Business

Clues hidden within webcam images were a crucial advantage for a meteorologist-turned-treasure-hunter who cracked the mystery of Project Skydrop on Tuesday and found the golden prize hidden in a Massachusetts forest.Dan Leonard said that once he heard about the contest last month, he was hooked. “Ironically, it was a Channel 5 news (WCVB) story that showed up on my phone, and I, like everybody else, read it and was (in) disbelief. Wow, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said. Project Skydrop was the creation of New Hampshire-based game designer Jason Rohrer and California-based Tom Bailey.Every day, a map on their website was updated with a narrower circle indicating the possible area where the treasure may be hidden. It began at 500 miles in diameter, stretching from western Pennsylvania to Cape Cod, but shrank over 12 days to encompass an area of Western Massachusetts. Leonard said he used his meteorological skills to narrow the search area even more. He looked closely for clues within the game camera images posted on the website, taking note of the temperature readings in the corner and the cloud cover in each image. “As far as temperature went, what I did was triangulate the possible location based on all the weather events,” he said.That helped him to hone in on an area in eastern Franklin County and northwestern Worcester County, where similar temperatures were reported. “I analyzed any time where it was sunny and any time where it was cloudy and sort of lined that up to possible areas where it could be, so I slowly whittled it down. It was a process of elimination,” Leonard said.He worked at this for days in between work and responsibilities at home, where he and his wife are new parents. “Basically, I’m deducing where it is by saying, OK, at the web camera right now at 3:15 p.m., it’s sunny. So anywhere that’s cloudy on the satellite, I can eliminate those as potential target areas,” he said.When he finally went out to find the treasure, Leonard said he took one last look at the webcam. “Standing in the parking lot, looking up at the hills, noticing where the clouds were right at the top of the hour when that web camera was going to update. Where I was, in Erving, the sun’s out. But then the web camera showed it’s cloudy,” Leonard said. “So now I looked around and see, where are the clouds? Where could it possibly be?”He set off toward the southeast into Wendell State Forest and began looking for the kinds of vegetation seen in the webcam.”I was looking for a deciduous forest, so I had those marked out on the map already,” Leonard said. Eventually, he came to a downed tree that looked like a clue, but the golden treasure was still hard to see. “So I kind of get down real low, and I’m looking closely, and then suddenly, there it is,” Leonard said. “It was so camouflaged that, literally, it just blended in so perfectly.” Made of 10 ounces of 24-karat yellow gold, Project Skydrop’s treasure is approximately 4 inches tall and 3 inches wide at the top. Project Skydrop estimates it is worth more than $26,000, based on the price of gold. “It’s a little surprising,” Leonard said. “The weight is heavier than I’d expect.” In addition to the value of the golden treasure, organizers said they also accumulated $20 entry fees from treasure hunters into a “bounty” that would be paid out to the winner through Bitcoin. Organizers said that was worth $87,600. “It’s the Bitcoin that’s supposedly the real prize. But honestly, the trophy itself is amazing. I mean, it’s just a beautiful work of art,” said Leonard.