Growing up, one of my favorite movies was The Goonies (probably like a lot of people). And as a kid, I wanted so badly to discover a secret treasure map in the attic that would lead to some “rich stuff” of my own – without the Fratelli gang chasing me of course.
Now if you haven’t learned this about the adult me yet, I love to do treasure hunts with my kids. I like it enough that a large portion of this site is dedicated to secret codes, ciphers, and different treasure hunts to do at home. I love how you can help your kids suspend reality for a little while and have a big adventure.
So I’ve spend the last couple days thinking, how can I recreate a Goonies-style treasure hunt (on a much smaller scale) for my kids? And I think I’ve got figured out.
A Mysterious Document in the Attic
This whole treasure hunt starts with the mysterious document in the attic. I decided to go with a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation (might as well teach them something about history).
Below is a pdf of my version of the Emancipation Proclamation – with a scanned signature of Abraham Lincoln thank you very much. You’re welcome to download it for free (no need to give me your contact info). Pay close attention to the size of the document though. In order to fit the whole thing on one page, it is an 8 ½” x 14”, US legal-sized document.
I could do a copy of the Declaration of Independence like in National Treasure, but my kids know that movie well enough they’d know it was me who made this game up. The specific document you do doesn’t matter really. It could be any historical document, or maybe even old love letters from World War II left by the previous owner of the house.
Either way, I want to make the document look old. I weathered the paper by lightly ripping the edges and staining it with coffee (check out this post about the How to Weather Paper to Make it Look Old).
While spending the morning putting away the Christmas decorations, I will casually discover the “document” in the attic. After unfolding the document, a small piece of paper falls out with a list of numbers that turns out to be an Ottendorf cipher.
How to Write a Secret Message Using and Ottendorf Cipher
Before we get into the rest of the hunt, let’s first explain what an Ottendorf cipher is.
Basically, an Ottendorf cipher is a variation of a Book Cipher. Each letter of the original message is substituted by a set of three numbers that correlate to a key document (in this case, my weathered copy of the Emancipation Proclamation).
The first number identifies which line of the document you can find the letter. The second number represents which word on that line, and the third number represents which letter of that word. (For a more in-depth look at the Ottendorf Cipher, check out my post here.)
So if we were use the Emancipation document to code the message “I hate Velcro. It’s a rip off.” it would like this:
3.1.3 4.1.2 6.2.1 8.2.1 5.4.5 7.1.3 6.5.5 4.13.1 13.2.1 5.1.3 3.5.2 4.8.1 4.1.1 3.1.6 4.5.2 5.1.3 7.6.1 11.1.1 4.2.1 9.3.2 4.4.1
No need for any punctuation; just use the letters. Also, when you start counting lines, begin in the body of the text; skip the title. To decode the message, work backwards to find each letter from the key document.
Making Clues for an Ottendorf Treasure Hunt
Back to our treasure hunt. Now that we’ve figured out our initial “hidden” document and what kind of cipher we’re going to use, it’s time to make some clues and hide them around the house.
I’ve decided for this treasure hunt to keep the scope within the house. You’re welcome to change the scope to include the backyard, the neighborhood, or if you’re more ambitious, the rest of town. My kids are young enough right now that I’m keeping things super local.
The other decision to make is what information you want to give your kids for clues. I personally like the idea of a short riddle that needs to be solved.
Pro Tip: Because you need to encode every letter and not just a word (like in a book code), the ciphers can get a bit long. It’s best to keep your clues short and sweet.
Making the Riddles
While you can always make up your own clues, it’s not cheating to use Google. Unlike the Caesar Cipher Treasure hunt where the clues had on average 20 words, I decided to keep these much shorter because the Ottendorf cipher can take longer to decode than a Caesar Cipher (A cipher wheel really speeds up the decoding process for the Caesar cipher).
Toilet paper: I'm paper, but not for writing. I live in the potty
Toothpaste: I help keep your teeth shiny
Bookshelf: You keep your books on me
Coffee maker: Adults drink me when they first wake.
Encoding the Clues
Now for the tedious part: encoding the clues. Here’s the good news for you; I’ve already done the heaving lifting. If you use my clues and the pdf for the Emancipation Proclamation, then just copy the numbers below!
Toilet paper: I'm paper, but not for writing. I live in the potty. 4.8.1 7.1.7 5.1.1 9.2.1 5.10.1 6.1.2 8.6.3 6.7.1 6.4.1 6.8.1 4.2.2 4.2.1 4.1.4 4.4.1 6.1.8 6.1.1 1.1.1 6.1.1 9.1.1 10.1.1 10.4.2 5.5.6 13.2.4
Toothpaste: I keep your teeth shiny. 3.1.3 9.6.3 5.1.2 6.1.2 5.1.1 4.7.7 6.1.8 7.4.1 4.10.4 4.3.1 1.1.3 1.4.3 3.2.1 3.1.2 5.7.1 5.2.1 4.8.1 5.5.6 5.6.3
Bookshelf: You keep your books on me. 2.2.5 4.2.1 6.4.1 9.6.3 9.3.1 9.6.4 8.6.1 9.2.3 8.3.6 8.5.2 8.6.3 6.1.3 4.2.1 4.6.1 9.6.3 2.1.1 1.2.1 1.2.2 7.1.7 1.1.3
Coffee maker: Adults drink me when they first wake 2.1.1 4.5.1 4.7.4 5.2.3 4.1.4 5.1.4 4.5.1 6.1.1 6.1.7 9.1.2 9.6.3 8.1.1 9.3.1 1.1.1 3.2.1 1.4.3 5.1.6 10.1.1 10.1.2 10.3.1 10.10.1 4.4.1 2.2.2 4.4.3 2.2.1 4.4.5 1.1.1 2.1.1 9.6.3 5.1.2
To make the clues, you can get elaborate and use fancy fonts, or a simple write the number on a scrap piece of paper. I decided to make my clue look super old (like the original document I “found” in the attic).
Using a piece of printer paper (basic 8.5x11in paper), I printed the clues in a landscape orientation (that is, with the long edges on the top and bottom) with two clues per page. I then carefully tore the paper in half.
Weathering the Clues
This step is completely optional, but hey, I can be a little extra sometimes. There are a couple ways to weather the paper (you can check out my post on weathering paper here).
The simplest way is to place the paper in a baking sheet (after I wrote the ciphertext on it), pour some coffee on it to cover the whole sheet of paper, let it sit for 10-15 seconds, and pour off the excess coffee.
If you want torn edges, press the sharp end of a bamboo skewer on the edge of the wet paper. Using a repeated flicking motion, flick off pieces of the edges.
You can then either let the paper air dry, or put it in a 200-degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. (Keep this under supervision. While not likely to catch on fire, you are putting a piece of paper in a box with very hot elements.)
Ottendorf Treasure Hunt Prize
The prize at the end of a treasure hunt can be a bit tricky. You want to reward their efforts, but you also don’t want to give them any all the time. For a list of prize suggestions, take a look at the Epic Treasure Hunt Prizes for Kids post for lots of suggestions ranging from big surprises to cheap-to-free options.
For this hunt, I wanted to try something different. I call this one “some assembly required” and it’s inspired by an episode of the Office (Season 6, Episode 13).
The episode from The Office is called “The 12 Days of Christmas” and Michael gives Dwight a single piece of a mechanical-looking nut cracker every day for 12 days. After the 12th day, Dwight has all the pieces and he can finally assemble the whole thing for the big reveal.
I’ve been looking for a way to introduce rockets to my two kiddos, and I think this will be a fun way to give it to them. I recently purchased an entry level rocket kit that is made of super easy to assemble plastic parts (not the balsa wings I grew up with).
Since I have two kids, I bought two kits. One came with a launch pad and ignition system, and other did not. (Although after going down a rabbit hole into rockets, I learned that there is a launch set that come with two rockets. If you want to learn more about beginner rockets, check out the Best Beginner Rocket article. For now, I would recommend this launch set to start with. It’s cheaper that the one I got and it’s the go-to beginner kit.).
FYI, if you go the rocket route, don’t forget to buy the rocket engines and recovery wadding:
The plan is to take a major piece of the rocket and hide it with each clue. The first clue from the newly discovered attic document leads them to a toilet paper dispenser. There, they find the next clue and a small piece of the rocket.
The piece by itself doesn’t look like anything and remains a mystery to my kids. The clue will then lead them to another piece with the next clue. By the end, the kids will have discovered the major pieces and should figure out what the prize is.
We can then spend the rest of the day building the rocket and launching at the park. All around a pretty fun day!
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