1 of 4
Stephen Montoya
2 of 4
Stephen Montoya
3 of 4
Stephen Montoya
4 of 4
Stephen Montoya
At first glance, it sounded like a stunt: a mother and son win big on “Wheel of Fortune” and decide to bury part of their prize money somewhere in Texas. But that’s precisely what Elizabeth (Liz) Wright and her son, KC, did. And seven months later, their gamble has morphed into one of the state’s strangest and most alluring adventures — a modern-day treasure hunt with a prize north of fifty grand and the promise of bragging rights forever.
Last weekend, the chase came to life inside Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que located at the Stockyards. Over twenty treasure hunters packed into a smoke-scented conference room, drawn less by the brisket and more by Wright himself. Acting as emcee for this Seek Texas Roundtable was Jeff Roberts, a fellow treasure enthusiast who had gathered questions from the Facebook community and pressed Wright on everything from hidden ciphers to red herrings.
KC, the co-creator of “Seek Texas” — a book that doubles as both a love letter to Texas history and the official roadmap to a hidden three-inch metal medallion worth $50,426.90 — laid out the ground rules. “The integrity of the treasure was the number one thing,” he told the room. “You had to have the book in order to find it. If somebody just stumbled on it, they wouldn’t even know what they had.”
Since its release, the book has become an Amazon five-star bestseller, attracting history buffs, cryptography nerds, and road-trippers alike. A portion of every sale goes to Texas charities, but the real lure is the medallion: sealed in a weatherproof box, hidden in plain sight, and waiting for someone clever enough — or stubborn enough — to decipher the clues.
“My mother-in-law and my wife really kind of jumped on [the treasure hunt], and it was just a way to get out of the house... to get out and explore,” Roberts said.
Soon, the trio found themselves hiking through Guadalupe National Park, in 98-degree weather, in search of where they first thought the treasure would be. Although they didn’t find a single thing, they realized they’d spent the day in a part of Texas they’d never been to before.
“We came out of there grateful to be together,” Roberts said. “It was tough, and I thought we were going to die, but really it was a super thrill. Once we conquered that, it was huge. It was a big win. Even though we didn't walk away with the treasure, it felt like a win.
It was with this experience in mind that Roberts pushed Wright on one of the most hotly debated riddles: was the medallion truly “in plain view,” or tucked away in some impossible-to-spot nook? Wright smiled. “It’s cleverly hidden,” he said. “If you figure out where it’s at, it’s exactly where you think it is.”
The coin itself carries an extra layer of mystery: an unsolvable riddle unless you’ve worked through the book. Wright insisted that everything necessary to win is tucked between its pages — ciphers, references, red herrings, and the occasional wink to towns like Plainview and Loveland. “Everything in that book works,” he said. “Before it went to press, I made sure I could cross-reference everything and still come up with the same answer.”
If it sounds daunting, that’s by design. The book’s most complicated puzzle draws from the old “pigpen cipher,” a cryptographic system once used by secret societies and — in Wright’s case — his college fraternity. He admitted to using not one but two keyword systems, making the solution maddeningly intricate. “On a scale of one to ten,” he confessed, “the cipher’s about an eight in importance. You really do need it.”
Despite the head-scratching, Wright is careful to remind hunters that this isn’t a wilderness survival challenge. The treasure is hidden in a public place, legally and safely accessible, not buried, and not tucked away on private or restricted land. Wright says his 94-year-old mother, Liz, can get to it, and she uses a walker. “So no, you don’t need to be scaling cliffs to get to it,” he verified.
Wright also added that the treasure isn’t in the Hill Country. “These people are trying to rebuild and have been through enough, so I can tell you, the treasure isn’t there.
When Roberts asked if anyone had come close to cracking it, Wright grinned. “Based on what I’ve seen? No. Not yet.”
But that’s part of the thrill. Wright designed “Seek Texas” not as a scavenger hunt where one clue leads to the next, but as a thematic puzzle — a tapestry of Texas lore that rewards patience, pattern recognition, and a certain stubborn devotion. “There are actual themes in the book that haven’t even been touched on,” he teased. “That’s what people need to be looking at.”
For the true believers, the clock is ticking. The rules give hunters just over a thousand days to find the medallion before time runs out. Until then, Texas is the stage, and the Wright family’s unlikely wager keeps fueling road trips, late-night cipher sessions, and a whole new kind of Lone Star legend.
More specifically, Wright says, "The whole point is to get people to discover Texas on their own terms.”
