In October of 2021 CopperDan released The Troll’s Cache treasure hunt. Searchers were given a story, map, and coin, which all held clues leading to a hidden treasure. The treasure was a 2021 one ounce gold coin, 80 one ounce Silver Eagles, two 10 ounce bars of Silver, and a priceless emerald.
A few months later, in January 2022, the treasure valued at around $5,000, was claimed by a team coined the ‘CopperHeads’. Following are Six Questions sharing a brief look at the adventures of their find. They also shared their story via video on CopperDan’s YouTube channel. It was an amazing team effort, through many trials of life, which led to a truly meaningful victory. A heartfelt congrats to the finders!
Solving clues and ciphers, while following the story and map, and then researching more about those locations decoded, were key to finding the treasure. There were a few clues to get searchers started. One of these was an image of a ‘split rock’. Videos CopperDan released during the hunt also featured lighthouses (with one using Morse code to say ‘FIVE’ would need found), so a search, and recognizing other confirmers in the story, would reveal Split Rock Lighthouse as a starting point.
From using a sign hinted to by the story, at that Split Rock location, found by googling, a string of numbers within the story were used to shift the street address found on the sign. This revealed the next location. Outer Island. Outer was then the keyword to solve the next cipher of the story, and to reveal the next location. Copper Harbor. This was found by way of a keyed Polybius cipher (OUTER being the key).
Again, researching the area (finding the geomarker), another keyword, hinted to by the story, was used to find the next location. It was found by using a Vigenère cipher with the keyword Director. This part of story led to another location. Canal Park. And then to another via clues in the story and map to White Fish Bay. This location was where the Edmund Fitzgerald had sunk. Using the words from the song (as a book code), along with a string of letters at this part of the story, which were converted to written out numbers by a keyed Caesar shift, led to the final location: Cut River Bridge.
Researching this area would have offered many confirmers, seen in the story and map, of discovering the correct and final location. The precise spot of the hidden treasure was found by using the Coin on a geomarker at Cut River Bridge. It would point to the exact area where the chest was hidden.
What a hunt! Now let’s get to the adventures of those who were clever enough to solve it! (Below is the coin and map. The story found on CopperDan.com)
Six Questions with the Finders: Chuck, Laurel, Alex, and Jana. And Bobby. RIP.
- 1Q) Congrats on solving The Troll’s Cache. What a discovery! Can you share how you all got together and formed the CopperHeads- winners of The Troll’s Cache?
Bobby Dunbar and Laurel had been friends and had worked on several hunts together, including Copper Dan’s first hunt. So when The Troll’s Cache came out, they started working on it. Bobby had introduced Jana and Laurel in a Zoom and they began building a team. Chuck, Bobby and Laurel had been working together in The Troll’s Cache zooms.
Jana and Alex are friends who had worked on many other hunts together over the years, and they began working on the Troll’s Cache. Bobby and Jana were going back and forth discussing if they should bring their teams together. Brad, Jana’s fiance’ had a stroke and was in the ICU, then sadly Bobby had a heart attack. After Bobby passed away, Chuck and Laurel continued working with each other. This was a lot for all 4 of us, we needed to find solace in something at the time and that’s when we formed our team – The CopperHeads.
- 2Q) What was the first aha moment that set the solution on the path to discovery?
Each of us had an aha moment before we even formed the CopperHeads.
Chuck Answers: – Before we teamed up, I found the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (mishigami) in the top left corner of the map. That’s when I knew it was somewhere in Michigan.
Laurel Answers– Bobby D. and I were in the zooms, trying to figure out how the story worked with the map locations. People were trying to do it in a circle, but it wasn’t working. I thought the pattern on the map looked like a star, and in the story she said she looked to the stars for guidance. Bobby said, “Oh my God, I think you got it! I truly believe we do!”
Jana Answers – I was at Alex’ house only days after the hunt began. Alex mentioned a phrase to the lyrics of the song of the Edmund Fitzgerald was in the Trolls Cache story. This confirmed the 29, the white fish and the bell on the map, all connected to the White Fish Bay lighthouse and we knew we were on to it! It was so much fun when we teamed up with Laurel and Chuck as we began researching lighthouses and connecting the way markers. The AHA moments just kept coming.
Alex Answers – The very first “aha” moment was getting the first part of the final cipher. But it was more of a brute force solution; we figured out the “what” but not the “how”, so we still weren’t totally sure how Copper Dan was thinking. For me, the real first breakthrough was figuring out the vigenere cipher that led to Canal Park in Duluth, one of the stops along the path to the treasure.
- 3Q) Had you ever gotten stuck? Did you begin to doubt you would be the finders?
We never really got stuck. We had the ideas, we had the area. We didn’t have the exact spot yet or another clear window to go search. There was a little bit of time between Alex cracking the Canal Park cipher and Chuck breaking the Cut Bridge cipher wide open. We didn’t really doubt that we would eventually figure it out; we were more worried about all of the Facebook chatter that another team might beat us to it.
- 4Q) What were the final pieces that put it all together? Was it one piece or a multitude of them?
The final piece was Chuck putting together the Edmund Fitzgerald book cipher. We knew the song was going to have something to do with it, and we were close to getting it. This was the group’s ‘aha’ moment – you should have seen our jaws hit the floor! We had tried the numbers in the last cipher against the song lyrics, a couple different ways over the months, but with words instead of characters. Finding the green bridge and the door with ‘T. Troll’ on it and the plaque with ‘princess’ on it sealed the deal.
- 5Q) Do you have any advice for newcomers to the hobby of armchair treasure hunting?
If you’re just getting started, Mysterious Writings is a great resource, and so are Jenny’s books and puzzles. Also, you should always be wary of confirmation bias and falling down obscure rabbit holes. Sometimes, you need to step back and look at a hunt with fresh eyes. If you start teaming up, find good partners that you can have fun with, but will also support you and won’t give up! If you think you’ve solved a hunt, go BOTG as soon as possible, as other hunters may be closer than you think.
- 6Q) What did each of you enjoy the most, and how did it feel to know the Cache was found?
Alex – For me individually, the thrill of cracking the Canal Park cipher while we were on a zoom call and yelling out “I’ve got it!!” was pretty cool. But beyond that, I’m so happy that Jana was the one to actually find it, after her partner’s health scare last year and everything else they’ve been through recently, I can’t think of anyone more deserving.
Laurel – What I enjoyed most was working on a well-crafted puzzle, solving it and having lots of fun and laughter with the team! Bobby D really wanted to win the Troll’s Cache chest, and it was special to me to be part of the team that won it. Bobby, you will always be that fifth point on our Troll’s Cache star!
Chuck – The thrill of watching Jana find the chest under the stairs was great, but we also had so much fun together in zooms and keeping Jana awake while driving to the Cut River Bridge. Toward the end, I was very anxious, because we knew other teams could be on their way to the bridge. Finding the chest was joyous and a relief!
Jana – There is something about searching for treasure in the quiet of nature, in winter. The Trolls Cache took me over 9 hours from home, searching the beauty in the bent snowy trees and seeing the broken ice in the water of the river that ran through the ravine. I loved sledding down that snowy ravine to get to the other side and walking out on the frozen sand of Lake Michigan along with finally finding the treasure under the Emerald Cut River bridge.
But, In this hunt I got the best of both worlds, as I was able to sometimes also Zoom with my team and show them from my phone how cool the location was and places that they wanted to search. Most people don’t get to see through the eyes of another person’s BOTG experience, so this was pretty cool, something new and unique for me as I hope it was for Laurel, Alex, and Chuck. There were a lot of emotions behind this find. I will NEVER forget it and everything it encompassed!
Visit CopperDan’s YouTube Channel, where they share more their adventures:
CopperDan donated a copy of the Map and a Coin used in The Troll’s Cache treasure hunt (pictured above) to the 2022 Masquerade Tribute of Hunts for Charity. Searchers may win this set via a drawing of THE COLLECTOR’S TREASURE CACHE of that event.
Read an overview of the 2022 Masquerade Tribute. Six Different Hunts with Six Different Treasures to claim in one! All proceeds go to charity.
