts
- To fully understand this cache, read and study all of the
material at the links I've provided.
- You will need to construct a simple device to solve this
puzzle.
- The final solution is in the cemetery.
VII. Finally...
I met several times with the directors of this lovely little
cemetery to discuss the placement of this cache. We even visited
one of my other cemetery caches before they were fully convinced
that geocaching is for real. Their main concern, and rightfully so,
is the safety of the historically significant (18th century) grave
markers. Please help me keep this cache active by observing the
etiquette of responsible geocaching. Thanks! And good luck!
VIII. Updates & Afterthoughts
8/3/06 Please NOTE: 15433 21494 79310 74392 44029 58817 39974
34006 22071 89783 94214 70180 74736 46463 64635 38906 89860 94380
47881 42525 89413 95368 74526 63018 14946 34353 18415 32209 18102
79224 61741 57143 53934 96479 90532 12293 27087 72583 53075 01878
43623 07932
