TREASURE IN THE HEARTLAND
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 5:55AM I am thrilled to report that Christina Wagner, a high school senior in Wisconsin, is the unearther of the Khroniker's 8. Her story of heroic truancy:
My Aunt Mary suggested that my father and I check out The Clock Without A Face because she knew that it was right up our alley. Once we had the book I set out searching for clues, and it occupied a lot of my free time both at home and at school — not a lot of schoolwork was done. When I brought it to school after our Advanced Placement testing, almost everyone didn’t quite believe that there were real numbers hidden and laughed at the idea. But my best friend wanted to get in on this, and so during class she and I would look at the book together and try to figure out clues.
I really liked Floor 5 a lot, and put a lot of my focus on it. I gathered my first clue from the magic square of boxes all adding up to 21. I knew that Illinois was the 21st state to join the Union, and when I looked up the year, it was 1818. I thought about this for a bit, and realized this: the magic square focuses on 21, and 1818 was two 18’s right next to each other — coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Anyways, I figured it must be there.
The next thing that caught my eye was the book The 39 Clues. I knew from the several trips we took on the Interstates 39-90-94 that there was definitely an Interstate 39 that ran north and south through Wisconsin, so wouldn’t it go through Illinois as well? After double-checking on a map, I knew my highway. It came time to figure out the mile…
I looked at the book opened on the ladies' table, searched and examined each page carefully, and came to the conclusion it was open to Floor 2. I re-read the text and realized how many time the number 2 came up throughout the time with the ladies. 2 ladies, 2 years, 2 robbers… Mile Marker 2!! It all made sense. The easier part was done — I knew the state, road and mile marker — now all I needed to do was convince my dad to go. For three weeks I harassed him, reminded him, told him it was there and pushed him to go. After the first number was found, I continued to remind him, and the following day with four more numbers discovered and still not Floor 5, I kept reminding him.
Finally he gave in. I woke up Wednesday morning, and was about to get ready for school. He walked into my room and asked if I wanted to go check out my spot, and I gave him a look and said something about "What have I been saying…" He said we better go because if there is something there and if someone else finds it, then he would never hear the end of it.
So I was called sick into school — I mean, with two weeks left of school nothing super-important was going on anyway, and it was cooler to say, “I went treasure hunting and actually found what I was looking for” than “I had another boring day of school where every class we watched some strange video or played games all period.” So we set out on our one-hour journey to Illinois. Since Dad knew the brakes on the car would need to be replaced soon, he was kind of nervous and visions of the Flintstone car came to our minds.
Thankfully we made it in one piece and we began looking. A maintenance worker gave us awkward looks after we started walking tree to tree, and Dad made a comment about being a tree-hugger and gave a huge bear-hug to a tree. I told him to stop being so embarrassing.
After around thirty minutes of looking at every tree and getting strange looks, Dad noticed the metal marker on the tree that I was preparing to look at next. It was amazing to see. He told me to hurry and bring our mini shovel, and I just couldn’t believe it. (There was no rush — we were the only people near and the rest of the people didn’t seem to be looking for it anyway. Besides, what happened to my last 3 weeks of harassing him to go?)
We pulled the package out of the hole, and I had my prize. I tore off of the bags and opened the case. There sat a neatly wrapped cloth with a wax seal. I unwrapped it and there sat the number 8. It was a little tarnished, but beautiful and all mine. I immediately took pictures on my phone and sent them to my best friend who read and searched the book with me and also my Aunt Mary who originally sent us the book. They were both in complete shock and wanted to see it right away. I was able to show my best friend later that day. I told Dad I was right, and he gave me bragging rights to the entire family, because I’m the only one to solve and find a buried prize. Maybe when I figure out where the next one is, we will go right away. Not at all bad for someone two weeks from graduation.
Reader Comments (9)
Nice job, Christina! You and your dad will remember this bonding experience the rest of your lives. Perhaps you should consider a career in encryption (or decryption?)!
Way to go Christina. Wow the 8 looks incredibly beautiful.
Heroic truancy indeed. Congratulations! I can't imagine how the 12 is more beutiful than this.
Good woork! Was it found at a rest stop or just along the highway?
how much was it appraised for?
Who cares how much it was appraised for? Just being the first one to dig it up is prize enough for me.
Whoa. That was really smart of you! Did the people you tell call you a liar or ask for proof? Well, I wouldn't have. GREAT job!
Aww, thanks Aly Ray! :)
After word spread to my teachers that I had an exciting and interesting story about buried treasure, they all, along with my peers, wanted to hear the story and see the number. It was pretty sweet. I was able to give a couple of mini-presentations to some of my classes and my principal was thrilled to hear about it as well!!
I have been taking splenda for several months. Just lately I realized that the moles on arms and especially legs had increased.By a sudden impulse while visiting my doctor for something else I showed the increased moles to him on one leg. He pointed out that two of the moles did not look good, he sent one small part of one of them to the lab and it came back as pre- cancerous. Both moles have been removed since. No more splenda for me. tulswn tulswn - 2012 Moncler Gilet.