- Mom and I were on Wheel of Fortune and we got some free cash and we decided let's do this.

- That plays out into the rest of your life.

- The Texas State Park system was going to expand.

What's that going to look like?

- All the clues are in this book.

- And that's what people are really hungry for.

- Are you really trying if you're not bleeding?

- You don't really know a place until you walk the land.

- If I can manage this, there's nothing else going to bother me.

(dramatic music) (no audio) - When you run 60 plus miles, it's definitely not an enjoyable experience start to finish.

There's long stretches where it hurts really bad.

There's this sense of, "I'm so scared.

Why did I do this?

I could be doing so many other things with my life."

And I know that sounds insane to say, to put yourself in that on purpose, but knowing what could come from that, that plays out into the rest of your life.

- [Race Official] Four, three, two, one.

- There's no one out here but us right now.

It's gorgeous.

I can't get over this warmth and sunshine, but it's going to be colder on Saturday and Sunday, and that's going to make everyone happier when they're out there going through the miles.

This is the HOKA Bandera Endurance Trail Race.

It's a 62 mile race.

So we start at 7:30 and they have a little bit more than 24 hours to get it done.

We're out in the hill country of Texas, which is just a little bit outside of San Antonio.

The whole thing is just remote.

There's a lot of steep climbs and descents.

It's really enough to make for some abrupt climbs that are sustained long enough to hurt during a race.

This is such a chaucy, just gnarly, difficult, technical, rocky terrain, and it doesn't forgive anyone at any time.

And so it just makes for a really, truly challenging course, and that's what people are really hungry for.

- Are you really trying if you're not bleeding?

- The tagline for this race is actually no whiners, wimps or wusses.

So this is meant to be one of the hardest courses we can put together.

I happened into track and field as a youth and I jumped right into the competitive side of it, started getting into ultra distance racing in my 20s, and then from there got into more and more difficult and long races.

Got into adventure racing, got to know more people in these different specific racing crowds, and they're all so awesome.

They all welcomed me in and, you know, helped me learn and figure out how to train specifically for that particular sport.

So it just really became a neat thing that I never meant to get into, but just sort of happened.

Trail running, especially long distance trail running, it's supposed to be hard.

I guess I take that even into the work side of it, where I feel like if it has been a challenge for us as a setup goes and as the event production side of it goes, it's just going to be that much better of a show for the people when they get here to race.

The work to get a race like this underway starts 364 days prior.

We're essentially starting to get permits, getting permission for the race, really honestly, even before the race is over, those conversations are happening.

So then from there, fast forward to the week of, we're waiting for the final green light as far as weather goes, make sure everything's okay.

And then we're taking the truck and trailer out and we're going from there.

- There's a lot of people who come out here that would maybe not be as comfortable coming out in the train by themselves.

So we work really hard to make sure that it's very clear, they don't get lost.

They can enjoy the race and just enjoy the trail without having to like super focus on, "Am I in the right place?

Did I miss a turn?"

I became a ultra runner junkie pretty quickly after I started running ultras.

So I would just get online and look for, you know, any races across the country.

And when it comes to Texas, Bandera is what came up.

It's the one.

(light music) - Race day.

Wake up and full of adrenaline.

The excitement is there just like I'm going to the start line to race myself.

- Welcome to HOKA Bandera 2026 100K.

- You can see the silver dollar size eyeballs and know who is officially in over their head, but the things that happen from that moment to the finish line are so grandiose.

They're literally having their lives changed.

- [Race Official] Three, two, one.

(lively music) - There are lots of people who think we're nuts.

Just the pain is exhilarating out here when you're pushing past these miles.

It's fun to keep piling on the pain.

- That first 50K and my first 100K, like that pain was kind of a, it's kind of addicting.

- So we have world-class athletes right in the middle of the same group of people that are doing it for the first time and everything in between.

- I mean, I'm getting old, so my body hurts more and the falls hurt more, but I can't get through the rest of my life without this.

So for now, this is what I'm doing.

- Once someone gets going, once they get past the start line and away from the race hub and all the excitement, it really turns into just them and Mother Nature.

(light music) (runner breathing) - Woo hoo.

- 162.

- Nice work.

(cowbell jingles) - Welcome to the party, my friend.

(crowd cheers) - The first part is just so exciting and it's wonderful.

And then, you know, you get, you know, about 30 miles in and whatnot and then you're, okay, these hips are starting to hurt.

Ugh.

You're starting to have these mental things come up.

It's like, why did I do this?

Why am I doing this?

- Thanks guys.

- You have to mentally get out of that.

You won't be able to finish the run if you don't get out of your head.

- All right.

Well, I got to keep moving.

- All right, bye.

- See you the next one.

- Your mind is strong enough to get you out of that suck to go into that last leg.

- It's hard to understand until you try it.

For me, that's the lesson is lesson in patience.

If I can manage this, there's nothing that's going to bother me like in life.

Hardships, job loss, whatever.

I chose to do this.

Nobody else can make it worse.

- What you feel when someone crosses the finish line is really awesome.

You feel like you've been a part of their journey.

That's it.

Get in here.

(crowd cheers) Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, our HOKA Bandera champion.

(crowd cheers) (cowbell jingles) I'm so pumped for you.

Yeah, I mean, the emotions are high.

It's really special.

It never gets old.

(cowbells jingle) (crowd cheers) - So nice to see you, bro.

- Good to see you, Chris, yeah same to you.

Take care of yourself.

(cowbell jingles) - The people who come in sneaking in in the middle of the afternoon are awesome, incredible athletes, but being able to weather a night like this, hang in there and get through the demons, that's when you get to see all the carnage and all its glory.

- There's no normal people out here.

There's people who desire this as a form of therapy.

It's not a physical race.

I think the people who are here are there to like work on their minds.

- A lot of people are having life-altering moments out here.

There's truly just endless stories.

- I had an injury to my leg five years ago, hunting accident, and shattered my leg and had eight surgeries.

And this is the first race I've done in the last five years.

- What you've been through, you should sincerely be pumped for yourself.

You should be proud.

You did something hard today.

I feel like I've been called to create an opportunity for people to come out and have a true adventure.

To be able to create that experience is worth any hard part that could come with it.

(light dramatic music) - Texas is pretty famously a state that's overwhelmingly a private property, I think something like 95%.

So there is a need for more public land, especially in the state park system, which has tended to be pretty small relative to the population of Texas, especially given how quickly we're growing as a state.

But recently, voters approved these two initiatives that pump a lot of money into acquiring new public park lands.

You know, it was pretty clear that the Texas State Park system was going to dramatically expand, and then it just became a question of what's that going to look like?

I'm Forest Wilder.

I'm a staff writer for Texas Monthly, and I wrote The Great Texas Land Boom.

Post Oak Ridge State Park is about an hour and a half or so in the northwest of Austin on the Colorado River across from actually another state park that's been around for a while, Colorado Bend State Park.

It hasn't opened to the public yet, so we're getting a little bit of a sneak preview from Texas Parks Wildlife Department.

Good morning.

- Hi.

- Hi, how are you?

- Good.

We're going to park right behind that house.

- I'd give you a ride, but-- - That's okay, I've planned on walking.

- I got a car seat back there I didn't take out.

That's okay.

No, not at all.

- Okay.

Thanks for taking us around.

- Yes.

- Appreciate it.

- And I'm still exploring the property, so I don't know it all yet.

There's some really, yeah, pretty views out there.

And this, I mean, certainly could make a wonderful hiking trail and have a couple of little points to go out and look maybe.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, it's really.

- In a state that's booming like Texas, you know, views like this are, are becoming increasingly scarce.

The Texas triangle is where most of Texans live and where most of the growth is happening.

The state is really prioritizing trying to open new parks within this triangle or within an hour's drive from its edges.

The idea behind that's pretty simple.

Bring the parks to where the people are.

This part of the hill country is still outside the sprawl.

There's not a lot of development in the area yet.

And you have this other state park across the river, so you essentially have this like pretty large corridor that's protected.

- Did you get in the ants?

Uh-oh.

- Yeah, it's always good for the story when things go wrong, you know?

Luckily, I've been bit so many times, I just wouldn't say immune to it, but I know what to expect.

- And so right here is your first view of Post Oak Falls, which is across the river.

It's a really pretty rock feature.

- It's cool.

These were ranches until just a few months ago, really.

They had like a little fish camp down at the river.

There's a number of structures there built over different periods of time.

So you get kind of some of the backstory also on who owned what and the history or.

- And those studies are being done too, so there will be a report on that as well.

But it's also fun to hear it, you know, from the individuals and their experience.

- You hear the water?

That's the falls right, we're hearing?.

A very cool outcropping and you can see, I guess, because the water has been present, you have these kind of like cave-like, or what do you call them?

Stalactite, stalagmite looking features.

I think that'll be like a real highlight for visitors someday is to perhaps start a hike like we did, you know, kind of at the top of the property with the nice views down to the river bottom, and then you get this big payoff at the end, which is this really cool feature, like right on the river.

And this would be like a good destination hike, right?

- Wouldn't it?.

- To go see the falls.

You get sweaty, you jump in the water.

Wrote down, "It's making me want to explore, so I have to come back here when the park's open."

Yeah, it's really cool.

This is a story that is, is sort of rare in that it's people coming together to try to do something really far reaching.

Our children and grandchildren and beyond will continue to see the fruits of what the legislature and the public did.

And I just don't think there's that many things that you can talk about where that's the story.

(light music) - I think this is a fascinating project that has engaged the interest and obsession of Texans all across the state.

I talk to people who have spent hours a day looking for this treasure, examining the book, people who have traveled all over the state, thousands of miles in their pickups, and it really seems to have captured people's imagination.

My name is Michael Hardy.

I'm a senior writer at Texas Monthly, and I wrote the story "Seek and Y'all May Find."

I first learned about this treasure hunt on Facebook.

I saw people posting about it.

The story was really kind of perfunctory.

It was just, this is a search for a medallion that is somewhere in Texas.

You get the treasure if you find the medallion.

This coin is a replica of the coin that is hidden somewhere in Texas.

A difference between this medallion and the real one is that on the real one, there is a final puzzle.

The medallion is inside a weatherproof box that is hidden, but not buried somewhere in Texas.

When you find the medallion, there's one final puzzle on the back that you have to solve.

And when you do that, you can claim the monetary prize.

The Seek Texas Treasure Hunt was founded by Casey Wright and his 90-something-year-old mother.

They took some of the money that they had won on Wheel of Fortune and decided to launch this thing.

They compiled a book.

It's sort of a coffee table book with lots of photographs of Texas.

There are a couple of puzzles you have to solve.

All of the clues you need to find the medallion are in the book.

Who was this guy?

Why did he start the treasure hunt?

Why was he willing to give away so much money?

That intrigued me.

Have you always been interested in treasure hunts?

- My oldest memories of my father are reading to me "Treasure Island," "The Gold-Bug," you know, the thrill of adventure.

Mom and I were on Wheel of Fortune and we got some free cash and we decided, let's do this.

- [Michael Hardy] Casey Wright and his mother really wanted people to explore the state of Texas, to get off the highways, to explore historical sites.

That is the ultimate goal from his perspective.

- Texas is awesome.

And we're trying to get people off the interstates and into these small towns.

That's where our heritage lies.

You know, we have stuff in Dallas and Fort Worth and Austin and Houston and San Antonio, but these little towns are just amazing.

And so bringing Texas to the world, to me, that's the real treasure.

- Liz, do you think someone will find the treasure?

- I think if they read everything and put it together, it's possible.

- That doesn't sound too encouraging, actually.

(elevator pings) What I found really cool is that anybody could buy a book, so I decided to buy one.

All the clues are in this book, everything you need to find the treasure.

But as you can see, there's a lot.

I mean, there's poems, there's maps.

Everything in this book is a clue, which is impossible because like if everything is a clue, then like nothing is a clue.

There are a couple puzzles at the very beginning.

I cracked this one, this is just Morse Code.

It reads, "It will be in plain view on level land."

So that was relatively easy.

And then the second one was even more tenuous.

It's actually a quote from Dead Poet Society.

- Oh, wow.

- Of all things.

I started thinking about dead poets.

I thought to myself, who is a famous dead Texas poet?

And the name that popped into my head was Mirabeau Lamar, one of the presidents of the Republic of Texas.

I looked up Mirabeau Lamar's grave.

It turns out it's in Richmond, Texas, outside of Houston.

Here we go.

I found Mirabeau Lamar's grave and I started looking for the medallion.

There should be the coin somewhere nearby.

It will be in plain view on level land, although this could well be a wild goose chase.

At a certain point, I realized that I was not going to find the treasure.

This is something people were spending hours every day on.

It had become a part-time job for some people.

So I started thinking maybe I should follow them.

I got in touch with a couple of treasure hunters, Amy and John Jolly, who were deeply invested in this treasure hunt.

John and Amy wanted to visit Comanche, Texas, in part because there are all these references to Comanches in the "Seek Texas" book.

- He's fairly significant about Comanches.

- Quanah Parker.

- And Quanah Parker, absolutely.

Comanches are in here a lot and we've never really checked it thoroughly, so.

- [Michael Hardy] After meeting John and Amy, I got into their pickup as they looked for the treasure.

The first place they looked was the Comanche County Courthouse.

Specifically, there was a very old tree.

- Obviously, it's outside and trees have been around forever.

I feel close to a spot like this, like maybe a tree or a park, something in nature.

It's beautiful.

Look at it.

If only it could talk to us.

We're treasure hunting.

Places like this really stand out because people drive by all the time, not paying any attention.

- Sure.

- And that's what he's wanting.

He's wanting you to notice things.

- [Michael Hardy] Next, we drove to City Park.

- See that right there?

- Right.

- They're going to look at it, but they're not going to pay any attention to it.

- So those are kind of things that we're looking for just off the side of the road where you could slide something in it.

- [Michael Hardy] But they decided because it was kind of rolling land, not flat, that it probably wasn't hidden in the park.

- So that's off the list.

Hopefully we find it.

If not, we'll still have fun.

(light music) So a lot of these small towns you go through and it's nothing.

They're just like closed down buildings and they're just disappearing.

And they've got a lot of history, a lot.

That's the basis of his whole book, you know, that there's places that you don't know out there, these small towns, and they need us to thrive.

We've gone through this town many times, but we just go on the outside of the highway and we pass right on through.

So we've never went to like this town square.

I would've never went to the park.

There's just a lot out there that you just don't notice.

We've got a different mindset now.

- [Michael Hardy] In April 2026, a couple of people did find the medallion, but they couldn't solve the puzzle on the back of the medallion, which was the final condition to claim the prize.

That led Casey to suspect they hadn't solved the puzzles in the book.

Now Casey has tried something new.

There's no more hidden medallion, but the treasure can still be claimed if you solve the puzzles in the book.

When I first heard about the Seek Texas treasure hunt, I had this wild fantasy that I would find the treasure, and that's why I bought the book.

I started going through the clues.

But as I did so, I realized it was really more about exploring the state, meeting new people, learning new things, going to places I hadn't been before.

Texas is huge.

Every day is different, and that's what I love about it.

- There's definitely an element of danger, but it's amazing to find yourself out here in these places.

- [Forrest Wilder] That's what these places are for, to enjoy the outdoors and to have some new experiences.

- [Chris McWatters] You get to go out and challenge yourself and have a true adventure.

- [Michael Hardy] Texas is a great place to be a journalist.

You can barely walk out of your house without stumbling into a story.