There’s a group of devoted fans of the Legacy of the Secret Key, the mystery treasure hunt from Byron Preiss’ book, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt. And on Wednesday’s Expedition Unknown, they are going to be stoked as Josh Gates looks to have solved one of the prose mysteries and located a lost monument and treasure in South Carolina.
Gates is on a nationwide treasure hunt to solve The Secret mystery no one has cracked for 40 years. He will travel coast-to-coast and back in time using cutting edge tools and information to tap into a network of obsessed Secret detectives.
Coy Lothrop is one expert who you will meet in this episode who assists Gates as they unravel the poem’s mysterious lines in a dark municipal warehouse in Charleston.
Gates is crouching inside this warehouse and explains their mission: Find the lost war monument and what lies beneath it.
He says: “Coy Lothrop and I are searching for a missing monument that may be the key to solving the 1980s treasure hunt known as The Secret.”
In a flash, he sees something that looks promising in our exclusive clip, and he says, “Coy, Coy I think we got it, that’s it!”
Coy cannot believe Gates is onto the monument already. He says: “Oh my gosh!”
Very pleased with what they uncovered, Gates says: “Okay, so we’re looking for [the prose verses] freedom at the birth of a century or May 1913, what does this have to do with that?”
Coy explains the meaning: “The USS Maine was a warship that went down to Cuba in the late 1800s it was sank and Havana Harbor and it was really the flashpoint of the Spanish-American war. That’s the war that freed Cuba from Spain and had freed the Philippines.”
Understanding the importance of this, Gates puts the clues together and says: “So that’s freedom at the birth of a century?”
Coy confirms this and says: “That’s freedom at the birth of the century.”
In a voice-over, Gates says, “That’s half the clue, but what about May 1913? Coy directs me to look for the plaques that were once attached to the capstan monument.”
Pointing to the object, he says: “These? [He reads the inscription] Presented by the Navy Department of the city of Charleston, May 1913… yeah! There it is! Cast in bronze, I mean that has got to be the right clue!”
Coy once again confirms the find and says: “Yeah, that’s it!”
Josh agrees that it is an incredible find. He says: “We rush back to White Point Garden to the location where the capstan once stood and we tackle the lines of the verse. Between two arms extended, below the bar that binds, beside the long palm shadow, embedded in the sand… so we’re looking for something that’s between, below, and beside … okay.”
“Coy believes the clue about two arms extended could be armaments. Specifically, two Confederate cannons which flanked the capstan… and the bar that binds could be one of the bars that once turned the capstan there’s just one problem…”
Gates is trying to dig up the sand where they think the buried treasure might be but it isn’t budging. He says: “Something that’s not apparent when you’re doing this game online is how hard this sand is. I mean, I’m breaking my wrists just trying to get this probe an inch under the soil.”
Coy agrees and notes there is no way Josh is going to dig in that packed sand.
In a voice-over, Gates says: “With the sand around the monument too compacted to dig, Matt runs the GPR unit in front of what we hope is the visual marker for the treasure.”
“Run over this thing, let me see what you get,” Gates tells Matt.
Matt finds something. He says: “Yeah, I definitely get an anomaly here.”
Now Gates is freaking out and Coy and he urge Matt to go over the spot once again.
Confirming, Matt says: “Yes, we’ve got a bunch of stuff going on right here. This is a good anomaly.”
Circling the spot, Gates says: “Okay well let’s start here. Using probes we test the sandy ground near the anomaly.” He is ecstatic: “Wow I like that sound!” The pling-pling noise of metal hitting metal is heard. Something is under the sandy dirt.
Also excited is Coy who says: “That’s a very interesting sound!”
As the clip comes to an end, Gates confirms: “There’s something there!”
Tune in to see what they dig up and if another clue for The Secret is now found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_X2Lr9VgcA&feature=youtu.be
Expedition Unknown airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Discovery and Discovery Go
Dear Josh, I have solved the 9 remaining verses …. Charleston SC. Is portrait 2 , verse 5 . If Want proof, call me… I have sent you several emails ! Here is the proof!!!Tell me if you find a better match???