The Shipwreck Box Treasure Hunt Quick Start Field Guild

Six Questions with North Texas Treasure

An exciting new hunt is releasing – with real life shipwreck treasure to find! Let’s learn more about the Shipwreck Box Treasure Hunt!

  • 1Q) Congrats on creating a hunt! What was your spark? What made you decide to create North Texas Treasure? Have you worked on or are you working on other treasure hunts currently? 

I purchased There’s Treasure Inside by Jon Collins Black shortly after it was released. The book was nearly sold out nationwide with the exception of one copy left in New York. That fifty dollar book has provided me with well over a thousand hours of entertainment. Treasure hunting has added something back into my life, something that we lose as adults from constant stress and the day to day monotony. It gave me something to be excited about, to look forward to, and provided me with a sense of hope and adventure that I hadn’t experienced in so long.

This was my spark to create North Texas Treasure, I wanted to provide others within my community the same opportunities to create lifelong memories. What makes mine different? Rather than doing difficult hunts that last multiple years, I decided to do frequent treasure hunts with faster estimated search times. My goal is to get people out in nature with friends and family, not paralyzed in their armchair with a lap full of vague clues. The more treasure boxes I hide, the more people that will get to experience the overwhelming joy of finding treasure.

  • 2Q) The Shipwreck Box contains silver recovered from three actual historic shipwrecks! Treasure indeed. How important was it that the treasure include historic artifacts – and please share more about the treasure value and how you chose these items.

Choosing the theme of my first box was a no-brainer! What’s the first thing everyone thinks of at the mention of treasure? Pirates, coins, maps, shipwrecks, and all the cult classic adventure movies we grew up on as kids. I knew a box full of silver and gold would be motivating enough, but I thought… how cool would it be if the treasure came from actual shipwrecks? This idea stuck and I knew our first box needed to contain artifacts discovered from a real life treasure discovery. 

Our treasure contains 8 ounces of reclaimed silver from the SS Tilawa shipwreck, which was sunk in the Indian Ocean in 1942 after being struck by a torpedo from the Japanese Navy. Also included is a 8 reales coin from the El Cazador that was sent from Spain in 1784, by King Carlos III, to Louisiana. The ship never reached New Orleans and was discovered in The Gulf of Mexico in 1993. Lastly, our treasure contains a 10 cash coin from the Admiral Gardner shipwreck in 1809. The British East India Company ship hit a storm in the English Channel while heading to India and never returned.  

The value of our treasure changes daily with the fluctuating price of silver. Including our antique treasure box, the total value is estimated at $1,200. 

shipwreck box treasure hunt
  • 3Q) Your clue book weaves together poems, ciphers, puzzles, pop culture, and history. Do you think a first-time hunter stepping into this hobby today has a genuine shot at finding the treasure or does experience still tip the scales?  How would you rate your hunt in difficulty? What advice would you give new hunters?

Yes, I believe a first-time hunter absolutely has a great shot at finding the treasure. I recommend that first-time hunters download trail apps and google earth ahead of time. The free version of AllTrails works great but there are many others. Keep in mind these are relatively quick hunts, so act fast if you have an idea of where the treasure is. What’s the worst that can happen?… make a lasting memory? If you find yourself staring at a clue with no idea what to do, start by googling keywords that jump out at you. If you struggle to solve a clue, that’s ok! You do not need to solve every clue to know where the treasure is. 

The difficulty is tough to gauge on the first hunt. I will adjust it accordingly for future hunts based on how long it takes for the first box to be found.

On a scale from 1 to 10. 1 being very easy. 10 being extremely hard.

-Finding the Trail or Park that the box is hidden. Rating= 5. 

Many people will figure out the trail/park fairly quickly. I can think of two specific clues, which solving only one of them alone would pretty much nail down the location of the park/trail.  

-Figuring out the general location of the box once the trail/park is found. Rating=4.

-Narrowing down the general location to a specific location and physically finding the box. Rating=7

  • 4Q)This is a BOTG hunt. Is the treasure accessible 24/7?  Can you provide a distance to the treasure from where you park? (for instance – the treasure is found within 500 feet from where you park).

Yes, the treasure is accessible 24/7. Although, please do not search at night and make sure to give yourself enough time to get back to your vehicle before dark. The box is not in a dangerous area, but keep in mind, I did have to hide it off the trail a reasonable distance to prevent any non-treasure hunters from finding it. The distance of the trail is a clue given in the book. Also, the specific distance/direction from certain landmarks, both on/off the trail, to find the box is described in the clues as well. (Bringing a compass, or having a compass app wouldn’t hurt.) If you solve every clue perfectly, you will be standing less than 20 yards of the box. The box is contained inside of a black waterproof case with North Texas Treasure stickers on it (similar to a pelican case.)

  • 5Q) When someone finally cracks this and holds that box in their hands, what do you hope they feel in that moment?

I hope they have a moment of genuine happiness.

I hope they have someone there to share that moment with, or at least someone to call immediately after they find it, to share their excitement. 

I hope they feel like a kid again. I miss feeling that way.

The value of my boxes are only enough to sustain a few moments of excitement. My goal is to eventually hide boxes with value high enough to provide life-altering changes (similar to There’s Treasure Inside.) To find a box like this would provide overwhelming bring-you-to-tears joy. It would be really cool to do that for people. 

  • 6Q) You’re planning up to four boxes a year with all profits going toward increasing future treasure value! That’s awesome. For the future, is this always going to be a North Texas hunt, or do you plan on expanding out at all?

I think in the future I would consider expanding the search area to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. I don’t see this happening for a while though, there are so many places left to hide boxes here in North Texas!  I ask that all searchers please email me your feedback on the hunt. I want to hear everything you liked, didn’t like, or would like to keep/change. The more I can improve the hunter’s experience, the more we can grow this into something huge!   NorthTexasTreasure@gmail.com

Clue book available on website