Forrest Fenn Gold Medallion Treasure Hunt #1 Solution and Winner!

Dal and I are so happy to announce we have a winner for the first Forrest Fenn Gold Medallion Treasure Hunt!  Congrats goes to AJ Rainville who found the hidden treasure hunt stone by following the clues of the hunt posted on Dal’s site on 1/3/18!  We were hoping it would be a quick find and to a deserving searcher!  And it was!  How exciting!

I love the video AJ has shared of his early morning adventure!  Please have a watch before reading the solution below.  Nothing can bring a smile more than sharing in the end to a successful treasure hunt! I am so happy for him!

AJ will receive one the of the Limited Forrest Fenn Gold Medallions!  There was a code on the back of the stone for which he sent in to claim the Medallion! 🙂

The next hunt will be posted on January 17th on the MysteriousWritings website.  Each month clues will be posted for two FFGM treasure hunts.  One will be posted on Dal’s, the other on MW.   Subscribe to the MW Newsletter for updates (and other fun).

So I’m sure everyone wants to know how it was solved.

AJ solved it by cleverly piecing together the surface information.  The VA letters of off color in the word of REVEAL, in the Poem, hinting to the state Virginia, and things mentioned in the Poem, like the keyword Lost, Entrance, Stop, and Line of Rocks, led him to SKY MEADOWS SP in Virginia.  He had googled searched and found a match to his thoughts and background image.

As the video showed, when he arrived, all fell like Dominos.  The Stone was found right where it should have been.  Perfect!

While we thought this method of solving was possible, there were others clues in the image which would have clearly identified and confirmed the location- SKY MEADOWS SP.

It has been noted by searchers that the leaves in the background have been purposely placed and grouped.  There are 12 groups of them.   Great job searchers!

When counted these would be the NUMBERS needed.  They are going LEFT TO RIGHT in two lines.

The Numbers of leaves are:

2 10  14  10  11  5  2   5

12   4   7   3

These numbers are then applied to the lines of the poem.  One number for each line used to give a Letter by counting that number.

2 in first line= W

10 in second line=P

14 in third line=S   and so on…

ALL 12 lines give: WPSAMEOYSKSD

These letters can be anagrammed to:  SKY MEADOWS SP  (for SKY MEADOWS STATE PARK)

But to confirm this anagram, if needed, in the bottom right corner are the letters: KJHEFDLGAICB

The letters are A thur L (1-12) and indicate the order for the letters WPSAMEOYSKSD should be.

W(the first letter) goes where the A is.  P goes where the B is.  S goes where the C is…and so on to confirm/give ‘Sky Meadows SP’.

Dyqfqoxbpsaxczxrdbyw, in the left corner of image, uses the vigenere cipher, with the keyword skymeadows, to provide ‘Lost Mountain Entrance’.

THIS ISN’T NECESSARY though.  We know not everyone here knows about codes and ciphers, and so we made the first one without the solution needing them.

For someone who found the name, or deduced in from the Poem and some googling like AJ did, they would see/google a map of Sky Meadows, see the lost mountain entrance and realize the clue in the poem hints to go to that entrance.

Directions on how to find the stone are within the poem—to the right at the stop sign at the entrance.  Searchers could recognize the image to know exactly where to look for hidden stone.

The codes/ciphers weren’t absolutely necessary—but did confirm the location.  We wanted to introduce them to you.  Might they be used in other hunts to come?  Probably.  But we will go slow.

We don’t mind if they are all found quickly and easily.

We have Medallions to give away!

 

Thank you all for participating!  Be ready for some more fun.  The next hunt will be posted on the 17^th!  (on MW)

 

Congrats again to AJ for starting these hunts off so wonderfully!  It couldn’t have ended better!

 

 

Best of luck with all that you seek!   Always Treasure the Adventure!

 

 

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