Supposedly, in April, 1817, Thomas J. Beale and several others arrived in what is now Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then traveled north into what is now Colorado, in search of buffalo. As they camped one night, one of their party discovered an extremely rich vein of gold, which the group mined for the next 18 months. As sometimes happens, they came across a vein of silver in the same locale, and mined that.
Returning east in 1820, Beale enjoyed "wine, women and song" as a guest in the Washington Hotel in Lynchburg, Virginia, disappearing in the Spring.
In 1822, Beale returned to the same hotel in Lynchburg, and did the same. Before his departure, however, he left an iron box of papers in the custody of hotel owner Robert Morriss.
Morriss was faithful to his duties as a trustee of the papers, but Beale never returned. In 1845, Morriss assumed that Beale was dead, and he broke into the box.
Inside the box was a letter and three sheets of paper bearing numbers. The letter explained that Beale had buried the treasure -- some 3 tons of precious metal -- at an undisclosed location, and that the 3 papers were an encoded explanation of the matter, an encoded list of heirs of the treasure, and encoded directions respecting how to find the treasure, in Beford County, Virginia.
Morriss tried for many years to decode the sheets of numbers, without success.
Before his death he left them to an undisclosed third party, when later published a pamphlet revealing that he had managed to break the code of the least important paper, only. The paper reads as follows...
“I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford’s, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles: ... The deposit consists of two thousand nine hundred and twenty one pounds of gold and five thousand one hundred pounds of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange for silver to save transportation ... The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others ...”
Since that time, no human being has been able to break the code of the paper revealing the location of the treasure.
A website claims that this has been done, and even purports to show photos of the empty underground treasure chamber, but careful review of a sample of the website's author's interpretation makes it clear that his claim that he has interpreted the numbers is false, and that, in turn, hints that the author is merely buying time for his own treasure hunting.
I have examined a copy of the sheet of numbers ostensibly revealing the location of the treasure, and have discerned enough to see that the sheet comprises a real, breakable code. Here it is...
71, 194, 38, 1701, 89, 76, 11, 83, 1629, 48, 94, 63, 132, 16, 111, 95, 84, 341, 975, 14, 40, 64, 27, 81, 139, 213, 63, 90, 1120, 8, 15, 3, 126, 2018, 40, 74, 758, 485, 604, 230, 436, 664, 582, 150, 251, 284, 308, 231, 124, 211, 486, 225, 401, 370, 11, 101, 305, 139, 189, 17, 33, 88, 208, 193, 145, 1, 94, 73, 416, 918, 263, 28, 500, 538, 356, 117, 136, 219, 27, 176, 130, 10, 460, 25, 485, 18, 436, 65, 84, 200, 283, 118, 320, 138, 36, 416, 280, 15, 71, 224, 961, 44, 16, 401, 39, 88, 61, 304, 12, 21, 24, 283, 134, 92, 63, 246, 486, 682, 7, 219, 184, 360, 780, 18, 64, 463, 474, 131, 160, 79, 73, 440, 95, 18, 64, 581, 34, 69, 128, 367, 460, 17, 81, 12, 103, 820, 62, 116, 97, 103, 862, 70, 60, 1317, 471, 540, 208, 121, 890, 346, 36, 150, 59, 568, 614, 13, 120, 63, 219, 812, 2160, 1780, 99, 35, 18, 21, 136, 872, 15, 28, 170, 88, 4, 30, 44, 112, 18, 147, 436, 195, 320, 37, 122, 113, 6, 140, 8, 120, 305, 42, 58, 461, 44, 106, 301, 13, 408, 680, 93, 86, 116, 530, 82, 568, 9, 102, 38, 416, 89, 71, 216, 728, 965, 818, 2, 38, 121, 195, 14, 326, 148, 234, 18, 55, 131, 234, 361, 824, 5, 81, 623, 48, 961, 19, 26, 33, 10, 1101, 365, 92, 88, 181, 275, 346, 201, 206, 86, 36, 219, 324, 829, 840, 64, 326, 19, 48, 122, 85, 216, 284, 919, 861, 326, 985, 233, 64, 68, 232, 431, 960, 50, 29, 81, 216, 321, 603, 14, 612, 81, 360, 36, 51, 62, 194, 78, 60, 200, 314, 676, 112, 4, 28, 18, 61, 136, 247, 819, 921, 1060, 464, 895, 10, 6, 66, 119, 38, 41, 49, 602, 423, 962, 302, 294, 875, 78, 14, 23, 111, 109, 62, 31, 501, 823, 216, 280, 34, 24, 150, 1000, 162, 286, 19, 21, 17, 340, 19, 242, 31, 86, 234, 140, 607, 115, 33, 191, 67, 104, 86, 52, 88, 16, 80, 121, 67, 95, 122, 216, 548, 96, 11, 201, 77, 364, 218, 65, 667, 890, 236, 154, 211, 10, 98, 34, 119, 56, 216, 119, 71, 218, 1164, 1496, 1817, 51, 39, 210, 36, 3, 19, 540, 232, 22, 141, 617, 84, 290, 80, 46, 207, 411, 150, 29, 38, 46, 172, 85, 194, 39, 261, 543, 897, 624, 18, 212, 416, 127, 931, 19, 4, 63, 96, 12, 101, 418, 16, 140, 230, 460, 538, 19, 27, 88, 612, 1431, 90, 716, 275, 74, 83, 11, 426, 89, 72, 84, 1300, 1706, 814, 221, 132, 40, 102, 34, 868, 975, 1101, 84, 16, 79, 23, 16, 81, 122, 324, 403, 912, 227, 936, 447, 55, 86, 34, 43, 212, 107, 96, 314, 264, 1065, 323, 428, 601, 203, 124, 95, 216, 814, 2906, 654, 820, 2, 301, 112, 176, 213, 71, 87, 96, 202, 35, 10, 2, 41, 17, 84, 221, 736, 820, 214, 11, 60, 760
Showing posts with label treasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treasure. Show all posts
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Money Pit
In 1795, a boy living on the Atlantic coast of Canada rowed his small boat out to an uninhabited island, known as Oak Island, to explore it.
There he found a big oak tree with a rope hanging from a limb over a hole in the ground filled with dried mud. The teenage boy thought, “Treasure lowered into a hole by pirates!” He hurried home and returned to the island with two friends, to help him dig for treasure.
The three boys dug down to 10 feet, and found a layer of oak logs, and thought, “Treasure!” and pulled-up the logs, but only found a small empty space and below that some more dirt. At 20 feet down and 30 feet down, they found the same thing -- layers of oak logs over a small empty space and more dirt.
The boys thought, “There must be treasure down here! If there is not, why would someone do all of this work?” But, more than 30 feet down was too much for teenagers. So, they filled-in the hole with the dirt they had taken out, and promised to return as adults.
In 1803, the three boys, all more than 20 years old, now, purchased the part of the island with the hole, formed a company with their money and the money of friends and bought much equipment to dig down to treasure. They dug again down to 30 feet, and then to 40 feet, 50 feet, and so on, each time finding the same kind of layer of oak logs, as before, which they pulled up.
But then, at 90 feet, they found a flat stone, with a code chiseled into it, looking like this…
The code easily translates to these English words: “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.” “Two million pounds” in those days were equal to about $500,000,000, or about 5,000,000,000 pesos.
The young men began digging like crazy people! They pulled up the oak logs beneath the message, and dug deeper, but soon they were taking out one bucket of sea water for every two buckets of dirt. The Sun was setting. So they hammered metal rods into the mud, and were certain from the sounds they heard while hammering that a few feet down into the mud, at the 98 foot level, their rods struck two wooden boxes filled with metal! Treasure! They all went to bed that night, thinking that when the Sun came up in the morning they’d climb down their ladders and find pirates’ gold!
In the morning, the money hole was filled to the top with mud and water! All of their work was ruined! They did not know it then, but a few feet below the 100 foot level were two tunnels, filled with coconut hair, bringing water from the nearby ocean to protect against someone digging that deep. The young men tried to pump out the water and mud, but the hole just kept filling again. They gave up.
In the years after that, one company after another was formed to try to get down to a treasure in the hole. It is said that, over the years, machines for drilling wells brought to the surface a single gold coin, and 3 links in a gold chain. At 154 feet drillers reached what sounded in the drill pipe like a box made of concrete containing a wooden box filled with metal. At 196 feet drillers cut into pieces of wood which scientists dated to 1575. In the early 1970s, drillers got the biggest shock of all -- drillers drilled through a brick ceiling into empty space! A room, beneath the island, over 200 feet down!
They lowered a television camera down the hole they had drilled, and saw what looked like 3 large wooden boxes, a human hand floating in water flooding the tunnel from the drilling, and a dead human body, in a sitting position!
Drillers drilled hole after hole into the ceiling of the underground room and -- surprise, surprise! -- the roof of the room suddenly collapsed, and the 200 feet of dirt and mud above it sank down, and form a huge crater on the surface!
Since that disaster, a company has been slowly sinking a giant metal tube into the ground, hoping that someday men may climb 200 feet down a ladder in the tube and bring up an enormous treasure.
No matter what, the Oak Island Money Hole is amazing. More than 400 years ago, someone managed to dig more than 200 feet down into the mud of an island surrounded by ocean, build a treasure room with a brick ceiling, and then build a vertical tunnel above it protected by a trap -- tunnels filled with sea water!
There he found a big oak tree with a rope hanging from a limb over a hole in the ground filled with dried mud. The teenage boy thought, “Treasure lowered into a hole by pirates!” He hurried home and returned to the island with two friends, to help him dig for treasure.
The three boys dug down to 10 feet, and found a layer of oak logs, and thought, “Treasure!” and pulled-up the logs, but only found a small empty space and below that some more dirt. At 20 feet down and 30 feet down, they found the same thing -- layers of oak logs over a small empty space and more dirt.
The boys thought, “There must be treasure down here! If there is not, why would someone do all of this work?” But, more than 30 feet down was too much for teenagers. So, they filled-in the hole with the dirt they had taken out, and promised to return as adults.
In 1803, the three boys, all more than 20 years old, now, purchased the part of the island with the hole, formed a company with their money and the money of friends and bought much equipment to dig down to treasure. They dug again down to 30 feet, and then to 40 feet, 50 feet, and so on, each time finding the same kind of layer of oak logs, as before, which they pulled up.
But then, at 90 feet, they found a flat stone, with a code chiseled into it, looking like this…
The code easily translates to these English words: “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.” “Two million pounds” in those days were equal to about $500,000,000, or about 5,000,000,000 pesos.
The young men began digging like crazy people! They pulled up the oak logs beneath the message, and dug deeper, but soon they were taking out one bucket of sea water for every two buckets of dirt. The Sun was setting. So they hammered metal rods into the mud, and were certain from the sounds they heard while hammering that a few feet down into the mud, at the 98 foot level, their rods struck two wooden boxes filled with metal! Treasure! They all went to bed that night, thinking that when the Sun came up in the morning they’d climb down their ladders and find pirates’ gold!
In the morning, the money hole was filled to the top with mud and water! All of their work was ruined! They did not know it then, but a few feet below the 100 foot level were two tunnels, filled with coconut hair, bringing water from the nearby ocean to protect against someone digging that deep. The young men tried to pump out the water and mud, but the hole just kept filling again. They gave up.
In the years after that, one company after another was formed to try to get down to a treasure in the hole. It is said that, over the years, machines for drilling wells brought to the surface a single gold coin, and 3 links in a gold chain. At 154 feet drillers reached what sounded in the drill pipe like a box made of concrete containing a wooden box filled with metal. At 196 feet drillers cut into pieces of wood which scientists dated to 1575. In the early 1970s, drillers got the biggest shock of all -- drillers drilled through a brick ceiling into empty space! A room, beneath the island, over 200 feet down!
They lowered a television camera down the hole they had drilled, and saw what looked like 3 large wooden boxes, a human hand floating in water flooding the tunnel from the drilling, and a dead human body, in a sitting position!
Drillers drilled hole after hole into the ceiling of the underground room and -- surprise, surprise! -- the roof of the room suddenly collapsed, and the 200 feet of dirt and mud above it sank down, and form a huge crater on the surface!
Since that disaster, a company has been slowly sinking a giant metal tube into the ground, hoping that someday men may climb 200 feet down a ladder in the tube and bring up an enormous treasure.
No matter what, the Oak Island Money Hole is amazing. More than 400 years ago, someone managed to dig more than 200 feet down into the mud of an island surrounded by ocean, build a treasure room with a brick ceiling, and then build a vertical tunnel above it protected by a trap -- tunnels filled with sea water!
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