We recently had the privilege of consulting with the creator of a cool new treasure hunting experience (Mission: Treasure) that’s being launched in Cincinnati as a test market.
The hunt centers around a fictional 19th century luxury furniture mogul in Cincinnati by the name of Jeremy Longford. Longford went missing in 1890, shortly after he hid a treasure in the Cincinnati area.
The team behind Mission: Treasure has painstakingly handcrafted detailed clues and story material to create the treasure hunt experience in the vein of a historical treasure hunt like those depicted in the National Treasure films. In that spirit, they reached out to us for consultation on the types of material that historical diarists recorded in their journals, as well as what historical diaries looked like.
A central part of the story behind Mission: Treasure’s hunt in Cincinnati is Jeremy Longford’s diary which was “found” at an estate sale in Cincinnati in the summer of 2020, leading to the treasure hunt.
Mission: Treasure is including some of the diary pages in an initial clue packet that is mailed to participants, and then the rest are “being restored/transcribed” by researchers who email them to participants.
We searched our archives, and selected a couple diaries that were kept by young people from aristocratic families in the 1880s and 1890s. Wealthier diarists tended to be better educated, and usually wrote more in-depth entries in their journals. Mission: Treasure’s team used this information to craft detailed diary entries for Longford’s journal.
We wish we were in Cincinnati so we could participate in the hunt (though we’re told the official rules would forbid us from doing so since we consulted on the project).
Thank you to the Mission: Treasure team for the awesome and fun opportunity to help on this project! We hope you guys succeed with this spectacular new entertainment concept!