How I Learned That Treasure Hunting Isn’t Just About the Spot Marked X

After hearing about an armchair treasure hunt that had been running for decades in France, I was intrigued. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the story.

Photo by Yvon Crolet, courtesy of Emily Graham | Edited by Jesse Sposato

Everybody loves a treasure hunt. Especially one that’s not been solved yet. They’re one of those archetypal things — whether fuelled by hunter-gatherer instincts or just plain old magpie shiny-thing compulsion — that we seem hardwired to respond to. I was no different when I first heard about On the Trail of the Golden Owl in 2022. It’s an armchair treasure hunt that had been running for nearly 30 years in France, in which thousands of owl hunters, or chouetteurs, were still busy poring over 11 puzzles and digging up holes all over the country in search of the titular statuette. That’s a pretty compelling pitch on its own, right? 

The hunt is quite well known in France, where I live, because of its longevity. But I first became acquainted with it because the U.K. newspaper, The Observer, commissioned me to write a small piece on it, based on a related photography book, The Blindest Man by Emily Graham, published la…