Heartwarming moment Utah father and son find treasure chest with $25,000 prize: ‘Feels like a dream’
A treasure hunt in Utah has led to the discovery of a chest with a $25,000 prize for a father and son from Eagle Mountain.
Damon Johnson and his son Ty were exploring Grove Creek in Pleasant Grove when they found the box behind a rock.
“It still feels like a dream,” a surprised Ty said ABC4 last week, when he was with his father and an unknown boy.
Utah Poem Treasure Hunt organizers David Cline and John Maxim confirmed the win on Instagram video They posted this after Johnson and his son found the treasure.
Johnson and his son found the treasure within three hours of solving the hunt’s riddle: a Spanish poem.
Damon Johnson and his son Ty were exploring Grove Creek in Pleasant Grove when they found the box behind a rock. It contained $25,000
Johnson, who participated in the treasure hunt in 2022 and 2023, said it was the third hike he and his son have taken since Cline and Maxim posted the clue.
According to Johnson, his “aha moment” came from his knowledge of the history of the Beehive State.
“I read a story about tribes gathering around Utah Lake and having festivals,” he said.
With that line he connected the poem to a chorus, which reminded him of Mount Timpanogos.
Johnson looked up the mountain on Google Maps and saw a shadow that led him to the spot where he found the treasure.
“I think the way you got there wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but you still ended up at the same point,” Cline told Johnson after the explanation.
Johnson spent the past two years participating in treasure hunts before finding it. The Utah native made the connection through a Spanish poem — a clue posted last Saturday
Cline and Maxim started hosting treasure hunts in Utah in 2020 and have hosted the Poetry Hunt and QR Hunt every year since.
On the treasure hunt website, they explained that they set up the scavenger hunt to create something fun so that everyone could “get out with family and friends in a safe way.”
While they’ve used multiple clues in almost all of their scavenger hunts, organizers confirmed this was the first time they’ve used a non-English poem during an interview with ABC 4.
“In a lot of movies and films that we’ve done, like The Goonies for example, the treasure map is all in Spanish, so it’s not that strange that we say, ‘Hey, this time the treasure is in Spanish,'” Maxim said.
David Cline and John Maxim confirmed the win in an Instagram video they posted after Johnson and his son found the treasure
Damon plans to use his money to get his computer science degree, and he recently used some of it when he went shopping for school supplies with Ty.
He also plans to pay off some of his debts and put some of it into a college fund for his children.