The Secret (treasure hunt)
The Secret is a treasure hunt started by Byron Preiss in 1982. Twelve treasure boxes were buried at secret locations in the United States and Canada. As of July 2020 only three of the twelve boxes have been found.
Book
Clues for where the treasures were buried are provided in a puzzle book named The Secret produced by Byron Preiss and first published by Bantam in 1982. The book was authored by Sean Kelly and Ted Mann and illustrated by John Jude Palencar, John Pierard, and Overton Loyd; JoEllen Trilling, Ben Asen, and Alex Jay also contributed to the book. A Japanese version was published in 1983, and the English version was re-issued in 2014. The book contains 12 images and 12 verses; an image must be linked to a verse, with the information they contain used to locate a buried "treasure casque".| Year | ISBN | Language | Format | Publisher |
| 1982 | English | Paperback | Bantam | |
| 1982 | English | Hardcover | Bantam | |
| 1983 | 0276-831122-7339 | Japanese | Paperback | Futami-shobo |
| 2014 | English | Hardcover | ibooks.com | |
| 2014 | English | Paperback | ibooks.com |
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Treasure boxes
Three of the treasure boxes have been recovered. The first was found in Chicago, Illinois; the second in Cleveland, Ohio; and the most recent treasure box was found in Boston, Massachusetts. The remaining nine treasure boxes have not yet been recovered. The Boston treasure box's recovery was filmed for Discovery Channel's television show Expedition Unknown and aired on Wednesday, October 30, 2019.| Image No. | Verse No. | Verse opening | Status | Location | Ref. |
| 1 | 7 | At stone wall's door | Unsolved | San Francisco, California | |
| 2 | 6 | Of all the romance retold | Unsolved | Charleston, South Carolina | |
| 3 | 11 | Pass two friends of octave | Unsolved | Roanoke Island, North Carolina | |
| 4 | 4 | Beneath two countries | Solved | Cleveland, Ohio | |
| 5 | 12 | Where M and B are set in stone | Solved | Chicago, Illinois | |
| 6 | 9 | The first chapter Written in water | Unsolved | St. Augustine, Florida | |
| 7 | 2 | At the place where jewels abound | Unsolved | New Orleans, Louisiana | |
| 8 | 1 | Fortress north Cold as glass | Unsolved | Houston, Texas | |
| 9 | 5 | LaneTwo twenty two | Unsolved | Montreal, Canada | |
| 10 | 8 | View the three stories of Mitchell | Unsolved | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | |
| 11 | 3 | If Thucydides is North of Xenophon | Solved | Boston, Massachusetts | |
| 12 | 10 | In the shadow Of the grey giant | Unsolved | New York, New York |