OSCEOLA -- The word "purdy" is worth $100 in Osceola.

The phrases "White Lightning" and "You had to go through me if you wanted to talk to Earnestine" also meant cash in hand -- provided anyone could figure out their meanings.

Someone in this Mississippi County town of 7,553 is hiding envelopes with $100 bills on historical properties and leaving clues to their whereabouts in the local newspaper. The person, who wants to remain anonymous and refers to himself only as "Pass it on Pete," has hidden five envelopes so far.

Although the clues have become progressively harder, people have discovered each hiding place -- and they've learned a bit of Osceola history.

"At first I thought this person had more money than sense," Glynda Thompson, director of the Mississippi County Historical Center and Museum, said of "Pete." "But I've been amazed at the range of people interested in this. There are teenagers and elderly all in groups looking for the money.

"He's done a good thing."

A clue to the money's location appears in The Osceola Times weekly newspaper.

The publication, printed in nearby Blytheville, arrives at the Times' downtown office by noon each Wednesday. Shortly afterward, residents flock to the office to buy copies and begin their searches. By midafternoon, people are combing the historical district, looking for the envelope.

Before the weekly clues began, editor Sandra Brand sold about 150 newspapers out of the office on a Wednesday. Now, she sells 225 to 250 each Wednesday.

"There's no boundaries," she said. "Everybody's loving it, and it's growing each week."

The first clue made reference to an archaic Arkansas law that required travel from anywhere in a county to the county seat within a day. Swampy Delta lands of the late 1800s, when Mississippi County was formed, prevented someone from the southern edge of the county reaching the courthouse in Blytheville. So the county built a second courthouse in Osceola.

"Pete" hid the money for that clue on the side of the courthouse building.

Another clue -- "You had to go through me if you wanted to talk to Earnestine" -- referred to the town's old Bell Telephone building on Ash Street. Ernestine was the name of the telephone operator portrayed by comedian Lily Tomlin on the old television show Laugh-In.

"Pete" taped the money under the building's fire escape stairs.

It took searchers only a few hours the first four times after clues were published to find the money, but the last one -- "Purdy" -- stumped people. As of Sunday, the cash had yet to be discovered. Some thought it made reference to the slang pronunciation of "pretty" and checked beauty salons and barber shops. Others thought it was the name of a local paint company.

People go to extremes to find the money.

One week, a woman went to the newspaper office with a handful of mail. When she learned that the money had been found, she said she had taken the mail from a church mailbox, said Chelsey LaRue, who works at the newspaper.

"She said she thought she'd go through the mail because that's where she thought the money was," LaRue said. "When she learned the money had been found, she said, 'Oh, I guess I better take this back to the church.'"

Ammi Tucker, the executive director of the Osceola/South Mississippi County Chamber of Commerce, found $100 when she realized that "White Lightning" was the name of a band that played at the Roundup, an old club on the courthouse square.

She and a friend found the money under a brick in an alley behind the club after they thought about liquor stores that might have once sold homemade alcohol, or "white lightning."

"This is amazing," Tucker said. "It's creating a common goal of finding the treasure. It's starting a dialogue with different generations. We're taking our children out there. The older generations know where things are. The younger generations want to find it. It's encouraging history.

"You've got to know where you've been to know where you're going," she said.

While people are looking for the money, they are also seeking clues to the identity of "Pete."

Tucker said she thinks she knows who it may be, but she's apprehensive. It's like learning the true identity of Santa Claus, she said.

Others speculate that it may be Gaylon Lawrence Jr., the man who bought the small farming town of Wilson about 15 miles south of Osceola earlier this year and was featured in The New York Times.

It's not him.

Others think it's a retired farmer or banker who has the time and money to hide the weekly clues.

It's not.

The man responsible for hiding the money is a working man who has "credit card debt like everyone else," said "Pete," who agreed to an interview as long as he was not identified.

"I just want to make someone's day," he said. "I have a little extra money at times, and I can afford to do this.

"My only regret is that I don't get to see the faces of people trying to put the clues together."

He said his friends don't even know he is "Pass it on Pete." A few weeks ago, one friend texted him to discuss that week's clue. "I wanted to tell him he was close, but I couldn't."

On Wednesday, he drove past where he hid the money under a porch of one of the shotgun homes. Someone was sitting on the porch.

"He had no idea it was there," "Pete" said, laughing.

"Pass it on Pete" said he intends to hide the money each week in historical or significant places in Osceola and, perhaps, the county.

The weekly searches have invigorated residents' interest in local history. On one Wednesday afternoon, 32 people went to the city's museum to get information, Thompson said.

"I've had people come in for information about the clues and when someone else finds the money that week, they come back for more information," Thompson said. "They want to learn more about our history."

Osceola firefighter Scotty McClure drove through the town's court square in a motorized cart, stopping at the museum last Wednesday before continuing his search for the money.

"I try to do this each week," he said. "It's fun, and it's a way to learn about the history of Osceola.

"Now, if we could just figure out this clue ..."

Renee Jones and her two children spend Wednesday evenings looking for the money. It's a way to keep the children, 7 and 8, off the Internet.

"It gets them involved in things," Jones said. "It's gotten them to reading the paper, and that's great."

Brand has watched the searches grow each week.

"This really is a community thing," she said. "It brings a lot of different people together, and people are talking about it all the time."

State Desk on 07/07/2014