In 1967 whisky brand Canadian Club launched its Hide A Case campaign, hiding 25 cases of the premium liquor in remote locations over the world.
There is still one up for grabs in the UK – the location has been confirmed as the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, a place synonymous with fine whisky.
At the time adverts also ran, giving hunters vague clues as to where the alcohol-based treasure was hidden. Some of the more obscure locations included Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and deep below the surface of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The case on Mount Kilimanjaro was discovered by accident in December 1977, by a Dutch journalist looking for his two children.
Similarly, the case at the Great Barrier Reef’s seabed was stumbled across by two prawn fishermen in 1979, over a decade after it was originally hidden.
Nine, including the case in Loch Ness, still remain to be found. Other hard-to-reach locations include the North Pole, and Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile. The sea crossing to reach this remote location takes between 30 and 48 hours, however the ship that travels there only makes the voyage twice a month.
According to the MailOnline, one of the adverts reveals that, on January 23 1968, one case was flown to South America’s Venezuela and placed under Angel Falls – the world’s highest waterfall towering at a formidable 979-metres.
True to the campaign’s word, only the most determined are rewarded with the treasure. Angel Falls is only accessible by air and the waterfall itself falls drops over the edge of the ominously named Devil’s Canyon.
This was found by explorers David and Diana Mattoon, who found the case seven months after Canadian Club dropped it. David recalled hacking his way through “ancient rain forests” and crossing “79 different sets of rapids” in order to find the whisky whilst in Venezuela on his honeymoon.
Finding the case hidden in New York City was like looking for a needle in a haystack, recalls treasure hunter John Blewett.
Blewett discovered the case in Manhattan in 1978 after months of searching. He said: “we finally located the building we thought was the right place, then dressed up like delivery guys to get past security”, according to Travel + Leisure. “It was hidden under a desk in an advertising office”.
Another advert tipped readers off about a case hidden in the Yukon Territory of northwest Canada on September 7, 1969 – a remote wilderness, known for its extreme climates spanning some 300,000 square miles. Three whisky cases are still hidden in an unspecified location.
However, if travelling to Ujiji in Tanzania, Robinson Crusoe Island, Lake Placid in the upstate New York or the North Pole to find the cases is out of the question, then you might fare better in Scotland’s Loch Ness.
Loch Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland and is said to be home to a unknown beast, known as the Loch Ness Monster. The other three locations are unknown.
Although Canadian Club has revived the Hide A Case Campaign in previous years, it has no current plans to do so, however “welcomes treasure hunters thirsty for some adventure” to plan their own expeditions to find the remaining cases, according to MailOnline.
Discovered cases
- Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
- Angel Falls, Venezuela
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- St Helena Island, part of the British Overseas Territory
- Death Valley, California, USA
- Bigfoot Feeding Ground, Pacific Northwest, USA
- Thousand Islands, between the USA and Canada
- New York City, New York, USA
- Bonnie and Clyde’s 1934 hideout near Gibsland, Louisiana, USA
- Devil’s Backbone Reef, the Bahamas
- Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, Arizona, USA
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Hawaii, USA
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Washington D.C., USA
- Lewis and Clark Trail, Montana, USA
Still missing
- Yukon Territory, northwest Canada
- Loch Ness, Scotland
- Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile
- 110 feet from where Stanley met Livingston in Ujiji, Tanzania
- The North Pole
- Lake Placid, New York, USA
- Three unknown locations
