Reminds me of the much more recent “treasure hunting” that is geocaching, which uses GPS points and clues to lead the seekers to what has been hidden. ....Obviously, the older versions with clues being depicted in drawings and poems are much harder.
I live waaay out on the sticks. A couple of summers ago I started see in cars stop at the culvert bridge at the end of my lane and people would get out and look over the edge or climb down in it. Drove me crazy, I thought maybe someone was hiding drugs for pickup or something worse. My son finally investigated and found a little magnetic box with a piece of paper in it with a bunch of numbers and people’s initials. He found out there is a club here that does that sort of thing. Don’t know what they get out of it except for a drive in the country. Haven’t seen them this year