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Cover art for A Love Letter to San Francisco Treasure Hunt

A Love Letter to San Francisco Treasure Hunt

STATUS: SOLVED

A Love Letter to San Francisco was designed to encourage local exploration and engagement with the city's history and culture. Rather than a traditional hunt for cash or precious metals/objects, the organizers curated a prize box filled with local goods and services to serve as a tribute to the city.

The poem was presented on the hunt site as a single column. It is divided here for display purposes.

The 15-stanza, 80-line poem included wordplay and historical trivia. Hunters with an understanding of San Francisco neighborhoods probably had a bit of an advantage.

The hunt website also included a map and listing to 29 categorized local artists and businesses who contributed to the prize box.

Almost half of the prize was a lifetime membership to The Midway, a 40,000-square-foot event space best known for its live concerts and large-scale block parties.

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Envelope flap
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Solution

Location:
Buena Vista Park, by a tree stump with a paw print, San Francisco, California, USA, GPS coordinates

Solver(s):
Neighbors YuYu Schatz and Jed Lau ("friendlyneighbor2025" and "Leading-Stable9725" on Reddit)

 found at each location corresponded to a digit in the GPS coordinates to where the treasure is located.

Each clue lead to a location where copper nails could be found. The number of copper nails were a digit in the GPS coordinates to the treasure locationed, in order with longitude digits then latitude digits.

Locations include:
Lazy Bear restaurant (2 copper nails in bush in plantar outside storefront, 3rd stanza)
Ornot Bike (copper nails were on a display by the windowsill)

 

The completed GPS coordinates led to a small clearing off the Upper Terrace Trail in Buena Vista Park. The treasure was buried there, by a tree stump with a paw print.