Until the owl do you part
One might believe that this is a simple life-size game, with a few followers looking for clues. Except that the golden owl has become over time a true myth and one of the oldest treasure hunts in the world. The basic postulate is simple: a copy of “an owl in gold, silver and diamonds, 50 cm wide, is buried somewhere in France. Find her!”, writes Régis Hauser in his book published under the pseudonym On the trail of the golden owl. In the book, the budding detective finds 11 enigmas, each more abstruse than the last, and which have managed to keep thousands of owls in suspense for more than three decades, making “heads turn. To the point of madness, unemployment or divorce for some,” says Release.
An example? “To find my all, it is enough to be Wise, because the Truth, in truth, will not be a matter for the Soothsayer”, or again “When, in Carusburc, you have Albion at your back, look for the opening which reveals the heavenly light. Throughout this gibberish, the investigators literally crisscrossed France from top to bottom to manage to get their hands on the much-desired bird. But why make it complicated when you can make it very complicated, Régis Hauser must have said to himself. Because in addition to the precepts of his book which has transformed into a bible over the years, the man “has […] published nearly 150,000 messages, several of which sent the owls into the wall. Small texts, called “Madits” (a contraction of “Max said”), fiercely debated for years on the numerous forums that subsequently emerged. Additional source of confusion: Max Valentin at the same time had additional indications published in the press (the “IS”), the resolution of which, again, generated more doubts than it confirmed solutions,” explains Libération. Or how to add fog to fog.
A town ravaged by pickaxes
To complete it all, “in 2005, the liquidator of the publishing house of the third version of the book seized the trophy (the golden owl, the copy of which is buried somewhere, Editor’s note). Four years later, Régis Hauser and Michel Becker recovered it after a trial. Then, Régis Hauser died at 62, 16 years to the day after burying the owl, and without having taken Michel Becker into his confidence, says the daily Southwest. The community then fears that the hunt will end in a dead end and that the solution will be buried with the designer of the game. This was without counting Michel Becker, who will then enter into conflict with the heirs, ends up obtaining the solution which had been entrusted to him. to a bailiff, goes to the coveted place, digs up a rusty piaf and replaces it with a bronze bird. The hunt begins again.
Two camps nevertheless clash, with the pro-Valentin/Hauser and the supporters of Becker. The latter is less scattered than the first – even if not everyone is of this opinion – but some criticize him for speeding up the hunt, which is in full swing and which is starting to take its toll. Shovel in hand, these thousands of detectives are turning France upside down, literally. The town of Dabo, “alleged location of the cache located in the Vosges massif”, is transformed into a molehill, to the point where Michel “Becker urges researchers to stop gutting the surrounding area. To avoid travel and relieve the pressure on the basement, he is creating an online solution verification site,” continues Release.
What’s important is the journey, not the destination
The hunt will have captivated no less than 200,000 investigators, to the point of becoming an obsession for some. Today, an entire community hopes to finally discover the answers to the questions it has tirelessly asked itself for more than 31 years. Fruit of the discovery: a winged fetish with an approximate value of 150,000 euros (141,000 francs) at the creation of the game. But it is not really the disappointment of missing out on such a sum that saddens the owls. Some rather despair of seeing the quest of a lifetime disappear with the mysterious bird. So much so that some owls were worried about the descent. “Check that your owl friends are doing well morally. Maybe there will be drama, which I don’t hope for,” said a member on the Discord,” reports Release. Others prefer to philosophize, like Pierre Blouch, a Breton interviewed by France Bleu: “it enriched my knowledge in an extraordinary way in lots of areas, I learned things about the Freemasons, about literature, about ‘astronomy. And that’s ultimately the beauty of the game.”
Michel Becker has yet to speak in a YouTube video, where they should reveal the details of this long-awaited discovery. For those who cannot recover from the end of this hunt, the British media The Guardian has good news: “The longest treasure hunt in the world would be The Secretby Byron Preiss, published in 1982. It is a search for 12 boxes of treasure buried in secret locations in the United States and Canada, of which only three have been found. So to your picks and your puzzles.
