For more than thirty years, researchers of the “Golden Owl” have been going by the thousands to the village of Dabo in Moselle. A source of tourism and sometimes “nuisance”.
It’s a three-decade-long story that will forever mark this small town in Moselle. In Dabo, every year, thousands of curious and eccentric people flock to the village nestled in the Vosges massif.
Journeys motivated by the search for a mysterious “Golden Owl”. The same one that ended up being found this week, when a stranger managed to solve the puzzles to find the totem.
Was it found in Dabo? The mystery still remains. But for many participants in this giant treasure hunt (the “owls”), it was obvious. To the point that it was common to see participants carrying out excavations. To the point of becoming a “nuisance” for some locals, as told by Matthieu Bernard, the bartender at the Chouette d’Or restaurant.
“We often saw people who came to look, who asked questions,” he tells BFMTV.
“They didn’t fill in the holes”
These were easily spotted, not being from the region. “They were walking in the forest, they were digging, they had detectors, they were causing problems with the municipality or the ONF because they were digging but they were not filling in the holes,” relates the local.
But these visitors were also a commercial and tourist windfall for the town. “It brought people to us, that’s for sure,” said Patrick Keiffer, the owner of the owl-themed restaurant. “I thought she was going to be found one day, but it feels weird that now it’s over.
What is the “Golden Owl”, this immense treasure hunt which lasted 31 years?
If the end of the game risks dealing a small blow to tourist life, it will put an end to the unrest observed by the locals. “We saw people digging, they were half crazy. I met a young girl who had problems with the gendarmerie, because she was pitching her tent in the middle of the forest, she was digging holes, and she was convinced that it was there,” recalls Laurent, a town hall employee.
“There were holes. Not everyone closed them,” adds Mayor Eric Weber to 20 Minutes. “There were calls to order. It was often in waves that the “owlers” came. They were at full force!”
Kevin Drouant with Tom Kerkour
