The Facts Stated Here are Encrypted as Persher/Perser Code, or as a "Cover Story"
On the cover it says 'Buried in 1819 and 1821'.....which correlate to dates later written in the story as November 1819 and December 1821
The underlying fact is that these are coded points of reference set as Degrees of Inclination and the Mileage from a certain point where they mined.
The reinforcement grows when you see the fact that Ward who "Published" the information, was also a Mapping Cartographer who "Published" this as well
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So we take the Fact and go follow these distances from Buford's......and what do you get? A Set of Mines in Arizona that are exactly 300 miles away from Santa Fe.
There we find a series of 18 mines, 30 bodies, and a Set of Maps that show a central dot, and two easterly positioned dots which correlate to the mileage listed in the cover above.
There is another stone showing the mileage back that way as 1847 and the number ten and a degree symbol as well.
They also show a word misspelled in spanish that says Moneta. Not Moneda, but Moneta, for the town of Moneta, VA
The next fact we find is that the maps lead back through a certain area near Buford's to matching marks found on the stones
There is a huge terra carved map, a carving transposed from Bedford Basin, NS, and an Omega Carved, next to a heart with an arrow there
The final clue is found on the etched stone heart in Latin, showing the 30 locations of the men's shares and the Vault
It's not that hard to see once you have the maps. They show the exact sequences needed to take, and there is even a clue in the Gold Bug that shows you where to turn to find the Heart after finding the Omega
As far as solving the ciphers B1 and B3. Use the DOI as listed in the papers....not any other copy...but what is listed there including the "Mistakes"
Take the sequence listed after #500.........remove the first 10 words after that, and then start the count over there as if the 511th word is the 1st letter and go from there to solve the Beale.
What an easy game that was.
I have had harder times doing crossword puzzles before