An FBI agent and a deputy prosecutor in Los Angeles were too late for the gold, but they get the glory. They have solved the mystery of the $500,000 Golden Horse treasure contest.
Alone among the tens of thousands who sought the buried treasure, they deduced that the Golden Horse was buried in Tennessee Pass, 10,400 feet above sea level, along the Continental Divide in Colorado.Nick Boone and Anthony Castaneda, who spent more than five years working separately on the puzzle, told The Associated Press on Tuesday they had solved the riddle and the people who ran the contest don't disagree.
"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 Boone. Blair, the national sales promotion company that oversaw the contest, has refused to divulge the solution.
Boone, 45, an FBI agent for 18 years, was the FBI's case agent for planning and security at the 1984 Olympic Games.
"I know what it is to have a letdown after a long haul," Boone said. "Tom and I are looking to see if we can find another good contest."
Castaneda, 44, a prosecutor for 16 years, said he was not drawn to working puzzles before the Golden Horse challenge, "unless you count solving murders."
The puzzle was offered to the public in 1984 as a story titled "Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse," which was released as a book, videotape and laser disc. The story contained arcane and complex clues to the puzzle.
Contestants had until midnight of May 26 to find a statuette of a horse buried somewhere in the United States. The horse was made of 2.2 pounds of pure gold and contained a key to a safe deposit box containing a 20-year annuity for $25,000 a year.
The deadline passed with no claimant. As stipulated by the rules, the treasure was dug up and turned over to a charity - Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America - but the site was not revealed.
Many frustrated treasure hunters who spent years, money and sweat on the puzzle clamored for the solution. Some maintained the contest was a fraud and that no trove was ever buried.
Conlon, Big Brothers and the authors of the story, bound by the contest rules, kept mum.
"I would love to have seen them retrieve this six months ago, not only for their benefit but ours, so we would not have had to endure six months of slander," Conlon said.
The partners won't reveal yet the step-by-step path that led them to Tennessee Pass. That will come in an article they are preparing for publication in the March issue of Treasure magazine.
"You really can't work from the site backward," Boone said, "because there's nothing that points to Colorado and Tennessee Pass. You have to solve the ciphers to find it."
Boone said the puzzle jelled on Nov. 1 and he and Castaneda flew to the pass two days later to dig up whatever evidence of the stash remained.
Amid snow, cold and gathering darkness, they missed the spot by 18 inches, Boone said.
Returning to Los Angeles, the collaborators realized that they should have had a Polaroid camera with them to photograph the site and exactly align a landmark with a map from the book on which the spot was marked with an "X."
They returned on Nov. 18 and this time found proof positive that they were right. They dug up a vial containing a parchment that began: "Dear seeker. Congratulations. Your travails are over," Boone said.