Treasure hunters race to find gold trophy that may be hidden in Massachusetts woods

The News Guy

2 months ago

BOSTON – A $26,000 gold trophy may be hidden in the woods in Massachusetts. It’s part of a large treasure orchestrated by two New Hampshire men.

What is the prize?

Video game developer Jason Rohrer and his cohort Tom Bailey are the creators of Project Skydrop. They are the ones who placed the gold statue in the forest. The two are treasure hunt enthusiasts.

“The treasure contains 10 ounces of pure gold, and gold is at the highest price in human history – lucky for us today -so the treasure is currently worth, like, $26,000 if you melt it down,” said Rohrer. “Most [treasure hunts] have just sort of giant flaws in them where they kind of broke in one way or another. Either they were way too easy and solved right away or way too hard.”

The trophy is not only a prize, but a clue to decoding the recovery password to access the money in a Bitcoin purse. The money in it grows every time someone enters the race. As of September 24, the pot more than $20,000.

The treasure is a gold statue containing at least 10 ounces of pure gold. It’s hidden somewhere in the New England woods.

Project Skydrop

How to play

“If you join the treasure hunt for 20 bucks, you get access to clues that members of the public don’t get,” explains Rohrer.

The benefits include ever-evolving aerial images of the trophy that expand higher and higher over time to show more of the surrounding area. The hunters began with a 500-mile circular search radius on a map. The circle shrinks as the hunt continues, and there is also a live trail camera on the trophy.

“Instead of sitting at your screen pretending you are having an adventure, you’re actually going out into the real world and actually having a real adventure,” says Rohrer.

Real-life treasure hunters

Matt Hopkinson is one of the hunters. The Hubbardston native used to work for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and is putting his forestry skills to the test.

“I went for a day hike, which is fun anyway, and I stood in so many places this morning with the right kind of trees and leaves and everything. It’s like, ‘It should be here; it should be right here in front of me,'” said Hopkinson.

The current circle ranges from eastern New York into western Massachusetts. A group on the social media and chat program Discord have been discussing clues.

“So you can kind of tell when sunrise and sunset is, and there is no way it’s western New York,” said Hopkinson.

If he finds the trophy, he plans to keep it instead of selling off the gold.

“What good is a story without the prop?” asked Hopkinson.

So far, the only living beings to spot the trophy are a deer, an opossum, and a porcupine. The trail camera will capture the eventual winners discovering the trophy.

“If it’s successful, we want to do different locations, like West Coast. We’re talking to people from Australia,” said Bailey.