Most of you are probably familiar with edgy street magician and endurance stunt perpetrator David Blaine. But did you know that he hid one of the most difficult puzzle caches ever?
On October 29, 2002, David Blaine published the book Mysterious Stranger which contained a $100,000 challenge: solve the puzzles in the book to reveal the location of a treasure hidden somewhere in America. The puzzle had been created by Cliff Johnson, noted puzzle constructor and author of the legendary computer game The Fool’s Errand.
On November 4, 2003, the treasure still had not been found. That evening, David was interviewed on Larry King Live and offered this cryptic hint: If my tattoo is fearless, then climb ten weeks to find the route, and “route” is spelled “r-o-u-t-e”.
On March 24, 2004, retired schoolteacher Sherri Skanes solved the puzzle and found the treasure after working on it for only six weeks.
The tale of the puzzle’s construction and solution is amazing reading. There are two parts to the solution: deciphering and interpreting the hidden clues. This puzzle was so complex that its solution managed to elude the entire collective intelligence of every puzzlehead on the internet for nearly 18 months.
Fortunately for us, Sherri Skanes kept a diary of her adventure to recover the treasure. It’s the best “Found It” log I’ve ever read. It’s got all of the important elements: hard work, research, analysis, trespassing, giving up and going home, encounters with homeless people, “ah-hah!” moments, vomiting, spectacular views, injuries, deer sightings, Frank Zappa, weird coincidences, night caching, ticks, begging your family and ex-spouse to be involved in your nerdy hobby, and – most importantly – “coyote crap”, and all of that in a single day.
The solution to the challenge was an homage to one of my favorite movies of all time and probably the greatest treasure hunt film ever made: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
What’s almost as good as Sherri’s story are the folks who developed highly elaborate and completely incorrect theories about the solution. Cliff Johnson refers to these crackpot theories as Just Blaine Crazy. I doubt anyone has ever been as far off in the weeds as those folks were.
The puzzle published in the book wasn’t Cliff’s first attempt to create a puzzle for David. The Harry Green Shuffle and the San Dimas Prototype provide an interesting insight into how puzzles are constructed and evolve.
Some people just responded in outright silly ways. One woman played a lovely April Fool’s Day prank, and others … well, it’s kinda hard to describe.