Article and Review
Written by Dustin White
If you’re not aware of it, there are buried treasures hidden all around North America. Twelve such treasures were buried back in the early 1980s as part of a treasure hunt worked into a book called The Secret.
Twelve ceramic keys were buried in elaborately decorated containers called casques, that could be redeemed for real gemstone rewards to the finders. Hints in the poems and the paintings in the book can lead you to them. The study of the mysteries of The Secret and the locations of these fabled hidden keys is the journey James Renner takes us on in his documentary “The Secret of Byron Preiss”.
Only two of the much sought-after buried keys have been recovered and Renner takes us to meet with the people that have cracked the clues in The Secret and retrieved them. Key finders, Rob Wrobel and Eric Gasiorowski from the Chicago find in 1983, and Brian Zinn with his treasure hunting partner Andy Abrams, that found the treasure in Cleveland in 2004, give us a taste of what it’s like to solve these things and offer insight on what current treasure hunters could do to find one too.
The namesake of the documentary, Byron Preiss, was tragically killed in a traffic accident in 2005 and he took the whereabouts of the the remaining keys with him. Renner interviews Byron’s wife Sandi, and his two daughters Karah, and Blaire, along with some of Byron’s friends and colleagues in the film. He actually goes on a treasure hunting adventure with Karah and Blaire Preiss in New York City where they try to solve the clues to the treasure that is suspected to be there. Sandi tells Renner that though she doesn’t know where the treasures are buried, but she will still reward the gems to the person that solves one of the puzzles.
In a funny moment, while interviewing other treasure hunters, Renner says, “I would never let myself get so obsessed with a child’s treasure hunt book… I would never become so consumed with The Secret that I’d sound that crazy… Not me.”, acknowledging that he is just like these other treasure hunters. Much of the rest of the film is dedicated to following Renner and his production team in pursuit of tracking down an elusive key themselves.
They visit St. Augustine, Florida to hunt with treasure hunter Brian Zinn and they check out Lake Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with key-finders Rob Wrobel and Eric Gasiorowski. Renner goes to Boston and Roanoke Island in North Carolina by himself and his team ends their search in San Francisco.
It was a roller coaster ride from coast to coast that had its ups and downs, but it was a thrill to watch the adventure unfold. Other than the technical limitations of Skype in 2014 of the interviews with various treasure hunters, “The Secret of Byron Preiss”, is a fun film that keeps your attention throughout. It will undoubtedly inspire more people to join the ever-growing community of armchair treasure hunters in hopes of cracking the clues to attempt to solve this nearly 40-year-old mystery themselves.
Keep your eye out for a release of “The Secret of Byron Preiss” soon. You can follow James Renner on YouTube and other channels noted on his Website.
I give it a 9.0 out of 10.
Article Written by Dustin White
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