The Story
- It is important to note that all of the following information originates from one source — a single pamphlet published in 1885, entitled "The Beale Papers."
The treasure was said to have been obtained by an American man named Thomas Beale in 1816, to the north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, most likely in what would now be Colorado. Beale supposedly led about 29 adventurers on the discovery, but no solid proof of Beale's existence, or that of any of his companions, has yet been found in any public or private record.
Beale allegedly placed the cipher texts in an iron box, and left it with a reliable person in 1822, a Lynchburg innkeeper, Robert Morriss. The treasure was supposed to be buried near Montvale in Bedford County, Virginia. Beale asked Morriss not to open the box, unless he or one of his men failed to return from their journey within 10 years. Beale promised a friend in St. Louis would mail Morriss the key to the cryptograms, but it never arrived. In 1843 Morriss opened the box and unsuccessfully attempted to solve the ciphers. Decades later he left the box and contents to a friend.
Using an edition of the United States Declaration of Independence as the key for a modified book cipher, the friend successfully deciphered the second cipher text, which gave descriptions of the buried treasure. The friend ultimately made the letters and cipher texts public, apparently by James B Ward, in an 1885 pamphlet titled The Beale Papers. Ward is thus not 'the friend'. Ward himself is almost untraceable in local records except that a man with that name owned the home in which a Sarah Morriss, identified as the consort of Robert Morriss, died in at 77 (Lynchburg Virginian newspaper, May 21, 1865). He also is recorded as becoming a Master Mason in 1863. There was no explanation of the accident which led to the solution of the second ciphertext, which perhaps suggests that there was additional information now lost (from Morriss?).
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Beale's first cryptogram
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Beale's second cryptogram (the deciphered one)
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Beale's third cryptogram.
Read more about this topic: Beale Ciphers
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