Seeking Hidden Treasures

Bill had not seen the paper that morning, but at noon the mailman excitedly explained the situation and gave him a newspaper. By that time a police car was already in the Simms’ driveway, and people had appeared across the highway. The estate of Matthew Simms was announcing that there would be a sort of treasure hunt in fulfillment of the old man’s will. Police would be present on the property as well as a refreshment vendor daily for the next month, and orderly behavior would be enforced. Only Cass County residents were eligible to search for and ultimately claim the treasure, and police would be checking driver’s licenses for residency. Of note, the probate judge had ruled that a portion of the treasure, if found, would be used to pay for town expenses and police overtime, since facilitating the execution of the will inevitably had costs. People were to follow the clues published in the notice to attempt to find and recover one or more boxes of valuable coins. If the coins were not located in the next 30 calendar days, then at a future time whenever they might be found, the money was to pay for related town expenses and the remainder donated to the hospital.
Apparently, Matthew Simms had provided clues, but had not given anyone the actual location of the coins.
Bill was still working in the north acres during the late afternoon, but Alice took a break from laundry to sit at the kitchen table. She slid her Sherlock Holmes anthology out of harm’s way, poured a glass of iced tea, and puzzled over the clues yet again. She grabbed a red pencil out of the "miscellaneous things" mug sitting at the center of the table. Maybe if she underlined some of the words in red they would make more sense. The five clues were as follows:
1. Just as you read the Book of Revelation.
2. Michael, Archangel! Take retribution in Xerxes!
3.0000011000000000110000000001100000011111111000111111110000001100000000011000000000110000000001100000000011000000001111000000111111000011111111000111111110001111111100011111111000111111110
4. 200 feet S
5. 75 feet E
Alice was a smart and imaginative young woman with a college degree in English literature. She loved Shakespeare as well as mystery stories. But these clues made little sense to her. Obviously, the fourth and fifth clues were lengths or distances, as well as directions. Vectors, she recalled. But distances from where? The first two clues had something to do with the Bible or history. But the third clue was pure gibberish. After a few minutes she could draw with moderate certainty only one inference. If the last two clues were distances and directions along a path from some point, then it seemed likely that the first three clues described the starting point. And if one is pacing off distances from a point on a farm in Iowa, then most likely the treasure was buried. Yes, she was sure about that. The coins were in the ground.
After Bill had washed up and sat down for dinner, Alice shared her guesses about the meaning of the clues. Bill liked Alice's analysis and complimented her. She beamed, stood up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Bill had an additional thought. He recalled seeing the statue of the winged angel in the cemetery, and that had to be Michael, the Archangel. Clearly that statue could be the starting point. He wanted to take a measured length of rope and a shovel over to the Simms' first thing in the morning -- maybe they would be rich! They both laughed. They agreed that looking for buried treasure almost always was a fool's errand.