Andover resident Dan Leonard will recount his adventure solving Project Skydrop, a real-world treasure hunt for a $26,000 gold statue and an $87,000 Bitcoin wallet, at Oak & Iron Brewery at 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The event is being sponsored by Andover Trails, which is simultaneously announcing its own treasure hunt for local residents.
Project Skydrop launched on September 19 and tasked participants with finding the hidden treasure on public land within a 500-mile radius of Washington, D.C. Daily aerial photos and a livestream of the forest floor, along with real-time temperature data, provided geographic clues.
Over 9,000 treasure hunters signed up for exclusive hints in the form of aerial photos of the location during the week and a half the hunt was live. Leonard, who is senior meteorologist at the Weather Company in Andover, used maps of beech trees on public land and pinpointed the location of the prize by following cloud movements and temperature data seen on trail cams.