A woman from Illinois who set out on a treasure hunt for buried gold coins after finding a cryptic note in an antique rocking chair may have been the victim of a prankster who died more than thirty years ago.
With the help of a donated backhoe, Patty Henken recently ripped up a vacant lot in Springfield, Illinois, where a note written on a typewriter signed by Chauncey Wolcott, found in an antique chair she bought at an auction last November suggested she would find a treasure chest containing more than $250 in United States gold coins.
Patty Henken's life got interesting in May when, while prying off the seat of a antique rocking chair she bought at an auction five months earlier, she discovered a small envelope with "Finders Keepers" typewritten on it. Inside, a key was taped to a typed note.
"This dexter key will unlock a lead treasure chest," the note began, before spelling out a location in Springfield, 1028 N. Fifth Street, where a chest containing more than $250 in United States gold coins supposedly was buried twelve feet underground.
The treasure, the note claimed, included eight $20 gold pieces, six $10 gold pieces, five $5 gold pieces, three $2 1/2 dollar gold pieces and two $1 gold pieces.
The undated note, signed by a Chauncey Wolcott included a request to contact the Springfield newspaper if the chest was ever found.
The dig turned up nothing but bricks and old bottles. Henken planned to return Tuesday with the donated services of a man with ground penetrating radar meant to detect any buried items, but the treasure note's promise may already be debunked.
An Iowa woman who read newspaper accounts of the treasure hunt said she knows Wolcott's true identity, John "Jay" Slaven, a notorious practical joker and coin collector who often used a typewriter in his pranks.
John Slaven had used the pen name Chauncey Wolcott and lived for decades at the location where the dig took place, until his death in 1976 , according to Betty Atkinson Ryan of Mason City, Iowa. She e-mailed a columnist for the State Journal Register of Springfield to set the record straight.
Atkinson Ryan told the newspaper that Slaven was her boss in the Journal Register's classified advertising department decades ago. She said Slaven often used a typewriter to write some of his practical jokes and signed them Chauncey Wolcott. The newspaper said archived news articles described Slaven as an actor with a booming voice that he used in television appearances, and on about 50 radio shows.
Henken, of Mount Sterling, Illinois, said on Sunday that she was disappointed there's no closure but still was hopeful Slaven may have left some treasure to unearth.
"My friends feel like I was cheated out of finalizing this," said the 48 year old Henken, a window clerk at the post office in Mount Sterling. "There's something down there. He wouldn't play a practical joke without leaving me something."
That property's current owners gave Henken permission to tear up the site in search of the supposed treasure if they got an equal share of any find. But they stopped the digging now that Slaven may have pulled one over on everyone.
"It's done, other than me fixing up their dug up yard," Henken said. "It's been fun, though. I'd do it again tomorrow. I just hope my life isn't so boring from now on."
"I fully expect to do something like this before I die," she said. "But I would leave them something to find, a clue to who I was and not leave them wondering what kind of sick person would create a prank like this."
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