San Francisco's $10K Treasure Hunts Spark Citywide Frenzy

This recent hunt followed their first major success in 2025, which initially ignited the city's imagination. That earlier event featured a 22-pound chest valued at $10,000, also containing gleaming ingots, various currencies, and San Francisco artifacts, with about half its worth in gold. This treasure was buried approximately eight inches deep within a hollow among large boulders in the scenic Mount Sutro Open Space Preserve, a location that quickly became a hotbed of activity.

The 2025 clues were delivered in a rhyming riddle, guiding hunters to a "historic cross" formed by four distinct San Francisco landmarks. These included references to "Eighteen Bold letters Preserved In a clearing" near India Basin Park, "a dark room's view" (understood to be the Camera Obscura), "dry ruin's gate" (referring to the historic Fleishhacker Pool), and "solar's tall mast" (the Point of Infinity sculpture on Yerba Buena Island, also known as Treasure Island). Small, UV-light-activated indicators helped guide participants the final five minutes off the Historic Trail in Mount Sutro to the precise location. To the organizers' surprise, the 2025 treasure was found remarkably quickly, within 11 to 12 hours of the clues being released. Public statements from the group at the time reflected this astonishment, noting, "Well, that went A LOT faster than anyone anticipated. Months were hoped, days felt possible, but 11 hours... wow."

The successful finders of the 2025 chest were identified as three friends: Austin Theriault, TJ Lee, and Erik Bahri, accompanied by Theriault's dog, Franz. These individuals, reportedly all working in the tech sector, discounted initial theories about Sutro Baths being a viable location, with TJ Lee noting that it would be "too difficult to conceal digging and it's also too highly trafficked." Austin Theriault expressed satisfaction in their local knowledge, stating it was "validating to be like, 'I know San Francisco well enough' that we were able to find this in the first spot we checked." The contents of the 2025 chest were a true collector's dream, including a gold nugget, various silver and copper coins, highly sought-after baseball cards featuring Barry Bonds, and a ticket to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

While these hunts have brought immense excitement and a sense of adventure, they have also raised concerns among city officials regarding damage to public spaces. Reports indicate instances of illegal digging, unfilled holes, and harm to irrigation systems across several parks, including Francisco, Ena Colbreth Pioneer, and Washington Square. Park staff have observed individuals with shovels, even on Angel Island, and have issued reminders that digging without a permit is against city regulations. Buried Treasure SF organizers have publicly addressed these issues, urging participants to "Fill your holes" and asking for "low impact in your hunting," promising they maintain the same care when burying their treasures. They emphasized that their entire endeavor was "all meant to celebrate the city and land."

This modern-day craze for hidden riches is not entirely new to San Francisco, a city with a rich history of such adventures. Past events include the "Emperor Norton's Treasure Hunt" from the early 1950s. The city is also believed to hold one of the 12 unsolved "casques" from Byron Preiss's 1982 book, "The Secret: A Treasure Hunt," likely hidden within Golden Gate Park, a mystery that deepened with Preiss's death in 2005, taking the secrets of the remaining locations with him. Only three of Preiss's casques have ever been found.

More recently, Witter Coin, a local San Francisco business, launched its own annual coin scavenger hunt, hiding rare coins worth up to $50,000 across the city. Owner Seth Chandler utilizes AI-created figures to deliver clues via Instagram, aiming to foster interest in coin collecting and highlight San Francisco's history. Even the finders of the 2025 Buried Treasure SF chest organized their own hunt in September 2025, offering $21,000 in goods and services as a "love letter to San Francisco," further cementing the city's unique tradition of public treasure seeking.

These various events underscore a deep-seated local appreciation for adventure and discovery, encouraging both residents and visitors to explore the city's lesser-known locales and historical sites. The anonymous organizers of the $10,000 hunt have openly hoped that the finders would come forward to share their stories, thereby enriching the narrative of whimsy and civic engagement that these unique urban treasure hunts aim to create.