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THE RIDDLE OF THE BEALE TREASURE

By Carol Shaughnessy.

Ich füge ihn hier ein, weil nach meinen bisherigen Erfahrungen Texte sehr schnell ins Nimmerwiedersehen verschwinden. So sind mehrere, vermutlich wichtige Quellen nicht mehr auffindbar, obwohl sie laut Altavista vorhanden sein müßten.

THE RIDDLE OF THE BEALE TREASURE

"I have deposited, in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number three herewith.

"The first deposit consisted of ten hundred and fourteen pounds of gold and thirty-eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited Nov. eighteen nineteen. The second was made Dec. eighteen twenty-one, and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold and twelve hundred and eighty-eight of silver; also jewels obtained in St. Louis in exchange to save transportation and valued at thirteen thousand dollars. "The above is securely packed in iron pots with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone and are covered with others. Paper number one describes the exact locality of the vault so that no difficulty will be had in finding it."

Deciphered from a cryptogram and first made public in 1885, the words above triggered one of the country's most fascinating treasure hunts-and one that continues to this day. The cryptogram, one of three, was originally discovered in a padlocked iron box by Virginia innkeeper Robert Morriss in 1845. He had been charged with the safekeeping of the box twenty-three years previously by a swarthy, well spoken gentleman who gave the name of Thomas J. Beale. In both 1820 and 1822, Beale had spent three months at Morriss' Washington Hotel in Lynchburg; he asked the innkeeper to hold the iron box before departing in 1822.

According to Beale's instructions, if he or an associate had not called for the box at the end of ten years, Morriss was to break the heavy padlock and open it. A letter from Beale, confirming these instructions, was delivered to Morriss several months after his former lodger's departure. Written from St. Louis, the letter underlined the importance of certain papers contained in the box, and explained that they would be unintelligible without a "key." He was headed for the plains on a hunting expedition and would be gone at least two years, Beale wrote, but he had left the key with a friend in St. Louis. It would be delivered to Morriss in June of 1832 if Beale had not returned.

The promised key never arrived, nor did any other message. Even after the requisite ten years had passed Robert Morriss hesitated to open the mysterious box, feeling sure that eventually Beale or an emissary would come for it. At last, however, he carried out his former lodger's wishes and raised the lid. When he did so, Morriss found a long letter, addressed to him and signed by Beale, that detailed a pulse-stirring adventure-the discovery of unbelievably rich gold and silver deposits in the unexplored American West.

A Golden Journey

In 1817, Beale wrote, he and twenty-nine companions determined to venture into the western plains on a two-year expedition searching for buffalo, grizzlies, and whatever other game they could find. Leaving Virginia in April they journeyed to St. Louis to outfit the company and procure a guide. In mid-May, they departed for Santa Fe. Along the way, Beale was elected captain of the adventurers' band.

The group reached Santa Fe in time to settle in for a long and apparently monotonous winter. By March, several of the men had grown restless and set out on a short hunting trip-one that would change not only the complexion of their western expedition, but their lives. A month passed without the hunters' return. Beale and his remaining companions, increasingly uneasy, prepared to send out scouts to trace them. Before they could, however, two of the hunting party reappeared and unfolded an amazing tale.

After successfully bagging an abundance of game, the hunters revealed, they spotted a herd of buffalo and tracked it northward until they were some 250 or 300 miles from Santa Fe. As they camped one night in a small ravine, one of their number made an incredible discovery: a rich vein of gold in the nearby rocks. Eager to extract the glittering ore, the hunting party immediately dispatched the two messengers to bring Beale and his companions to the discovery site.

"Upon reaching the locality I found all as it had been represented, and the excitement intense," wrote Beale to Morriss. "Every one was diligently at work with such tools and appliances as they had improvised, and quite a little pile had already accumulated."

Under his leadership an organized mining effort began, with each member of the adventurers' band to share equally in the ultimate profit. According to Beale's letter, "... the work progressed favorably for eighteen months or more, and a great deal of gold had accumulated in my hands, as well as silver, which had likewise been found."

Although the area's Indian inhabitants had given the mining operation no trouble, as the gold and silver mounted so did the uneasiness of Beale and his companions. Not only were Indians a threat, but because the New Mexico and Colorado territories were Spanish possessions, capture by Spanish soldiers was quite possible. While Beale and his party were understandably anxious about their own well-being, the safety of their growing wealth was their primary concern.

After long debate, a method of protecting the treasure was determined. "It was finally decided that it would be best to send it to Virginia, under my charge, and there be securely buried in a cave near Buford's Tavern, in the county of Bedford, which all of us had visited, and which was considered a perfectly safe depository," related Beale in the Morriss letter.

To guard their riches from marauders roaming the wild, uninhabited western plains, the entire party traveled together for the first five hundred miles of the eastward trek. After that, the majority returned to the mines while Beale and ten escorts continued toward Virginia with the hoard. Arriving late in 1819, they quickly discovered a problem: the preselected cave was totally unacceptable for storing valuables. "It was too frequently visited by the neighboring farmers, who used it as a receptacle for their sweet potatoes and other vegetables," Beale wrote, somewhat indignantly, to Morriss. "We soon selected a better place, and to this the treasure was safely transferred."

It was just after the burial of this treasure, in January of 1820, that Beale journeyed to Lynchburg's Washington Hotel and first made the acquaintance of Robert Morriss. According to his letter-and at his companions' request-he was searching for a reliable, reputable person to hold the tale of the treasure and, in case of some disaster to the party, distribute the wealth to the adventurers' heirs.

Robert Morriss, a man of proven moral character who was extremely well liked by his neighbors, appeared to be that person. After staying at the Washington Hotel for nearly three months, Beale returned to the frontier mining operation and recommended the innkeeper as custodian of all documents pinpointing the band's hoard.

His choice was accepted, and plans were made to deposit the information with Morriss. Meanwhile, the extraction of both gold and silver continued. By late 1821, another large quantity of ore had been amassed and Beale was once again chosen to transport it to safety in Virginia. This he did, caching it with the original deposit in Bedford County. Afterwards, he spent most of the winter of 1822 at the Washington Hotel.

Before he left the inn, he handed Robert Morriss the iron box, telling him little about its contents but asking him to keep it safe until called for. Beale then began his long westward journey for the third and apparently last time, pausing in St. Louis to pen the brief missive that Morriss received several months later. He was never seen or heard from again.

"The Beale Papers"

When Morriss opened Beale's box and read the communication within, he realized he had a formidable mystery on his hands. With the explanatory letter were a short note from Beale and several sheets covered with rows of scrawled numbers. According to the letter, the cryptic number sheets could be decoded easily using the key; the resulting passages would reveal the specific contents of the cache of gold and silver, its exact location, and the names of Beale's adventurer companions with their designated heirs. Morriss was requested to recover the treasure and divide it among the heirs, taking a full share for himself as compensation. Intrigued, the innkeeper puzzled over the enigmatic papers. It was fairly common for 19th-century gentlemen to write important messages in code-but although he hoped to break the ciphers and carry out Beale's wishes, his task was exceedingly difficult because the promised key had never arrived from St. Louis. At last, in 1862, forty years after originally receiving the box, he shared its contents with a young friend, urging him to attempt to solve the cryptograms and recover the lost riches. Shortly thereafter, Morriss died.

The identity of the young friend remains one of the most baffling mysteries surrounding the Beale treasure-particularly since he wrote an account of the entire story, had it printed at Virginian Book & Job Print, and released it for sale to the public in 1885! While some students of the Beale story believe that the author was one James B. Ward, who applied for and received a copyright for the material, others assert that Ward was only the author's agent.

Released anonymously in Lynchburg and called "The Beale Papers," the pamphlet contained copies of the letter and note found in the iron box, the coded number sheets, and the letter Morriss received from St. Louis. In addition, it included a statement from the innkeeper about Beale's visits and request to safeguard the box, as well as the story of the author's own twenty-year effort to decipher the codes. "Unlike any other pursuit with practical and natural results, a charm attended it, independent of the ultimate benefit ... and the possibility of success lent an interest and excitement to the work not to be resisted," he noted in "The Beale Papers," proving in those words his kinship with every treasure hunter from Biblical times onward. According to his pamphlet, the author's single-minded devotion to the task was rewarded when he found the key to the second code.

"My impression was that each figure represented a letter, but as the numbers so greatly exceeded the letters of the alphabet, that many different numbers represented the same letter," he wrote. "With this idea, a test was made of every book I could procure, by numbering its letters and comparing the numbers with those. Of the manuscript; all to no purpose, however, until the Declaration of Independence afforded the clue to one of the papers ..."

What Morriss' friend rightfully surmised was that this Beale code is a substitution cipher. Dependent on a book or document as the key, such ciphers are created by numbering the words in the text; in this case, every number in the resultant code represents the first letter of the word bearing that number in the text. Just as Beale assured Morriss, the code is easily deciphered if the key is known. The Declaration of Independence did indeed unlock the cryptogram the mysterious author had labeled Code Two. Substituting letters for numbers, he deciphered the passage at the start of this account, which he later reproduced in "The Beale Papers."

As well as giving an exact description of the treasure hidden by Beale, Code Two offered several tantalizing clues to its location. Unfortunately for Morriss' friend, he quickly discovered that Code One, giving the precise location of the hoard, did not rely on the same key. After toiling over the puzzle for more than two decades, family discord and severe financial demands finally made it necessary for him to abandon the quest and seek a more profitable occupation. Broke and despondent, he determined to put temptation beyond his reach and end his responsibility to Morriss by publishing the codes and the tale of the treasure.

As noted, he did so in 1885. Whether this mysterious author, treasure hunter, and friend of Morriss was Ward or someone else, he is now long dead-but he left behind "The Beale Papers" to spark one of the longest-running treasure hunts in the history of the United States.

Treasure--True or False?

For more than a hundred years, the elements of the Beale narrative-gold and silver mines in the uncharted West, a hidden cache of riches, a mysterious code have been too much for adventurous spirits to resist. Driven by the challenge and dreams of wealth, they have brought various skills and disciplines to the hunt. Residents of 1890s Virginia sought the hoard armed with shovels and local knowledge; modern-day seekers bring metal detectors to probe the Bedford County terrain and use computers to attack the codes.

Yet some people are skeptical of the treasure hunters. Expressing doubt that Beale existed at all, they speculate that the entire story was a clever hoax by Morriss and Ward. While records of births and deaths, property transactions, and military service have turned up several Virginians named Thomas Beale living in the early 1800s, no evidence has been found to indicate that one of them was involved in a cross-country hunting expedition or mining operation.

Believers in the tale argue, insisting that creating "The Beale Papers" and the codes would have taken a great deal of time and effort, as well as money for publishing-so what would Ward and Morriss have hoped to gain by a hoax?

While some postulate that the fabulous hoard of gold and silver was found long ago and secretly removed, others continue the hunt. Even Mel Fisher, discoverer of the fabulous treasure of the sunken Spanish galleons journeyed to Bedford County seeking Beale's cache.

Often called the world's greatest living treasure hunter, Fisher was approached several years ago by a woman who claimed to have cracked Code One-the cipher detailing the precise location of the vault. Relying on information she provided, he purchased a piece of property that supposedly contained the treasure site and sent a crew to investigate.

"We went up and dug a hole, and it was empty," Fisher recently related in his spare, understated style. Encountering neither vault nor treasure, he later sold the property. Although the search was fruitless, it didn't turn Mel Fisher into an unbeliever. He maintains a thick file of letters from people claiming to have deciphered the codes, and reports that he may one day return to Bedford County and continue his search for the Beale cache.

IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION ...

While the account printed here provides an accurate and detailed history of the Beale treasure and the material contained in "The Beale Papers," further research and a study of the codes will be necessary if you decide to seek the treasure yourself.

The following are two of the best books on the subject, both containing reproductions of "The Beale Papers," various maps, and all three codes in their entirety. THE BEALE TREASURE, A HISTORY of a MYSTERY, written by Peter Viemeister, a longtime resident of Bedford County, Virginia, and former chairman of the Bedford Museum. This book contains an in-depth look at the Beale history and possible genealogy as well as detailed descriptions of potential treasure sites; it also offers accounts of unsuccessful hunts, speculation on the veracity of the Beale story, and comments from inhabitants of Bedford County. Its bibliography of additional reference material is excellent. The book can be ordered by sending $22 (which includes postage) to Hamilton's Bookstore, P.O. Box 932, Bedford, VA 24523.

Gold in the Blue Ridge: The True Story of the Beale, penned by the team of P.B. Innis and Walter Dean Innis. The book contains pivotal information from a man named George Hart and an account of the Innises' own search for the treasure-plus a fictionalized version of Beale's journey. Try to get the updated 1994 edition, which includes valuable material about possible inaccuracies in the codes published in "The Beale Papers." This volume is in print and available in many libraries, or it can be ordered through major bookstores.

Please note, however, that the two books sometimes contradict each other. For example, Peter Viemeister makes a case that James Ward was merely the agent for the author of "The Beale Papers," while the Innises believe Ward himself authored the pamphlet; also, the two books' versions of the pamphlet and the code sheets vary slightly.

You may also want to contact The Beale Cypher Association, an organization of people interested in the Beale story and codes whose members have approached them from a number of directions - including sophisticated cryptanalysis. The association's current director is Robert E. Caldwell; its address is P.O. Box 975, Beaver Falls, PA 15010-0975.

CLUES and CONSIDERATIONS

Description of treasure: 2,921 pounds of gold, 5,100 pounds of silver, and jewels valued at $13,000 in 1821.

Time Period it was Hidden: The first deposit was made in November of 1819, the second in December of 1821.

Estimated Current Value: Peter Viemeister estimates it at more than $21 million; other experts suggest the value may be as high as $35 million.

General Search Area: Bedford County, Virginia, in the Goose Creek Valley region near the Peaks of Otter mountains.

Specific Search Area: Within a four-mile radius of Buford's - which may refer to the early 19th-century Buford's Tavern, or to the town of Buford's (today called Montvale).

Method of Burial: Packed in iron pots with iron covers, in a stone-lined vault six feet below the surface of the ground.

Legal Considerations: Most of the search area is privately owned, and many landowners have been approached (and sometimes bothered) by treasure hunters. DO NOT SEARCH WITHOUT PERMISSION! Make careful arrangements with landowners-not only for permission to search, but regarding rights and division in the event that you find the treasure.

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