The Beale Cryptograms

It was 1885 and James B. Ward of Lynchburg, Virginia, was ready to give up. After twenty years of puzzling over a difficult problem with limited success, Ward knew that he had little or no chance of solving the whole thing. He decided to throw the problem open to the public and see if anyone else could be successful. For this reason, he published a pamphlet with the lengthy title: The Beale Papers containing Authentic Statements regarding the TREASURE BURIED in 1819 and 1821, near Bufords, in Bedford County, Virginia, and Which Has Never Been Recovered. In this pamphlet Ward told a strange story. Ward wrote that according to letters written from Thomas J. Beale to Robert Morriss, Beale had led a party of thirty men west in 1817 on a buffalo hunt in northern New Mexico. While out west they discovered a rich vein of gold and gave up hunting in favor of mining. By 1819 they had accumulated a large store of gold. According to the account ...the question of transferring our wealth to some secure place was frequently discussed. It was not considered advisable to retain so large an amount in so wild and dangerous a locality, where its very possession might endanger our lives; and to conceal it there would avail nothing, as we might at any time be forced to reveal its place of concealment.

Cryptoliscious!