Hidden Treasure Buried in Boston | Expedition Unknown

Josh Gates heads to his hometown of Boston to pursue a lead for a 40-year-old treasure hunt called The Secret. Can he solve this wicked hard puzzle?

Hey, hey, hey. I got something. I got something. I got something. Take a look.
Oh, wait a minute. Camera. Camera.
Camera camera. Come here. Come here.
Come here. Come here.
What is that?
Is it?
Please, please, please, please.
Oh my gosh.
[Music] Dawn in Boston, Massachusetts. A new day and a new expedition. In 1982, author Byron Price releases a daring game of hideand seek. He encases 12 keys in 12 ceramic treasure boxes and surreptitiously buries them in parks across North America. The location of each key is a secret revealed only by deciphering Price’s cryptic verses and the enigmatic paintings of renowned illustrator John Jude Palencar. Over the last few years, I’ve followed countless puzzle searchers around the country. And I’ve received thousands of emails from people who believe they cracked the case. But 48 hours ago, I received an email from a complete stranger that made my jaw drop. In it, he explains that he believes he’s found the solution to the Boston puzzle. He writes that this is not a hoax, notes that he’s been working on this for years, and offers to explain his solution in person. Are you Jason?
Hey Josh. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, man. Pleasure.
Welcome. Welcome to Boston.
Thank you. My hometown. Yes. I’m wicked excited to be here. I can use my actual accent.
Very excited to have you.
Your email stopped me in my tracks.
Where did you first find out about this book?
Interesting story. I am a game and puzzle designer.
That’s your job.
That’s what I do.
So, this is like right up your alley.
Yeah. Perfect for me. So, about 2 years ago, my kids were huge Expedition Unknown fans.
Good taste. They were watching the episode featuring The Secret and they called me in and they were like, “Dad, dad, you got to check this out. There is hidden treasure buried somewhere in Boston.” Every puzzle from The Secret requires matching a painting with a verse. That’s right.
Which painting did you use?
The painting that was on the front of the book.
The main one.
The main one. Yep.
Okay. The most famous of all the secret paintings, the woman holding the box.
You actually look closely at her arm, you’ll see the letters B O S.
Oh, in a sleeve right there.
B O S.
Yeah. If you look closely down at the bottom right, you’ll see a big globe and what looks like the letter B around it.
So, Boston Globe.
The Boston Globe, famous newspaper here in town, right? And on the box that she’s holding in the painting, something else really interesting. If you look over your shoulder, you’ll see an image.
Get out of here. The Trinity Church.
Yep.
Big landmark here in downtown Boston.
And it does look a lot like the painting. Which verse do you use?
I use verse three. Verse three.
If Thusidities is north of Xenopon, a very weird and obscure start to this poem.
It’s strange. They’re actually ancient Greek philosophers uh born around the year 400 BC.
The Burton Ernie of ancient Greece. And what do these guys have to do with Boston?
If you look over your left shoulder, Boston Public Library. Yep.
Over there.
Right there.
If you look on this wall, there are the names of philosophers, historians, artists, Moses, Herodotus, vicidities.
Right there. Right there.
It’s right there. Yep.
Any xenopon on there?
If you look just to your right, xenopon.
Xenopon.
They’re literally carved in stone. So, it has to be Boston.
Has to be Boston. No question.
So, is Boston all about Italian immigrants?
I think so. And actually there are a ton of clues in both the image and the verse that leads us in that direction. That flower is called the gladiololis and that is an Italian flower.
An Italian flower.
Got it. Okay, that’s one. And then if you look at the fairy, she’s holding the gem, the prize for this puzzle, right? And that is actually the paridote which is an Italian stone.
An Italian stone.
Okay, got it. So we are talking about Italians.
Yep. And Josh, the name of this park is Christopher Columbus Park.
Named after the most famous Italian explorer of all time.
There’s a clue that’s been staring us in the face for like 40 years.
Where?
It’s right over there.
Show me.
So, I want you to take a look at the woman in that painting.
I’m looking at her.
And then take a look up there.
[Music] Oh my god. It’s her. It’s her.
She’s Columbus.
Yeah. Identical.
The eyes, the nose, the mouth, everything.
That’s her. You’ve cracked the cover of the book.
I think so.
So, the next line says, “Take five steps in the area of his direction.” You think his is Columbus? His direction.
His direction is Columbus.
And his direction is right out here. I think the location where the cask is is in the north.
So, we got to go further.
We got to go further.
Further in this case means five steps in Columbus’s direction, which brings us out toward the edge of Boston Harbor.
It’s a lovely view, but I have some questions. Now, Jason, I don’t mean to be a uh negative Nancy here, but I do not see any steps. There are no steps.
You’re not looking for a step. You’re looking for a warf.
A Cllingon?
Not the guy from Star Trek, head of security on the USS Enterprise.
No, no, I mean a a literal warf. You mean a warf like WH H A RF?
That’s what I mean. Yes.
Got it. Meaning the peers that we see out here.
The peers all around us and that we’re standing on right now.
In fact, Jason has also noticed that some of the city’s warfs appear to be hidden in the painting beneath the mysterious woman’s hair.
So, I actually have a map and Josh, if you take a look. Okay, so we are where?
Lewis Wararf.
We’re at Lewis Warf right now and we came from Columbus Park and we’re going north and we’re facing out to the water like the statue tells us. Right.
And you think these are the steps? I mean, they do look like steps, actually.
They look like steps. There are actually literally more than five warps, but if you cluster them together, you could actually easily think of these as as five steps.
1 2 3 4 5. We head north.
We head north. What’s Josh the one thing that all of these dig sites have in common?
Um, they’re all they’re all in a park.
They are all in a park. And so I found myself at the end of the five steps, the center of Italian heritage, in the middle of the north end, right?
And guess what? There was a park. And this is it.
This This is the park.
Jason, this is a construction site.
Yeah, it was a real problem.
Okay. So, when you first found this place, was it like this?
No, it was just a regular park with baseball fields and playgrounds.
Yeah. And then about three months ago, I walked by and I saw this.
Were you just like crestfallen?
Yeah. My heart just dropped because I knew I knew there was a buried treasure in this park and I was concerned, afraid that it was going to be dug up and lost to eternity.
So what was this place?
This was Langoni Park.
Okay. And so what are they doing to it?
They are completely remodeling it and reconstructing it.
No.
Yeah.
They’re ripping it all up.
Ripping it apart.
And what did you do?
I went in.
You went into the site? Yeah. Come on.
I’ll show you.
Okay. Are we allowed to go in here?
I think I think we’ll be good.
Wait. You think we’ll be you? Okay.
Should be good.
There is a big You see the All right.
Says danger.
Ignoring a danger sign is never a smart thing to do. However, it’s just another day at the office in my epic odyssey to unlock the secret. So, once you’re here, all of the clues make sense.
All right. Well, I’ll hold you to that.
All right. So, the next clue is a green tower of lights in the middle section.
So, what is a green tower of lights?
This is a clue that has tripped up a lot of people. When you think of Boston, what’s the one big green tower of lights that you think of?
You think of Fenway Park.
Fenway Park. Green Monster.
Right.
The Green Monster is the famous left field wall in Fenway. Yep.
And there are towers of lights.
Absolutely.
But it’s not there. I think people have been tripped up over that clue for years.
Okay. What do you think the green tower of lights is? So Josh, if you look across the harbor here, you will see the famous Tobin Bridge.
The Tobin Bridge.
The Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge spans the Mystic River from Chelsea to Boston. Since it was built in 1950, it has been painted a vivid rustic green.
Okay, so I’ll buy that. Now, what about in the middle section? So, actually, if you look around, we are in the middle section of the park where three baseball fields were. There is one behind us over here. Another one over your shoulder over there. And we are in the middle one.
We’re in the middle section.
Y.
Okay.
Then it says, “Nar those who pass the coliseum with metal walls.” Well, here is where it gets more interesting. If you look over your shoulder, directly behind you is an ice skating rink. And Josh, what is that made out of?
Made entirely of metal. And the rink is inside, I assume, circular like a coliseum.
Now we have face the water.
So we are facing now out to the Boston Harbor. Here it is.
Okay. So we’re facing the water. Easy enough. You’re back to the stairs.
Please be a staircase behind me.
If you look behind you are there is a staircase, a huge staircase leading up the hill.
Yep. So this is called Cops Hill Terrace. It was built in the 1890s. The whole thing is made out of granite.
Actually, if you look at the picture, you’ll see a lot of imagery that looks pretty similar, right? Lots of stone work around her.
Man, this is getting good. It says 18th day, 12th hour lit by lamp light. As a native Bostononian, right, this feels like it might be referencing Paul River.
It is referencing Paul Rivervier. And do you know the day that Paul Rivere started that famous ride?
I’m hoping it’s the 18th day.
You’re correct. It’s April 18th, 1775 and 12th hour because he rode at midnight.
He rode at midnight and lit by lamp light because famously those lamps were put up in the old north church. And how does that connect to the stairs? Well, Paul Rivervier’s house was directly behind where those stairs are today.
Get out of here.
Yep. So, when Paul Rivervier actually began that midnight ride, he came down where those stairs are currently to Langoni Park.
Paul Rivere would have come through this park.
Come right through this park right in the middle section.
I mean, that’s got to be right.
Sitting at lunch 2 days ago and I get a text message that says says, “I think we found something.” And who’s the one who found something?
I did.
So, you operate what here?
Excavator.
The excavator. So, you’re over here digging this hole?
Yes.
And what happens?
First thing I hit was this right here.
Plexiglass.
Yep.
Corners. And look at the glue.
That’s right.
This looks like it might have been the edge of a box.
Absolutely.
So, what’d you do?
I started searching a little bit more easily with a machine. And that’s when we found this.
It’s the clock.
We found it.
Each of these casks had a hand painted clock inside the lid. And I I have to say, as one of very few people who have seen the other two boxes, this looks real. This is real. Painted on the underside of each lid is a clock face telling us which gem is awarded for solving the puzzle. In this case, it’s set to 8:00, a reference to August, the eighth month, whose birthstone is a paradot.
I examine the fragments closely. The paint, the delicate crumbling plaster with telltale carved reliefs. This is 100% authentic. But to claim the stone, we need to find the key. Okay, so we have a few fragments here. Where’s the rest of it? It’s over in the hole. In the ground.
Still in the pit.
And the key, it’s got to be in there.
Can we get in there and dig? Is that possible?
Yes, it is.
We shovel up and start digging for the key, both under home plate and in the many discard piles from the excavator.
Plexiglass.
Found plexiglass.
No, that’s shale.
No, that’s just shale. Shale. Ah, close. So close.
It’s a real needle in a haystack situation here. Except instead of a needle, it’s a key. And instead of a hay stack, it’s a filthy pile of dirt.
[Music] And before we find anything, it appears that someone else has found us. So, just to be clear, we have a few people now who have gathered outside of the construction site wearing construction gear, and they do not work here. These folks are looking for the box from the secret. People are serious about this puzzle.
Okay, just ignore them. Keep digging.
We search every inch of the pit, carefully sifting through hundreds of pounds of dirt for anything ceramic, stone, old spike.
That is a rock.
Keep looking.
Hey, hey, hey. I got something. I got something. I got something.
Take a look.
Oh, wait a minute. Camera. Camera.
Camera. Come here. Come here. Come here.
Come here.
What is that? Is it?
Please, please, please, please.
Oh my gosh.
It is.
It’s the key. It’s the key. Oh my god.
It’s the key. Do you see this? Oh my god. Wow. Oh my god. It’s the key. It’s the key.
Ah! Oh, come here. Come here. Get up.
Get up. Get up here, you guys. Okay.
Look at this. It is. This is the handle of the key. It looks like it snapped off. So, let’s be really careful cuz the rest of it might be in here, but this is the main part of the key.
And sure enough, there’s more to find.
Oh, stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. It’s the right color. That looks like the rest of it.
It totally totally is.
That’s it for sure.
Wow. Right.
That’s the whole key.
That’s the whole key.
Let’s be clear about this. You’ve You’ve done it. This is it. You guys have done it. It is official now. You have successfully cracked the third puzzle and you’ve successfully found the third key.
40 years in the ground.
40 years in the ground waiting to be found.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
I mean, I’m speechless.
After you. Thank you, sir. Waiting for us is Price’s family. His wife Sandy, the current steward of the secret, and his daughters, Blair and Cara. And this is, believe it or not, John Jude Palankar’s original painting, which we had created and shipped here. And you’ve probably never seen it in such detail.
Never. That’s the one thing about the books is they really actually don’t do his paintings justice.
Sandy, Jason has a hard-earned present for you.
I have for you the key.
You know that this is only the third of 12 keys that have been found.
I do. Yeah.
And it’s truly truly my honor that we are going to present a gem to you today.
Oh, thank you.
[Music] Wow.
Oh my god. It’s It’s amazing. I’m I’m honored. So, the third box, the third key, third gem.
My own journey has taken me across America through seven states, thousands of miles and deep into the pages of our nation’s history.
Today is a celebration of a job well done. But let’s be clear, the secret isn’t finished with any of us just yet.