Found Treasure! Six Questions with Mike Staggs on Bar Harbor’s Soup to Nuts Armchair Treasure Hunt by Nickolas Nelson

One of my favorite quotes is ‘There is a Treasure that awaits for each of us to find.’(Paul Coelho). This seems confirmed in the following story of Found Treasure! On October 1st, Nickolas Nelson shared the armchair treasure hunt, Soup to Nuts, on a few social media channels. Nickolas created the hunt to inspire those living in Bar Harbor, Maine, to get out and explore the sights and history around town. It did just that.

But as you will note in the following Six Questions, the visual clues and cryptic messages on the Puzzle Page (shown below) seemed to be meant for Mike Staggs! He began noticing the clues on the puzzle page from his daily tasks, and started to put the clues together. They would lead him, and his son, to the hidden treasure! How wonderful! (After the Six Questions, the full solution to the puzzle, as explained by Nickolas, is given)

The treasure was a beautiful Bee with gemstone. It was placed in a box and buried—to wait for discovery.

It was a successful treasure hunt with the Bee found!

Nickolas plans on releasing others, so be on the lookout. Don’t miss out on the adventures! The next one could be meant for you! You never know!

First though, let’s hear more about the Soup to Nuts found treasure!

Six Questions with Mike:

1Q) What Treasure were you searching for?

Thanks Jenny. I was searching for the Soup to Nuts treasure created by Nickolas Nelson who is a member of your site (The Treasure Hunt Facebook Group). He posted it on a local Bar Harbor site of which I am a member.

2Q) What inspired you to search for that treasure?

I have lived and worked for 25 years 100 yards from where the treasure would be found. After studying the puzzle I recognized a couple things right off because of my physical proximity to some clues. Knowing I had that head start probably drove me a bit.

3Q) What did you enjoy most about your search?

I enjoyed searching around an area I saw everyday but was learning more about it. Studying our civil war monument better, learning about some of the families in the cemetery. I looked so hard I actually discovered SOMEONE ELSES treasure. I found a cache in a rock wall left by letterbox.org! Boy I thought for sure I found it when I saw a small box in a ziploc jammed in between two rocks.

4Q) What did you enjoy least about your search?

I discovered how much trash people leave in less traveled places. When you start poking around out building, behind bushes, corners of cemeteries, you find empty bottles, spent lottery tickets, and cigarette butts. I must have found dozens of spent lotto tickets but wondered at one point if one of them was numerologically connected to the puzzle numbers. 🙂 (it wasn’t)

5Q) What is the most unique thing you found while searching?

I was getting ahead of myself as the letterbox.org stash was a surprise and surely an exciting, if not red herring moment.

6Q) Do you plan on looking for others or have anything to add?

I learned a lot about puzzles like this and their community of fans. In doing so I discovered how codes and imagery work to solve them and that was fun.

I don’t think I will continue to pursue many other puzzles like this. This one piqued my interest mostly because I live and work in close proximity to the solution. The puzzle starts where I drop the deposit for work off every day and it ends at a spot I pass on my walk to pick up my son from daycare at night.

I don’t want Nickolas the puzzle creator to be discouraged that I solved it so quickly. I think it was plenty hard and full of challenges, I just may have had a leg up due to my location. I want to thank him and the community that do these. It was fun and a worthy past time. Thank You.

The Puzzle Page

The Solution

SOLUTION to BAR HARBOR HUNT

SOUP TO NUTS – top to bottom
Begin with the sub key (VWDUW)(START)
Green and orange tile is one from the FIRST NATL BANK clock on Main st.
RED #s – FROM ONE HAND TO ANOTHER
There are two red clock hands pointing to 7:06
The clock topper is that of the clock at the village green.
From there you can hear the water running on the old stone lion clock in the green. The lion has (MCMVI) carved on the face. (7:06)
From there it’s (W)ing (E)gg (S)poon (T)ooth
Down the sidewalk until you meet the “three fences” with two entrances in the stone section. DEALERS CHOICE which one to go through because both lead you to a large stone monument in the middle of the cemetery. (The middle blue section on the puzzle) the two castle like structures with the yellow star are representative of the monument showing two pillars with a star between them. THE SHADOWS ON THE PILLARS POINT LEFT. Follow the trail to the left of the monument. That path leads straight to two tomb stones, FLORA and RUBY. From their stones you walk directly to the right and go over the small stone wall, FROM HOLLOW TO SOLID GROUND, keep right. There is a large circle of stones with a GIANT STONE THRONE in the middle. The BEE, gem was buried just under the mossy surface behind the THRONE.

Congrats again to Mike and his son who found the Treasure!

I love a great ending of Found Treasure! Exciting and fun memories were surely made– and they are the best treasures of all! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!