My Treasure Hunt

For 10 days CFRA radio along with three other affiliated stations here in Ottawa held a contest where they gave a clue to the whereabouts of a key to Colonel By’s treasure (which is $50,000 in cash).

I slowly collected each clue and worked on an answer until I came up with the location I believe the key is. Below is the list of clues and my answer.

Since the answer had to be entered today by three pm, I don’t mind sharing these results. The answer will be revealed Monday. I will let you know how I do.

Clue 1: Colonel By worked with five of the best contractors. Only one will be the right man. Name him.

Answer: Well I had a few and one was named Philemon Wright, but after reading more I discovered that Thomas McKay was the primary contractor so I went with:

McKay

Clue 2: There was a chap who leaked the tale of the treasure to me. He penned himself a bit of a book, but made no mention of the treasure. Funny how he only spent a few of these in Canada.

Answer: The author is a John MacTaggart who penned a book entitled “3 years in Canada”. So the answer is

Years

Clue 3: The year was 1819. No, No, it wasn’t. That’s something else. Where was I? Ah Yes. Today there’s an upper and lower but when I navigated my way to Bytown, I travelled rapidly through them.

Answer: This one could have been a few as there is an Upper and Lower Brewer’s Locks, an upper and lower Rideau Lake, but the rapidly through them leads me to think it is rapids and we have upper and lower

Nicholson’s Rapids

Clue 4: Here’s a combination to help you find the key: 45 22 75 43

Answer: I thought perhaps highways as three of the four are in Ontario with 43 being a prominent one in the area, but after looking at Google Earth I determined these co-ordinates are the lattitude and longitude that point ust west and slightly north of the Hog’s Back locks. Since it actually pointed to a street named Vanson with absolutely no tie to the rest of the clues, I left this blank. I was later told to not overthink it and that this could simply be pointing to

Ottawa

Clue 5: It was 1827. Between Wardsville and Edmund’s Rapids is where Colonel By first heard of my plan to capture his treasure.

Answer: Every map I looked at simply points to

Old Sly’s

Clue 6: The key to Colonel By’s Treasure, I have no doubt, is covered with this.

Answer: I originally thought it had to be water as sunken treasures seemed to fit with all the locks and the canal. But after getting clue 10, I simply thought I should change it to either Sand or Stone and since either fit the final answer I submitted, I just chose

Stone

Clue 7: Life jacket’s on. The treasure was carried on one of Captain Cook’s most famous ships, whose whereabouts is still a secret. Name it.

Research garnered a ship named

Endeavour

Clue 8: You’ve done well to come this far. Thomas and John were related in one way but not another. Find them in Canal Lore.

Answer: I first assumed this may be referring to Thomas McKay and John Redpath, two of the original contractors, but later was pointed to two gentleman named Burrowes and Burrows who both painted. So the answer I chose was

Burrowes

Clue 9: Google Y (WHY?) Your answer will be found on that page.

Since googling either Why, Y or Wie garnered littel so I used some Freud and said to myself ” sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and chose the letter

Y

Clue 10: Nag A Ram

Answer: Nag A Ram is an anagram for the word “anagram” so I assumed that the final clue means the answer is an anagram. I included the final clue answer which was

Anagram

Taking the first letter of each word, I came up with
M, Y, N, O, O, S, E, B, Y, and A

These letters can be rearranged to spell out

MOONEY’S BAY

If you took part in this contest, I urge you to post your answer in the comments. I am also open to opinions on my work.