Century-Old Secret Code Finally Decoded: The Viral Photo That Unveils a Hidden Mystery

Did you ever think a secret language could hide in plain sight, scrawled on fences and under bridges, only to be cracked a century later? Welcome to the curious world of hoboglyphs—a cryptic code cooked up by America’s original train surfers back when railroads were popping up like weeds across the post-Civil War landscape. These wandering vagabonds, aka hobos, weren’t just hopping trains for free rides—they crafted a clever visual lexicon to help each other survive, share warnings, and maybe find a hot meal at a church nearby. Think of it as the original roadside Yelp, but with stick figures, arrows, and hashes instead of stars and reviews. It’s wild to realize these cryptic doodles once baffled onlookers, yet quietly saved lives and built a community on the rails. Ready to decode what those mysterious marks really mean? LEARN MORE.

A secret coded language has finally been explained, about 100 years later.

Rewinding our clocks to a post-Civil War USA, and while many railroads are being constructed for trading purposes, a language was being developed.

This form of communicating was drawn out by the country’s train surfers, and it resembled a type of hieroglyphics.

Due to the names given to those who bunked free rides aboard these trains, hobos, the language became known as hobo symbols, or even hoboglyphs.

It was used by those who rarely stayed in the same place for a long amount of time, with these cross-country travels resulting in those in the community to find unique ways of communicating with one another.

Whether this be information about trains, the area, or the people on it, symbols were created to explain every possible detail.

Hobos used the language when travelling across the US (Getty Stock Image)

The main purpose of the language was to ensure that fellow hoboes could be kept safe, through symbols that were relatively easy-to-understand.

Circles, arrows, hashes and stickmen were used to make these symbols, with some more self-explanatory than others.

Crossed lines or hash marks often signalled a type of danger, or if a cross was drawn, it meant that there was a church nearby, increasing the likelihood of a hot meal and shelter that night.

The symbols were studied by many at the time, who struggled to decipher what each symbol stood for.

Hobos would often use chalk or charcoal to make these markings in obscure areas such as under bridges, water tower bases, on walls or fences, and even in sewer trestles.

These areas would often be passed by hobos, who could then take note of the information.

An image of the symbols was recently shared on Reddit, with users intrigued by the different meanings on the viral image.

The peculiar symbols have now been explained (Reddit)

Hoboes aimed to stay under the radar and leave without a trace, using cryptic symbols to increase their ambiguity. You have to respect it.

Those living the nomadic life often consisted of vagabonds and migratory workers in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Some of the symbols can mean, ‘religious talk will get you food’, ‘beware of bad man’, ‘it’s safe to camp here’, or ‘look out for hostile railroad detectives’.

Being a hobo may not have been the easiest way to live life, but they did try to look out for one another.

Hoboes would often use monikers to remain invisible, such as ‘Mississippi Mike’ or ‘Illinois Slim’.

Symbols still pop in obscure places nowadays (Reddit)

The hobo code is said to have originated from Leon Ray Livingston, who was America’s ‘most famous tramp’, as he claimed to have travelled 500,000 miles on just $7.61.

He would release the code to a number of newspapers as he made his way across the US, publishing the full list in his book ‘Hobo Campfire Tales’ in 1911.

Their marks may be confusing, with some lacking accuracy compared with what the majority would write out, but it was a creative way of saying that they were there.