On February 14, 2019, Tribute: Hunt for the 13th Casque was released. This armchair treasure hunt, created by John Michaels and Kit Palencar, remains unsolved yet today. Clues are given in an Image and Verse(shown above). Once these clues are correctly solved, they will lead someone to a buried casque, with a key inside, which can be used to claim a treasure worth over $2,000 dollars.
The hunt is free and is a heartwarming Tribute to The Secret by Bryon Priess. John Michaels buried one of the original casques for The Secret Treasure Hunt of 1982. As a collectible, this alone could be worth more than the $2,000 value of gemstones said to be the treasure. To many, it is the finding of this special casque that is the real treasure. Will it be found soon?
MW has posted updates on the hunt over the last year. It is interesting to take a look back, and see what progress has been made.
On the release of the hunt, there was a large community who gathered together on the official Facebook Page for the Tribute Hunt. Evan Hoovler, who just recently published a book (Congrats to him), is doing a wonderful job moderating that page and keeping things under control.
The first few weeks were hectic, though. So many thoughts for what things in both the image and verse could be hinting to were being posted. Potential locations for where the casque could be buried were all over the USA. It was amazing to see so many possibilities!
But after a few months, a major clue was found and shared with the community. It was the discovery of the Heigold House in Louisville, Kentucky!
This led to numerous other discoveries in Cherokee Park, nearby. The image matches couldn’t be disputed. And different lines of the Verse matched up too.
It seemed the City and Park were solved.
In July of 2019, MW had the pleasure to chat with Rich Blandford, who was active in the hunt, and talk to him about some of these developments in the hunt. And in August, MW posted a Six Months- Still in the Ground article and video which highlighted the many reasons why Cherokee Park, Louisville, KY was so well liked.
If you are new to the hunt, they will catch you right up. Here’s the video:
While things continue to be discussed, it is anyone’s game for who will put the remaining pieces together and dig up the casque. The treasure grounds and exact dig spot are elusive!
In November, the Tribute had been going on for nine months. The casque was still in the ground! John had offered a few clues which distracted searchers for a bit from the hunt.
The clues have since been solved.
The first was a comment made by JM, which anagrammed to ‘You will find nothing at that bench- Tigger’. This referred to a bench in Cherokee Park. Basically JM was saying leave it alone.
The second was a note JM wrote. This solution was found by taking the 13th word and going round and round until you had picked out the 11 words: ‘Treasure be the overlooked puzzle is found to place some ground.‘ It’s meaning is still being debated.
So now we are at the one year mark! John is pursuing other endeavors, and is extremely busy with those. However, he has given us an awesome treasure hunt to solve, and leaves it all up to us now!
A huge thanks to John for providing such the perfect Tribute Hunt. I think we can all say it has kept with the spirit of the original Secret Treasure Hunt, as intended!
AND….. John has also left us with another hunt to enjoy. It will be released on February 14, 2020 at NOON. It is called Sunset Trail.
Best of luck with all that you seek! And always treasure the adventure!
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