A Hidden Message (SOLVED)

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

Welcome to 2022 and a new year of treasure hunts! I have some armchair hunts planned along with one or two BOTG hunts. And, of course, the 2nd Annual Masquerade Tribute Hunt, that will again raise money for charity, available in March!

Now, on to my first hunt of 2022...

Instructions and Rules for A Hidden Message hunt:

1. This is a fully armchair hunt. No travel is required.

2. There are two prizes for this hunt. First prize is a beautiful ring made from a vintage coin, valued at around $40. Second prize is vintage currency, valued at around $25. I can't post pictures of the prizes yet because they would act as clues to the hunt!

3. Winners must have a US address and a Mysterious Writings username.

4. Submit your solution to me here on Mysterious Writings via private messaging.

5. A winning submission must include the correct answer to the puzzle (this bit of forgotten history) along with solutions to at least three of the clues in the puzzle (clues that either led you to the solution &/or verified your solution).

6. If a submission is only partly correct, I will send the message to keep trying. I will not tell you which part is incorrect.

7. Feel free to share ideas on the forum, but please do not post any solutions publicly.

8. Feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or if you feel you've discovered an error. I will address these on the forum.

9. If the hunt is not solved within a week, I will post clues every Friday until it is solved.

10. Have fun and good luck!

-FHH

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

Here is the link to the PDF: ibb.co/z4TN5wJ

Let me know if it does not work for you and send me your email address so I can send the image to you. I have found that sometimes these links do not work well on phones.

-FHH

[Lj67]

Hi. Are we looking for a place, person or piece of history please?

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

Jan 7, 2022 14:24:29 GMT -5 Lj67 said:

Hi. Are we looking for a place, person or piece of history please?

All of the above!

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

I was surprised to see that I already had three correct answers when I logged in, and I will be able to provide each with a prize!

I am going to wait to announce the winners, or to post the solution and prizes so that others have a chance to try their hand with the hunt.

Feel free to submit your solutions to me. Even though the main prizes have been spoken for, I may still have a few runners-up prizes floating around, and your name will be in the honorable mentions list!

I'll leave the hunt up for a while longer until I get a few more correct solutions :-)

-FHH

[susb8383]

Congrats to the winners! I got absolutely nowhere with this and feel pretty dumb considering three different people solved this within hours. I'm anxiously awaiting the solution.

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

Jan 8, 2022 8:12:27 GMT -5 susb8383 said:

Congrats to the winners! I got absolutely nowhere with this and feel pretty dumb considering three different people solved this within hours. I'm anxiously awaiting the solution.

Different people see different things in a hunt, or see the same thing differently. And sometimes you just get lucky and hit on that one thing that sends you in the right direction.

There is still time to get a runners-up prize!

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

For those of you who are still working on this, besides the borders, there are 4-5 additional specific clues and a few more verifying clues.

:-)

[whispa]

Wow congratulations to the winners.

[susb8383]

Jan 8, 2022 9:56:01 GMT -5 forgottenhistoryhunt said:

For those of you who are still working on this, besides the borders, there are 4-5 additional specific clues and a few more verifying clues.

:-)

Yup, I figured there are a lot of clues in this since you mentioned that the winner has to tell you about 3 of them. I found one obvious one, one slightly subtle one that I don't know what to do with, and spent a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to see things that I know must be there...

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

I've received two runners-up/ honorable mention solutions today.

I'm not sure how long I'll keep the hunt open, but I still have some extra prizes waiting to be claimed!

-FHH

[susb8383]

And the hits just keep on coming!

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

I have not received any more submissions to the hunt, so I will post the solution, prizes, winners and runners-up today around 7pm EST.

If anyone would still like to submit a solution for a runners-up prize (a gemstone!), please send it to me by 7pm today. l'll check in periodically during the day to see if there are any additional submissions.

Thanks!

-FHH

[forgottenhistoryhunt]

Solution (to go with marked image):

Statue of Pasha Osidach in the Chernobyl Park of Glory, in the contaminated Exclusion Zone in Chernoyl along the Pripyat River in Russia.

Clues in the image:
1. The yellow border letters anagram to CHERNOBYL:

A BRAVE YOUNG WOMAN (she died for her cause)
A HIDDEN MESSAGE (she hid the messages in her braids)
SHE STANDS IN GLORY (Chernobyl's Park of Glory)
EXCLUDED FOR ALL TIME (in the Exclusion Zone, which will remain contaminated for thousands of years)

2. PASHA is spelled out in the tree branches
3. Morse code in the stone wall spells PRIPYAT RIVER:
    -The GRAY stones in the two top layers of the wall = PRIP
    -The BROWN stones in the two middle layers of the wall = YATR
    -The GREEN stones in the two bottom layers of the wall = IVER

4. There are two dates in Roman numerals in the tree:
-MCMXLIII = 1943, the year Pasha died
-MCMLXXXVI = 1986, the year the statue was created

5. The border is red and yellow, the colors of the Russian flag

6. The flowers are chamomile, the national flower of Russia.

7. The image of Pasha is the memorial statue made of her.