$10,000 Bay Area Treasure Hunt
On April 29th, anonymous people buried a $10,000 treasure somewhere in SF. They dropped various clues to find the treasure:
Minute steps climb, and beyond fingers rise,
onward on pins where the treasure lies
deem heavenly island towers, over derelict ward;
stern wood haven north and Powell, off back-ward
under stone this mint rests buried in keep,
but intermiss briefly, please—do take a seat
spare a moment between us, who shall reap;
only we know this plane, this sanctum, this peep
let’s celebrate our land, the city, this jaunt,
truly framed in full, cast stage left at your feet;
dig just one foot down and finally heft the prize that you seek.
Last year, the same anonymous group buried the same treasure, and a group of three friends found it in the Mount Sutro Open Space Preserve just 11 hours after the clues were released. This year, it was a much different story. It took almost three full weeks to find this buried treasure.
When we first read the clues, we had a few ideas.
"Under stone this mint rests buried in keep": We initially thought about Washington Square Park because it has a Benjamin Franklin statue with a 1979 time capsule containing a tin of mints.
"Take a seat / spare a moment between us": This line has made us think to search around public benches, park boundaries, and stone walls.
"Deem heavenly island towers": When hearing this, we first thought to find high vantage points with clear views of Alcatraz or Angel Island
We didn’t have the best idea of where the treasure would be, but when we connected all the clues we thought about Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park.
Right after school, Ms. Belkora and Ms. Melissa went and dug up several one-foot holes, but found nothing. Ms. Melissa and her family kept looking, going to places like Pier 39, and Fort Point, but still couldn’t find anything.
Photo by Amy Belkora
How It Was Found:
“Minute steps climb”- This refers to the 60 steps at Battery Wagner a 1900 gun emplacement.
“Beyond fingers rise”- This refers to 5 concrete pillars roughly organized like 5 fingers just below Battery Wagner.
“Onward on pins”- This refers to the endless pine trees and needles that litter the floor.
“Deem heavenly island towers”- This refers to the Golden Gate Bridge’s tall spans coming out of heavenly SF clouds.
“Under a stone this mint rests buried in keep”- This refers to the location of the treasure, which was literally under a stone cave!
“Please do take a seat”- This refers to an old timber bench brought to this spot long ago, with a sign that unmistakably means it was at this location.
*All information found on the website buriedtreasuresf.com
This led to dedicated treasure hunters finding the $10,000 in 1-dollar gold coins at Battery Wagner after almost 3 weeks of dedication, wrapping up this exciting SF event.
Photo by Amy Belkora