> In 2021 Michel Becker became the official organiser of the treasure hunt, obtaining the sealed envelope containing the hunt solution from the family of Régis Hauser. Becker journeyed with a legal bailiff to check that the owl prize was still buried at the location revealed in the solution. He reported that when he dug at the spot he found the owl missing and instead found a rusty iron bird. He replaced this rusty bird with a new bronze owl so that the treasure hunt could continue<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...</a><p>Sounds like somebody actually had already solved it?
Reminds me a bit of Alkemstone. I went snooping about old games magazines from the early 80s and there was an advert for the prize for that game (it really is just a maze with a series of clues). The ultimate solution was to be a location of the Alkemstone (presumably a fake gem) which one would exchange for the prize.<p>I think the guy who created it died long ago and the legal office which was meant to verify the prize is also maybe defunct (?). I'm also skeptical the "stone" would be wherever it was meant to be at this point anyways (similar to a number of the boxes from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt)</a> are theorized to be now inaccessible or destroyed).<p>Anyways, people are still trying to solve it. Last I heard someone claimed that they and their friends had paired all the clues in some way and were close to solving it, but they were very cagey about it. That was over a year ago I think.<p><a href="https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/" rel="nofollow">https://bluerenga.blog/2021/07/27/alkemstone-all-the-clues/</a>
Note that the ACTUAL organizer of the treasure hunt is not Michel Becker, but Régis Hauser (aka Max Valentin) who died more than 10 years ago.<p>Michel Becker only helped illustrate the book that is the support for the hunt and has taken over it when he passed.<p>As far as I know this was quite controversial because he had not knowledge about the riddles or how to solve them, and was only able to take over because there was a notarized enveloped left behind by the original creator which explained everything.
Discussed here in 2023 at: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467</a>
The actual post <a href="https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-years/" rel="nofollow">https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-yea...</a><p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png</a>
Here's a BBC article, found via the Wikipedia page. Very little additional detail though.<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o</a><p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...</a>
Reminds me very much of the Masquerade book in the UK: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)</a>
Similar: the Forrest Fenn treasure <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure</a>
I did geocaching with my kids when they were small - it was great. We were walking in new places and discovering areas we had no idea about. Great times.<p>We even had geotags that were supposed to travel the world but we somehow lost them. We also had a cache.<p>We do not do that anymore but when I am somewhere I sometimes check for caches, for the nostalgia.
Seems to be hugged to death. Web archive has a copy for those interested:<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowlhunt.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowl...</a><p>Edit: Unfortunately, only the home page is archived, not the article it links to.
I love these ongoing puzzles. For some reason, this brings Cicada 3301 to mind. I never heard many details about that beyond its existence and some theories behind what it meant.