5 ms·

France's oldest treasure hunt has been solved

193 points by femtozer 2y ago

BrandoElFollito 2y ago
I did geocaching with my kids when they were small - it was great. We were walking in new places and discovering areas we had no idea about. Great times. We even had geotags that were supposed to travel the world but we somehow lost them. We also had a cache. We do not do that anymore but when I am somewhere I sometimes check for caches, for the nostalgia.
lode 2y ago
Discussed here in 2023 at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467
wickedsight 2y ago
Seems to be hugged to death. Web archive has a copy for those interested: https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowlhunt.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowl... Edit: Unfortunately, only the home page is archived, not the article it links to.
- beeb 2y ago
  Here's a copy http://archive.today/qqWbx http://archive.today/qqWbx
morsch 2y ago
Here's a BBC article, found via the Wikipedia page. Very little additional detail though. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...
- Iv 2y ago
  We "chouettistes" are thirsty for more as well. There is almost a cult growing out of some hypothesis, we are waiting for the confirmed solutions a bit like the second coming.
frereubu 2y ago
Reminds me very much of the Masquerade book in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)
- Rygian 2y ago
  I initially confused the title with Maskerade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskerade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskerade
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  That's right. Masquerade by Kit Williams [1] was a phenomena in 1979 - a book of weird illustrations that somehow contained a puzzle as to where a golden hare was buried. Even a fifteen year-old living in Kansas at the time was drawn to it, got caught up in it. The golden hare was found after a few years — the whole story of the hare and its finding are well documented in the book by Bamber Gascoigne, Quest for the Golden Hare [2]. The account is a fun read: why Kit decided on buried treasure, how he went about creating the artwork/puzzle, the adventure of burying the rabbit.... But far and away the most fascinating bit describes the various treasure-hunters that then came after the hare. The party that solved the puzzle did not find the hare. The party that dug it up had not solved the puzzle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176887.Quest_for_the_Golden_Hare https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176887.Quest_for_the_Go... Short summary of the whole escapade here: https://youtu.be/3yaHBdhIsCo https://youtu.be/3yaHBdhIsCo
  - glimshe 2y ago
    And here is a very well written summary: https://www.filfre.net/2016/05/kit-williamss-golden-hare-part-1-the-contest/ https://www.filfre.net/2016/05/kit-williamss-golden-hare-par...
- joncrocks 2y ago
  Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplex_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplex_City
haunter 2y ago
The actual post https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-years/ https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-yea... https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  How charming that this event organized in the early '90s is now on Discord.
dudul 2y ago
Damn! Just when I was getting back into it with my 9yo son :(
iLoveOncall 2y ago
Note that the ACTUAL organizer of the treasure hunt is not Michel Becker, but Régis Hauser (aka Max Valentin) who died more than 10 years ago. Michel Becker only helped illustrate the book that is the support for the hunt and has taken over it when he passed. As far as I know this was quite controversial because he had not knowledge about the riddles or how to solve them, and was only able to take over because there was a notarized enveloped left behind by the original creator which explained everything.
- RandomThoughts3 2y ago
  Could you explain more because the author passed away and left the solutions to the riddles in a notarised envelope to a close collaborator who worked on another part of the book so the hunt could live on - the solution is finally found by an unrelated party a whole decade later - doesn’t seem notably controversial to me?
  - Naklin 2y ago
    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl#Lawsuits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl... There are more details on the french wikipedia article but basically Michel Becker did everything he could to make money out of the success of the treasure hunt, doing things that were either unethical or deemed contrary to the true creator's original intent. This included taking possession of the solution which wasn't meant for him to get, trying to sell the prize for himself and releasing new clues to renew interest in the hunt which he was still profiting from in different ways.
k2xl 2y ago
Could o1 have helped the hunters finally reach it?
- arnaudsm 2y ago
  I tried, it solved a few steps and was quite impressive! It's really good at riddles and associating random concepts. It got stuck when it had to calculate directions though.
- SeaGully 2y ago
  My experience with using LLMs for things like MIT Mystery Hunt is touch and go. On most of them I've tried it doesn't seem to do much, but I do now use them to try and get crossword clues where I know bits that are often too abstract for crossword solvers. e.g. "a word that is six letters, is related to royalty, and has a state abbreviation in it" (this isn't a real clue, just an example of a clue that an LLM is much better suited than something like Nutrimatic or a crossword solver) I would be curious to hear if / how others us LLMs for abstract riddles/puzzles like that though.
- whiplash451 2y ago
  Not sure why you got downvoted. It is not crazy to imagine that LLMs could have helped explore the solution space. (not necessarily solving it directly)
Pinus 2y ago
Unlike the Midsomer Murders plot, the organizer died from natural causes. :)
vlovich123 2y ago
> In 2021 Michel Becker became the official organiser of the treasure hunt, obtaining the sealed envelope containing the hunt solution from the family of Régis Hauser. Becker journeyed with a legal bailiff to check that the owl prize was still buried at the location revealed in the solution. He reported that when he dug at the spot he found the owl missing and instead found a rusty iron bird. He replaced this rusty bird with a new bronze owl so that the treasure hunt could continue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O... Sounds like somebody actually had already solved it?
- _notreallyme_ 2y ago
  The english version is weird. It was planned from the beggining that they would bury a bronze owl. The bronze owl was to be exchanged with the precious metal one. In the french news, they specifically mentioned that the bronze one was found. If you think about it, it makes more sense. The co-founder was given the rights to the original treasure hunt because he is the owner of the valuable owl. He is the one who financed the whole thing.
  - supergarfield 2y ago
    The French Wikipedia page doesn't talk about it, but the quoted text from the English Wikipedia page involving an iron bird (and not a bronze owl) is accurate. Here's the official report of finding it: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/4586/7430/files/pv.constat.expedition.pdf https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/4586/7430/files/pv.co... (liked from https://editions-chouettedor.com/pages/documents-officiels https://editions-chouettedor.com/pages/documents-officiels).
    - _notreallyme_ 2y ago
      Oh, thanks for the links. What it says it that the statue should have been in bronze, but is instead in "ferrous metal" and must have been replaced around september 2005. Anyway, the idea was that the golden one was not buried, only a "pass-out" one.
carowl 2y ago
[flagged]
- xoxxala 2y ago
  Wow. A user account from 2022 that's only posted twice 20 minutes ago. That's a very patient spammer.
  - teddyh 2y ago
    The spammer is probably not the person who originally created the account.
kaffekaka 2y ago
Similar: the Forrest Fenn treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure
SeaGully 2y ago
Reminds me a bit of Alkemstone. I went snooping about old games magazines from the early 80s and there was an advert for the prize for that game (it really is just a maze with a series of clues). The ultimate solution was to be a location of the Alkemstone (presumably a fake gem) which one would exchange for the prize. I think the guy who created it died long ago and the legal office which was meant to verify the prize is also maybe defunct (?). I'm also skeptical the "stone" would be wherever it was meant to be at this point anyways (similar to a number of the boxes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt) are theorized to be now inaccessible or destroyed). Anyways, people are still trying to solve it. Last I heard someone claimed that they and their friends had paired all the clues in some way and were close to solving it, but they were very cagey about it. That was over a year ago I think. https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/ https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/
- ahazred8ta 2y ago
  In the early 80s the RPG company Metagaming (Melee / The Fantasy Trip / SJG) buried a silver unicorn. https://web.archive.org/web/20170619201458/https://goodman-games.com/blog/2016/12/07/forgotten-treasure-the-one-who-watches-from-below/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170619201458/https://goodman-g...
whiplash451 2y ago
If true, this is huge. Some people spent decades and counting on this hunt. To some extent, it will be a relief to them that the hunt is over.
kulahan 2y ago
I love these ongoing puzzles. For some reason, this brings Cicada 3301 to mind. I never heard many details about that beyond its existence and some theories behind what it meant.

193 points by femtozer 2y ago

I did geocaching with my kids when they were small - it was great. We were walking in new places and discovering areas we had no idea about. Great times. We even had geotags that were supposed to travel the world but we somehow lost them. We also had a cache. We do not do that anymore but when I am somewhere I sometimes check for caches, for the nostalgia.

lode 2y ago

Discussed here in 2023 at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467

wickedsight 2y ago

Seems to be hugged to death. Web archive has a copy for those interested: https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowlhunt.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowl... Edit: Unfortunately, only the home page is archived, not the article it links to.

beeb 2y ago
Here's a copy http://archive.today/qqWbx http://archive.today/qqWbx

morsch 2y ago

Here's a BBC article, found via the Wikipedia page. Very little additional detail though. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...

Iv 2y ago
We "chouettistes" are thirsty for more as well. There is almost a cult growing out of some hypothesis, we are waiting for the confirmed solutions a bit like the second coming.

frereubu 2y ago

Reminds me very much of the Masquerade book in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)

Rygian 2y ago
I initially confused the title with Maskerade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskerade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskerade
JKCalhoun 2y ago
That's right. Masquerade by Kit Williams [1] was a phenomena in 1979 - a book of weird illustrations that somehow contained a puzzle as to where a golden hare was buried. Even a fifteen year-old living in Kansas at the time was drawn to it, got caught up in it. The golden hare was found after a few years — the whole story of the hare and its finding are well documented in the book by Bamber Gascoigne, Quest for the Golden Hare [2]. The account is a fun read: why Kit decided on buried treasure, how he went about creating the artwork/puzzle, the adventure of burying the rabbit.... But far and away the most fascinating bit describes the various treasure-hunters that then came after the hare. The party that solved the puzzle did not find the hare. The party that dug it up had not solved the puzzle. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book) [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176887.Quest_for_the_Golden_Hare https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176887.Quest_for_the_Go... Short summary of the whole escapade here: https://youtu.be/3yaHBdhIsCo https://youtu.be/3yaHBdhIsCo
- glimshe 2y ago
  And here is a very well written summary: https://www.filfre.net/2016/05/kit-williamss-golden-hare-part-1-the-contest/ https://www.filfre.net/2016/05/kit-williamss-golden-hare-par...
joncrocks 2y ago
Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplex_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplex_City

haunter 2y ago

The actual post https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-years/ https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-yea... https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png

Apocryphon 2y ago
How charming that this event organized in the early '90s is now on Discord.

dudul 2y ago

Damn! Just when I was getting back into it with my 9yo son :(

iLoveOncall 2y ago

Note that the ACTUAL organizer of the treasure hunt is not Michel Becker, but Régis Hauser (aka Max Valentin) who died more than 10 years ago. Michel Becker only helped illustrate the book that is the support for the hunt and has taken over it when he passed. As far as I know this was quite controversial because he had not knowledge about the riddles or how to solve them, and was only able to take over because there was a notarized enveloped left behind by the original creator which explained everything.

RandomThoughts3 2y ago
Could you explain more because the author passed away and left the solutions to the riddles in a notarised envelope to a close collaborator who worked on another part of the book so the hunt could live on - the solution is finally found by an unrelated party a whole decade later - doesn’t seem notably controversial to me?
- Naklin 2y ago
  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl#Lawsuits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl... There are more details on the french wikipedia article but basically Michel Becker did everything he could to make money out of the success of the treasure hunt, doing things that were either unethical or deemed contrary to the true creator's original intent. This included taking possession of the solution which wasn't meant for him to get, trying to sell the prize for himself and releasing new clues to renew interest in the hunt which he was still profiting from in different ways.

k2xl 2y ago

Could o1 have helped the hunters finally reach it?

arnaudsm 2y ago
I tried, it solved a few steps and was quite impressive! It's really good at riddles and associating random concepts. It got stuck when it had to calculate directions though.
SeaGully 2y ago
My experience with using LLMs for things like MIT Mystery Hunt is touch and go. On most of them I've tried it doesn't seem to do much, but I do now use them to try and get crossword clues where I know bits that are often too abstract for crossword solvers. e.g. "a word that is six letters, is related to royalty, and has a state abbreviation in it" (this isn't a real clue, just an example of a clue that an LLM is much better suited than something like Nutrimatic or a crossword solver) I would be curious to hear if / how others us LLMs for abstract riddles/puzzles like that though.
whiplash451 2y ago
Not sure why you got downvoted. It is not crazy to imagine that LLMs could have helped explore the solution space. (not necessarily solving it directly)

Pinus 2y ago

Unlike the Midsomer Murders plot, the organizer died from natural causes. :)

vlovich123 2y ago

> In 2021 Michel Becker became the official organiser of the treasure hunt, obtaining the sealed envelope containing the hunt solution from the family of Régis Hauser. Becker journeyed with a legal bailiff to check that the owl prize was still buried at the location revealed in the solution. He reported that when he dug at the spot he found the owl missing and instead found a rusty iron bird. He replaced this rusty bird with a new bronze owl so that the treasure hunt could continue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O... Sounds like somebody actually had already solved it?

_notreallyme_ 2y ago
The english version is weird. It was planned from the beggining that they would bury a bronze owl. The bronze owl was to be exchanged with the precious metal one. In the french news, they specifically mentioned that the bronze one was found. If you think about it, it makes more sense. The co-founder was given the rights to the original treasure hunt because he is the owner of the valuable owl. He is the one who financed the whole thing.
- supergarfield 2y ago
  The French Wikipedia page doesn't talk about it, but the quoted text from the English Wikipedia page involving an iron bird (and not a bronze owl) is accurate. Here's the official report of finding it: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/4586/7430/files/pv.constat.expedition.pdf https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/4586/7430/files/pv.co... (liked from https://editions-chouettedor.com/pages/documents-officiels https://editions-chouettedor.com/pages/documents-officiels).
  - _notreallyme_ 2y ago
    Oh, thanks for the links. What it says it that the statue should have been in bronze, but is instead in "ferrous metal" and must have been replaced around september 2005. Anyway, the idea was that the golden one was not buried, only a "pass-out" one.

carowl 2y ago

[flagged]

xoxxala 2y ago
Wow. A user account from 2022 that's only posted twice 20 minutes ago. That's a very patient spammer.
- teddyh 2y ago
  The spammer is probably not the person who originally created the account.

kaffekaka 2y ago

Similar: the Forrest Fenn treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure

SeaGully 2y ago

Reminds me a bit of Alkemstone. I went snooping about old games magazines from the early 80s and there was an advert for the prize for that game (it really is just a maze with a series of clues). The ultimate solution was to be a location of the Alkemstone (presumably a fake gem) which one would exchange for the prize. I think the guy who created it died long ago and the legal office which was meant to verify the prize is also maybe defunct (?). I'm also skeptical the "stone" would be wherever it was meant to be at this point anyways (similar to a number of the boxes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt) are theorized to be now inaccessible or destroyed). Anyways, people are still trying to solve it. Last I heard someone claimed that they and their friends had paired all the clues in some way and were close to solving it, but they were very cagey about it. That was over a year ago I think. https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/ https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/

ahazred8ta 2y ago
In the early 80s the RPG company Metagaming (Melee / The Fantasy Trip / SJG) buried a silver unicorn. https://web.archive.org/web/20170619201458/https://goodman-games.com/blog/2016/12/07/forgotten-treasure-the-one-who-watches-from-below/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170619201458/https://goodman-g...

whiplash451 2y ago

If true, this is huge. Some people spent decades and counting on this hunt. To some extent, it will be a relief to them that the hunt is over.

kulahan 2y ago

I love these ongoing puzzles. For some reason, this brings Cicada 3301 to mind. I never heard many details about that beyond its existence and some theories behind what it meant.