THE SECRET Explained

Spoiler Alert

This website reveals solutions to the nine remaining unsolved puzzles in Byron Preiss’ book, The Secret. If you enjoy working on these puzzles and wish to continue solving them on your own, go no further.

On the other hand, if there are clues that you have pondered to your wit's end, read on and they will likely be made clear.

Introduction

In 1982 Byron Preiss published a book titled THE SECRET, A Treasure Hunt. It contained 12 puzzles that, when solved, led to the location of 12 buried boxes. Within each box was a key that, when mailed to an address in the book, could be exchanged for a gemstone. To date, only 3 of the 12 puzzles have been solved and had their keys exchanged for gemstones.

Byron died in a traffic accident in 2005. His family has decided to continue awarding the remaining gemstones in his memory. The reason I have decided to post the remaining 9 puzzle solutions is twofold. It is possible that one of you might succeed where I have failed in getting permission from the various parks to dig up the remaining keys. But most of all, my hope is that these solutions will go a long way in revealing Byron’s considerable talent and creativity.

Important Basics

There are no common keys, codes, or cyphers that unlock all the puzzles.

Though a couple of the puzzles do interrelate, each puzzle can be solved independent of the others.

Byron’s clues served two basic functions. They either referred to historic sites or notable landmarks in the area of the treasure, to affirm the general location, or they led you closer to the exact location of the treasure.

Somewhat contrary to popular thinking, Byron’s puzzles always necessarily resulted in an exact location. He knew that if he didn’t provide precise instructions, it would be next to impossible to find such a small box beneath the ground. Any solution that does not result in an exact location is not the solution that Byron intended.

Only in one puzzle did Byron rely on measurements to define the treasure’s location. In all the rest his clues led to objects, which in turn served to locate the treasure. This is why, when Byron used the terms “paces” or “steps” it was never for the purpose of establishing an exact distance. He equated those terms to the commonly approximated distance of 2.5 feet (30 inches), for the more general purpose of finding a particular object that delineated the exact location of the treasure.

Byron’s clues never required a specific time of day or year to solve them. Even though a couple of the puzzles use the term “shadow”, none actually require using the sun to locate the treasure.

As difficult as it is to accomplish, Byron crafted a great many of his clues to have multiple meanings. This is why many lines in the verses sound a bit awkward or odd, their wording and punctuation have been compromised to accommodate several meanings. This is perhaps the largest contributing factor to why these puzzles have remained unsolved for so long. Those many multiple meanings result in untold permutations of possible solutions.

In addition to multiple meanings, Byron was well adept at using wordplay, and readily did so in every puzzle.

Byron’s two most common tools when creating clues were a clockface and compass dial.

The Nine Remaining Unsolved Puzzles

To view any puzzle solution, type its city in the "Search" box (upper-right) and click on the icon.

The Milwaukee Solution

The Charleston Solution

The New York Solution

The St. Augustine Solution

The Montreal Solution

The San Francisco Solution

The Roanoke Island Solution

The Houston Solution

The New Orleans Solution

Questions & Comments

Contact: TheSecretExplained@yahoo.com