You know that feeling when you're watching a movie and a name just sticks? For most fans of the Disney franchise, that name is Thomas Gates National Treasure. He’s the guy who starts it all. The man who, in the opening minutes of National Treasure: Book of Secrets, is accused of being a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It's a heavy way to start a sequel. But honestly, if you look at how the movie handles history, the character of Thomas Gates is basically the ultimate "what if" scenario.
He’s portrayed by Joel Gretsch. You might recognize him from The 4400 or V. In the film's 1865 prologue, Thomas is a polymath—a puzzle solver and a patriot—who gets approached by two men, Michael Connors and Seth Frye. They want him to decode a cipher in a diary. Not just any diary, but the diary of John Wilkes Booth. This is where the fiction gets layered onto real history thick and fast.
Why Thomas Gates National Treasure Still Matters to Fans
People are still obsessed with the Gates family tree. Why? Because the movie makes history feel like a giant, high-stakes game of escape room. Thomas Gates represents the "ordinary" man caught in extraordinary circumstances. In the film, he realizes the men asking for his help are Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). If you aren't a history buff, the KGC was a real secret society. They wanted to create a slave-holding empire. In the movie, they're looking for the City of Gold, Cíbola.
Thomas sees the danger. He knows that if the KGC gets the treasure, the Civil War might never truly end, or at least the Confederacy would have the funds to rise again. So, he does the unthinkable. He rips the pages out of the diary and throws them into the fire. He dies protecting a secret. He's a martyr for the "greater good" of the treasure hunt. This act of defiance is what brands him a traitor in the history books of the movie's universe, setting up the entire plot for Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) to clear his name.
The Problem with the Booth Diary
Let’s talk about the real John Wilkes Booth diary for a second. In actual history, Booth’s diary was found on his body when he was killed at the Garrett farm. It had several pages missing. That is a fact. To this day, historians wonder what was on those pages. Did they implicate higher-ups in the government? Was there a larger conspiracy?
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The writers of National Treasure: Book of Secrets saw that gap in history and drove a truck through it. They inserted Thomas Gates National Treasure into that missing space. They suggested he burned those pages to hide a map. It’s brilliant screenwriting because it uses a real mystery to validate a fake character.
It's also worth noting that the "Cíbola" map mentioned in the film is a mix of different legends. Cíbola was one of the Seven Cities of Gold that Spanish explorers like Coronado searched for in the 16th century. By the time of the Civil War, no one was seriously looking for it as a military strategy. But in the world of Thomas Gates, everything is connected.
Cinematic Fiction vs. Historical Reality
If you’re looking for a real Thomas Gates in the National Archives who was a hero of the Civil War—stop. You won't find him. He’s a fictional creation designed to give Ben Gates a personal stake in the sequel. The first movie was about patriotism and the Declaration of Independence. The second had to be about family legacy.
However, the "Thomas Gates" archetype is based on real people. Many scholars and codebreakers during the 1860s were working behind the scenes. The use of the Playfair cipher in the movie? That’s a real thing. It was invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1854. It’s a polyalphabetic substitution cipher. While it’s unlikely a lone man in a tavern would be the only one capable of cracking a KGC code, it makes for a great scene.
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Key differences between the movie lore and history:
- The KGC was real, but they weren't exactly high-level treasure hunters; they were more focused on territorial expansion and politics.
- Booth’s diary was missing pages, but there is zero evidence they contained a map to a Native American city of gold.
- The "Laboulaye Lady" (the smaller Statue of Liberty in Paris) does exist, but it wasn't a secret waypoint for 19th-century treasure hunters.
The Gates Family Legacy
The character of Thomas Gates National Treasure serves a specific purpose: he is the "broken link." Before him, the Gates family were just "fringe" theorists. After him, they were the descendants of a supposed assassin. Ben Gates lives under that shadow. It’s a classic trope. The hero must reclaim the family honor.
Interestingly, the movie treats the diary pages as the ultimate proof. When Ben finally finds the pages (well, the charred remains and the clues within them), it’s not just about gold. It’s about the fact that Thomas's last words were "The debt that all men pay." His son, Charles, heard this. It became a family legend.
How to Fact-Check Your National Treasure Knowledge
If you’re fascinated by the era of Thomas Gates, you should check out the actual history of the Civil War secret societies. The Knights of the Golden Circle did exist, and they were involved in various plots, though most were unsuccessful.
- Visit the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site: You can see the actual Booth diary there. It’s small, red, and yes, it has missing pages.
- Read "Blood on the Moon" by Edward Steers Jr.: It’s one of the best books on the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. It’ll show you where the movie got its inspiration and where it took "creative liberties."
- Check the National Archives: They have extensive records on 19th-century ciphers and telegraphy if you're into the technical side of what Thomas Gates was supposed to be doing.
What This Means for Future Stories
With the National Treasure expansion on Disney+ and the constant rumors of a third film, the legacy of Thomas Gates National Treasure remains the foundation. Every treasure hunt in this universe is rooted in the idea that history is a series of layers. Thomas is the deepest layer. He represents the era where the United States was at its most fractured.
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If you're a fan, the best way to appreciate the character is to see him as a bridge. He bridges the gap between the Founding Fathers' era and the modern-day quest of Ben Gates. He’s the reason the "Gates" name means something in the world of high-stakes archaeology.
To truly understand the lore, start by looking into the real-life "Bohemian Cipher." It’s a fascinating look at how secret messages were actually sent during the 1860s. Then, compare that to the Playfair cipher used by Thomas in the film. You'll see that while the character is fake, the science of his time was very, very real. Digging into the actual archives of the KGC will give you a better sense of the "villains" Thomas was fighting than any movie ever could.
Actionable Next Steps for Treasure Enthusiasts
Stop looking for Thomas Gates in history books and start looking for the Knights of the Golden Circle. That’s where the real juice is.
- Research the "KGC Gold" legends. There are still people today who believe the KGC buried millions in gold across the American South and Midwest to fund a "Second Civil War." This is the real-world equivalent of the Cíbola plot.
- Learn the Playfair Cipher. It’s surprisingly fun to do by hand. Once you understand the grid system, you'll realize why Thomas Gates needed a specific "keyword" to solve the diary page.
- Visit the Library of Congress online. Search for "Civil War Cryptography." You can view digitized versions of actual coded letters from the 1860s.
By grounding your fandom in real historical research, you'll appreciate the storytelling of Thomas Gates even more. He might not have existed, but the world he inhabited—one of secrets, codes, and hidden agendas—was very much a reality.