National Treasure Mystery Cache

My family has lived in Waco, Texas for as long as anyone can remember. Like my father and my grandfather before me, I am a successful businessman. If I told you my real name, you'd recognize it instantly. Having earned my fortune, I decided to spend some time on our family's last great mystery: my grandfather's will. It has long been rumored that my grandfather hid the bulk of his fortune somewhere in McLennan County without ever revealing the hiding spot. My parents and my grandparents were long dead and I had never married, so I was left to my own wits.

After puzzling over the will and the four curious objects packaged with it, I decided to enlist the help of my best friend Samuel Brown, Waco's greatest detective. (Not his real name, of course.) Sam came to my home one evening, and after exchanging pleasantries we began examining the will and the four objects: a silver cross and chain, an iron cube, a golden sphere, and a note containing some sort of cipher.

"Let’s start with the will," Sam said. "It may help us to make sense of these other things."

Sam and I read the will together. It was addressed to my father:

"This seems like nonsense," Sam said. "Perhaps the gentleman was senile."

"I don’t think so." I replied. "From what I understand, he was something of a scientific genius. He could measure distances more accurately than any man alive. His techniques were so precise that they rival the accuracy of measurements taken today. He also measured the density of many substances, and modern technology has not been able to improve upon his results. You may be sure that there is method to this madness, if only we could discover the secret."

"Let's see what we can make of the cross. The chain is unbroken, without a clasp, even though it’s not particularly long."

Sam examined the cross and chain carefully, and then remarked, "Look, there's a number stamped into each link of the chain."

"You’re right," I answered, "I never noticed that."

After examining the chain further he said, "I believe that one is supposed to read the numbers starting from the cross in this direction. There are fifty links in the chain, and fifty numbers."

Sam read out the numbers:

93320595606280502840046251631021310384320733202021

"Fifty numbers on the chain, five numbers in each direction on the cross, I think your grandfather liked the number 5."

"He did have a fondness for the number 5, or maybe it was 500, but he wasn’t superstitious in any way."

What about the cube and sphere?

"The cube weighs 7024 grams and the sphere weighs 8631 grams. From their densities, I would say that the cube is pure iron while the sphere is pure copper covered with gold leaf."

"The gold must be worth something?"

"Not really. The gold leaf is so thin that even at today's prices it wouldn't be worth more than a few cents. There's not even enough there to weigh."

"And finally there's the Bay of Rainbows," Sam said. "Where's it located?"

"Nowhere that I can find. Oddly enough, those were his last words. He was sitting up in bed staring out the window. He turned to my father and me, smiled and whispered, 'The Bay of Rainbows.'"

"The only other clue is this cipher."

"My father showed me that once," I Said. "He claimed it wasn't really a clue at all."

As I was staring at the note, I realized it was encrypted using an old family technique and I could read it quite clearly. "No, it's not a clue. But it's certainly worth reading."

From what I saw in the note I knew it was time to put all thoughts of my grandfather's will out of my head. Sam and I enjoyed a leisurely dinner at one of Waco's finest restaurants, and we both agreed, it had been a pleasant evening.

The Geocaching Details

This is a five stage multi-cache. There is no cache at the posted coordinates. Each stage of the cache is a puzzle. The coordinates of the first stage can be determined from the information given above. At stages 1-4 you will find a partial set of coordinates. These coordinates are incorrect and must be fixed using clues found in the text above. A good knowledge of physical constants and mathematical formulae would be helpful in solving the puzzles.

Time to give up on this one. Geocachers, apparently, aren't into solving clever puzzles.

Stage 1: N31 35.886 W97 33.430
Stage 2: N31 32.490 W96 49.460
Stage 3: N31 51.108 W97 02.545
Stage 4: N31 15.169 W97 20.000
Stage 5: N31 32.478 W97 14.936

How to solve the puzzles:

The "true beginning" is the 31st of the month. Everything in McLennan County is at 31 degrees North. The secondary beginning is the 97th day of the year. Except at the extreme East, everything in McLennan County is at 97 degrees West.

Stage 1: Arrange the string of numbers into two 5x5 squares and read down the center column. This will give you the minutes for North and West respectively.

Stage 2: Turn the 5x5 squares over and read down the right-hand column. Add these numbers to what you find in Stage 1.

Stage 3: Look up the density of iron, and compute the diameter of the cube in feet. Add this to both coordinates given in Stage 2.

Stage 4:Look up the density of copper and compute the diameter of the sphere in feet. Subtract this from both of the coordinates found in Stage 3.

Stage 5: Look up the average distance from the Earth to the Moon in miles (the location of the Bay of Rainbows) and divide by 1,000,000. (A thousand miles is a single step, and a thousand steps make a minute.) The true point is to the South and East of the point given in Stage 4, so subtract the Moon computation from both coordinates of Stage 4.

The FTF prize is still in place. No more geocoins will be awarded.

The cypher is a rolling ROT 5. The first letter in a group is encoded in ROT 5, the second in ROT 10, the third in ROT 15, and so forth. Start again with ROT 5 for the next group.

Have fun.

--DrHogg (aka ...)