FIRST WINNER IN GREAT US TREASURE HUNT IS TENNESSEE VISITOR

Coin worth $1,000 hidden under playscape step at Alex Haley Heritage Square

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Great US Treasure Hunt, a nationwide search for eleven coins hidden in public, has its first winner in Allison Lyon, a Vermont resident vacationing in Tennessee who was guided to the exact location, stuck under a playscape step at Alex Haley Heritage Square, by the solver of the puzzle, Sean Cronin. The two will split the $1,000 prize given for each coin found.

Clue books were in the mail on Tuesday, and by Thursday night, Cronin, a California resident, had solved the puzzle titled “Matheroes: Dawn Division”, which led to Morningside Park and the playscape’s bottom step, where the coin had been concealed weeks ago by Hunt organizers.

Because nighttime searching is discouraged for safety reasons, Cronin contacted Lyon with a game plan, and she set out early in the morning on Friday with boyfriend Kevin Renault to assist.

After searching both playscapes at Morningside Park, Lyon was ready to give up, but Cronin urged her on. “Look under the step,” he told her via text. “I want to see pictures from underneath the step.”

Lyon reached beneath the step and felt around…it was there! “I can’t believe it took me that long to find it,” Lyon said. “I should have been searching with my hands, not my eyes.”

Sean Cronin is a name familiar to anyone serious about treasure hunting. In addition to being the First Finder of The Great US Treasure Hunt 2024, he is also the co-author of “Xavier Marx and the Missing Masterpieces,” a treasure hunt book available on Amazon with a $10,000 first prize. Released exactly three years ago, the “Xavier” prize has still not been claimed.

What Cronin was not aware of, according to Hunt organizers, is that another player had solved the puzzle and was also sending a finder to look for the coin. Fortunately for Cronin and Lyon, the second team had chosen the wrong park to search.

“We had two partially correct solutions come in very late on Thursday, but the second team didn’t have the Morningside part,” reported Hunt president Jeff Kessler. “Dawn Division was the reference you needed for Morningside, and the rest of the puzzle was solved with basic math and a letter grid.”

A full explanation of the puzzle’s solution is available at the organizer’s YouTube website.

Eleven coins were hidden, not buried, in eleven states around the United States, always in public, with the specific locations decoded from “The Great US Treasure Hunt” clue book, where puzzles take the form of two-age spreads in a comic book format. Ten coins officially remain to be found.

Coins are hidden in at least two Pacific Ocean states, at least two Atlantic Ocean states, at least two Gulf Coast and Great Lakes states, at least two state capitals, and only two of the coin states border each other. Either Alaska or Hawaii is guaranteed to be a coin state.

Past Hunts have ended with winners finding coins in Las Vegas, Washington DC, Austin, Orange County CA, Nashville, Boise, Santa Fe, Asheville, and Milwaukee.

A person who solves a puzzle with a location hundreds or even thousands of miles away can partner with a Finder who retrieves the coin to split the winnings. Full details are at The Great US Treasure Hunt website.

David Steele
The Great U.S. Treasure Hunt LLC
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