Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026 (3 weeks after Clue 1)
Format: Live podcast / livestream interview with chat questions
Featured: Tom Colosimo (creator)
Hosts: Mike + KPro (treasure hunt podcast hosts; "we're on our 15th hunt")
Notable participant: Obsessed Jared (treasure hunt database owner, in chat)
Source: Transcript provided by user (02_tom_qa_2026-03-26_raw.txt)
TL;DR — biggest reveals from this interview
- Inspiration confirmed: Tom watched a Rachel Stonecraft TikTok about Forrest Fenn on January 27, 2026, posted his Facebook intent the next day, launched Clue 1 on March 3 — about 5 weeks idea-to-launch
- Style is "National Treasure," not ciphers — riddles + imagination, themed around the US 250th anniversary, with clues that "sound like they're from the late 1700s"
- Tom built the whole thing solo (no team), and "used AI to make it AI-proof"
- What hunters actually find: not the treasure itself — a physical key + a letter. The letter then identifies where the treasure has been placed
- 10 clues max, every other Tuesday at noon. Clue 1: March 3, Clue 10: July 7, 2026 (post-July-4 weekend, 250th anniversary timing — Tom says it was an accident)
- Prize at ~$33,000 as of late March, growing. Mostly cash, plus a $5,500 one-ounce gold coin from Joe Saron (Garrisville auto dealer). Sarell Chevrolet adds $50 per vehicle sold through July
- Reach: 4M+ views on Clue 1, hunters from 19 US states + Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada
- Lee Dowy (lost Confederate gold finder) is hunting it with a documentary crew and pledged to donate the prize back to next year's hunt if he wins
- No tools needed — just phone + clues. No digging, climbing, water, trespassing. All on public ground inside village limits
- Winner cannot be anonymous — they must meet the press
- Tom's wife is the only other person who knows the solution
- A neighboring community ~30 min away is exploring its own treasure hunt inspired by this one
Q&A — organized by topic
Origin & inspiration
Q: What gave you the idea?
"I was watching a TikTok one night... I happened to come across a Forrest Fenn video. I had no idea who he was. Had no idea there were treasure hunts going around the US, and I had my aha moment. This town's been struggling for years. About 20 businesses have come and gone in the past five and a half years since we opened our store. And that Forrest Fenn video — a light went on. I'm going to try this for our town."
Q: How long from idea to launch?
"January 28th I watched the Forrest Fenn video on TikTok and I launched it — the first clue — on March 3rd."
Q: Did you plan this all by yourself?
"It's just me. I was just going to hide $1,000 somewhere in town and put out some clues. My friend Joe Saron — he owns a car dealership in Garrisville — called me to come see him. He gave me a $5,500 gold coin. I gave him a shoutout and it blew up. Everybody wanted to become sponsors."
Q: Did your wife think you were crazy?
"You could absolutely say crazy. I watched the Forrest Fenn video, the next day I came to work and posted on Facebook I was going to do a treasure hunt. She saw that and was like, 'What are you doing?' I was like, 'I have no idea. Let's just do it though.'"
Prize & sponsors
Q: What is the prize?
"Right now we're over $30,000 of gold, silver, and cash. It's growing. Sarell Chevrolet just announced — every new vehicle they sell, they're going to donate $50 more dollars to the treasure until July."
"Depending how long it goes until it's found, this could be $40,000, $50,000."
Q: How much cash specifically?
"I don't know the exact dollar amount, but it's mostly cash. And there's one significant coin — a $5,500 gold coin. The one-ounce gold coin."
Q: Are you keeping any of the donations?
"Oh, it's all going to the treasure. What I wanted from this was our town to thrive."
Q: Total as of the interview?
"Sean told me they sold over 20 vehicles this month, so there's another thousand. I think we're around $33,000."
Format & rules
Q: Free to enter?
"It's all free. Absolutely free."
Q: Clue cadence?
"We started on March 3rd, Tuesday at noon, and then every two weeks, Tuesday at noon, I release another clue. I do it on my Facebook business page. I also release it on TikTok and Instagram."
Q: How many clues total?
"Every two weeks until it's found, with a maximum of 10 clues."
Q: When is the 10th clue released?
"July 7th at noon."
Q: Do clues need to be solved in order?
"Not necessarily, as long as you're able to solve them all."
Q: Can you find it before all 10 clues are released?
"You're going to need all the clues to figure it out completely."
Q: Is there verification along the way?
"You won't know till the end. You just got to take what you learn from each clue, take it with you to the next clue, and go from there."
Q: What are people actually looking for?
"After all clues are solved, participants will discover a key and a letter identifying where the treasure has been placed. So when people have all 10 clues — if solved correctly — they'll lead them to this key and this letter, and that letter will tell them where the actual treasure is."
Q: Tools needed?
"Just the phone and the clues. There's no digging, no trespassing, no going into any dangerous situation, no going into water. The clues have been really specific. It's all on public property and nothing dangerous."
Q: All within Newton Falls city limits?
"Everything's within the city limits, yes."
Q: Can you travel between clues on foot?
"Yes, it's a small town. Yes, most definitely."
Q: Can the winner remain anonymous?
"No. The winner will have to meet the press and publicly disclose who they are."
Theme & difficulty
Q: Cipher-heavy or more riddles/imagination?
"It's more like National Treasure. This is our 250th anniversary of our country and I wanted to play that into it. That's why when you hear the clues, it sounds like it was from the late 1700s."
Q: Any ciphers at all?
"No, not tech. No ciphers."
Q: Can AI solve it?
"I had people make comments when I started this — they were just going to stick it in an AI and solve it. And I was like, 'Oh crap, I didn't even think of that.' So I used AI to make it AI-proof."
Q: Do you need local knowledge / Newton Falls history?
"A lot of it can be found right online. A lot of people have been deep diving into online history. It's a pretty historic town. We have a covered bridge on the National Register, Victoria Place — a USO center — on the National Register, and our whole entire downtown's on the National Register. All that information is public."
Q: Recommended reading?
"Local girl Andrea Fouse wrote Images of America: Newton Falls a couple years ago. It has a lot of good history in there. I kind of used that as my inspiration for research. You can get it at the library — check it out or view it there."
Q: Do locals have an advantage?
"I don't think so. Because everything can be found pretty much online."
Reach & community
Q: How big has it gotten?
"After the first clue was released, there were over four million views on it."
Q: How big is Newton Falls?
"We're actually a village of less than 5,000 people."
Q: Who's traveled the farthest?
"There's been a couple here from Italy. There's a lady from Japan that's working on it. I was contacted by a guy from Germany that's going to come next month if it's not found. Another person from Canada. We've tracked about 19 different states right now."
Q: Did you do any national advertising?
"It's been word of mouth. I've been having interviews almost every day and I have not contacted these people. They've been finding me. I don't know how, but they've been finding this."
Q: Any famous treasure hunters showed up?
"Lee Dowy — he's the one that discovered the lost Confederate gold in Georgia, millions of dollars. He's working on this and he's one of the ones who said he would give it back if he won. He just wants the fame, the thrill of the hunt."
Behavior & operations
Q: Anyone misbehaving?
"People weren't following the rules. The city actually had to put up signs at our covered bridge, our water tower — 'the treasure is not here' — because people started climbing the covered bridge. They were afraid people were going to climb our water tower."
Q: Are you checking on the treasure?
"I'll know when it's found. I'm not going to check on it."
Q: Does anyone else know the solution?
"My wife's familiar with it as well."
Q: Will you do it again?
"We already have people donating for next year, so the answer is yes."
Q: Biggest lesson learned?
"I think I would ask for help. I've been doing this all by myself — the advertising, everything. It's very overwhelming."
Tom's reasoning for the whole project
"We've had this storefront for five and a half years now. About 20 businesses in our downtown have come and gone in that time. State Route 534 goes right through our town — they did a traffic study saying about 10,000 cars go through a day. I could never think of a way to get those people to stop. It's such a nice-looking town. We have two sets of waterfalls, a covered bridge, a historic downtown, a USO building. And I've always been fascinated with hunting for treasure — that's what I do for a living. I have an antique store and I dig through people's barns, attics, and basements. I feel like a modern-day treasure hunter."
"The whole point of this was to bring people to our town to see what this town has to offer. I believe our town is the treasure. While you're looking for the treasure, you'll discover what a great town this is. This town is a Hallmark community and you just have to come here and experience it for yourself."
Logistics for visitors
- Town: Village of <5,000, Trumbull County, Ohio
- Lodging: A few Airbnbs in town; couple of hotels just outside village limits
- Nearest airports: Cleveland (~1 hr) or Pittsburgh
- Local meetup: Five Forks Distillery hosts Thursday-night clue discussion
- Wait times: Hour-long lines reported at local restaurants — never happened before
- Dirt bike trails: None in the village
Channels for clues
- Facebook: Fieldview Acres Mercantile (primary, clues pinned)
- Instagram: Fieldview Acres
- TikTok: Fieldview Acres
- YouTube: just started posting clues
- In-person: Posted at the store (36 W Broad St, Newton Falls, OH)
Significant aside — clarifying the "what you're looking for" reveal
Tom directed listeners to his Facebook post from February 17, 2026, where he explicitly stated what hunters are looking for. He went radio-silent after that post because he was getting hundreds of messages a day. Per the chat: it's a key + a note (Obsessed Jared confirmed it).