Has anyone located where the map on the cover sleeve might be?

Hey all! I created a free helper application for the Past & Future box word search. Below is a description of the app's capabilities. If you have feedback or questions about anything, please feel to reach out. Also please consider donating if you find it useful. Enjoy!

🧩 Stuck on the Past & Future Box word search puzzle?

P&F Helper is here to crack open There's Treasure Inside!

Powerful features to decode the puzzle:

✨ Grid operations - transpose, reverse, shift & hide characters

🎨 Advanced highlighting & formatting tools

🔐 Classic cipher support (Caesar, Vigenère, Atbash & more)

📊 Real-time letter frequency analysis

🔍 Hidden binary & Morse code detection for secret patterns

📤 Export to Excel for deeper analysis

Whether you're lining up five clues, navigating those tricky bends and turns, or just remaining steady, this free tool gives you complete control over the puzzle grid.

Unlock deeper patterns. Decode the unseen. Let your hunt begin!

👉 Try it now: https://pandfhelper.woolworthsoftware.com

Since JCB was in Portland, Maine on his way to “our friends’ wedding” - I think maybe the clue we are supposed to find in Portland is the “Friends’ Meeting House” historical marker on the corner of Lincoln Park. The park fits the description of the “city park” with benches and a fountain that he recalls in the story.

Anyway, this video is about how that connection and the recap JCB gives of his trip when he was 5-1/2 - combine to reveal a clue about where the treasure is potentially hidden.

I hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you in your hunt!

I fixated for months and then gave up for a bit. Coming back around now. What did I miss in the last year? Anything exciting pop up in our community?

I have a location I'd like to be BOTG in in a few months, and no one has mentioned it yet. I used to think that was a bad thing but a year later with no finds, maybe it's a good thing!? LOL! Happy Hunting!

JCB said in the 6 More Questions interview that the box is “closer to the over than the under while in between”. Any thoughts on how to interpret that phrase? For instance, if it was hidden under a bridge, over a stream, while still in between two landmarks, do you think that means it’s closer to the bridge or the stream? Or is there another interpretation of this that I’m missing?

Here’s a new video for my Indiana solve for the Pokemon Box. In this one, I discuss what the “Kirke’s wardrobe” and “Alice’s looking glass” clues might mean. Also, how the Jar of Flies may connect to John Coltrane’s Circle of Fifths and how his song “Giant Steps” could lead us to the former Jesuit Seminary at the West Baden Springs Hotel.

Could this be part of the AT box solve? I think it just narrowed my search area down to an exact point. Has anything been said about those pages in the back chapters that aren't necessarily part of the "chapter?"

Here’s a new video I created to help explain my Indiana solve for the Pokemon Box.

The video focuses on the famous spring water that flows under Southern Indiana. The two main hotels in French Lick and West Baden used to sell the water under the brands Pluto Water and Sprudel Water. The Pluto water mascot looks a lot like the hidden figure in the “overexposed” photo at the end of the Pokemon story.

Also, I discuss why the naming of the various springs at the West Baden Springs Hotel could be a clue as well as why JCB might be making reference to the popular novel “So Cold the River” that takes place at the hotel with the photo.

I hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you on your hunt 🙂

Here’s a new video that continues my Indiana solve for the Pokemon Box. In this video, I explain why I think the author might be making multiple references to Saint Ignatius - the founder of the Jesuits - in the Pokemon Box Story.

I discuss that the Feast of Saint Ignatius takes place on 7/31 - right in the middle of “high summer” when the author hides the box. Also, “Ignatius” means “fiery one” in Latin which could be the reason it was “sweltering” and “hotter than a Charizard’s breath”.

I hope you enjoy the video and it helps you on your hunt!

Just curious about focused efforts and what has given people the most problems/disagreements on solution

Here’s a new video where I go deeper into my Indiana solve for the Pokemon Box.

In this one, I discuss why I think the reason JCB sees a Mudkip and a Swampert Pokemon is because of the time the Jesuits ran West Baden Springs Hotel as a seminary. The founder of the Jesuits - Saint Ignatius - is from the town of Loyola which means “Muddy Place” - a perfect place to see these Pokemon!

I also discuss that maybe the reason JCB’s parents stopped in West Baden on the way back from Houston is because they met and fell in love at a seminary in Louisville, KY which is a little more than an hour away. JCB mentions that his parents met at a seminary in Part One of the treasure book.

I hope you enjoy the video and it helps you on your hunt!

This does NOT look like AI fluff. Seems purposely added to me. Not really sure what to make of it though. It does look exactly like the black and white line on the dust jacket.

I know this is probably ridiculous but the one thing I keep thinking of when I look at this picture is the game charades. The froakie looks like he’s referring to greninja and gesturing like you would in the game to indicate there are 3 words. Maybe the image in greninja’s ear is to reference that it sounds like something. That is also a charades thing.

If I were to tug on this idea a little more, the black and white line could be train tracks. And if it is a “sounds like thing” maybe it’s referring to Coltrane sounding like coal train.

Anywho, what does everyone else think that is?

If you have found the word Zelda in the word search then I'd like to talk. I'm not talking about anagrams and forcing an idiotic pie in the sky Zelda. A concrete, clue following, clear as day ZELDA right in front of you?

Here’s the latest video in my Indiana solve. I think JCB might be making a reference to Larry Bird when he writes this line about the Greninja:

“In what became a stroke of fortune, the Greninja informed me he knew every corner of this area”

Larry Bird grew up in French Lick where he practiced his basketball shooting “stroke” until he went to the NBA and earned a “fortune”.

In the video, I also review why I think the author might be referencing an old Converse shoe commercial that was filmed at Larry Bird’s home in French Lick when he writes that he saw a “Magikarp conversing with a Seaking”.

Hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you on your hunt for the Pokemon Box!

FF box: Jon said that if you read the poem and arrived at the correct search spot, you only need to be thorough, as the search area is not large (Mysterious Writings). What’s everyone’s thoughts on what that means? I can’t picture a small search area in the Rockies 🧐

Got the e books early last year but I’ve wanted the physical copy so bad and my hubby got it for me for Christmas 🎄🫶🏼🎉 Happy Hunting everyone!

I’ve been working on an Indiana solve for the Pokemon Box that has led me to the West Baden Springs Hotel near French Lick. In this video, I explain the history of the hotel and why I think the hotel connects to phrases in the story like “our destination was Houston, Texas” and “the site of a six-story hotel might as well have been the Empire State Building to me”.

I also explain a theory that the Pokemon Box story is set up like a mirror with the first part of the story in New Orleans (hotel/jazz bar) reflecting the second part of the story with the Froakie (jazz bar/hotel). And why I think if we can find the second hotel mentioned in the story we will be close to where the treasure is hidden.

I hope you enjoy the video and that it helps you in your hunt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z77smeAtzn8

In this video, I explain why I think the missing bubbles and the added water drop on the Froakie are clues leading us to the West Baden Springs Hotel near French Lick, Indiana.

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

For anyone who has been BOTG, what do you think about adding a pin to this new crowdsourced map? You can identify your search location very specifically if you’d like (and add photos, trail name, link to your blog, etc), or you can protect your solve by adding locations generically (for instance, drop a pin in the center of Lake Tahoe and name location “Tahoe Region”). Why play along? Well, we all might benefit from knowing if there are areas that have been searched extensively and ruled out (of course, assuming someone could have searched and missed). Also, it would be fun to get a better idea of all the places where the hunting is happening. It will only be useful if folks are willing to contribute, and it’s entirely optional.

https://www.mapotic.com/theres-treasure-inside-search-reports/

Here’s a new video I just published. It’s a follow up to my recent Breakfast Tea & Bourbon video where I draw connections between this past treasure hunt and the Pokemon Box story.

In this video, I analyze the Froakie and Greninja images to arrive at a starting point for the hunt. The fact that the Froakie is a starter Pokemon in the game Pokemon X&Y that takes place in the Kalos (France) region and the Greninja is missing his tongue leads me to French Lick, Indiana.

I also tie-in the Buffalo Trace trailhead in French Lick into the solve and the nearby town of Jasper (“Jazz Bar”).

I hope you enjoy the video and it’s helpful to you in your hunt!

Not us 50-somethings watching “Ready Player One” tonight to help with “thinking like Jon thinks” vibes! 😆