Why Even Attempt the Beale Ciphers?

The Beale Ciphers have stumped professional and amateur crypt-analysts for years, well over 100 years in fact. The story begins from a published pamphlet in 1885. This pamphlet describes the location of buried treasure somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia, that was placed there in the 1820’s by Thomas Beale. Around this time, Beale spent a couple of winters at the Washington Hotel in Lynchburg, Virginia. He entrusted a locked box to the hotel owner, Robert Morriss. Beale ended up never returning for this box, and Morriss never received any information to help him with its contents. The box contained three cipher texts, the first allegedly describes the location of the treasure, the second tells of the treasure, and the third lists the names of the treasure owners and their next of kin. The second cipher text has been cracked, as it uses a book cipher. By relating it to the Declaration of Independence, the text can be deciphered. However, the remaining two have yet to be solved.

So why after all these years are people still trying to solve this mystery? It could be for the possible riches that this treasure contains. This would seem to be the obvious answer. Money is a formidable motivator, particularly for someone who does not possess much of it. Considering the treasure is rumored to be worth upwards of 20 million dollars, that makes the possibility of finding it hard to resist.

A second reason could simply be for the fame. After all, this cipher has been intact for over 100 years. Cracking the code could quite possibly be seen as a great personal achievement in cryptography. It surely would bring fame. As soon as these ciphers are broken the media would waste no time in sending out the story. With the fame these Beale ciphers bring in and of themselves, deciphering them would only bring them back into the spotlight, along with the person responsible.

Of course, there is always the possibility that this is all fake. Some people believe it originated as an elaborate hoax based off “The Gold Bug.”I mean come on, buried treasure after all these years? Sounds like it could be the story line for a film. Additionally, if there really was a treasure, who’s to say someone hasn’t already found it and didn’t claim it publicly? There are some that believe the NSA may have already done just that! It’s due to this that I find only one valid reason to attempt to solve the mystery that is the Beale Ciphers; the challenge. For many people, a challenge is well worth the effort. After all, where is the fun in something that is too easy? Attempting to decipher these papers as a means of personal challenge I think is great, and I believe many crypt-analysts do it for just this reason. If a person were to succeed, that would be a proud moment of self-validation, as they would prove their skill as the one that conquered a problem that existed for such a long time.

Beyond the challenge, I do not believe there to be warranted motivation, particularly if the motivation is the money. With a chance that the “treasure” may not even exist, which seems to increase as more time passes, the challenge will remain until someone comes along and conquers it.