Not far from this cache is the grave of Wilson Alexander “Alec” Scott. Scott came to Iowa and Polk County in 1843 with the dragoons and furnished products for the garrison located at the mouth of the Raccoon River known as Ft. Des Moines, from the section of land he cultivated. When the Indians left Iowa he went with them to Kansas as an Indian trader, but came back in 1846 and purchased 500 acres along the Des Moines River, comprising a portion of what is now the capitol grounds. He built a double log house to the southeast of the present location of the soldier’s monument. Being across the river from the settlement of Ft. Des Moines, with no bridges, he established a ferry. This was in 1846 when there was considerable emigration westward, and Scott was to have done a lucrative business. In 1849, during the California emigration, over 600 horses and as many people were ferried across in a single day. Scott bought the land where the Capitol Complex is situated and worked tirelessly to lobby the State government to build a new Capitol in Des Moines, moving it from Iowa City. Business dried up and his fortune soon followed during the financial crash of 1857. Scott died June 23, 1859 near Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory, en route to Pike’s Peak to remake his fortune in the gold fields.
Scott once told friends: "When I die, I want to be buried here, where I stand..." Years later, Scott's wish was fulfilled, on a bluff overlooking Des Moines. Scott's gravesite is the only burial plot on the State Capitol grounds.
Are you willing to gamble that you can find gold? Solve the puzzle at the cache location and sign the log, then your find will be a yellow "gold" smiley.
At the posted coordinates there is a cryptex that is sealed in a camouflaged 50 ml plastic centrifuge tube. In order to claim a find, you will need to open the cryptex and sign the log. The container is too small for a writing instrument so be sure to bring your own pen or pencil.
On the cryptex are 5 dials with 4 “cards” on each dial. In order to open the cryptex, you must align the dials so that the best poker hand is shown between the arrows. Make sure you line up the registration marks before you attempt to pull it apart.
If you need a refresher on the rules for 5 card poker then refer to the Related Web Page. For quick reference the hands go from highest to lowest in this order:
Royal flush
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Full house
Flush
Straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
NOTE: In situations where not all cards are used for a hand, then use the highest ranking card on the extraneous dials. For example, if you determine the best hand is a 3 of a kind then set the remaining dials to the highest ranking “card” (with Ace as highest and 2 as the lowest).
In order to allow you to determine the opening sequence before arriving at the posted coordinates, a representation of the dials and cards for this cryptex are shown below:
I have set up a Certitude checker although you will need to understand how to enter the solution code. For each card, you must enter a single character rank (i.e. A for Ace, 2 = Two, T = 10, J = Jack, Q = Queen, K = King) followed by a single character suit using the following abbreviations: c=Club; d=Diamond; h=Heart; s=Spade. Note: Use "T" for the number "10". As an example: if you had a High Card hand consisting of the Ace of Clubs, the Jack of Diamonds, the 6 of Hearts, the 8 of Spades, and the 10 of Clubs then you would enter: Ac Jd 6h 8s Tc as the solution. You must enter the cards in the order as they would appear above. While I have shown the example solution with upper and lower case characters and spaces, Certitude will convert your answer to all upper case without any spaces.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
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