The hunt
We put $26,350 in American Gold Eagle coins in a mason jar and left it on the forest floor somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. Over 7,500 people signed up to go find it.
A clue went out every morning for ten days. The circle on the map got smaller, the trail cam posted a fresh photo, a drone shot went up, and a riddle went out. A raccoon we named Wrecky kept showing up on the cam at night and ended up the mascot of the whole thing.
Corey and Zoe found it
Corey and his daughter Zoe found the jar at 12:41 in the afternoon on Saturday, October 18. They drove up from Northeast Georgia with their dogs Remi and Winni and hiked in a little over two miles.
They saved every trail cam photo we posted and matched the cloud shadows in them against public weather data on Zoom Earth. That got them to the right part of the mountain. The shadows in the drone photos and the leaves on the ground did the rest. They walked past the jar a couple of times before they saw it.
The treasure sat about 25 yards off the Blue Trail on the Bailey Mountain Loop in Mars Hill. That land is public, open every day of the year, and free to park at.
Corey and Zoe left a silver bar behind in a jar of peanuts. @WeatherMan found it about thirty minutes later. He had been crunching weather data of his own and walked the same trail the same afternoon.
Where the money went
Corey and Zoe gave away the entire side pot. All $16,420 of it went to Hurricane Helene relief, which brought the total to $21,000. On Halloween I drove up with three big checks.
Appalachia Service Project in Johnson City, Tennessee got $10,000. They have been making homes warmer, safer, and drier across Appalachia since 1969. They had handed a rebuilt house back to its owner the week before I got there, with twenty more in progress.
Bee Log Community & Relief Center in Burnsville, North Carolina got $10,000. They took over the old Bee Log Elementary and turned it into a place people can walk into for food, clothes, and supplies. The money is redoing the school kitchen and adding an apartment for families who lost their homes.
Bailey Mountain Preserve in Mars Hill got $1,000. Ryan and Laura's team cleared and reopened those trails after Helene. The money helps them buy land next to the preserve and keep the trails growing. I hiked up the same day and got the trail cam back.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who hunted, upgraded, bought a Wrecky Raccoon hoodie, or just watched the map shrink every morning. And congratulations, Corey and Zoe.