‘Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.’

If the Indiana Jones movies have taught us anything — other than that it’s smart to quit while you’re ahead — it’s that being a treasure hunter seems like a lot of fun.

Real life has fewer opportunities for hunting treasure than fiction, unfortunately, so it’s good that people with too much money, creativity, or both have set up actual quests for valuable prizes:

• In 2010, millionaire and eccentric showman Forrest Fenn announced that he had hidden a treasure chest full of gold and gemstones somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
  • Five people died searching for the chest, worth an estimated ~$1m, prompting authorities to call on Fenn to end the hunt.
  • A man named Jack Stuef found the treasure in 2020, shortly before Fenn’s death, and he has refused to reveal its location.
• In the ‘80s, author Byron Preiss launched a hunt for 12 treasure boxes hidden in North America. Only three were ever found, and Preiss died without recording each box’s location.

Another search begins…

Indie game designer Jason Rohrer has set up another massive treasure hunt with musician Tom Bailey. Called Project Skydrop, this one is hidden somewhere within a 500-mile radius of New York.

The prize is a small golden trophy that’s worth ~$25k and is engraved with a bitcoin wallet passphrase that will give the winner access to a potentially massive pot of prize money.

How do I find it?

Over the next three weeks, that 500-mile radius will steadily shrink until the hunt’s website reveals the exact location.

For $20, you can get access to daily hints.

You’re not supposed to “spill the blood” of anyone else during the search, which shouldn’t need to be said, but it’s good that it was.

You don’t want to be the bad guy in the Indiana Jones movie.