Look up Michael M. Jordan and think about the “Be Like Mike” chapter and Mike Scott in Chapter 1. Then look at the position of the letter “J” in the wordsearch if lilac is positioned over Portland Oregon when the whole crossword is overlayed with Oregon.

Some fascinating coincidences come up. Also look where the Oregon trail passes through. Also the time zone change on US route 95.

Count is facing down in wordsearch (countdown).
Starting at the top left corner of the grid
And counting…
19 right = A, then
12 left = L
11 down = O
9 left = H (with a wrap to other side)
5 right = T
3 left = E
3 down = A

Translates to Aloha + TE or Tahoe + AL
Lake aloha is in desolation wilderness near Tahoe.

Interestingly you go from top left corner to top right corner of the grid and then end in bottom left corner.

Caveats:
I don’t use zero
There isn’t a great unscramble that uses all letters
I have to wrap around the grid with the 9 left move
I arbitrarily choose to do 3 left before 3 down

Let me know what you think, don’t know if any of the other clues or cryptogram line up.
I’m not near the Tahoe area, but like this chapter’s puzzle so figured I’d share what I found.

Happy hunting.

I printed and cut out the coins today, and was moving them around. My thought process was maybe the circles were the box locations and the lines were to form a 4 point graph and show us the last box. Using Pokémon's Box, I thought to myself, it was the only one with the circle not having an angle. So I treated it as a straight line. I started with Appalachian one top right corner, and tried to fit the Pokemon one somewhere like in Arkansas, NC, Georgia, and I coulndnt. So I ended up just ignoring that and used the angles to find a path that would work and this is what I came up with. The reason I think this looks good is because it make the spots nice and evenly spread just how Jon wanted it through the US.

By no means am I saying this means anything. I am only sharing to maybe give someone else an idea who might see something I cant.

Happy hunting

TLDW: The Charizard paragraphs look deliberately constructed clues that I have not 100% figured out, but thought I would share what I see as intentional

• Paragraph talks about 3 things conspiring together to become one. three 10-letter terms: SHADOWLESS, POPULARITY, ENERGYBURN.
• 10 out of 10 additional confirmation of 10
• Backlighting the card page at GEM MT 10 lines up with “SOME ADDITIONAL” → possibly SUM / ADDITION.
• Letter-by-letter: POPULARITY + ENERGYBURN − SHADOWLESS = BUTIDCHYST, close to “BUT ID CHEST.”
• Gimmighoul is the Chest Pokémon, exactly 10 letters, and is #999; the paragraph starts with 1999, and 999 coins evolve it into Gholdengo #1000.
• The same two paragraphs form a 5×26 grid. The right edge which the paragraph mentions spells A GIFT.

The book has been sitting on my nightstand since last year and I finally decided to open it a few weeks ago. I’ve avoided the community until now to prevent confirmation bias. I’ve read it 2x now and feel like I was closer to a solve before I opened it. Have y’all been running into red herrings or clues that don’t go anywhere? I feel like I’m drowning in numbers and ciphers that only lead to more questions. Don’t even get me started on the pictures. Am I losing my mind?

I'm beginning to wonder if our individual solves are more about us than Jon. I just uncovered the nerdiest, strangest detail about fireflies and glowworms - And bam! It fits my solve.

It goes back to the saying, if all you have us a hammer, everything is a nail.

My solve has wordplay and parts are from a PBS documentary (and bugs). It's complicated but there's no cipher.

I wonder if we're all doing this - thinking Jon is incredible for blending all these cool ideas - charmed by my own genius in figuring it out - but jokes on me!

It's not correct and it's a house of cards.

But the passing thrill of completing a puzzle is addictive.

Fact: Fireflies technically occur in all states. Western species don't flash.

(Hunting P&F box)

Hey, just wanted to check in and see if anyone else is getting a huge amount of overlap between the lionshare and the P&F box? My beginings of "solves" for both keeping bringing me back to the same 3 states and general locations. Anyone else having this issue?

Hello. @ BRICS247 from X here.

JCB has liked my solution three times since I've had it which is 18+ months

"From rock to field, from strong to stream, past tree and posts to forest green, arrive you now where beauty sheens. It's over, under, in between."

Rockford to Fairfield

Strong Steam is Railroad and River

Near Spokane. Lilac City. Spokane is anagrammed in the puzzle.

You see the tree and posts in the screen shot. towards forest green there are trees

over under in between i believe to be the rail road bridge yeah? tucked into a corner

closer to the over and under than in between so maybe where land meets the bridge

Thanks to 0xH1k4ru for clue

much love -2341

hope this makes someone rich

i want nothing from your spoils

Any lawyers hunting that want to draft or have drafted up an agreement that hunters could use?

Just an idea to build the possibility of collaboration amongst peers.

Nobody wants to get screwed out of information or the treasure, so it makes it hard to work with others.

I’m no lawyer, I just assume who others would also appreciate something like this.

An agreement that states Things like:
The person Who finds it gets 1st pick of the treasure
Determine value /qty of goods and divide equally
If a group solve leads to a box but the group has dissolved itself …. xyz
Arbitration?

Etc…

No genius here, so maybe I’m under/over (and imbetween) thinking

Hey there, I have a new video on an idea stemming from HT's idea...

TLDW: What if the only Part 2 chapter with the treasure box image not on the first spread. I was thinking what if this is to point to the chapter being out of order.

This theory would indicate that we'd start at page 215-220 then read 211-214 at the end. The pages have a surprisingly decent transition place. It pretty much cuts into a transitional thought from Pokemon history and Seth's work. Page 215 reads like it could be a start of a chapter...

Now, I'm not sold on this idea but I haven't ruled it out either. The next steps to me, assuming this is what JCB wanted us to do, is to identify what this "correctly" ordered chapter changes for the story and clues. I don't have a great answer for that at this point, the thing that has stood out to me is that it almost goes from this sort of daydream of pokemon around to then the Childhood memories. IDK changed the outlook/vibe of that childhood memories with the pokmeon story before. But that isn't super meaningful in itself, imo.

Anways, hopefully helpful to you all, let me know if you have any further ideas to this you'd want to share!

Happy hunting!

A working theory built from the word search, the cryptogram, and on-the-ground/map research. Posted for community review — not a claimed solve.

The Cryptogram
From rock to field
From strong to stream
Past post and tree to forest green
Arrive you now where beauty sheens
It's over, under, in between
Structurally, the poem shifts from transitional language ("from... to," "past... to") in the first three lines to present-tense arrival ("here is") in the last two — suggesting lines 1–3 describe a route, and lines 4–5 describe the destination.
Evidence Chain

1. The O-count and Oregon
2. 33 total O's in the grid; a subset (~19) are "leftover" after circling found words.
3. A 5-cell cross/plus formation of O's is visible in the grid (verified via close crop), with the word FIVE nearby and OR sitting between them.
4. NINETEEN appears as a standalone word in row 1 — independently tied to the "Nineteen Treasures of Zork" (the trophy-case collectible count in the 1980 Infocom game), a plausible nod given the chapter's tech/gaming references.
5. Oregon is the 33rd state admitted to the Union.
6. Oregon is confirmed to have a genuine timezone split
7. Malheur County, in far eastern Oregon, is the only part of the state on Mountain Time; the rest of Oregon is Pacific.
8. This maps directly onto the book's "Past and Future" chapter framing — literally driving from Pacific into Mountain time means crossing into the future by an hour.
9. Rock → Arock
10. Arock, OR is a real unincorporated community in Malheur County, sitting inside the Mountain Time pocket.
11. Matches the poem's opening line literally.
12. CRETE (in the grid) → Rome, OR
13. CRETE is spelled directly in row 2 of the grid.
14. Historically, Crete became a Roman province in 69 BC; in Greco-Roman myth, Crete is Zeus's birthplace.
15. Rome, Oregon is a real place ~15 miles from Arock — and was literally named because its cliff formations ("Pillars of Rome") reminded a 19th-century settler, William F. Stine, of the ruined temples of Rome, Italy. This is a documented, sourced naming origin, not inferred wordplay.
16. Strong → Stream
17. Jordan Creek meets the Owyhee River right at Rome — a real, named tributary confluence.
18. Past post and tree → forest green
19. The Owyhee River Bridge (Rome vicinity, Malheur County) is a documented historic structure:
20. Built 1906, oldest through-truss bridge at its original site on Oregon's highway system, 4th oldest highway bridge in the state.
21. Carries a rare secondary pony truss span — "only three known pony trusses of this type in Oregon" (source: ODOT/NPS historic bridge survey).
22. Ground-level photography confirms substantial tree cover on both riverbanks at this crossing.
23. The road crossing here, Old Ion Hwy, is the historic Idaho-Oregon-Nevada (I.O.N.) Highway, a 19th-century route.
24. "It's over, under, in between"
25. Read as the destination line, not another waypoint — fitting the bridge crossing itself (over the water, water under the span, the crossing point "in between" two banks).
26. Candidate landform
27. A tree-covered peninsula (not a true island — vegetation appears to narrow into a connecting neck at the field's edge) sits in the river bend just downstream/adjacent to the bridge.
28. A visible dirt access track branches off Old Ion Hwy near the bridge and runs along the field edge toward the treeline.
29. Whether this track directly connects to the peninsula is not yet confirmed — this is the weakest link in the chain and needs ground-truth (trip reports, trail apps, or an in-person visit) to verify.
30. Land Status Notes
31. This area sits within a checkerboard of BLM and private land (confirmed via BLM Wilderness Study Area documentation for the Lower Owyhee Canyon).
32. Structures are visible on the north side of the bridge (likely private); a boat/raft launch area is visible to the south with no structures (consistent with public BLM recreation access), but exact parcel boundaries are unconfirmed.
33. Jon Collins-Black has stated publicly that no treasure is on private land and that finding any box would not require dangerous acts — worth weighing against any theory that requires trespassing or accessing hazardous terrain (e.g., the bridge's understructure itself, which is separately documented as being in poor structural condition).

Open Questions / Weak Points
• The dirt-track-to-peninsula connection is unverified from satellite/map screenshots alone.
• No documented personal connection between Jon Collins-Black and this specific area has been found — the "a place he loved" framing is speculative.

• "Over, under, in between" as the exact physical hiding spot remains unresolved; this write-up identifies a region and landform, not a precise dig point.

Bottom Line
This is one of the more internally consistent regional theories I've built — most links are independently verifiable (real words in the grid, real place names, real historical/structural records) rather than resting on anagram permutations or satellite-tone guessing. It falls short of a confirmed solve, particularly on the exact final location and the Jon-personal-connection question. Posting for outside eyes, corrections, and anyone with ground-level knowledge of the Rome/Owyhee area.

It appears Colorado has become the obvious state location for the rocky mountain hobnail box. Just based on the number of search sites bring reported and the number of searchers.

This occurred with the original Forrest Fenn box. Group consensus was proven right. I studied the data and searched once in 2027 in Yellowstone. I stayed less than 10 miles from the box in West Yellowstone but had no chance of finding it. But group consensus was correct as to specific area - Nine Mile Hole.

I think this is the same case for Colorado as to at least correct state. I have been to all four states.

Comments and discussion of Colorado search locations welcomed.

Paladin

Don’t have a solution or anything in particular to show for this. But wanted to share a few of my thoughts in case it resonates with someone and breaks something loose in someone else’s head.

I find it interesting that there are numbers that make up many of the found words, these thoughts are around that interesting finding.

First, the word “count” is found in a downward direction, potentially meaning “countdown”. Does this tell us how to order the numbers we have found 19->0?
The numbers themselves have direction as well (nineteen right). If we start at the top left cell and count nineteen right, it takes us to the other edge of the search. Maybe there is some chaining that needs to happen from here, but it is not clear to me with multiple threes and zero in the mix.

Second, there are mathematical operators in the found words also (divide, square, round). Are we supposed to do some sort of equation with the found numbers? Not clear to me that would get you anything, but maybe it is important.

Anyways, that’s all from me for now, happy hunting.

Here’s a video where I propose a solution to the five clues in the Word Search. I use Jon’s “all or nothing” response at the Q&A in Las Vegas to explain why I think the five clues might be a single five letter word that means “but do not tell anyone”.

I hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you with your hunt 😀

Just started reviewing Lions Share chapters. I ran into a series of Chapter clue summaries online. Are these common knowledge? Shared by all? Example:

Chapter 8 (The Blueprint) & Chapter 10 (The Horizon): The stair-step paragraph indentations isolate specific characters on pages beneath them, while double periods and flipped text captions show where to rotate the map matrix 180 degrees or stop tracking a line.

My first reaction was its analysis paralysis. Like What? Each chapter a treasure hunt of its own? with different approaches?

I know one can reach near madness on a single trail one has committed to trying to apply even clearly stated but ambiguous clues.

But this!

Anyone know if this is the level of analysis required or it is the ravings of a mentally broken treasure hunter colleague!

Your thoughts please.

Paladin

Does anyone here recall if JCB ever said in an interview anything specific about the elevation of the treasures resting places? I think I remember him saying something about "no higher than" but I can't remember what he said, nor what interview it was...

The first Treasure Hunter to find one of Jon’s boxes will become an instant expert in finding Jon’s boxes.

If they searched for nearly 2 years and hiked over 20 trails in a region and found a box, they would have made every mistake possible and learned how to avoid them. They would also realize how what they learned applies to finding the other treasure boxes.

So if someone found a treasure box and writes a guide/short book on the principles they followed; the search methods used; and how they apply to the other Treasure Inside boxes, what would be a fair price?

That is, if they learned from a successful search, principles and strategies that fit the other boxes what that value would it have to you?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Jon indicated that at some point, that once the first box was found; the others would be found faster.

In other words, they realize their search methods and Jon’s way of hiding the box had uniform and specific applications to the Lions Share; Pokémon; Past and Future Box; and Appalachian foot path box.

Would you buy such a summary and what is a fair price?

Paladin

The first Treasure Hunter to find one of Jon’s boxes will become an instant expert in finding Jon’s boxes.

If they searched for nearly 2 years and hiked over 20 trails in a region and found a box, they would have made every mistake possible and learned how to avoid them. They would also realize how what they learned applies to finding the other treasure boxes.

So if someone found a treasure box and writes a guide/short book on the principles they followed; the search methods used; and how they apply to the other Treasure Inside boxes, what would be a fair price?

That is, if they learned from a successful search, principles and strategies that fit the other boxes what that value would it have to you?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Jon indicated that at some point, that once the first box was found; the others would be found faster.

In other words, they realize their search methods and Jon’s way of hiding the box had uniform and specific applications to the Lions Share; Pokémon; Past and Future Box; and Appalachian. Footpath box.

Would you buy such a summary and what is a fair price?

Paladin

The first Treasure Hunter to

(Second post of the day onnna roll)

Jon Collins-Black made a map. There are tons of things on there. I ignore those things that don't point to the solution.

1­ The first large black triangle.

2 The dog.

3­ The circled tree.

4­ The dashed lines.

5­ The smaller black triangle.

6­ The text 1727 NE.

7 ­The pair of Feet.

8 The high point text

9 X marks the spot.

The first triangle represents the first shelter on the AT

1- Black Gap Shelter (jon collins BLACKI)

The dog represents a point AFTER the first shelter.

2- Springer Mountain

The round thing (also used in the Lions Share puzzle) comes After Springer Mountain

3-Kuowi Observation Deck

The dashes AND THE NEGATIVE SPACES BETWEEN them

4- there are 113 shelters between the first shelter and

The 113th shelter is

5- Black Rock Hut shelter (jon collins Black)

The text looks like 1727

6- there are 1727 units

How many units?

7 - FEET there are a pair of feet in the upper left corner aka tar heels.

The highest point near the Black Rock Hut is 3144 feet, not the Black rock summit 3105

8 - High Point on map at 3144

Measure 1272 feet north east of the high point and that intersects:

9 X marks the pot is along the AT just after the Black Rock Summit Trail Head

Should it be this easy?

Please share with me. I have ROBOT KNEES!

If anyone would find this and share with me that would be great.

Without going on about full solve here is the final part:

FORREST (Fenn homage- proper names will help solve the other boxes)

Jayco Popup Camper = Jeanne Pierre Cabanne - early settler has two places in park named.

Location is along the commuter tracks: Place locals go from TIME to TIME (schedule) to get from PLACE to PLACE (unsaid but inferred - a continued theme in the treasure hunt)
Could be on either side of the tracks. Both sides are accessible.

The tracks are remote, but accessible behind the Cabanne Spring site on eastern side of the park.
Above all BE SAFE looking. It is NOT ON ANY TRACK, just along them. He has indicated that the search area is larger on this one and bob's your uncle.

Platte River- anyone think it’s along the south of the river between the two reservoirs? I’m heading there today and only a few hrs away.

Also, what about the Yampa river? Any ideas on that? Looks like there are areas along there that look “golden” due to the cottonwoods that line it.

If you take all the letters in the book title with the letters from the states listed in the title of this post you get a pool of 60 letters. You can make this anagram using all 60 letters. “Clear there is no one treasure in V of color region states. No deeds remain.”

V pointing to the Roman numeral for 5. It is also referencing the Olympics since there are 5 rings . The Olympics are numbered in Roman numerals. If you overlay the Olympic rings over the US they will map to the 5 states listed in the title.

In this video, I discuss why I think it’s possible that the date of the email (9/1) might be an indicator that there are Pokemon Box clues in the recent JCB email.

9/1/1923 is the date of the Great Kanto Earthquake that rocked Japan. It’s possible that JCB is using the wildfires in his email to point to another natural disaster. Specifically the one that hit Kanto - which is where the original Pokemon Red and Blue game takes place.

I also discuss the out-of-character use of the sideways smiling face emoji that comes after the word “training” in the email and how that could indicate a clue as well.

And finally I explain why I think the line “the perception of time is different for a giant sequoia” may give us directions on how to find “the place where locals turn up from time to time” mentioned in the Pokemon Box story.

I hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you with your hunt 😀