INTRODUCTION
Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse was a 1984 illustrated book and accompanying video by Sheldon Renan. The book was designed and promoted as a contest, in which readers attempted to solve the elaborate puzzle contained in the book's story to find the location of real 1 kilogram golden horse buried in a box somewhere on public land within the continental United States. The puzzle was designed by puzzlemaster Dr. Crypton (Paul Hoffman) and was considered extremely difficult. The first reader to solve the puzzle and dig up the horse by the deadline of May 26, 1989 would get to keep the horse and would receive $500,000. The solution was designed to be available either by reading the book or watching the video independently. (Source: Wikipedia)
I was just one of the many thousands of armchair treasure hunters that got hooked on "Treasure - In Search of the Golden Horse" © (TISOTGH). I spent countless hours scouring the book for clues which would lead me to discover where the golden horse was buried.
I saw what appeared to be hints everywhere, but I couldn't link them together. I saw codes and keys but I couldn't make sense of them. The solution always seemed to be just out of my reach.
The end date for the contest passed and I put my marked, torn and tattered book away. Unfortunately, the owners of the contest did not reveal the solution. Like many others, I felt frustrated and cynical.
According to articles in the New York Times, seven months after the deadline two men, Nick Boone and Tony Castaneda, found the solution and dug in the right spot in Tennessee Pass, Colorado. They found a vial with a congratulatory note inside, together with a broken $200 bottle of champagne.
They wrote a description of their thought processes called CAPT. NEMO, THE GOLD HORSE & ME that left other frustrated treasure-seekers suspicious and annoyed. Many thought that they were virtually guided to that location by the promoters. After reading their explanation and the following story, you can be the judge of that.
10th Mountain Div Memorial, Route 24 at the Tennessee Pass,CO
THE START OF THE JOURNEY
In April, 2009 I read the Capt. Nemo story for the first time. I tried to reverse engineer their solution and came up with one of my own in the process. The original purpose of this site was to present My Solution which is still available for you to read.
Of course, I wanted verification or denial of my solution. It had been twenty years since the contest ended so I thought the task would be easy. Wrong. I contacted two of the three men that buried the golden horse, Paul Hoffman (aka Dr. Crypton) and Thomas Conlon, president of DL Blair, the contest referee. Those inquiries went nowhere. Then I emailed the person I believe to be the current owner of the rights to TISOTGH. Also no response. Finally I sent a letter to Nick Boone (aka Capt Nemo), one of the discovers of the Tennessee Pass, CO solution. Much to my surprise, after a few days he called me.
On April 30 Nick and I had a long and interesting chat. He confirmed that the Capt. Nemo solution (hereafter referred to as CNS) had been written by Anthony Castaneda, his partner in the discovery. Among other things, he told me that he did not look at the TISOTGH book until a month or so before the contest ended. Within four weeks he had 75 percent of the solution. He contacted Tom Conlon and was encouraged to continue. He told me the TISOTGH originators were very interested in having the puzzle solved even after the contest ended. He added that they verifed the CNS solution but said they would never do so publicly. An article I found in the Washington Post archives dated November 30, 1980 says , " 'We have no comment about the site, but we will acknowledge and confirm that he's given us totally convincing proof that he found the exact location,' Thomas Conlon, president of D.L. Blair, said after speaking to [Nick Boone]. Blair, the national sales promotion company that oversaw the contest, has refused to divulge the solution."
I asked Nick why they never wrote up all the details leading up to their solution, including the video version of TISOTGH, and he told me that it was too complicated. And, I wondered, why hadn't they taken pictures of the inscription on the small monument or the magical mystery tree? Ever the skeptic, I decided to validate the CNS myself. The easiest (I thought) place to start was the inscription on the smaller monument.
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| Front Base of 99th Infantry Memorial |
"first find your father's grave" |
As you can see, there is an inscription on the base of the front of the memorial, but what about the back? I called the Tenth Mountain Association, the 99th Infantry Battallion, and the Minneapolis chapter of the Sons of Norway. Unfortunately, no information was available from these groups except that no one who had been to the memorial remembered an inscription on the back. Finally I reached the U.S. Forest Service in Leadville, CO. A most helpful person researched the memorial and told me that a permit was issued for the monument on June 2, 1980 and it was to be dedicated on July 11, 1980. Strong evidence for the "11 June 1980" inscription, although not proof positive. I think the name "Knutsen" on the grave stone in the book is important because the smaller monument is a memorial to an infantry battallion comprised totally of Norwegian Americans. I had asked Nick about the name "KNUTSEN". He said it was the name of the memorial designer. I cannot imagine where he got that information. This was the one of several puzzling things he told me.
THE NEXT STEP
I think the case for the Tennessee Pass solution is compelling. There are several clues supporting this conclusion (if you already read all of the CNS you'll probably want to skip this part). First, we have the cipher on the Mustang license plates in Chapter ROAD. The front plate reads "MLGGS" and the rear plate reads, "VCER". I believe this also appears in the video of TISOTGH.
An unusual word appears in ROAD. On page 33 it says "the babel of crowds.". The word babel is associated with a simple substitution cipher called Atbash. In it, the first lettr of the alphabet is represented by the last and so on as follows:
plain text:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
cipher text: Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A
If you decode MLGGSVCER using this cipher as the CNS did, you get NOTTHEXVI (M=N L=O G=T S=H V=E C=X E=V R=I).
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Second, there is the cipher in the RIVER picture. The text mentioned that Treasure was running along the shore, but in the picture there was only a pig and 10 trees. Capt Nemo used Francis Bacon's binary cipher to solve this. The code was based on using a sequence of a's or b's. Each letter of the alphabet was represented by a combination of 5 letters. Here's how Bacons Cipher works (scroll down to The Bilateral Alphabet).
The ten trees can be grouped into two groups of five, in othe words, representing two letters of the alphabet. I believe that the two hands (groups of five fingers) playing the piano might point to this. When the trees are taken as they appear, short trees for a's and tall trees for b's, the cipher text would be baaba and abbaa. In Bacon's code these represent a T and an N. TN. Tennessee.
Rick Igou, the creator of the TISOTGH messageboard at bravenet.com, mentioned several references to Tennessee in the video - The rotating "T" at the start of the video is the same shape as the University of Tennessee "T" logo, Amanda was covered up with an orange blanket and she felt "warm" and UT's main color is orange, when Amanda stood on the cliff and looked out, there was small rocks at her feet in the shape of a "T" and narrator said something about "the sea." (T see)
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So far the solution seems pretty straight forward. The CNS correctly assumed that cryptography was involved in the solution given Dr. Crypton's reputation and the fact that TISOTGH contains many references to cryptography (anagram, grille, babel, pig latin, heiroglyphs, wheel, letter substitution, key) and historic figures that used ciphers (Francis Bacon, Queen Mary of Scotland, and, perhaps, Caesar and Louis XIV).
One important thing to note is that in 1984, when TISOTGH was written, there were almost no texts on cryptography available to the general public. From wikipedia: "Until the late twentieth century most aspects of modern cryptography were regarded as the special concern of governments and the military, and were protected by custom and, in some cases, by statute. The most significant work to be published on cryptography in this period is undoubtedly David Kahn's The Codebreakers, which was published at a time (mid-1960s) when virtually no information on the modern practice of cryptography was available." So knowledge that is readily available to an internet user today was difficult to come by in 1984.
THE RABBIT'S CARD
Here is where the problem starts for me. I believe that the CNS for the rabbit card cipher is correct, but I have problems with the way in which they say they derived that solution. But more about this later. Let me begin with the solution itself. Please pardon me again for repeating some of the CNS.
In both the video and book, the solution is arrived at in a similar manner. The card itself makes it appear that the cipher is a simple anagram. This is a picture of the rabbit card from the book.
The clever secret here is that the anagram yields cipher text, not plain text, meaning the solution has to be deciphered. There are two big problems here. First, how could anyone determine which cipher to use to decode it. The obvious Tarot card cipher, substituting the card numbers for their cooresponding letter of the alphabet, leads to DM FOR JS. Using this cipher yields nothing. What works is a Vigenère Square, a complicated multi-alphabet cipher. In retrospect, I thought of Amanda getting in the mustang and turning the key. The Vigenère Square is a type of autokey cipher. But boy is that obscure. The second problem is, without an internet tool, very few people could actually decipher code using this method.
Adding to the complexity, this cipher uses a key word. "THE MAP IS THE KEY IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE." yields that key - MAP.
Knowing all this you can verify the CNS using this Vigenère Square Tool. Simply enter MAP for the key and FRNDOJFEIIOSAZTZ for the cipher text (use capital letters with no spaces). For some reason you have to click on the Decipher CipherText button twice (I think it's because the key is only three letters long). The result is TRY ROUTE TWO DOZEN.
In July, 2008, Ixnei at Tweleve.org presented the solution to the rabbit card (ROUTE TWENTY FOUR) in the TISOTGH video. That card reorderd fifteen letters (10,13,12,5,14,2,9,11,3,6,15,4,1,8,7) found by four strange things (AI CUFF GUIDE JOEY). Again, you can verify his solution using DOJFEIIECFYUAUG as the ciphertext and MAP as the key (for some reason, he didn't think MAP was correct, but you'll see that it works fine). Again, use all caps and hit the Decipher CipherText button twice.
These solutions would be next to impossible to reverse engineer. So there's no doubt about it - Route 24 is the rabbit's card clue.
THE ROAD TO YOUR HORSE
So we have Route 24 and Tennessee. You'll find TN Route 24 on a road map beginning in Nashville. And just to the south and west you'll also see the Natchez Trace Parkway. And the paddle wheel boat has a sign that says "NATCHEZ". Soon you'll be off on the wild goose chase that led to my incorrect solution.
Tennessee was the sixteenth state admitted to the union. Remember "NOT THE XVI"? According to the CNS, it means Tennesse but not the state of Tennessee. U.S. Route 24 is one of the original United States highways of 1926 and, like the old Route 66, was heavily travelled in the days before the Interstate Highway System came into existance. In Colorado it traverses the Tennessee Pass. I believe there is a cryptic clue to this location on the map.
The map from TISOTGH video
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Piece of the map, p. 58 TISOTGH book
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What's noticable in both pictures is the "14" and the folded corners. I think this points to a state in the Four Corners region and "fourteener" mountains. Colorado is one of the Four Corners states and has more fourteeners than any other state. In addition, the X on the map might very well refer to the 10th Mountain Division. In fact, the insignia for that division is a pair of crossed skis which make an "X" to represent the "tenth".
Rick Igou also pointed out that in the video there is an X on top of the picture of the mountain on the carousel. He used this as a clue to search for "10th mountain" which lead him to the 10th Mountain Division which has a memorial at the Tennessee Pass.
I want to take this opportunity to mention a curiousity about The Map. In the Introduction of the book it says, "... you will come to understand the map ... For it shows you exactly where to dig." When I bought my first TISOTGH book I had to cut and paste all the pieces of the map that were strewn throughout it. Years later I bought another copy because mine copy was a mess. That book was wrapped in thin celophane and had a 12 X 12 picture of the assembled map inserted in it. At the top it said, "This map is composed of individual sections found in the book TREASURE: In Search of the Golden Horse. No representation is made as to its importance or usefullness in solving the puzzle." This might lead one to believe that the physical map was not The Map that is referred to in the introduction. The physical map figures heavily in the CNS and there most certainly was no need for more red herrings, so I find it very odd that the promoters decided to include that statement.
THE PROBLEM
Actually, I have many problems with the CNS rabbit card solution. To begin with, the solution for the first thing (to be deciphered) on the rabbit card is troublesome. For one, finding some of the symbols requires a good magnifying glass and/ or a real stretch of the imagination. For example, the CNS says there is only one "constellation that is out of place (i.e. incorrect) on page 40". From my research, none of the constellations on that page are correct. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know and I will include your information on this site. (UPDATE: It's been suggested to me that the constellations DRACO and LEPUS are in that pic. I can't see them but perhaps you will.)
Most importantly, NONE of the symbols used to come up with the word FESTOON are found in Queen Mary's cipher. The symbols mentioned by the CNS are  H b + χ χ δ for FESTOON. Compare these with the Queen Mary Cipher. I pointed out to Nick that H was not in the QMC (this was the only example I could recall with certainty at the time we spoke). He said a puzzling thing. He told me that he had seen several books about the QMC and that one of them did have an H as the symbol for E, but he never mentioned a problem with any of the other symbols.
I wondered about this strange word "festoon". I knew it was an architectural design but couldn't see how it fit in. After looking the word up in several places I found my answer - a festoon is a moth which looks very much like the one pictured in the book. This moth stands out because it is not referenced in the text. I am still working to discover the cipher that leads to this word.
Next, I have to say that, even with a good magnifying glass, it is pretty near impossible to see that split "J" that is supposedly the second thing. Third, I don't get the logic of "interpretting" a "Z" to get izzard. Also, according to TheFreeDictionary.com, "izzard is practically limited to certain fixed regional expressions" and is rather obscure.
Finally, in order to get the "translated" thing, you have to find just the right expression which can be translated into two Latin words (like a lot of people happen to know Latin) and then, for no reason except to make it fit, we keep only the first two letters. If you ask me, Dr. Crypton jumped the shark on this one for sure.
In short, while I believe that the CNS solution of the rabbit's card cipher is correct, I do not believe that anyone could solve that cipher from the clues in the book.
X MARKS THE SPOT
Okay. We're at the 10th Mountain Division Memorial at Route 24 and the Tennessee Pass in Colorado. Another curiosity that I only now just noticed. In the CNS write up, they refer to the "40th" Mountain Division, not the 10th.
So where do we go from here? I thought it would be a stretch to go to this location based on pretty thin evidence but, I must admit, I could be digging on the Natchez Trace Parkway myself right now. But the question remains - given the smaller memorial as a starting point, how would one identify a very specific spot to dig? I think there's a hint at the top left in the KITES picture.
This picture seems to indicate magnetic north, the direction a compass needle points. The CNS uses a compass heading of 150 degrees and left it up to the reader to discover how they arrived at that direction.
Perhaps the answer is on page 57 of the book. It mentions "the figure of a woman attended by cherubs." She was called "The Queen." Being raised Catholic, I recognize the reference to the Virgin Mary. Virgin. Virgo. Virgo is also mentioned on the TISOTGH video. Virgo is associated with an ecliptic longitude of 150 degrees. Remember, the book was published before the internet was widely used. This would take a bit of research to find out.
Nick Boone said another puzzling thing to me about this heading. He told me that they realized that a compass does not point to true north so they had to make adjustments to account for this. First of all, I don't know why this mattered to them since the picture clue clearly indicates magnetic north. Also, an adjustment for this north declination (as it's called) is only necessary when utilizing a pre-printed map since the heading on all maps is based on true north. Finally, no adjustment is necessary when covering such a short distance (compared to the size of the earth). You can check all this yourself using wikipedia.
Nick told me the method they used to determine true north. He said they located a Geodetic Reference System survey marker near the water. Here is a list of all the GRS benchmarks within 7 miles of the memorial. The top two, which are located within one mile of the memorial, are on the railroad line and are impossible to see. It is stated by the GRS that the coordinates on these benchmarks are not totally accurate.
As far as the 100 steps taken in the CNS, Nick told me that they counted all the steps pictured in the book. I don't know how this was conveyed in the video. The futility of using this method is obvious. Everyone's steps are a different length. If your step is just off one inch, after 100 steps you are 8 feet away from your target point! Nick offered no explanation for ultimately arriving at "exactly 238 1/2 feet".
Nick also told me that the map was created based on a picture of the forest taken by Paul Hoffman. I have to say that the explantion about using the map as a picture of trees, making adjustments for perspective then digging at exactly the right spot seems preposterous to me. So does the idea of digging a two and a half foot hole in frozen ground. And how could the ground still be "loose" six months after Tom Conlon dug up the horse?
THE END OF THE ROAD
So there you have it. I have to admit I'm more than a little disappointed. The heart of the puzzle, the rabbit's card, was impossible to solve using the clues in the book. Too much outside research was required and would have been very difficult to come by when TISOTGH was published. The method used to locate the exact burial spot was preposterous. There were far too many red herrings. Real clues were often too vague and/or illogical. I must say that I did, however, enjoy every minute of the search, and there were many of them.
Odds and Ends: I was told that the Big Brothers of America were given the golden horse as well as the cash prize. The horse has since been purchased by a collector. Nick has the original painting of the staircase with the izzard on it. Tony has the horse which had been buried (it was not the golden horse). The complete story of TREASURE ISOTGH, I think, is a sad one. It started out with good intentions and a great idea plus lots of hard work and creativity. In the end, the promoters were discredited, lots of money was lost, and many treasure seekers were left bitterly disappointed. I hope you found this site interesting, especially if you were a seeker yourself and weren't aware of the end of the story.
UPDATE: In the spring of 2009, I planned to drive to the Tennessee Pass. I never made it, but I did get a chance to drive over 1,000 miles in and around the four corners region and crossed the continental divide three times. After that experience, I would say that the Tennessee Pass site is pretty extreme and not as accessable as promised in the contest rules (24/7/365). At that altitude it can snow almost any month. Even in good weather, the roads that lead to the pass are full of hazards - signs warn of falling rocks, steep grades, dangerous curves, high crosswinds, and the possibility of large animals on the road, and that's on the Interstate!! That road at least has a shoulder. Once you get to the pass (alt almost 11,000 feet), there's a good chance you'll suffer from the fatigue and disorientation of altitude sickness. That means you'll probably forget why you're even there LOL.
Although I didn't suceed, JCG, a poster at the TISOTGH messageboard did in July, 2010. Here are four of the many pictures he took. From the first two you'll see that there is no inscription on the base at the rear of the monument. The second two show a mishapened tree at the location noted in the CNS. You can draw your own conclusion.
 
 
I don't have the time to mangage a visitor's comment section but you can email me at TreasureSolution@aol.com with any comments or information. I'd love to hear from you.
©Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse (book and video) copyright IntraVision, Inc.
© copyright Judy C, Las Vegas 2009. All rights reserved.
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