On July 20, 2016, Alex Hirsch, the creator of the popular Disney channel show Gravity Falls, hid a mystery in the series’ finale episode. At the end of the episode, a statue of the show’s main villain, Bill Cipher, can be seen hidden deep in a forest. By deciphering various clues hidden around the world, the location of the statue would be revealed and the first people to find the statue received a prize. After months of theorizing, the hunt ended on August 2, 2016, though many people travel to visit the famous statue to this day.
The Creation of the Statue
In a behind the scenes documentary titled One Crazy Summer, Alex Hirsch discussed the Cipher Hunt. Since Gravity Falls is a show revolving around mystery, he wanted to leave the fans with one final mystery that no one would expect and no other show has done before. He soon came up with the idea of sending the fans on a treasure hunt for a real life Bill Cipher statue and had the show’s art director, Ian Worrel, to help plan the hunt. Hirsch later got a friend of his, Fon Davis, to design and build a Bill Cipher statue out of plexiglass, so that it could withstand the elements. To make it appear like the statue had been in the woods for years, they rubbed glue with seeds on it. This meant the statue would start growing moss. After installing the statue, they took a few seconds of footage of the statue to put at the end of Gravity Falls series finale, “Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls”. After the episode aired on Disney XD February 15, 2016, Hirsch took a few trips to some convention and vacation spots and left behind clues for the fans to find. According to Hirsch, the rules are as follows:
*This is a fan tribute and has no affiliation with the company.
*No trespassing/vandalism. Everything is a public space. Be respectful of your surroundings! Don’t be a dummy!
*Be careful! Search at your own risk!
*If you encounter Bill, whatever you do, don’t shake his hand!
Beginning the Hunt
Fans theorized that there was a real life Bill Cipher statue somewhere in the since the small amount of footage seen at the end of the series finale. The footage showed the statue surrounded by woods with an encrypted message about buried treasure “deep within the woods” and a statue “beyond the rusty gates”. The Gravity Falls team stayed silent about the hunt until July 20, 2016, when Alex Hirsch tweeted, “are you guys ready?” He began the hunt with a tweet saying “let the games begin #FLSKHUKXQW” and the image with many encrypted messages. Once the code is deciphered, it reads: “#CHIPHERHUNT”. An encrypted message above Bill’s statue read: “THE URBAN LEGEND HAS COME TRUE * CIPHER’S STATUE’S CALLING YOU * THE SECRET MAP IS IN YOUR HAND * TO TRACE THE CLUES ACROSS THE LAND”.
Finding the Clues
The first clue was found at Kazen Cathedral, St. Petersburg, RU. The paper of jumbled words translated to:
“Finally the hunt can begin
So switch your Rubles out for Yen
Turn left when you’re at the shrine’s door
When you reach the statue turn left once more
In the leftmost corner in the back
Is the info that you lack
A sword and a crescent mark the clue
Cipher’s statue’s calling you.”
This pointed to the next clue being in JP (Japan) because they use Yen as currency. The next clue was found at the Kanda Myojin Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo, JP. On the back of one of the emas inside the shrine was a sword and crescent drawing with an encrypted message that translated to:
“Consider in your quest for truth
the hunter of the fountain of youth
400 before his name is written
Outside the gate is where its hidden
Find what’s LOST to pass the test
From a Shrine that’s east to a Shrine that’s west.”
This points to the 3rd clue being at 400 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, Georgia. The clue was found at a Shriner’s temple where a missing poster for Waddles was found. The poster had some info about him and another encrypted message that read:
“Across from the stones of the springs
you’ll find some peculiar things
tied to a root is a lone pink key
dig to find what waits for thee.”
This message helped find the 8th clue which is a phone number. When the number is called, the fan will receive a voice message from Grunkle Stan while music from the X-Files plays in the background. The message says:
“Hello, its Grunkle Stan, and I have a riddle for you! What has two legs during the day, four legs during the night, and uh, it’s red and white, and, I dunno, I’m no good at these riddles. It’s at Ochre Court, all right? The next clue, it’s at Ochre Court. It’s, uh, it’s like, it’s a big old building in Rhode Island and if you go up the stairs, there’s gonna be a bunch of pictures of nuns on the wall. You gotta look behind one of the nun pictures. Sister Mary Hilda Miley. Real, real grouch, that nun. Lift up the picture to find a clue behind the nun, all right? That’s the whole thing. So, you know, be careful with the picture. Don’t break it. I don’t want to get in any trouble, all right? You don’t want ol’ Grunkle Stan going to Jail. Anyway, go to the place, look behind the nun, find the thing and uh, uh, always? Be…mys…look out for mysteries! That it, did, did I do it? All right.”
-Stan Pines
The clue that was supposed to be found at the Ochre Court building at Salve Regina university was disposed of before the hunt began, so Hirsch created a replacement clue that was another phone message from Grunkle Stan. The message says:
“A man whose first name is his last, a statue honoring his past. Right behind him by the sign of his park, a golden head shows light in the dark. I dunno what that means. Well, I don’t have to go out there ‘n figure this out. Wonder what’s on TV.”
-Stan Pines
Like the message says, the next clue was found near the Griffith J. Griffith at Griffith park in LA. A golden Grunkle Stan head was fouled in LA with a slip of paper with an encrypted message that read:
“50+50 THAT’S THE CITY
FROM ONE ANGLE IT’S QUITE PRETTY
YOU’LL FIND A BOW TIE AND ONE EYE
AT HIS HEAD IS A RECTANGLE
STONES BY STAIRS ATOP THE TOP RIGHT ANGLE
THE SONE WITH THE UV SWIRL CAN GLOW
FIND THE BLACK POUCH THAT’S BELOW.”
The End
With the rest of the clues gathered, the fans were finally able to locate the statue. The statue was found at Reedsport, Oregon. A treasure chest was found buried in front of the statue. Inside it was plastic coins and gems, Russian and Japanese currency, a copy of Gravity Falls: Journal 3 with special drawings from Alex Hirsch, a black light, a plastic crown and sash that says, “Mayor of Gravity Falls”, a music box with Bill’s eye on it that plays the Gravity Falls theme song, a miniature Bill Cipher statue, and a sketch of the characters standing with the statue. This marked the end of a treasure hunt to go down in history. Today, the statue is on a tree at Confution Hill.
