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The Secret (a treasure hunt) / The Will
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The Will

Page history last edited by Isstvan 12 months ago

The Will: A modern day treasure hunt (2nd Edition)

by "Tod Normot" (Thomas Dowd, Dorothy Newton, Ronald Franks)
Riverdale, N.J. : Tricore Associates, 1981, 59 Pages
ISBN-10: 0-9607132-0-4        / 0960713204
ISBN-13: 978-0-9607132-0-2 / 9780960713202

 

Full PDF of the book

 

   Within this ''certified'' book of 62 pages, readers could find clues to the location of a treasure box containing 49 golden Krugerrands (worth approximately $25,000).  The gold was left by a fictional millionaire and actually concealed by three residents of New Jersey (Thomas Dowd, Ronald Franks and Dorothy Newton, writing as "Tod Normot") at a site ''somewhere within a 100-mile radius of the Empire State Building.''  The search area covers bits of five states and includes Hartford, New Haven, almost all of Long Island, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Allentown, Scranton, a broad stretch of the Hudson River Valley, and just a tiny corner of southwest Massachusetts.  The authors give you 10 years to look for this ''golden endowment,'' and do not require that you ''physically retrieve it'' (a mailed-in solution is fine).  The box was to be removed if unfound after 10 years.

 

The book has three authors, gives three hints, and seems to be structured in three different sections related to academic subjects.  Possibly each author devised a puzzle and we need to put all three together to solve the whole thing.

  • Astronomy Section (pp. 31-37, 7/6-7/10):  This section involves the night sky and the positions of the different constellations in the zodiac.  Tom's clue (pp. 23-25) is probably relevant to this part.
  • Chemistry Section (pp. 38-43, 7/11-7/14): This section involves the elements and their chemical symbols.  It may also involve the periodic table.  The authors connect it to the astronomy section by talking about a trip to a planetarium, but we are clearly on to talking about elements now.  Dorothy's clue (pp. 21-22) seems to apply to this part.
  • Geometry Section (pp. 44-54, 7/27-8/8): This section involves numbers and geometric designs.  We are apparently meant to construct and manipulate different triangles (and possibly other shapes).  Ron's clue (pp. 26-27) is superficially about an astronomical event (a lunar eclipse visible from Washington D.C. at a certain time) but no matching eclipse has ever occurred.  The authors are trying to trick us with this one, but the clue is really a mathematical one and the important part is the numbers given as times.

 

A few important notes to help new searchers get started:

  1. Despite the use of the Empire State Building as the center of the search area, this is very clearly a puzzle focused on New Jersey.  It was the home to all three authors, it was the place where the book was published, and there are numerous references in the text to places like Cape May and High Point State Park.
  2. The choice of gold as a prize seems to be very deliberate.  The chemistry section leads searchers through a trip around the periodic table of elements, using letters and numbers to finally end up at gold.  The chemical symbol for gold is Au and the atomic number is 79.  It's no coincidence that the will is structured around a diary where the dated pages end in August of 1979.
  3. Capital letters seem very oddly placed throughout the will.  Random words like "Ancient" and "University" are capitalized for no obvious reason (and there's that "AU" symbol for gold again).  Names of people, places, and groups are included when they aren't necessary.  (Why would we need to know the name of the boy coming for a chess lesson or the pilot flying the plane?)  Some of the capital letters are clearly important in the chemistry section, but it's also possible that writing down the sequence of all the capital letters in the text would give us the string to be decoded using the translator on page 46.
  4. Triangles seem to be a central part of the geometry section.  The figure on page 46 is an equilateral triangle formed from four smaller equilateral triangles.  Triangles also appear in the figures on pages 47 and 53.  The chess moves on page 49 end with a description of an isosceles right triangle on the chessboard (formed by KR3, KR8, and QB8).  The airplane flight on page 51 takes a triangular route.  And the will mentions Pythagoras on page 45 and gives the Pythagorean Theorem on page 53.
  5. There are numerous references to the constellation Pisces and the mathematical constant pi.  Presumably, those two are somehow connected.

 

 

Cover -

  The front cover of the book features what appears to be a photo of a wooden box filled with Krugerrands.  This implies — but does not directly state — that the prize coins are in the box shown in the photo.

 

  p. i (unnumbered)

  The authors say they will “physically retrieve” the treasure “within 24 hours of receipt” of a letter describing “the exact physical location of the treasure.”  This clearly suggests that A) the treasure is near where one or more of them live, and that B) the retrieval will not require hard labor, extensive advance planning, or favorable weather.  Burial underground therefore seems unlikely, given the snowfall in northern New Jersey and the difficulty that it could pose for a winter retrieval.

 

  p. iii (unnumbered)

  Why is “GOLDEN” in all-caps in both places where it appears on this page?  Are the authors emphasizing the letters?  Why does the prize consist of 49 Krugerrands?  (Why have a prize in Krugerrands at all?)  Says the prize is “located in the public domain within a hundred mile radius of the Empire State Building — out of reach of metal detectors and other electronic location devices.”  “Public domain” is an odd choice of words.  Does it mean the same thing as “public lands”?  How would a collection of gold coins be positioned “out of the reach” of a metal detector?

 

  p. iv (unnumbered)   Certification page, dated 3/30/81.
Introduction
p. 1

  Why did the authors choose the name “Orson Collins”?  Why a date of death of 8/17/79 and an age of 83?  Our other characters:

  • Anthony A. Cuser, Esq., the lawyer
  • Ronald Collins, “the wayward son”
  • Dorothy Cabot, “the social-climbing sister”
  • Thomas Collins, “the self-seeking brother” 

The lawyer is the only one who gets a middle initial.  Is the "Esq" after the lawyer's name simply a way of adding an extra capital "E"?

Initials of names on this page (as written): OCAACERCDCTC

 

  p. 13

  Orson’s estate totalled $1,683,000, which is obviously meant to be a significant number in some way.  Is this a reference to 1683, when the counties of northern New Jersey were first formed?

 

The Will
p. 19

  Date of estate valuation: 6/30/79.  The three groups that receive the bulk of the money do not appear to be real, which means that the names must have some meaning.  The second group doesn’t have a capitalized “the,” which might be a mistake or might be important.  Group initials (as written): TJKFHRFECFTHFAS

 

  p. 20

  This section ends with an 8-line verse where the final word of each line is written in all-caps: WORTHY CARE TWICE BEWARE GOLD REACH WORTHY BEQUEATH

 

Dorothy's Clue
pp. 21-22

  The point of Dorothy's clue seems to be that the diary entries are messed up.  "Things are seldom as they appear, / A magician's wand is at work here."  The puzzlemakers seem to be saying that the diary entries will be nonsense unless we use Tom's clue and Ron's clue to shift things around a bit.  It's possible that Tom's clue is telling us how to shift the letters and Ron's clue is telling us how to adjust the numbers.

  Notably, the things that change are all capitalized: Green, Blue, Art, and Trash.

 

Tom's Clue
pp. 23-25

  This clue features a poem about the twelve constellations of the zodiac on page 24 with a matching illustration on page 25.  The poem begins "Through the eyes of Leo the picture is clear" and it later says "Aries to the South / And Taurus to the West."  The point of the poem seems to be that Pisces is missing. 

 

Illustration p.  25

  The illustration matches that description, with a large lion in the middle and the symbols of ten other constellations arranged around it, including a bull on the left and a ram below.  The symbol for Pisces is missing but it appears ten pages later on page 35.  (Pisces also comes up later as the answer to a riddle on page 40.)

 

  Does this match up in some way with astronomy?  Is there a time and/or place where all of the constellations except Pisces would be visible?  Would Leo be in the middle of the sky, with Aries to the south and Taurus to the west?

 

  Notably, all of the diagram is drawn with thin lines, except for the eyes and nose of the lion, which seem to be intentionally drawing our attention.

 

  Maybe we're supposed to do something with this diagram, possibly involving lines through the eyes of Leo?  All of the zodiac constellations start with capital letters, so this might be showing us how letters should be exchanged or shifted.

 

  The mention of South and West suggests that this might be a map. 


 

Ron's Clue
pp. 26-28

  This clue talks about a total lunar eclipse that was visible from Washington D.C..  The earth's shadow started to go across the moon at 8:05, the height of the eclipse was 8:23, and the end of the eclipse was 8:41 (so 36 minutes in all).  The character describing this is supposed to be 83 years old and he is writing just before his death in August of 1979.  He is reminding his son about the two of them viewing the eclipse together sometime in the past.

 

  The clue hints that we are supposed to find the date of the eclipse and use that detail later in the puzzle, but the Time-and-Date website doesn't list any matching lunar eclipses that would be visible from Washington D.C. between 1900 and 1979.  This clue might actually just be about the numbers.

  (Interesting note: All the other times in the book specifically say A.M. or P.M., but these times don't.  Maybe this is really a solar eclipse at 8:23 A.M.?)

 

The Diary
pp. 29-55
 

 

Astronomy Section

(7 pages, 7/6 - 7/10)

 

6 July 1979 10:00 A.M.
pp. 31-33
 
Illustration p.  33

  This is (supposedly) a diagram of nine star constellations with PISCES and PEGASUS labeled (in all caps).  The other seven shapes aren't labeled, but they are numbered in the diagram below for reference.  There's also the shape of some animal outlined around some stars.  Maybe Ursa (the bear)?


  The nine diagrams that are shown do not seem to match up with any real constellations.  The perpendicular intersections between some of the lines make this look more like a street grid or a highway map.  It may be that we are meant to connect the "constellations" end-to-end to create some kind of route map.
 

 

  The diary entry immediately after this illustration seems to suggest that our starting point should be the line labeled "PISCES" and that we should start somewhere on the Cape May Peninsula in New Jersey.  Let's assume that the Pisces line is the Garden State Parkway (rotated 180 degrees from how it's shown above).  That would get us to Newark.

 

  The only other constellation that's labeled in this diagram is the one called "PEGASUS."  If these are not the real constellations, why have that label?

 

  The original Pegasus was a winged horse from Greek mythology.  In the context of the Garden State Parkway in 1980's New Jersey, there seems to be only one place where one would ever see a representation of Pegasus: the logo on a Mobil gas station or service station.

 

  This clue may be telling us to use this particular piece of the road map at a Mobil station displaying the Pegasus logo.  But we'll need to find where those stations were located 40 years ago.


Image used under a Creative Commons license. The original uploader was Royalbroil at English Wikipedia, MobilFlyingRedHorse, CC BY-SA 2.5.

 

8 July 1979

8:00 A.M.

pp.  34-35

  This entry talks about fishing.  Three points seem to be important:

  • It has the image of Pisces that was missing from page 25.
  • It mentions Cape May in New Jersey.
  • It emphasizes the word "line" and says "The line is my friend – my instrument of victory."

 

 Combined with the illustration directly before this entry, the message seems to be that we should start with the line segment labeled PISCES, find a match somewhere in the Cape May area, and then keep following the line to... somewhere (victory?).

 

Illustration p.  35

  The missing illustration of Pisces.

 

10 July 1979

11:00 A.M.

pp. 36-37

  Page 36 is given over to a single small puzzle.  The author asks "Do you think you might know where I am?" and then gives "5 W33 and W34" in bold directly below that.  The answer, courtesy of Brad, is the Empire State Building, which is bounded on three sides by West 33rd Street, West 34th Street, and 5th Avenue.

 

 

Chemistry Section

(6 pages, 7/11 - 7/14)

 

11 July 1979

6:30 A.M.

pp. 38-39

  The authors are just straight-up trolling us with this entry.  We see all sorts of things that have an astronomy connection – a planetarium, a telescope, a meteorite, a diagram using astronomical symbols, a list of historical astronomers and astrophysicists – but on closer inspection none of those connections to astronomy really hold up.  A meteorite (by definition) has no position in the night sky.  A telescope tells us nothing.  A mixed-up diagram with earth at the middle being orbited by a sun/mars combination is just nonsense in astronomical terms.  The reality is that the astronomy stuff is just window dressing to hide the true position of this entry in the chemistry section of the book.

 

  The entry talks about taking a group of kids on a visit to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.  (The planetarium, incidentally, is located at 79th Street, Central Park West.  Maybe this is why someone thought the treasure was in the Central Park lake?)  The names of the kids are likely to be important: "Claude, Bill, Ed, Nickie, and Al."  These are presumably references to chemical elements.  ("Bill, Ed" was as close as the puzzle makers could get to a name based on lead.)  So the references we are meant to get from the names are Chlorine (Cl 17), Bismuth (Bi 83), Lead (Pb 82) , Nickel (Ni 28), and Aluminum (Al 13).  Together, in the sequence they are listed, these references trace a clockwise circle on the right-hand side of the periodic table.

 

Illustration p.  39

  The illustration on page 39 appears to be playing a game by mixing a few different types of symbols.  It shows what at first glance would seem to be the astronomical symbol for earth surrounded by three rings of dots that suggest orbits.  The outer ring has a symbol that combines the symbols for the sun and Mars.  Taken literally, it would suggest that Mars orbits the earth and reaches a point where it overlaps the sun.  That interpretation makes no sense at all.

 

 

 

  But the symbols for the sun and the planets were also used by ancient alchemists to represent different metals.  Taken this way, a circle with the dot in the middle represents gold and a circle with an arrow coming out of it represents iron.

 

  There are two reasons why we should use the alchemical interpretation of these symbols.  First, of course, the whole book is about finding gold and we know that it has other references to that element (see below).  And, second, the illustration also says "Tucson Meteorite 1850."  The Tucson meteorite, discovered in 1850, is classified as an iron meteorite.  So this seems to add a clear reference to iron (Fe 26).

 

  Okay, so now we've got gold and iron overlapping at what could be the start and end of a circular path.  But what about that symbol in the middle – the circle with the two crossed lines?  If it doesn't represent earth in an astronomical diagram, what does it mean?  The answer is that chemists like John Dalton used that symbol to represent sulfur.  Given that this entry is in the chemistry section, it seems likely that we are meant to use the chemical interpretation.  And the modern symbol for sulfur is just a capital "S" (S 16).

 

  Put everything together on this page and here's what you get: Start with iron, make three concentric trips around a capital "S," and you'll end up with gold.  Convoluted, yes, but the symbols all fit and they work with the text of the diary entry, which also uses chemical symbols to describe a loop.  To see where that all gets us, look at the triangle diagram on page 46.


11 July 1979

3:00 P.M.

p. 40

  This is the only case in the diary where two entries share the same date.  This entry comes after the planetarium field trip.  The author says he gave the kids two riddles on the way home.  One of them is "a word that can be an apple, a blueberry, a cherry, or a pizza."  The other is what "Mediterranean, Asiatic, Red, and Caspian have in common."  The answers, courtesy of Brad, are PIE and SEAS.  Put them together and you've got Pisces, which has already been mentioned twice in the preceding pages and may also tie into the planetarium field trip.  What are the authors trying to tell us about this constellation?

 

14 July 1979

4:30 P.M.

pp. 41-43

  On page 42 there are two lists of elements with their chemical symbols and periodic numbers.  Taking the first letter from each symbol in the first group spells out "DEAD END." (Does this mean a dead-end street or does it mean that this approach is just a red herring and a dead end for searchers?)  The letters in the second group of elements are N, O, Au, He, and Re.  Translating "Au" into "gold" gives us "NO gold HeRe." 

 

  The alignment is different in the two lists, suggesting that maybe we should use two different approaches to interpret them.

 

  On page 43 there is a riddle:

The beginning of the world is seen with nothing in the middle.
The middle does not stand alone, its twin will help this riddle.
The first of darkness comes along with the start of silence after.
But silence may not be so bad as the silence turns to laughter.

 

  If "the beginning of the world" is W and "nothing" is O, then we get WO after the first line.  (Alternatively, the line could mean that we take the beginning of "world ...with nothing the middle" and get WOR.)

  The "twin" of O would probably be another O (although the combination of "world" and "twin" in a 1981 puzzle centered on Manhattan has certain suggestions.)

  The "first of darkness" is presumably D and "the start of silence" would be S.  "Laughter" could be "He He" or "Ha Ha."

 

  Maybe "Woods"?  Or maybe these are hints toward chemical symbols and atomic numbers: W (Tungsten 74) O (Oxygen 8) O (Oxygen 8) Ds (Darmstadtium 110) He (Helium 2) He (Helium 2)

 

 

Geometry Section

(11 pages, 7/27 - 8/8)

 

27 July 1979

7:00 P.M.

pp. 44-47

 

Illustration p.  46

  This illustration has a combination of four smaller triangles that form one larger triangle.  All of the letters of the alphabet are arranged along the edges of the larger triangle, except for S, which is positioned in the very middle.  The letters D, I, and X appear to be in boldface.  This diagram is probably some kind of decoder system that will allow us to read a secret message.

 

 

  One option would be to fold each of the three outer triangles up so that they meet along the seams, forming a four-sided, 3D object with an equilateral triangle for each face.  That would (sort of) fit with the Egyptian pyramid theme, but it's hard to see what we should do from there.

 

  Another option is to fold in each of the outer triangles so that they overlap the central S-triangle.  This creates three small triangles centered on the S (which might be the approach being hinted at in the "orbit diagram" on page 39).  Here's the shape that's created when we do that:

Some observations:

  • Several of the letters seem to overlap in a way that's too neat to be a coincidence.
  • The combination of the I, E, G, and U seems to form "He."  Helium?
  • The N and the Z end up side-by-side, looking identical.
  • The Q and the T form a circle with crossed lines, similar to the symbol on page 39.
  • The two legs of the X almost form a horizontal line at one apex of the triangle, creating the same sort of "line balanced on a triangle" that we see in the illustration on page 53.
  • Most significantly, the D that starts off with one line across its curve gets two more lines across its curve, forming a shape that's very similar to the unknown "hieroglyphic" at the bottom of the following page (p. 47).

  If this structure is correct, what are we supposed to do with it?  Where does it get us?

 

Illustration p.  47

   The top of page 47 says "Here is a hieroglyphic message for you" and there are 8 symbols shown below that.  The positioning of the symbols is odd.  Normally hieroglyphics would be clustered together, forming a horizontal strip.  But these are positioned in a pattern or map of some kind around the page.  Based on the Wikipedia List of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the symbols are (from top to bottom, with the number from Gardiner's sign list): 

- enclosure (O6)

- axe? (T7A)

- milk jug with cover (W20)

- pyramid (O24)

- unknown

- owl (G17)

- cartouche (V10)

- harp? (Y7)

 

Alternative interpretation (from Andrew):
1 - Hut
2 - Axe
3 - Milk
4 - Pyramid
5 - ?
6 - Owl
7 - Name (cartouche means name)
8 - ?

It gets kinda close to HAMPTONS, which would make sense because the plane flight on page 51 starts from the East Hamptons airport.  But what are symbols 5 and 8 supposed to be?

 

BUT... If we take that unknown cherry-like symbol and flip it and turn it, we can drop it right in to that letter triangle on the opposite page.  Here's what that looks like (without changing the size of either the symbol or the triangle):

   

  The weird cherry symbol matches up perfectly, so that the curve overlaps the J and the dot in the middle of the circle lines up with one vertex of the triangle.  This doesn't seem to be a coincidence, but what are the authors trying to tell us?

 

31 July 1979

3:00 P.M.

pp. 48-49

  This is the final entry before August of '79 (Au 79).  This is also the entry with a chess puzzle.  It gives a diagram of the chess board and challenges the reader to play white and checkmate the black king in 5 moves.  (If you put the diagram into an online chess puzzle solver like nextchessmove.com you'll get a confirmation that white can, indeed, reach mate in 5 moves.)

 

   
Starting Positions Ending Positions

 

  One odd thing is the puzzle includes the answer, but it only goes up to the third move.  The written solution ends with the white queen "now hitting both points (QB8 and KR8) at the same time."  Why?  Why does the author emphasize that particular position?

 

  Because the chess puzzle is in the geometry section of the book, it's likely that we are supposed to pay attention to the isosceles right triangle described in that third move.  Depending on whether you measure from the middle of the square or include the whole square, the sides are either 5 or 6 and the hypotenuse is either around 7.071 or around 8.485.

 

Illustration p.  48

  This illustration is probably only intended to illustrate the chess puzzle.

 

2 August 1979

5:00 P.M.

p. 50
  This entry describes preparations for a flight on the following day and says that the weather is "supposed to be CAVU," using the acronym for "ceiling and visibility unrestricted".

3 August 1979

9:00 P.M.

p. 51
  This entry describes a triangular flight path over the New York City area.  The flight starts at the  East Hampton Airport near the tip of Long Island.  From there it goes almost due west to the Stillwater VORTAC where they have a view of the Delaware Water Gap on the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border.  From there it turns northeast and goes to Pawling near the New York/Connecticut border.  And from there it goes back to East Hampton.

 

  There's no obvious reason to fly above Pawling and the authors seem to be giving a lot of emphasis to the angles of the flight path.  The triangle seems to be what is important here (which explains why it had to be a flight, so the trip could be done in straight lines).

 

  The authors are also giving us very precise locations for the three vertices of the triangle, presumably so we can map them.  The initial leg seems to be as close to due west as the authors could set it up to be.  As it crosses New York City it passes over Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, just north of the northern tip of Manhattan.  The first leg of the flight is 136.5 miles, the second is 76.5 miles, and the third is 81.5 miles, making a total trip of 294.5 miles.

 

  East Hampton Airport
Stillwater VORTAC
Pawling, NY
latitude
40.959 N
40.996 N
41.562 N
longitude
-72.252 W
-74.869 W
-73.602 W
interior angle 41 degrees 40 degrees 99 degrees

 

  In the map below, the black circle shows our search area, formed by a 100-mile radius around the Empire State Building.  The red lines show the path described on this page.  IF the path is meant to contain the treasure spot, it lowers our search area quite a bit.

 

 

  One other notable thing about this flight plan is that the third leg, from Pawling to East Hampton is roughly parallel to the New York / New Jersey state line.

 

  The diary entry ends with this strange sentence: "Flying offers an unparalled means of treasuring our diverse and beautiful land."

 

  There's no such word as "unparalled" and the word they really mean is "unparalleled."  So is the omission of that "el" a typo or are they hinting at an abbreviation for "elevation" (or something else)? 

 

  The use of "treasure" in the sentence is obviously meant to flag our attention to a hint, and the suggestion of "unparalleled" (when spelled correctly) seems like a hint to the geometry of the chapter.  Is our take-home message that the use of flying allowed the authors to draw straight lines and the parallel they constructed is significant?

 

6 August 1979

10:00 A.M.

pp. 52-53

  A strange musing on page 52 talks about how "two things so seemingly alike can be so different."  Given that this is in the geometry section of the diary, the authors are presumably drawing our attention to similar triangles.  The flight plan shown in the illustration above forms a triangle, but it also contains a smaller similar triangle formed by the New York / New Jersey state line intersecting the first and second legs of the flight. 

 

 

  The two triangles are formed by sharing one vertex and drawing a parallel for the opposite side, so the similar triangle interpretation works well with the "parallel" clue on the previous page.

 

  Why are the authors drawing our attention to this smaller triangle?  (The two similar triangles are certainly very different.  The large one includes a big section of open water over Long Island Sound, while the smaller one is entirely over land.)  Notably, neither triangle includes High Point State Park, where much of the search has always been focused, but the smaller triangle does include large parts of Riverdale and Kinnelon borough, where the authors are known to have lived. 

 

  If the smaller triangle is meant to limit our search area even more, it means that the treasure must have been hidden in northern New Jersey.

 

Illustration p.  53

 

The illustration for this entry on page 53 features various strings of letters and numbers that fall into three distinct groupings:

  • In the first group are classic, well-known equations, all of which (as written here) contain the letter "C" and an exponent of 2.  There's the Pythagorean theorem (A squared plus B squared equals C squared) and Einstein's equation for mass–energy equivalence (E equals m times c squared) and the equation for the area of a circle (pi times r-squared).  The last equation, however, has an error.  Instead of starting with an "A" for area, it starts with a "C" (for circumference).  Why? 
  • The second group contains these strings of letters and numbers: SN74S288N, SN74148N, SN74LS90N, and SN7410N.  A quick Google search tells us that these are all components for old Texas Instruments electronics, which makes sense because we know that Ronald Frank was an electronics component distributor.  But what is the significance?
  • The third category is just a single equation the middle of the page: ((12 x 14) + 12) + (9 x 5) + 14 = 239.  The parentheses serve no mathematical purpose here because the standard order of operations would lead to the same result.  Clearly, the way the equation is written must mean something.  The equation is balanced on a line with a triangular fulcrum below the equals sign.  Again, the significance is unknown.

 

  Does the balanced equation mean anything special to anyone?  Given the inclusion of the component numbers, it might be interesting to type this equation into a pre-1981 TI calculator and see what it shows.

 

  The equation could be a calculation to find the total area covered by two rectangles that overlap on a single square.  One rectangle is 13 x 15 and the other is 9 x 5.  Total area = (13 x 15) + (9 x 5) - 1 = 195 + 45 - 1 = 240 - 1 = 239  This seems to be the shape they're describing:

 

  Do rectangles like that ring any bells for people in the NYC area?  Maybe street grids or neighborhoods?  Are there two adjacent neighborhoods that share a single block? 

 

  This clue is possibly meant to be smaller scale and something we wouldn't find on a map.  Maybe some sort of patio or courtyard in the New Jersey area?  The shape may be skewed one way or the other if the paving stones aren't perfectly square.  (And it could always be a count of bricks or slabs, rather than an area measurement.)

 

*** Scratch paper algebraic substitution of C into Einstein's equation gives a small rebus:

 

E = M (πr2)2 = "Em" "pi" "r" = "Empire"

 

Perhaps combining this with the Radio Shack parts ("State of the Art") is another way (Art vs. Trash?) to come up with the Empire State Building. An extra hint to the small puzzle on Page 36-37.

 

And too, the π -> C substitution sounds a lot like "Pi Cees" a link to the kids' puzzle on Page 40 with the answers  "Pies and Seas"

 

8 August 1979

8:00 P.M.

p. 54
  The diary ends with an unattributed quote from Ammianus Marcellinus:  "The language of truth is unadorned and always simple."
Conclusion pp. 56-59
 

 

 

In 1982 the New York Times reported that someone was suing the authors, claiming that the treasure was in a lake in Central Park:

  LAST YEAR, Thomas Dowd, Ronald Franks and Dorothy Newton, all of Bergen County, challenged readers of their book, ''The Will: A Modern Day Treasure Hunt,'' to decipher its clues and find $25,000 in gold Krugerrands that they had hidden ''somewhere within a 100-mile radius of the Empire State Building.''
  One contestant, Daniel J. Diasio of Brooklyn, is so convinced that he knows where the cache is that he is suing the authors for breach of contract. The suit follows their rejection of Mr. Diasio's solution - his third one.

  ''Mr. Diasio's claim that the money is in a Central Park lake has absolutely no merit,'' said J. Jerome Jabbour of Morristown, the lawyer whom the book names as witness ''to the existence of the golden treasure.''
  According to Mr. Jabbour, ''the case is pending until the claim is determined valid by a judge or otherwise withdrawn by Mr. Diasio.'' ''If he's so convinced,'' Mr. Jabbour said, ''it would be cheaper for him to hire a scuba diver and prove it than to hire a lawyer.'' Solutions continue to arrive at the book's publisher, Tricore Associates, 69 Route 23 South in Riverdale, although not in ''the avalanche quantity'' that ''Masquerade'' attracted, Mr. Franks said. He was referring to a book published in England that reportedly led thousands to ''tear up the countryside'' in search of a jewel-encrusted prize, which was found last year.

 

 

Authors:

  • According to the New York Times article, all three of the authors were from Bergen County, NJ.  That information might have been deliberately misleading, however.  It appears that all three of the authors had ties to an area further to the west, around Kinnelon, NJ.
  • Dorothy Newton was a Riverdale office manager at the time.  A "Dorothy B. Newton" passed away July 9, 2007.  Her last known address was 46 Flecher rd, New Egypt NJ 08533.
  • Thomas Dowd was a school psychologist.  His last known address was either 600B Beverly Rd apt 6 Teaneck NJ 07666 or 54 Fox Ledge rd Kinnelon Boro NJ 07405.
  • Ronald Frank was an electronics component distributor.  His last known address was 18 Decker terrace Kinnelon NJ 07405.  In 2013 he sold commercial property at 1700 rt 23 n Suite 300 Wayne NJ 07470 and 1 Beechwood Terrace Kinnelon NJ 07405.
  • This "article" (probably a paid ad) in the Weekly World News gives their names and shows photos.

 

 

Other Notes:

  • The big question: If the book was published in 1981 and the prize "was to be removed if unfound after 10 years," is there any reason to think that the puzzle is still alive? Skeller's note suggests that he may have tried to contact the law firm connected with the hunt. If the prize has been removed and the game is over, wouldn't they just tell him that in a form letter response? I'd be curious to know if anyone has seen any official confirmation about whether the prize is still out there somewhere.

 

Comments (33)

Linda S said

at 9:55 am on Jun 19, 2019

Nice work Oregonian...very nice

skeller@... said

at 1:39 pm on Jun 19, 2019

Oh here it is :-) I cannot comment on things in the book like the chess problem. Like so many other writings, and passages in these hunts, I think many of them are just fly paper, meant to get you stuck on them and forget the other clues. I firmly believe the starting point is the Empire State building.

skeller@... said

at 1:40 pm on Jun 19, 2019

Also the fact that the building burned down and there was no way to contact the Authors I feel they took the money and ran. Just my opinion no fact at all.

skeller@... said

at 11:07 am on Jun 21, 2019

About the addition you made Tom's clue. I believe those two clues go together and they are the beginning. I have been thinking a lot about this hunt. Since I cannot find anything about a building at the address in the back of the book I believe it may have burned down. So I have been wondering and maybe there is someone with legal knowledge on this site that can say weather or not, if the Authors made no attempt to allow people to contact them, wouldn't that be considered fault? Or maybe the hunt is still valid?

skeller@... said

at 8:30 am on Jun 24, 2019

If anyone has looked at the page that has the original book you will see they offered the chance to mail in a solution to them, but again if you could not reach them ???? The solution to the math problem is, math needs to be solved in steps to get the right answer. Same as this puzzle

Kang said

at 5:09 pm on Jun 24, 2019

pp. 38-39 - Mars, Earth and Sun. This puzzle seems very astronomy, astrology based. Maybe some of those clues are hinting at a date or dates. Ex, you can resolve the Mars/Earth/Sun paradox by thinking in astrological terms. Earth on one side of it's orbit, Mars 180 degrees opposite, with Sun in the middle. Like in astrology when they say Saturn is in Libra. Mars&Sun in same part of the sky (if both could be seen). There would be certain dates that could happen. Maybe by combining different clues you can find a date where are all true? Also, seems some of these may be hinting at basic puzzle knowns. Ex. 100 mile circumference/area (formula) in a (Tuscon) Ring around a spot - The Empire State building. Possible?

Brad said

at 9:30 am on Jun 25, 2019

The symbol for Mars seems to be on the third orbit out from the sun symbol, which should be the Earth orbit (Third Rock from the Sun) It could also just be the Mars symbol on a dot (not associated with the sun).
I reckon with all of the astronomy stuff, there's probably a shape (of a constellation) or vector that will be part of the overall.
Seems like there is a series of smaller puzzles that go ahead to create a larger answer based on alpha-numeric, numeric and shape-based answers. Just my guess!

Brad said

at 3:44 am on Jun 25, 2019

The diagram on page 46 contains 4 triangles (3 around a central one) and letters. There are 26 letters, and all of the English alphabet is represented. Starting at the top and working around the perimeter clockwise they read:
DKFL OTPH EUNC X MVRB QJY IGWNA S. "X" is on the junction of triangles at the bottom, and S lies central to the diagram, in the centre triangle.
The diagram looks a lot like something you would cut out and make a pyramid with. Given the previous page has a poem related to the pyramids, this may be an assumption worth investigating. First thoughts were that if we were to "fold" it into a pyramid, then the letters would align and you could form a substitution cipher (i.e. D>H, K>P, F>T, L>O, etc.), but the last two sections have 3 and 5 letters which wouldn't line up.
The fact that there are all of the English alphabet there seems significant and probably in a cipher, but that begs the question, where is the coded text that needs to be solved?

Oregonian said

at 9:31 am on Jun 25, 2019

I'm thinking along the same lines. There's that bit in Dorothy's clue that says "I see Green and you may too... but Tom and Ron say, 'No, that's Blue.' One sees Art, Another sees Trash." My interpretation is that there are real words in the text that say one thing to the casual reader but mean something else once they've been changed in our "decoder ring." Maybe it's the words in all-caps on page 20? That would explain why we aren't seeing "the text that needs to be solved."

Note, though, that it can't be a simple substitution cipher. Moving "Green" to "Blue" and "Art" to "Trash" involves adding or removing some letters. I think you're right that the diagram on page 46 is central to it all and I wonder if we are meant to create some sort of constellation (like Pisces?) drawing lines that would intersect certain letters or spaces and show us how things should be moved around.

Brad said

at 2:38 am on Jun 26, 2019

Pg 53 Equation:
((12x14) +12) + (9x5) + 14= 239
There's a whole stack of mathematical redundancies in this one! If you remove all brackets, you would solve the equation the same way to the same answer. BODMAS (we call it here) Brackets, of, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction, is done in that order. So brackets are only needed when multiplying the results of + or -, not adding the results of multiplication.
This puzzle is not about maths, but instead, I think they're significant numbers. 12 is appearing a lot in the zodiac references. We should keep an eye out for the rest of the numbers, particularly 14

Oregonian said

at 10:00 am on Jun 26, 2019

Great work, everybody! I think we're making progress here.

To keep things organized, I'm continually shifting comments up into the table grid. Feel free to make your additions directly into the page or keep leaving them as comments here. Either way works fine.

skeller@... said

at 2:49 pm on Jun 28, 2019

I believe the kids names are just shorten names of the astrologists at the bottom of the page Bill being William Herschel, Ed being Edwin Hubble, Nickie being Nicolaus Copernicus, and Al is Albert Einstein.

Page 42 says Dead end No gold here :-)

andrewwilliammartin@... said

at 9:49 am on Jul 1, 2019

Nice one on pg 42!

Davinci4 said

at 5:55 pm on Jul 20, 2019

Hi All. Thanks for including me in the discussion. Just wanted to add my interpretation of the hieroglyph puzzle. I modified it based on a few additional observations from the hieroglyphics dictionary. Thoughts?

From top to bottom: (hieroglyph designation included)

O6 (hut or enclosure)- Temple or Tomb “T”
W20 - Milk jug with cover “M”
T7A- Axe “A”
O24- Pyramid “P”
?combined M5 (palm branch) and N5 (sun) = Season “S”
G17- Owl “O”
Cartouche- indicates royal Name “N”
Y7- Harp “H”

Spells: HAMPTONS

Guardian said

at 5:53 pm on Jul 25, 2019

I’m WAAAAAAAYYYY behind in my emails and just now saw Oregonian’s “astronomy nerd” comment from 6/19 (which I can’t find, now). I’m 49 and started studying astronomy when I was 6, and even have a little college training. If someone can email me the relevant pages, or better, a PDF of the book or a link, please?

Oregonian said

at 8:13 pm on Jul 25, 2019

There's a link to the PDF at the top of this page. Check out the constellation diagram on p. 33. I have a theory that they aren't really constellations. They look more like road intersections to me, and I wonder if we are meant to compare them to a New Jersey map and piece them together to form an entire route.

Davinci4 said

at 10:07 pm on Jul 25, 2019

Yes. I noticed the same thing. Not one identifiable constellation in the group. That is not Pisces or Pegasus (I believe). Why NJ?

Oregonian said

at 10:32 pm on Jul 25, 2019

Pisces is the one zodiac constellation missing from Tom's clue (pp. 24-25). It shows up later in the "star diagram" on page 33 and in the diary entry on pages 34 and 35.

The diary entry describes fishing "off the coast of Cape May" (New Jersey) and it includes the symbol for Pisces (two fish). The entry says "The line is my friend – my instrument of victory." And the "star chart" includes different groupings of lines, including one labeled "PISCES."

Put it all together, and I think we are meant to start at Cape May with the line segment labeled "PISCES" and keep attaching the other "constellations" of lines until we end up with a full route to somewhere (essentially, until we reach "victory"). I don't know what the "PEGASUS" one means, though. Maybe it's the final one, where we should end up.

Davinci4 said

at 11:01 pm on Jul 25, 2019

That’s a good thought..Pisces could also be part of a compass rose depicted in Toms Clue. It appears to be missing in the SE direction. Note also Taurus and Aries fit their south and west positions based on the riddle.

skeller@... said

at 10:21 am on Aug 5, 2019

Hello. Seems interest has died down a little with this puzzle and the Secret. I will no doubt get a lot of criticism but I still believe people tend to make them more difficult then they are. That being said here is my take on the Will.
The first clue is on page 24 Southwest
The second is on page 36. The line is my friend. A straight line.
Three page 36 Empire State building.
Four Page 38 About an hour and a half drive. Also Elbert Einstein was not into astronomy why mention him?
Five page 41 From the University.
But wait no gold here so where ? Page 43 In the woods.

Start at the empire state building take a straight line southwest about an hour and a half drive to a university Where Elbert Einstein worked. Brings you to Princeton! To easy ?
Interested in hearing all the critics :-)

Oregonian said

at 8:53 am on Aug 6, 2019

It might be worth starting a page just to discuss "solution reviews." What's the best way to evaluate a proposed puzzle solution? I'd love to hear how other people do it.

My own approach is a sort of Venn diagram. I make one circle of all the clues (or things that I think are clues). I make another circle of all the things incorporated and used in the proposed solution. And then I look to see how well they compare. Ideally they would be identical circles – the solution would use all the clues and nothing but the clues. But, of course, in real life that's never going to happen. Some clues are always going to be left out of the solution, either because they weren't really clues to begin with or because things have changed since the puzzle was written. And a solution is always going to be guided by a dose of intuition or common sense, even if those details aren't spelled out in the clues. But I'd say that, in a strong solution, at least 75% of each circle should overlap with the other one.

What do other people think?

Davinci4 said

at 10:19 pm on Aug 6, 2019

I like your overall concept. Solving this hunt will likely require solving all the mini puzzles then putting them all together.

Davinci4 said

at 9:29 pm on Aug 6, 2019

Is there anyway to have different discussion boards for different clues?
1) Hieroglyphs
2) Chess Puzzle
3) Periodic table
There are so many aspects of this puzzle. Would be worthwhile to have different discussion threads based upon each individual puzzle.

Oregonian said

at 6:35 am on Aug 7, 2019

I wonder if the odd capitalizations throughout the will could be giving us the letters for the diagram described by the equation on page 53?

I took a stab at collecting all the capital first letters on pages 31 through 54 ignoring the words written in all-caps (so also ignoring the AM or PM from the header). My list has 240 letters, which is very close to the 239 total in the equation, but there are way too many sentences starting with "I" to make this a simple substitution. Anyone see a way to use or adjust this? (If you copy and past this in a monospace font like "Andale Mono" you can see the rows and columns from the diagram.)

DCIHIIIIIITII
IBIAAITTYOPTS
WTSITISTTIFII
ICMTITSTTITIK
TIDIWWAIICBEN
AHPITJKFHTITI
FUAENCGGEHWHS
INCPWTTNWMARC
IPCUWHITDEADE
NDNOAHRIIPTTT
BAIIITBPEWTGP
CHIIHHPPTGPIE
HSCHIBKWQBKSI
KNBNQBBBQRPNQ
KRTQQBKRTIPCHIIWIITCA
VUIPIIWEH
LISSDWGWC
PWPEHIFIT
IIAITTIIIT

Davinci4 said

at 10:10 pm on Aug 7, 2019

Brainstorming here:
Beginning of “the world” is “the” nothing in middle (remove H) = TE
The middles twin = TE (middle of periodic table), it’s twin is Iodine. H could also be middle but hydrogen doesn’t have an elemental twin
Darkness/Silence = DS
Laughter = HE HE
-perhaps Elements atomic weights are important. DS, HE, HE “11022” NY zip code

Oregonian said

at 7:15 am on Aug 9, 2019

A few hunches: The "constellations" are sections of roads and we are meant to put them together like a jigsaw puzzle to find our way to the treasure spot. The first piece is the Garden State Expressway, which gets us from Cape May up to Newark. The puzzle-makers are deliberately starting us on a limited-access highway so there will only be a limited number of possibilities for where we get off.

But the "constellations" pieces are not going to all be the same scale and they won't all be major roads. That's why the solution doesn't seem obvious when we look at a road map. We'll have to zoom in and examine exits to find the right piece. And the puzzle makers may not be taking us on the shortest or most logical route. We may go down all sorts of crazy back roads and do loops. But just like with a jigsaw puzzle, that first step will be the hardest one. Every time we put a piece in place, the puzzle will get easier.

Guardian said

at 2:43 pm on Oct 19, 2019

Okay, I'm really behind, and I just got to the email with the chess diagrams. I'm surprised that it's "mate in 5" because it's mate in 3 after 1. Qf3!! Be6 (to stop mate in 1) 2. Qf8+ Bc8 3. Qxc8++. I saw this immediately. The fact that the "alternate solution" is given tells me this was deliberate, so I have to agree withe the isosceles right triangle idea given above. But could the real solution be part of it, too? The detail put into this book convinces me it is, but I don't see how.

Oregonian said

at 8:13 pm on Oct 19, 2019

"1. Qf3!! Be6 (to stop mate in 1)"

To prevent a quick mate, black's first move would be Bf7, which is why it takes 5 steps.

Isstvan said

at 11:38 am on Jul 25, 2021

1. Qf3!? Bf7 ... when the queen is lured to this square, the b6 bolthole can be opened up - still leading to victory, but a long chase

forced mate Requires G5 and works in 5 moves. The white queen ends up on c8

No first move by the queen solves mate in 5 nor less...

Oregonian said

at 12:40 pm on Jul 25, 2021

I haven't even looked at this puzzle in a couple of years, because it seems to require boots on the ground in northern New Jersey and I'm not in that area. But in case anyone's nearby and still interested, the most likely place to start a search is High Point State Park, right up in the far northern tip of the state.

The park land was donated by Anthony R. Kuser, which matches the "Anthony A. Cuser" in the book. The park includes the highest point in the state and has an obelisk topped with a pyramid, all of which matches the description on page 45. The park also includes a lake where you can fish, which matches page 34.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Point_State_Park

Oregonian said

at 1:09 pm on Jul 25, 2021

For what it's worth, if you came into the area westbound on I-84 and took Exit 1 to get to the park, the very first gas station you would have seen would have been a Mobil station. It's now a Sinclair station, but that doesn't change anything. (But I don't see any matches in the roadways from there.)

https://goo.gl/maps/KJjQJR6C5UhokAyg9

Davinci4 said

at 10:23 pm on Nov 25, 2022

It’s been a while since I have looked at this. Two thoughts:
1) I think the constellation image is a distraction. I think we were meant to count the number of stars depicted in each constellation’ and use the number obtained as perhaps part of a cipher. I tried direct alphanumeric substitution but could not come up with a meaningful word or phrase. Perhaps we could explore this idea more.
2) the idea of high point park as the treasure site is extremely intriguing given the numerous references to high points: zenith, apex, summit. Also they seemingly past high point park on the way to Pawling (Is this the reason they have to climb a high altitude to get an unobstructed view of that Catskills?) Lastly, the park was donated by Anthony Kuser. Imagine arriving at that location in 1982 and finding that information out! I doubt any textbook or library references would have had that information. Very interesting….

Isstvan said

at 10:11 am on May 20, 2023

The missing constellation is Triangulum, triangulate your way to the hiding place...

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