Kenjmor2006
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- #1
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[TD="width: 100%"] : Greetings, : I was surprised not to have found any post on this forum that spent time concerning the Beale Papers. Perhaps this has already been lengthy discussed and if so I would be much obliged shoulkd you wish to share any findings. : In short the Beale stroy goes like this: Late nineteenth century a pamphlet was published by a certain James Ward that spoke of happenings in Bedford county virginia USA some fifty years earlier. Supposedly million dollar treasure was buried (consisting of gold, silver and jewelry) somewhere within a natural vault and covered to return to later. This treasure was supposed to have been gathered by a number of men of about thirty. The story vaguely tells that none came to return for the gold. Except for Thomas Jefferson Beale who made a second deposit and left the mysterious clue to a hotellier whom he found friendly and honest. He gave the hotellier a box and told him to wait until news came from TJ or not sooner than ten years. : Years passed and after more than 20 years the hotellier, convinced Beale had perished on his lat trip out of edford,opened the box and found amongst else three papers covered with numbers. Years he spent trying o figure the codes out but was unsuccesfull and passed the papers on to James Ward who in turn spent also years figuring out the code with a small succes. Ward (or the author of the pamphlet) broke the code of the second sheet (the one without title) and found a small description of startingpoint and the contents of the treasure. Using the Declaration of Independence and what is known as a book-cipher he was able to extract for each word the first letter of the word of the DOI the number represented. : But all other efforts poved fruitless. Treasure seekers throughout the world tried their hand at breaking the code which still seems to have ben unbroken. Later a wrong version circulated (the original papers having been destroyed in a fire) of the ciphers in the form of the Hart Papers. But a version of the Pamphlet was found in the Library or Congress and published for all to read (you can find your own version on the Internet by simply typing "Beale treasure" on Yahoo or something). : After having read the story (there is more to it) one must consider that it might all be a hoax. A fake to lure late nineteenth centurers to buy a fading memory of the early days of the West. However all arguments that prove it wrong could also be explained to conclude them right. For instance the discussion why the third document was encypted (containing the names and residences of the thirty in question) at all could be easily explained as follows: If the second document is somehow a key to the third or if the third document is somehow a key to the first then any attempt to locate the directions should be done via document three. That means that you will have to translate the names before an attempt to find treasure can succeed. Thus when you wish to make the find public the names will be their and the offspring may lay claim to their cut. Off course this is just a hunch. : If this isn't a clever fake then we may also consider that the treasure is long gone. In Cambridge there was a link to a certain "Old miser Beale" who was supposedly buried on his treasure in 1844. Many treasure hunters have since visited Bedford to attempt to locate the treasure on their own without the papers. Such a find would off course best be kept secret. There are also claims of difficult formula's used to break the codes but the distinguishable Beale, surely a learned englishman, would not make its efforts to difficult I think for the Hotellier in whom he confided could not be expected to solve Pi-like enigma's. Eben with the key. So there is the real possibility that the story is either fake or that the treasure has already been found. Yet still this story does not end then. : For the true treasure lies within the Beale Papers. When reading it one cannot help himself just to suspect the prospects of what is written. Such a story can hardly be a fabrication and gives any man inside info on how life was before the auto on the american frontier. Even with the treasure long gone the solution to this riddle (which has eluded proffesional and amateur for nearly 200 years now) will make you world famous and give you a strong beginning position in the world of treasure hunting. And that is perhaps the real treasure. : I have my own ideas but so far my humble attempts amounted to nothing. Should you wish to share your finds or thoughts please don't hesitate to mail me or to reply to this post. : |
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