Has the Beale treasure been found?
Verdict summary
No. The Beale treasure, said to be buried in Bedford County, Virginia, has never been found. Its story comes from an 1885 pamphlet with three ciphers. Only the second has been solved, using the Declaration of Independence as the key, and many researchers consider the whole story a hoax.
No contemporary record of Thomas J. Beale's expedition or the vault has been produced, and linguistic studies of the pamphlet have argued it was written by one author.
PinPoint Treasure's investigation file on the Beale case sets out what is documented and what is not.
Sources: The Beale Papers (1885 pamphlet); PinPoint Treasure Beale investigation.
What famous treasures are still unfound? Famous treasures still unfound include the Amber Room (lost in 1945), the Lost Dutchman Mine in Arizona, the Beale treasure in Virginia, the Oak Island money pit in Nova Scotia, the Treasure of Lima, Paititi (the lost Inca city of gold) and the Kruger millions in South Africa. Many rest on a single late retelling, so some may never have existed.
Has the Zodiac cipher been solved? Partly. The Zodiac Killer's 408-character cipher was solved in 1969 by Donald and Bettye Harden, and the 340-character cipher was solved in December 2020 by David Oranchak, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke. The shorter 13- and 32-character ciphers remain unsolved.
Primary sources cited
- The Beale Papers (1885 pamphlet)
- PinPoint Treasure Beale investigation