Pi is 3.1412 not 3.142 and
if you were rounding  it would be 3.141
but I see
I see 1412  if you are reading that way. so it works

BINGO

1) I don’t disagree that the line shouldn’t be used twice. I don’t love it, but its the best interpretation I have heard and there are other confirmers at the BPL.
2)I agree that the poem is the Revere midnight ride poem by Longfellow but what does that get you other than Boston? Revere’s ride started in Charlestown and then left the city so not there. Revere’s house is in the north end but then what? 42 Beacon is across from the common but its a huge park, where do you go from there? Matching random things doesn’t move you anywhere or point to a dig site.
3) The orb held by Science was greenish blue and similarly textured when is was corroded. Its a way better match than any glass or stone orb in the city I have seen and with it being held over the marble side of the chair just like in the picture its a very good match.
4) The solved pictures so far had a a city/state identifier, a place to start and then directions to the dig spot. So you have to start somewhere and move. The only real directions to move are the 5 steps in the area of his direction. 5 steps doesn’t get you far. There is no place to dig within 5 steps of BPL, Revere’s house, 42 Beacon, etc. You’d be in the middle of the road or on a sidewalk. So imho 5 steps can’t be literal. I personally like 5 stops on the green line since going toward the “north” end (area of T’s direction being the north end) gets you to Haymarket, the closest stop to the north end (Italian area in Boston). Going 5 stops the other direction (Walpole was talking about West and the area west is outbound) gets you to the BU Castle near the esplanade which sorta matches the castle on the box. It also ties in well with “all the letters are here to see” since Copley station if the first/last stop on the green line where the B, C, D, and E trains all stop. The lines at the top of the picture look like cantenary wires in the top of the green line tunnel, etc..
I’m open to other interpretations but I haven’t heard anything better yet.

strike13

huh?

I actually have a decent version of this somewhere if anybody wants it…broken out in layers and combined.

Chaveandderie

that are roughly in the direction of Thucydides and Xenophon

Can you explain what you mean with this? Are you saying that you are looking in the direction of the Boston Public Library for T&X? Or do you have another interpretation of T&X?

BINGO

Can you explain what you mean with this? Are you saying that you are looking in the direction of the Boston Public Library for T&X? Or do you have another interpretation of T&X?

Yes and no. How I am interpreting the first line of verse 3 is that when he states that we find where T is north of X we are to take five steps in the area of his direction. I’m just regarding where in the park those “steps” are. I then used them as a point of reference. “Your back to the stairs” once I located my spot.

Taking from the 3rd verse “ all the letters are here to see” when I “ face the water” I see the USS Constitution. On some days they fly semaphore flags. Each flag represents a letter. I also believe these flags are represented in the painting as the two columns descending from the elbows of the woman.

Chaveandderie

Taking from the 3rd verse “ all the letters are here to see” when I “ face the water” I see the USS Constitution. On some days they fly semaphore flags. Each flag represents a letter. I also believe these flags are represented in the painting as the two columns descending from the elbows of the woman.

Time to put some boots on the ground and see if this location works. Although, I would listen to strike13 and Bingo.

Chaveandderie

Taking from the 3rd verse “ all the letters are here to see” when I “ face the water” I see the USS Constitution. On some days they fly semaphore flags. Each flag represents a letter. I also believe these flags are represented in the painting as the two columns descending from the elbows of the woman.

Here are the flag signals. What did you come up with?

Langone Park pulls in the major clue that Byron Preiss emphasized the importance of emigration to the foundation of America. Clementina Langone was a prominent figure in helping new Italian immigrants acclimate to America. She and her husband have two areas in the park that memorializes their contribution. The first being a sundial, and the second being two marble benches. Some were you could “ feel at home”. If you sat on the benches and “ faced the water” behind you, you would find a set of “five steps”or “stairs”leading up to the “metal Colosseum“ that are roughly in the direction of Thucydides and Xenophon

Nice interpretation. Some image matches would be nice.

Yeah, I agree about “eighteenth day”.  If it referred to Revere wouldn’t it be lit by “lantern”?
But we may have bigger problems —
Take a look at this photo first posted by Fox back in April of 2003.
http://libraries.mit.edu/rvc/kidder/kjp … 22-032.jpg
The problem?  None of this remains today.  That fountain, those steps — gone!

I don’t want to throw anyone off, but I still don’t buy the 18th day, 12th hour = Paul Revere
The X & T is hard to avoid though, especially with the arches…

I would like to see a night time view of the 3C lamps.

WhiteRabbit

Given that this is the Italian image, I once wondered if this might be Latin “PAX”.

Quite an interesting visual. I never envisioned those as letters before. That’s different.

I’m new here, and am the aforementioned person planning a trip to Boston this weekend. I intend to do some scouting in the Fens and (if time allows) the North End and the Commons. I’m open to other suggestions, so let me know if there are specific locations you think are worth checking out. I’ll be sure to post photographs afterwards!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156936251@N07/

It’s important to remember that GPS was not available to civilians until after 1983, after The Secret was published. Military use of GPS at the time was still in its infancy; ten GPS satellites (still called “experimental”) were launched between 1978 and 1985 to build the first wide-area system. Military GPS receivers were not in common use in the US armed forces until after about 1984, and Magellan produced the first handheld GPS receiver in 1989. Byron Preiss could not have used GPS for The Secret.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Po … ernization
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2000276 … f-gps.html
What civilians could use were USGS topological maps; most city and large town libraries had them, covering at least the nearby region. On the maps, latitude and longitude are expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds. Decimal style lat/long didn’t come into common use until GPS was common.
The most zoomed-in USGS topo maps cover 7.5 minutes of lat/long area. The map has a mark every 2’30” (two minutes and 30 seconds), any measurement finer than that and you’re using a ruler, which will lose you some precision. One degree of arc is 70 miles, one minute of arc is 1.2 miles, one second of arc is 0.2 miles. If you were in a library, you could also use a gazetteer, which would list the locations of cities and prominent landmarks, but they are generally large books not meant to be carried far.
Here’s a link to the 1977 Boston topo map:
https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/Staged … 00_geo.tif
And here’s how to read it:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/topotmaps.html

Kalessin

It’s important to remember that GPS was not available to civilians until after 1983, after The Secret was published. Military use of GPS at the time was still in its infancy; ten GPS satellites (still called “experimental”) were launched between 1978 and 1985 to build the first wide-area system. Military GPS receivers were not in common use in the US armed forces until after about 1984, and Magellan produced the first handheld GPS receiver in 1989. Byron Preiss could not have used GPS for The Secret.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Po … ernization
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2000276 … f-gps.html
What civilians could use were USGS topological maps; most city and large town libraries had them, covering at least the nearby region. On the maps, latitude and longitude are expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds. Decimal style lat/long didn’t come into common use until GPS was common.
The most zoomed-in USGS topo maps cover 7.5 minutes of lat/long area. The map has a mark every 2’30” (two minutes and 30 seconds), any measurement finer than that and you’re using a ruler, which will lose you some precision. One degree of arc is 70 miles, one minute of arc is 1.2 miles, one second of arc is 0.2 miles. If you were in a library, you could also use a gazetteer, which would list the locations of cities and prominent landmarks, but they are generally large books not meant to be carried far.
Here’s a link to the 1977 Boston topo map:
https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/Staged … 00_geo.tif
And here’s how to read it:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/topotmaps.html

Absolutely, the most clear (in layman’s terms) explanation I have seen to date. I tried my best earlier this year to explain this to the user Bluberry?, but it just didn’t seem to sink in.
Thank you.
b

shecrab

“those that pass the coliseum”–
“Those” meaning the streets–the streets that pass the coliseum;
“Coliseum” meaning the Park Square Coliseum (no longer there);
So “those” would be Arlington St., Boylston St., Charles St., and Beacon St.
These are the boundaries of
Boston Public Gardens
.

Wow, good to see you’re still at it shecrab!! If anyone will find it it will be you, you just don’t give up.
aha the abc streets again! I had used them with the “letters” part of it though.
Good luck!

It’s good to see you’re back!!! I don’t know about my ability to find anything—a lot of theories here get debunked–as well as bunked.
Right now, we’re just rehashing the usual bunk! LOL…..

I think you need to solve the last line of the verse. It has got something to do with the lamp posts. On your aerial view of the seats it is possible to line up 2 lamp posts with the seat.
In this view the lamp post on the steps and the one to the left.
http://goo.gl/maps/mZda7
How about the circular area illuminated by these lamps?

wk

I think you need to solve the last line of the verse. It has got something to do with the lamp posts. On your aerial view of the seats it is possible to line up 2 lamp posts with the seat.
In this view the lamp post on the steps and the one to the left.
http://goo.gl/maps/mZda7
How about the circular area illuminated by these lamps?

I’m not so sure you need to solve the last line. In 90% of the verses, the last line is irrelevant. Heck, it still hasn’t been solved for Chicago. Either way, not a bad idea to try and solve it. The whole area is lit by lamplight provided for the running/bike path. I haven’t been able to verify when those were installed, so I’ve avoided including them. The green ones by the street are original though.

insatiable

Inside of Trinity painted around some murals is the same vine design as the alter too.

You can almost make out a big S and a big C on the right.  Notice that behind the letters and the vines that there are squares?  The vines over a square, C & S, Copley Square?  Why am I still trying to convince????

boogieman

You can almost make out a big S and a big C on the right.  Notice that behind the letters and the vines that there are squares?  The vines over a square, C & S, Copley Square?  Why am I still trying to convince????

Oh Duh! The C&S as Copley Square never even occured to me. Well I for one don’t need convincing….to many things in common here…my mind is set on Copley.

Lizard – A hotel is a great idea for “feel at home” it didn’t even cross my mind, I kept thinking home plates or places to sit lol I like the color of your “S” better but I still think the alter looks more like the design as a whole. Inside of Trinity painted around some murals is the same vine design as the alter too.
You can see the leafs (green) of the vine are in the same position, the “S” continues into the “C” shape (blue), and there is a rectangle around the whole thing. This is a horrible photo of the alter, I’ll try to get a higher res. version on Saturday.
Her scarf hanging from her dress reminds me of the scarfs (sorry don’t know what they are really called) priests or the pope wears.

I’ve been looking for a Copley or Beacon Hill match for the S in the apron panel.  Put that on hold, and started thinking about “feel at home.”  Had a little light bulb about the feel at home, and went virtually checking it out.  Found a possible S match there.
What do you think?

I believe those ‘scarves’ are called chasubles. They usually cover more than just the front, however, but they do often have a straight “scarf-lke” piece going down the front, which is highly decorated–by embroidery or whatever.
The entire pose of the girl in the painting suggests a priest at an altar.
I like the match with the altar you posted–I think it’s almost exact. I also like the idea of a hotel–and there might be a lot of extrapolations on that theme we could check: hostels, halfway houses, B&Bs, even maybe abbeys or monasteries.

This is how I have seen the falcon’s claw, even back when considering SLC.

Where is the match to the S?

shecrab

I believe those ‘scarves’ are called chasubles. They usually cover more than just the front, however, but they do often have a straight “scarf-lke” piece going down the front, which is highly decorated–by embroidery or whatever.
The entire pose of the girl in the painting suggests a priest at an altar.
I like the match with the altar you posted–I think it’s almost exact. I also like the idea of a hotel–and there might be a lot of extrapolations on that theme we could check: hostels, halfway houses, B&Bs, even maybe abbeys or monasteries.

Ahh a chasuble! TY shecrab…..I have been trying to figure out what it was called so I could find a good photo of it to show what I am talking about
http://www.veritaspolska.com/?page=chur … s&dzial=22

On the historic old brass doorknobs (those that remain) at the Copley Square Hotel.  Those at the Copley Plaza had (have) back-to-back Ps.
I started looking at the hotels, as that is where one is asked to “feel at home.”

Nice find!  Geez though… I beginning to think it may be lost forever.  If it was at the Square, it’s gone.  That park has completely changed.  But maybe shecrab’s right.  Too public a place?

If it was at the Square, it’s gone.  That park has completely changed.

Don’t I know it!  The only time I was ever there was DURING the reconstruction.

I’ve only been to Boston once, so I can’t speak to how feasible this is….but assuming that you start in Copley Square but that Copley Square is too public of a place to bury the casque…..You have to find a “green” area near the Square. Looking at the map, the closest would be the Public Gardens or Boston Commons to the east. Assuming that the verse intends for you to walk 5 blocks (roads) east, you would end up at the bottom of the Boston Commons area.
THere are numbers in the arch in image 11, which I’m assuming have a meaning. Could this be an address? You could interpret the first marks on the left of the arch as 171 or 111. Both addresses are on Boylston St. across from the  Boston Commons.  The second part could be 41 or 91. Not sure where that would take you. If you get a chance to walk that way, please keep your eye out for possible matching addresses.

One of the problems with walking ‘blocks’ is that some of the blocks in the area are split by alleyways. Each actual street has double rows of buidlings with alleys between them. Do you count these? if not, then five “blocks” north takes you to Back Street, five blocks east takes you to where you said..the bottom of the commons–five blocks west takes you to the convention center,and five blocks south isn’t possible without running into the turnpike. Why would you go east, though?

shecrab

Why would you go east, though?

I don’t have a valid reason for going east as it pertains to the verse. I was looking east since it seemed like it was the closest park-like area to Copley Square and it happened to be 5 streets away from the square (depending on how you count). As you pointed out, it’s hard to determine whether a step should be a block, street or something else.

shseverin11

I don’t have a valid reason for going east as it pertains to the verse. I was looking east since it seemed like it was the closest park-like area to Copley Square and it happened to be 5 streets away from the square (depending on how you count). As you pointed out, it’s hard to determine whether a step should be a block, street or something else.

When I first looked at this I was thinking 5 blocks west to massachusetts ave. and victory garden. On the corner there is the mass. historical society where the revere letters (all the letters) are kept and it is closer to fenway park (coliseum, metal walls) In victory park it would be easy to bury something since it’s a public garden for planting things…..there is also water in that park. When I found all the image matches at trinity church and the green light tower at old south church I changed my mind about going that far away from it.

I respectfully disagree. You likely won’t get permission from a public official for a legal dig in a public area within Boston City limits. I’ve heard many stories of people trying, but have not been successful. I’m not advising people to go tear up well manicured places and parks and draw police attention which would prevent other’s access in the future. I’m just trying to show that you have more resources than you might think if you honestly believe you know where the casque is. If you think you know one specific hole to dig, why jump through a year of hoops only to get your request shut down time and again. Eventually, you’ll want to know if its there or not. As for your final critique, I suggest offering your digger an extra finders reward, they won’t hang up the call. Happy hunting

Preiss was beaten to the punch here in Boston it seems
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/11/us/boston … ?hpt=hp_t2

So I just did my first “quest” today. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular except the area that most people seem focused on in boston (charlesgate). I found the area in most photos and I gotta say that I was mostly underwhelmed by the evidence… Not only that, but I am fairly certain that I could tell that a few areas had already been dug up… especially right in the main area mentioned previously.
I was going off the photo and the poem that most people seem to assume are boston… although I’m really not sure how everyone came to that conclusion… I still need to read this thread lol

The nook area that you mentioned had a spot about 5 paces out that was slightly sunken…. grass was already grown on top of it so it was clearly dug up a while ago, but I’m guessing a couple years max… not 30 years… although I could be wrong. also, this spot was so close to the water that 3 feet down might be below the water line.
The ground is already mostly frozen here. if there is one casque that I can almost be certain would’ve been destroyed by freezing ground over the years, it would probably be boston (maybe NYC) is there one more north? montreal? anyways, i’m not giving up but i doubt any real digging would occur until spring.
still waiting for most of the other clues to make sense. I will say that the block of commonwealth ave that leads away from this location is lined with street lamps shaped like lanterns and at the end of the block is the Harvard Club building and set in stone above the door it says “Ver It Tas” (“truth” in latin) which i could see maybe relating to the last lines “Lit by lamplight; In truth, be free”

It may be underwhelming but don’t give up hope.  It’s not that easy to find these.
Can you take a a few pics from certain angles at the edge of the dirt areas from where the Harvard lantern can be seen and post them please?

I could try digging in the nook tomorrow. It is actually a pretty isolated area. The highway surrounds it on 2 sides (along with a waterway) but there is a big fancy building right across the street. If i were going to get in trouble it would be because someone there complains. I was considering bringing a plant with my and if anyone stopped my i could just tell them I was planting a tree or I could be really obvious with a bag of soil or something and people might just assume i work for the city or something.
… but overall it really makes no sense to me. That is symbol on the painting that (kind of) lines up with the shape of that area is only one small part of the painting. i am kind of thinking that that location is just one of the globes from the painting and there are 3 or so others in the area or something and where the girl is standing between them would be the location… but again i’m brand new to this and haven’t read most of the info.

oh yeah, and there is a private security which is basically another police department in boston RIGHT ON THAT CORNER but I honestly doubt that anyone would care or even see me digging there unless they were in the building above me

Wow, that’s great information, and it’s a good plan to have a plant or two with you with some soil.  It probably something you should have a permit for, but as long as you’re basically trying to improve the site for the general public I don’t see a reason for anyone to spoil your fun.
Go ahead and consider all of you’re onsite gut feelings.  If you really agree this is a good spot for at least any reason, then the casque is there or it’s not far from there.
I had the same experience at a site where there’s basically two houses across the street and they are retired people who basically walk their dogs all day back and forth to the site.  The local sherrif and park patrol vehicles routinely drive up to check on the site but generally assume people are just there to take pictures and look at the interpretive historic markers.  I’ve had a few digs but come up empty handed since I’ve previously put clues together in the wrong combination and neglected to see some very important features until recently.  (won’t be saying more on that until later).
Good luck, Whitey.

apparently people are saying that that building is a hotel (somerset) so maybe I wouldn’t have a problem. I would bring a bag and pick up all of the trash in the area too (there is a lot) and I doubt anyone would say anything to me.

even if i’m supposed to have a permit, they might tell me to stop but i doubt they’d get me in any trouble.

hope you don’t mind me just blurting stuff out whenever i think of it… but here is another thought…
this area (charlesgate) is a park. there is the middle section of the park (including part that is under the highway). on one side of the park there is an on-ramp and on the other side of the park is an exit (and the waterway). across the waterway is the location we’re all talking about. this area could vaguely look like a park (the vine design on the woman’s dress), the dress making up the on ramp and exit and the bubble representing the area we’re talking about. the squares on either side of her dress could then represent buildings… this could also be why the bird is there? maybe saying like bird’s eye view…
kind of think that the only reason why i’m thinking this is because of google earth though (which the author clearly didn’t have) and i feel like i am looking more for a map in the photo instead of deciphering clues like most of the people on here are doing.

What up, Whitey.  Welcome.  Theres lots of room for your ideas, don’t hesitate to discuss anything.  I’m in agreement with Whiterabbit and others on that small section in Charlesgate.  Visually it is a challenge much greater than Cleveland or Chicago’s solves.  The verse is also very difficult to grokmantle.  Good luck.

I am still so overwhelmed with information so far… I can’t even really tell where that section of charlesgate is. Are there any other Bostonians here? Some of the things people have read into the clues have gone wayyyyy over my head (or I think people might be seeing clues that don’t exist…) but I also need to study up on the 2 quests that have been solved so i can understand the author’s style. I live near charlesgate i think (pretty new here)… The section photographed above does seem to line up pretty perfectly with the painting so I might go look for that section today

I’ll PM you my mobil number should you want to discuss anything…or if you want to just lay into me for writing so much crap here that you’re eyeballs are hemorrhaging.

awesome i actually just moved here from oregon

Hi I’m new to the board but i’m in boston and on the hunt… Plan on doing a lot of reading on this ASAP before the ground freezes (if it hasn’t already)

Hi Whitey –
Welcome to The Secret. I still reckon the best chance of finding any casque (albeit a slim one) is somewhere in the area above. It’s had better general consensus from veterans on this puzzle than anywhere.
Hope you can check it out! (Very exasperating that sceptics have visited the site but never dug. You gotta have faith.)
Good luck,
WR

Whitey9457

I can’t even really tell where that section of charlesgate is

WhiteRabbit

There’s also 02115 backwards…
It’s the zip code for an area of Boston which includes the 2C site.

Here’s a quote I just dragged up which helps pinpoint the “2C”.
The amount of information on this forum is a bit overwhelming. Most of it is garbage, but there’s some good stuff as well, so don’t let that put you off. I’d try and avoid the temptation to start from scratch with these puzzles…there are good reasons to believe that many of the Q4T solutions got close, but they’re hard to finish because of the difficulty of involving local people, changes to locations which have probably destroyed clues if not casques, and the difficulty and restrictions on digging.
But if I could teleport anywhere in the US to try and find one of these, it would be the 2C. I’d start by excavating the “nook” between the two circles, and a spot “face the water, your back to the stairs” by the fence.
Others have different ideas. But if you knew this place, you’d know how rare it was to get half a dozen people agreeing on the credentials of an area this small.
Even a bunch of new photos showing areas inaccessible on Google, eg the back of the pump house, would be good…though unfortunately this forum has attracted far more photographers than diggers over the years…

insatiable

LOL I’ll start looking around the net for things that would match in the North End, I’m not sure when I will be able to go there to search, we are having a snow storm tonight and another this weekend.

I can not get over “in the middle section” describes the BPL courtyard EXACTLY.
I have looked around Boston for a similar set up (with a Italian/Rome theme) and have
come up empty.
Also, the Latin quote you pass entering the Library “Light to all citizens” (I think thats what the translation was)
describes the image of Pandora’s box.
Loose ends, sure, but too many tie ins – to dismiss (even after thirty years)

boogieman

edit: my bad, insatiable, I didn’t pick up on this til’ now.  If our “window” is somehow in the courtyard, I’m driving up with a shovel.
BP nor anyone associated with the book owns the property of the BPL, do they?

lol nope, I don’t believe they do. I’m not sure if you have seen them or not but Lizardlips posted photos of the renovation in the BPL courtyard….if it was there I doubt it will ever be found now.
The more I look at the image & verse with Copley the more I am thnking we are missing something or have the wrong spot. I wish something would be a definite match with no other possibilites.

lizardlips

Keep an eye on BF’s hand.  Squirrels carry some nasty diseases, including rabies.

LOL Lizard he is a freak about that stuff and went to the doctor the next day.

Unknown

Unknown:
The more I look at the image & verse with Copley the more I am thnking we are missing something or have the wrong spot. I wish something would be a definite match with no other possibilites.

Is there any way we could explore Little Italy? If for no other reason than to shut me up?
Maybe there’s a park with a fountain there that will be next to a restaurant or other business with a “Roman” theme for the Coliseum and the Stairs (as in Spanish Stair).
Also, Harvard stadium is a dead ringer for the Coliseum in Rome. What “passes” the coliseum in Harvard?
I don’t think the casque is at Harvard–nothing else there seems to match. Also…what is in Jamaica Plain? I know there’s a Soldier’s monument there that has “roof” parts like our box castle, but it’s really a stretch to think it matches. It doesn’t much. Other than that, is there anything else there that’s noteworthy?

shecrab

Is there any way we could explore Little Italy? If for no other reason than to shut me up?   :-/

LOL I’ll start looking around the net for things that would match in the North End, I’m not sure when I will be able to go there to search, we are having a snow storm tonight and another this weekend.

shecrab

Is there any way we could explore Little Italy? If for no other reason than to shut me up?   :-/
;

Of course no one wants to shut you up.
You have some interesting thoughts and we need that.  BTW, i have poured over little Italy and the North End to no avail.  Maybe I’m stuck on Copley a little.
Here’s a thought;  Christopher Columbus, an Italian fella.  Columbus knew the Earth was round and so did everyone else, contrary to the belief that he proved the Earth wasn’t flat.  They used the
moon, stars, and spheres
to navigate the seas.  There is a Christopher Columbus Park by the aquarium at the wharf.  Only it was called Waterfront Park in 81′.  His stautue was erected in 79′ though..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/historyofboston/497268238/
Intersting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christophe … tion_plans
The statue has a sphere.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antydiluvian/143377433/
Stairs.  And it’s on the water.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ice_weasel/1694923522/
I was trying to see if Image11 was trying to tell a story.  But I can’t match up this story with verse3.  No Thucydides or Xenophon.  No Pandora, (i don’t think).  No green tower.
See, still stuck on Copley

Xieish

1- There is a set of stairs leading up a small footbridge. When you place your back to these stairs and face the water you are pointed
directly
at an old, historic building: The Community Boating Building. On its front is a large, old, wooden sign that says “BOAT HOUSE” [Feel at home]
http://i.imgur.com/0ReqknS.jpg
2- There is a statue …
http://i.imgur.com/eSBaej9.jpg
3- There is a statue …
http://i.imgur.com/OiLzIe1.jpg
4- The Hatch Shell itself is hidden in the painting.
http://i.imgur.com/Tx4h1FO.png
…
Now, we’re looking for a spot that is lit by lamplight, and one also illustrated by the painting:
http://i.imgur.com/4s15IPk.png
…
So we’re looking for a spot with the shape seen on the Gypsy’s collar. Oh, hello there.
http://i.imgur.com/K47dJv1.jpg
This spot on the ground is interesting, it’s the same exact shape as on the Gypsy’s collar. But where is it in relation to everything else?
Here is a picture of the LONGFELLOW BRIDGE taken from this exact spot on the ground:
http://i.imgur.com/wdHu7Q8.jpg
Here is a picture of the LEDERMAN FIELD boulder …
http://i.imgur.com/6Wg0xxB.jpg
Here is a picture of the shape in the ground.
http://i.imgur.com/fj3v3Hm.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/fxCNdDq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KaY6QIG.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c … ilding.jpg

UGH! Please do not embed HUGE images with that
img
tag. They take forever to load and they stretch the forum beyond readability. Thumbnails with a link to the larger image would be prefered, but I know they take extra effort. (And I realize that some might not look at your evidence if you give only a link for them to click on, I really do. I just find it difficult to scroll around looking for the text that I should be reading, too, and the images don’t even fit on my window size.)
On the very first point: What did that boat house look like in 1982? It is a new structure, part of renovation that began in late October 2010.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/bea … ating.html
I’ll try to look at the rest of the images shortly.

The building itself is not a new structure. The dock house is new and the area around it was razed, but the Boat House has been there forever.

We all love to see a visual match, its exciting, but there will always be circle shaped or square shaped  things to point at; ultimately we have to contend with the verse.  Lets reopen the discussion on what “feel at home” means for this Boston image.

erexere

We all love to see a visual match, its exciting, but there will always be circle shaped or square shaped  things to point at; ultimately we have to contend with the verse.  Lets reopen the discussion on what “feel at home” means for this Boston image.

I like “Face the water” and “feel at home” as Waterhouse street.

Nice choice, Merlot.
I’ve preffered “face the water” in the context of being brave.  There’s a sloped area that leads to the water and a fence and wall portion along Charlesgate.  To brave the water simply means to be on that sloppy side.  I like “feel at home” as the Landlords Tale hint.
“Feel at home” has generally been thought of as “Mothers Rest”…that’s a winning concept, but I’ve not seen it work with any precision.  Its a very challenging thing to have to choose between a place, object, or idea.  Some of the literary links have interesting possibilities.  Like the Pierre quote in verse 1, is it just to identify the name of the park or does it serve another purpose?  We have a few key choices that may apply: authors name, book title, and context of quote.  It may have been a fun exercise for Preiss to have utilized obscure book references, and yet not a necessity to unlock those origins to solve the cheque location…just understanding the application of those specific words might be all thats needed.

erexere

Lets reopen the discussion on what “feel at home” means

Mark Twain

Boston is just as delightful a city as there is in America, and one feels more tranquilly and satisfactorily at home in it in three hours than he could in New York in as many years.

Feel at home
All the letters
Are here to see
Random and improbable connection no. 35612356
People have previously debated the possibility of “SLC” in the design of the dress. These are Twain’s initials (Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
http://www.twainquotes.com/18690725.html
This is from one of his letters. Sounds like Boston Public Library has some of them.
http://archon.bpl.org/?p=collections/controlcard&id=28

erexere

Nice choice, Merlot.
I’ve preffered “face the water” in the context of being brave.  There’s a sloped area that leads to the water and a fence and wall portion along Charlesgate.  To brave the water simply means to be on that sloppy side.  I like “feel at home” as the Landlords Tale hint.
“Feel at home” has generally been thought of as “Mothers Rest”…that’s a winning concept, but I’ve not seen it work with any precision.  Its a very challenging thing to have to choose between a place, object, or idea.  Some of the literary links have interesting possibilities.  Like the Pierre quote in verse 1, is it just to identify the name of the park or does it serve another purpose?  We have a few key choices that may apply: authors name, book title, and context of quote.  It may have been a fun exercise for Preiss to have utilized obscure book references, and yet not a necessity to unlock those origins to solve the cheque location…just understanding the application of those specific words might be all thats needed.

also not sure if it’s been mentioned but if you’re considering mother’s rest as the final location and not a clue…. it is paved over (kind of rubbery material like a track) so there will never be any digging there.

Here’s a photo of it in it’s old location….this is from 1896
https://www.stcroixarchitecture.com/pro … er-kimball

I just thought that the angle you’d be seeing the Prudential from the general vicinity of Charlesgate/The Fens would fit the way the hair looked. Two lines on the side to define its shape and one long one up the middle to the tower for the corner that’s facing you. I can absolutely agree that it could be nothing but I just thought I’d point it out.

dosethree

Here’s a photo of it in it’s old location….this is from 1896
https://www.stcroixarchitecture.com/pro … er-kimball

I cannot stop questioning why John Boyle O’Reilly is even thought about with regards to the Boston image or verse. Not meant as disrespect to anyone. Just truly an honest question. Nothing in the verse describes him, I see zero similarities with the image, furthermore he is IRISH. Aren’t we looking for an Italian connection?
I also do not believe “Erin” has any connection. She is not the girl in the image. (Neither is Columbus in my opinion) I am not sure how we have come to swap out Italian for Irish? Is it a desperate attempt to connect something to the Fens because there is a set of stairs near Mother’s Rest? I also do not like connecting the “212” (which I do not even truly see as a clear cut number in the image) to “Boyle”, for the 212 boiling point of water. If at allllll it is for Boyle, it is for Boylston Street (unique to Boston), not some obscure John Boyle Oreilly statue. I like sharing ideas, even conflicting ones, it is all helpful.

strike13

I cannot stop questioning why John Boyle O’Reilly is even thought about with regards to the Boston image or verse. Not meant as disrespect to anyone. Just truly an honest question. Nothing in the verse describes him, I see zero similarities with the image, furthermore he is IRISH. Aren’t we looking for an Italian connection?
I also do not believe “Erin” has any connection. She is not the girl in the image. (Neither is Columbus in my opinion) I am not sure how we have come to swap out Italian for Irish? Is it a desperate attempt to connect something to the Fens because there is a set of stairs near Mother’s Rest? I also do not like connecting the “212” (which I do not even truly see as a clear cut number in the image) to “Boyle”, for the 212 boiling point of water. If at allllll it is for Boyle, it is for Boylston Street (unique to Boston), not some obscure John Boyle Oreilly statue. I like sharing ideas, even conflicting ones, it is all helpful.

I don’t know why people call her Erin. That’s why I call her Dolly Parton, lol.
You raise some good points. I think that O’Reilly is a convenient object to latch onto, since so many people are focused on the CG structure in Charlesgate. I was guilty of that early on.
Having said that, I also believe that the nationality connections for the immigration theme are loose in most of the cases here. It is used to weave a story, but does not mean that all of what we are looking for HAS to be connected to that particular nationality or region.

gManTexas

Having said that, I also believe that the nationality connections for the immigration theme are loose in most of the cases here. It is used to weave a story, but does not mean that all of what we are looking for HAS to be connected to that particular nationality or region.

I don’t think loose is a very accurate description of what we know about the immigration theme from the solved puzzles.
The Greek Gardens is spot on with the Greek theme of the Cleveland puzzle. The Chicago Irish connection may be less obvious, but not unimportant. Grant was the first President to visit Ireland and while there, he was made an honorary citizen. Being from Boston, I always wondered why the Irish weren’t applied to this puzzle until I read that Chicago had the largest Irish immigrant population in the United States. Seems to make more sense when applying that piece of information.
Preiss had stated that the immigration theme was important. That train of thought was passed on to his family. Palencar has also stated that it was important to the puzzles.
How is it possible that we can ignore the value of it? I think that many of the proposed solutions discount the immigration theme because they can’t find a solid connection to it. Just my opinion, I’m sure someone will come along and create a snappy new “solve” that proves me wrong.

BINGO

I don’t think loose is a very accurate description of what we know about the immigration theme from the solved puzzles.
The Greek Gardens is spot on with the Greek theme of the Cleveland puzzle. The Chicago Irish connection may be less obvious, but not unimportant. Grant was the first President to visit Ireland and while there, he was made an honorary citizen. Being from Boston, I always wondered why the Irish weren’t applied to this puzzle until I read that Chicago had the largest Irish immigrant population in the United States. Seems to make more sense when applying that piece of information.
Preiss had stated that the immigration theme was important. That train of thought was passed on to his family. Palencar has also stated that it was important to the puzzles.
How is it possible that we can ignore the value of it? I think that many of the proposed solutions discount the immigration theme because they can’t find a solid connection to it. Just my opinion, I’m sure someone will come along and create a snappy new “solve” that proves me wrong.

Maybe I should clarify, yes it is important, but if I was creating a story and book like this, with all of the possible references available, I could make each puzzle only about the particular nationality of the immigrants.
If we take Cleveland, a lot of the puzzle shows you the Italian Gardens and Shakespeare is referenced. When I look at it, there is very little that has to do with Greeks.
In Chicago, we have the Bowman, which was designed by a Croatian. The Fountain of the Great Lakes was sculpted by Lorado Taft, an American.
There are plenty of things in each puzzle that have nothing to do with the nationality of the particular group that immigrated. The overall theme hearkens back to the major immigration groups as they were back in the day, but honestly some are tenuous, like Dutch for Montreal.
I’m thinking that this immigration plot device has more to do with the underlying theme that Goonie68 worked out with the 12 Tribes of Israel being the inspiration for the story.

I’ll clarify as well.
So far, the actual burial sites have been pretty solidly connected to the immigration groups. Not so much with verses or images.
I don’t necessarily think that this is a rigid formula that needs to be followed for the rest of the puzzles, but if a solve is missing that basic connection completely, it automatically becomes suspect to me.
To add my own thoughts to Strike13’s comments from earlier, if a solve somehow transforms and centers around a completely different immigration group, (especially one that already has a solution like Chicago/Irish) I truly believe you are off track.
Again, my opinion. I own as many casques as the next dummy.

I would like to offer (without anything concrete)
that the buidling in the picture (behind Pandora)
is ‘Old South Church’
with the castle on the box is the reflection of Trinity.
I think if you are standing with the proper orientation
as the image, you may know where to look.

scottrocks7

I found some more things that make me think this is Toronto. First Toronto’s Lattitude and Longitude is:
Lat: 43,40 Long: 79, 24

I’m definitely open to the idea that this picture might not be Boston…  I would add, though, that the pattern for latitude and longitude has been limited to expressing the numbers only in degrees — instead of in degrees, minutes.  The 42 is probably a latitude, also in part because there’s a 41 in the stone window, which would mean 41 and 42 are the likely southern and northern bounds for the casque location.

BINGO

Here is the comparison between the photos. Sorry if they aren’t the clearest things to look at. Cropping 40 year old aerial photos at 1:65000 scale isn’t quite as simple as google earth.
https://flic.kr/p/FPQNpG

Great job on this. My guess is near the trees and where the building was. Good hiding place.

Hi, I am brand new to this so forgive me. But I saw a few times the number 42 referenced as a part of this picture. It stuck out to me because that was Ted Williams number. Anyway, I know that it has been probably dismissed a bunch of times already so I am sorry if I am a johnny come lately. But when I read the verse and then looked at the picture and then started going down this rabbit hole – the first thing that jumped out to me was the old Southeast Expressway that ran through the City passed the Garden (the colliseum) and a had lights, was green ran pararell to the water… anyway, then I started thinking about the number 42. Well in 1942 another green structure was erected and opened – the elevated GREEN line station and platform of Boston’s famed T system. The Green Line on the T has two X points in it as well one is north of the garden at the lechmere stop, the other though is at Park Street where the Green Line hits the Red Line and Orange line but the Green Line itself then branches out into 4 different green lines. 3 of the 4 go to the Kenmore stop but only one goes to the Fenway stop the D line. However I was curious if anyone had ever considered what surrounds the park street and boylston street stations on the Green Line, Boston’s Public Gardens? I may be naive to this whole thing but after reading a lot of the theories on your boards and a couple others and really looking at the picture, I see a lot of similiarities to the tracks of the Green Line and how it hits all of these major landmarks but at that Park Street X Point, that portion of the Public Garden has a pond (water) and a few big monunuments. Also the Swan Boats on the Charles River that runs through the half of the park closer to the Back Bay. there are bridges there, monuments, there are 2 castle like structures in the area… Just wondering if either of those two parks were ever given a look. Sorry for being a newbie here but I’ve been fascinated by it recently and got my copy of the book and started reading these boards… but yeah. Elevated Green T Line with Green columns and platforms and globe like lights on poles, passes the colisseum (garden), travels to an X park street – ‘The Park’ in Boston is the public gardens. All of this would have been there in 1980 – 1982. And that station elevated T Platform was opened in 1942.

Hi Again I know I just started posting today but I am fascinated by this subject ALSO – I am boots on the ground in Boston, if someone needs help with a picture or something I am happy to help as it fits with my schedule.
I have a theory that stems from the verse, more so than the picture – I mention it above – but what if you read the verse as prose and not a verse:
If Thucydides is North of Xenophon, take five steps in the area of his direction. A green tower of lights in the middle section, who pass the coliseum, with metal walls. Face the water, your back to the stairs, feel at home. All the letters are there to see. Eighteenth Day, Twelfth Hour, Lit by Lamplight. In truth, be free.
I am not nearly solved but if you read this like prose I feel like the Green Tower of lights in the middle section, with metal walls – refers to the T (Boston’s transit system) – specifically the Green Line. Which starts north of Boston (slightly) at Alewife station. So the T(hucydides) is North of X(enophon) the X meaning your real starting point. Well if you take 5 stops (steps toward the X) on the Green Line (a vehicle with metal walls) from Alewife the X could be Boylston Street Station which is at the corner of the north side of Boston Common. It is also at a 4 corner intersection of roads (an X). Incidentally two things the T passes along the trip to Boylston Street (even though it is underground at this point) are Park Street Church, which has a spire and buidings around it relating to the painting – and the State House which has a dome top. The reason I focus on the Green Line to begin with is because of the Raised portion of it which opened in 19
42
and happens to pass a coliseum in the Boston Garden. The other reason why I focus on the Green Line is because at Park Street (one stop before Boylston) all letters are representd so to speak – the A (old name for the Red Line), B, C, D & E trains all run through there and there are signs for them, which you can see if you get off at Boylston and walk towards the POND there (water) and slightly north to the state house (a Dome).
You could make a case too that all of the other potential Boston landmarks that have been spotted including the Citgo Sign, why they are in spots of the painting that are slightly behind the woman is maybe that refers again to all of the points of Boston that the Green Line can take people to – E train goes out towards back bay, B and C and D all go to Kenmore, D going to Fenway, C and B going to different points past the Fenway including boston college (the Eagles).
I was just wondering if anyone has considered the Public Gardens – either the side (either the pond on the side I am referring to or on the other side near the the Swan Boat rides etc) as sites to where you can face the water with your back to stairs (there are plenty of points in either side of the public gardens where there are stairs) and then from there figure out the last part the eigteenth day and the twelth hour etc…

421 could you ask your contact,if this foot bridge/ ped viaduct,is still there
and what ever other details she has about it,TY
http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/stories/#birdsfeather

cw0909

421 could you ask your contact,if this foot bridge/ ped viaduct,is still there
and what ever other details she has about it,TY
http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/stories/#birdsfeather

i’ll ask… but from my research, it is still there:
http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/ProjectInfo/Main.asp?ACTION=ViewProject&PROJECT_NO=600731
there was no change to tunnels or the stone rails, only the walking surface and the street. the lamp is not there anymore, however.
looks like it was to fix these problems:
http://uglybridges.com/1235160
lol!

boston common looks to be exactly “5” blocks from BPlL

Ringo

Thanks Boogie:
I like that photo.  I’ve spent hours the past few days digging flickr for simply photos of Boston trying to find such a sight.
I’ve also been digging through for photos of plaques at historic sites.  You’ve probably read some of the ideas I keep bouncing in with, I’m trying to find photos that can support any of these…  I don’t care if I end up wrong, but a photo speaks a thousand words as they say.
By the way:
Does anyone know of any photos of the murals at the BPL?  I SEEM to remember their being statues in there as well.  My memory is proving me wrong in a few places though.  The BPL website has some photos but not of the artwork I’m looking for.  I’m looking for something that could be at least similar to the fairy in image #11.  The fairy in image #5 looks like one of the fairies in the fountain of the great lakes near the Chicago Art Muesem.  I think the Fairy in #11 looks familiar, but it could be triggering the memory of any fairy I’ve seen and may not really be something I saw in Boston.

I posted the mural link of the Muses (All of them are there)
– they suposedly created the ‘letters (literature))
At the foot of the Grand Staircase, above the Courtyard.

Ringo

I think the beer house is the National Lampoon Castle.  If not, am I at least correct that it’s a building at Harvard?  Or did I mis-read that theory?  I’ve swallowed a LOT in only a few days of following this so I appologize if I got this wrong.

Here’s the Lampoon castle:
It is at Harvard, on the outskirts, sort of. I think the most accurate representation of that box castle was found in the Park Plaza hotel near Copley Square, however.
Just a note on Harvard. They don’t have Greek societies. They have no fraternities or sororities. They
do
have a coliseum–Harvard Stadium–which is a very good representation of a Roman coliseum, but does not have metal walls. I searched thousands of photos and websites about Harvard, but came up with exactly nothing that would lead me to any place where a casque might be. That’s not to say there ISN’T a place there, but if there is, nothing came out of my searching. I don’t think the casque is at Harvard.
I’m actually wondering about Quebec, now. We
know
it can’t be at BPL–because of the extensive remodeling at the courtyard. We are iffy on Copley Square. And no one has bought my theory of South Boston, where “all the letters” are the streets. And no one bought my theory about North Boston either. So unless someone comes up with something we haven’t hashed and rehashed a hundred times, I’m looking for alternative ideas.

shecrab

[
We
know
it can’t be at BPL–because of the extensive remodeling at the courtyard.

We are looking for where it was buried in 1981 – whether it is there or not today is
an additional challenge.
Follow the clues and where they lead, so be it.
We have found exactly two spots with Thucydides and Xenophone.
One was Cleveland – One is BPL.
I am not willing to leave BPL for another spot unless the named Greeks are there.

I agree Trohn.  It’s all about having eyes on the ground. There’s enough in the image to keep us in Boston and around copely.  How could you not love this place for the casque?  Right now, it’s most important to find from where we take our five steps from.  I think all 12 verses have the starting points in the first few lines.  Certainly v4 and v12 do.

Trohn

We are looking for where it was buried in 1981 – whether it is there or not today is
an additional challenge.
Follow the clues and where they lead, so be it.
We have found exactly two spots with Thucydides and Xenophone.
One was Cleveland – One is BPL.
I am not willing to leave BPL for another spot unless the named Greeks are there.

Don’t misunderstand…I’m not saying it WASN’T there, I’m saying we know it isn’t there NOW because if it was, then it’s gone.

I’ve been thinking about the problem we must resolve once a correct site is found, that is how do we determine the exact spot to dig? Everyone is a aware of how Cleveland’s instructions were clear except for the subtle switch of perspective facing the wall to facing away from the wall to count bricks correctly. How might Boston incur a similar exercise? Maybe the “take 5 steps in the area of his direction” and “face the water/your back to the stairs” lines are from a similarly entrenched position.
We might have our backs to the water and face the stairs. 5 steps in some direction has to obvious to the person examining the right scene.

Doing some internet sleuthing today, and just wondering if any Boston hunters ever got around to checking out the “Golden Staircase” area in East Boston? It was mentioned a couple times in this thread about 10 years ago, but not sure if anyone ever looked into it. Might be worth a walk-through given the immigration theme of this book, although the landscape here looks to have changed significantly since 1982.
http://umanaebhs.blogspot.com/2009/10/e … tie-2.html
“Boston was second only to New York in the total number of immigrant arrivals around the turn of the 20th century.”

JamesV

Doing some internet sleuthing today, and just wondering if any Boston hunters ever got around to checking out the “Golden Staircase” area in East Boston? It was mentioned a couple times in this thread about 10 years ago, but not sure if anyone ever looked into it. Might be worth a walk-through given the immigration theme of this book, although the landscape here looks to have changed significantly since 1982.
http://umanaebhs.blogspot.com/2009/10/e … tie-2.html
“Boston was second only to New York in the total number of immigrant arrivals around the turn of the 20th century.”

That’s a great thought. Not sure where we would dig near the docks though.

erexere

I’ve been thinking about the problem we must resolve once a correct site is found, that is how do we determine the exact spot to dig

…well, exactly. The only solved casques had relatively precise instructions (still a struggle to find), but several of the remaining ones have nothing comparable. So they’re either in the verse but more cryptic, or in the image. Think we have to be open to the possibility of image-based locations.

I’ll see if I can swing by there tomorrow. I will be in South Boston most of the day, but I should be able to sneak over there.
I’m not all that familiar with the layout at the site. Is there anything specific you would like me to check out or take pictures of?

I was wondering how confident people were about the triangle in the Cleveland image being turned into an arrow that points to a spot relative to the wall. There are some triangles in this image for Boston so maybe one of those helps us locate the location. Or there’s an actual arrow shape disguised as one of those buildings right on the Box? The big question for me then is what is our physical anchor in the image that represents something like the wall in Cleveland?

I just visited the Golden Stairs in East Boston. Absolutely nothing jumped out at me from image or verse. The “park”, which is tiny and built into a steep hill has definitely been remodeled in the recent past. The stairs and railings are newer concrete and steel, the block retaining walls and brick walkways also look newer. (10 years or less.)
The surrounding buildings are very old, but not a ton of architectural accents to look at or compare.
The view of the city is nice, but no major landmarks seem to stand out. The interesting thing that I did see was on the map when I entered the address into my phone for directions. The city skyline and the wharf outline just seem like they should fit into the jagged hairline of the lady in the image. But that seems to be problematic for anyone to make an exact match.
Here are some pics.
https://flic.kr/p/22NHvwa
https://flic.kr/p/22NHwcP
https://flic.kr/p/22NHreT
https://flic.kr/p/G3cU8G
https://flic.kr/p/Kea6C2
If the casque was here, I think it will be very difficult to determine where it may have been.

erexere

I was wondering how confident people were about the triangle in the Cleveland image being turned into an arrow that points to a spot relative to the wall. There are some triangles in this image for Boston so maybe one of those helps us locate the location. Or there’s an actual arrow shape disguised as one of those buildings right on the Box? The big question for me then is what is our physical anchor in the image that represents something like the wall in Cleveland?

I’m on the fence about the jewels in the images being in the location where they are buried relative to the other landmarks/map overlays/geographical features. Image 12 (NY) and Image 1 (SF) don’t seem to fit that mold, although we don’t have either of those casques, so hard to tell.

BINGO

I just visited the Golden Stairs in East Boston. Absolutely nothing jumped out at me from image or verse. The “park”, which is tiny and built into a steep hill has definitely been remodeled in the recent past. The stairs and railings are newer concrete and steel, the block retaining walls and brick walkways also look newer. (10 years or less.)
The surrounding buildings are very old, but not a ton of architectural accents to look at or compare.
The view of the city is nice, but no major landmarks seem to stand out. The interesting thing that I did see was on the map when I entered the address into my phone for directions. The city skyline and the wharf outline just seem like they should fit into the jagged hairline of the lady in the image. But that seems to be problematic for anyone to make an exact match.
Here are some pics.
https://flic.kr/p/22NHvwa
https://flic.kr/p/22NHwcP
https://flic.kr/p/22NHreT
https://flic.kr/p/G3cU8G
https://flic.kr/p/Kea6C2
If the casque was here, I think it will be very difficult to determine where it may have been.

I am sorry, it is absolutely not in East Boston.

strike13

I am sorry, it is absolutely not in East Boston.

I tend to agree. But, my theory on the casque location is pretty simple.
I don’t have any concrete evidence that tells where exactly one should dig to pull a casque out of the ground. Until I do, I plan to keep stumbling around this city until something magic happens. It may never happen, it may happen tomorrow. Until then, all theories are in play.

BINGO

I tend to agree. But, my theory on the casque location is pretty simple.
I don’t have any concrete evidence that tells where exactly one should dig to pull a casque out of the ground. Until I do, I plan to keep stumbling around this city until something magic happens. It may never happen, it may happen tomorrow. Until then, all theories are in play.

I am in the same place as you Bingo. Where in Bos do you live ? North ender here! I also recall reading somewhere and I am trying to remember the source, but when ppl talk about the steps by the mother’s rest, I read those were def not there in the 80s and was an addition in either the late 80s or 90s. I am looking for my source

strike13

I am in the same place as you Bingo. Where in Bos do you live ? North ender here! I also recall reading somewhere and I am trying to remember the source, but when ppl talk about the steps by the mother’s rest, I read those were def not there in the 80s and was an addition in either the late 80s or 90s. I am looking for my source

I did a potential solve and created a thread for it. It hinges on the staircase being there, or one that used to be there. There was a Master Plan done in 1977 recommending the addition of the stairs, and I believe they were constructed shortly afterwards.

For what it’s worth, I found someone’s detailed solve online. They place the casque by a cherry tree near the Rose Garden.
https://thesecretatreasurehunt.wordpress.com

@Bingo: Well, back to the drawing board then. Hats off for braving Boston in February, though!

Also, wanted to add this….I think the top of her dress around the waist area resembles the Japanese Temple bell over int he fens.
http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image … 9cdab448dd

gManTexas

For what it’s worth, I found someone’s detailed solve online. They place the casque by a cherry tree near the Rose Garden.
https://thesecretatreasurehunt.wordpress.com

As a professional land surveyor, I feel the need to report myself to the licensing board for actually trying to make sense of the gratuitous use of a protractor in that proposed solve.
Otherwise, it had some interesting information. I may go and poke a bunch holes around that cherry tree during my lunch break one of these days.

BINGO

As a professional land surveyor, I feel the need to report myself to the licensing board for actually trying to make sense of the gratuitous use of a protractor in that proposed solve.
Otherwise, it had some interesting information. I may go and poke a bunch holes around that cherry tree during my lunch break one of these days.

LOL, just shaking the trees, so to speak.

strike13

Also, wanted to add this….I think the top of her dress around the waist area resembles the Japanese Temple bell over int he fens.
http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image … 9cdab448dd

The color is very similar, but I haven’t been able to really make a perfect match to anything in the image. Everytime I go by it, I stop and stare at it for a while because it’s a pretty neat artifact. It was cast in the 1600’s according to the plaque attached to it.
It also has a slight resemblance to one of the bells in image 3. Not perfect, slight.

BINGO

The color is very similar, but I haven’t been able to really make a perfect match to anything in the image. Everytime I go by it, I stop and stare at it for a while because it’s a pretty neat artifact. It was cast in the 1600’s according to the plaque attached to it.
It also has a slight resemblance to one of the bells in image 3. Not perfect, slight.

Yeah…and the structure of the top if it matches to the top of her waist area of the dress.

BINGO

I’ll see if I can swing by there tomorrow. I will be in South Boston most of the day, but I should be able to sneak over there.
I’m not all that familiar with the layout at the site. Is there anything specific you would like me to check out or take pictures of?

Not really– maybe just have a look around (when your schedule permits!) to see if anything might line up with one of the Verses? Or if you’re a sucker for detail, try counting the steps. It looks like the actual immigration station was torn down by Massport a few years ago, and I couldn’t find any obvious historical markers or similar through the Internet.

Following the Seattle theory I have this to offer:
The Seahawks played in the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington, from 1976 to 1999.
Now, let’s suppose that the bird in question refers to something else and the Seahawks thing is just a happy coincidence. The style of the art on the helmet made me think of a Pacific Northwest Native American type of art so I looked for a Totem Pole and this is what I found:
http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/pac … Square.php
So then I thought, ok, Russians in Seattle. Yes, all the way down the coast in fact. So I did a search on ‘onion domes’ in Seattle and found this:
http://www.mzig.com/photography/browse/ … T-ARCH-15/
Note the comments by the photographer regarding the actual color of the domes. Very interesting.
Oh, and if you are wondering about the lady in the picture, there is a 52-year-old Statue of Liberty replica on West Seattle’s Alki Beach:
http://www.gonorthwest.com/Washington/s … -beach.htm

This seems to point to image 12 as Seattle.

Whoops. My bad. I am doing so many things at once, I got mixed up. Is there a way to move these?

Unknown

Unknown:
have these stairs always been here,IE 80-81,and are they the stairs from the boylston
bridge and fenway intersection
https://foursquare.com/v/mothers-rest-p … cd45ebe364

hmmm, scratch that i didnt know, there was two MR park in same city
http://goo.gl/maps/xWT30

strike13

I did notice that. And again we have those similar sphere lamps, like in the CG area. Have you been by here yet Bingo? I want to check this spot and over by castle island/park/ft independence.

I spent multiple weeks in 2013 doing a complete topographic survey of the Charlesgate area for my work. That general area is unfortunately burned into my skull.

maltedfalcon

There is that pesky SLC in the painting….
I think it is boston
but when you look at the cities on the map they sure are east coast centric.
You would think there would be more than one out west.
So it is a possibility

MF, need a second opinion here…does that “Utah” shaped brick in the top of the circle look more like Nebraska to you? I had a ton of homework to do last night, but instead chose to research landmarks around Omaha… (41 N lat, 95 W long)

The frost is basically eradicated in Boston after a couple of 70 degree days. I have a couple of spots to revisit and further investigate for other members. If anyone has a theory that they would like ground tested, fire away.
We must hurry before one of the crackpot theorists actually hit the plexiglass and ceramic lottery.

drunknerds

idk if you linked to the wrong thing, but this is a huge map of boston area, Image 11, then a reversed map of the boston area.
Maybe I just don’t understand. Can you open mspaint and just crop to the areas you say are a match?

The castle island area is the same shape as the bird’s clae, talon, what have you. Matches if you either invert the bird or the map. I see other parts of the shoreline line up too. Not a ton of time to draw it out, but this is where I’m coming from
https://imgur.com/a/IOCWk
Open it up and maps too…the shape is exact to the claw

strike13

The castle island area is the same shape as the bird’s clae, talon, what have you. Matches if you either invert the bird or the map. I see other parts of the shoreline line up too. Not a ton of time to draw it out, but this is where I’m coming from
https://imgur.com/a/IOCWk
Open it up and maps too…the shape is exact to the claw

On Day Blvd….could be another 18th day reference..Day Boulevard was originally called the Strandway,[3] and was planned beginning in the late nineteenth century as the easternmost link of the Emerald Necklace, the string of connected parks and waterways created by Frederick Law Olmsted.[4][5]
The area of 18 Day blvd is just outside of castle island, in a park. fort independence also on castle island, be free. there are a lot of connections to this area i thought so very little about before. i truly think it is worth looking more into….and i have only just started to divert my attention this way. three is something to it in my opinion, this would tie in the wharf like appearance of her hair.

strike13, work through it, make some connections and see where it takes you.

How about the bird’s claw being castle island…i inverted the map to match the direction of the claw.
https://imgur.com/a/xExrm
Would bring this to another area, in southie. Lots match up. Castle. Castle island. Island. “I land”, Columbus. Ok maybe that part was dumb, i land. Haha. Ft independence on castle island, be free. Just another thought…more to come. Just exploring all options and sharing the thoughts

strike13

How about the bird’s claw being castle island…i inverted the map to match the direction of the claw.
https://imgur.com/a/xExrm
Would bring this to another area, in southie. Lots match up. Castle. Castle island. Island. “I land”, Columbus. Ok maybe that part was dumb, i land. Haha. Ft independence on castle island, be free. Just another thought…more to come. Just exploring all options and sharing the thoughts

idk if you linked to the wrong thing, but this is a huge map of boston area, Image 11, then a reversed map of the boston area.
Maybe I just don’t understand. Can you open mspaint and just crop to the areas you say are a match?

strike13

The castle island area is the same shape as the bird’s clae, talon, what have you. Matches if you either invert the bird or the map. I see other parts of the shoreline line up too. Not a ton of time to draw it out, but this is where I’m coming from
https://imgur.com/a/IOCWk
Open it up and maps too…the shape is exact to the claw

Maybe. To me, the top part of the bird’s claw is too curled and the left part of castle island is too curled.
What are those bridge-like things sticking out from the coast on the Southeast part of that?

strike13

How about the bird’s claw being castle island…i inverted the map to match the direction of the claw.
https://imgur.com/a/xExrm
Would bring this to another area, in southie. Lots match up. Castle. Castle island. Island. “I land”, Columbus. Ok maybe that part was dumb, i land. Haha. Ft independence on castle island, be free. Just another thought…more to come. Just exploring all options and sharing the thoughts

At one point, I was optimistic about castle island actually being attached to image 3.
The fort is shaped like a pentagon, very similar to the outline that would be created if you connected the two bells, the key, the watch and the bubble on the right side of Image 3. The hook shape on the left side of the image is also similar to the outline of castle island/pleasure bay. Unfortunately, I was unable to make any other solid connections with image 3 or image 11 while on the ground at castle island.
There are a few statues and memorials all around the fort, nothing that really jumped out at me. However, the fort was closed the couple of times that I went there and I never got to see anything that might be inside.
By all means, check it out. Fresh eyes on the place may yield something important that I missed. When you go, try to see if there is anything interesting inside the fort itself.

BINGO

At one point, I was optimistic about castle island actually being attached to image 3.
The fort is shaped like a pentagon, very similar to the outline that would be created if you connected the two bells, the key, the watch and the bubble on the right side of Image 3. The hook shape on the left side of the image is also similar to the outline of castle island/pleasure bay. Unfortunately, I was unable to make any other solid connections with image 3 or image 11 while on the ground at castle island.
There are a few statues and memorials all around the fort, nothing that really jumped out at me. However, the fort was closed the couple of times that I went there and I never got to see anything that might be inside.
By all means, check it out. Fresh eyes on the place may yield something important that I missed. When you go, try to see if there is anything interesting inside the fort itself.

So crazy, I have lived in the north end for about 20 yrs and have never been to castle island. i always just go to the north shore when i head to the beach. I want to go look all around…as seeing from ground level is suuuper important. maybe ill head there this weekend if it is nice out. certainly wont be 70 and awesome like it was the past few days, but i am eager to check it out and i will take photos etc…i am so busy at work today, but i also want to read a little on this history of castle island. at one point i had read somewhere about the fort having something to do with the stamp act, which could maybe be a reference to all the letters. i need to research more, stay tuned

https://imgur.com/a/HzXIP
So basically i think the bird represents Boston, but in a mirrored or inverted image. The bar the bird is standing on is William Morrissey blvd and 92 is the larger part of it’s down pointing wing/tail. You can even see the bos harbor islands in the image 11. I just thought this was be a better visual than i had posted prior. Now the verse…
If anyone thinks this idea is way out there, sorry, better than saying it’s slc at least haha

strike13

https://imgur.com/a/HzXIP
So basically i think the bird represents Boston, but in a mirrored or inverted image. The bar the bird is standing on is William Morrissey blvd and 92 is the larger part of it’s down pointing wing/tail. You can even see the bos harbor islands in the image 11. I just thought this was be a better visual than i had posted prior. Now the verse…
If anyone thinks this idea is way out there, sorry, better than saying it’s slc at least haha

I don’t think this is a bad idea at all. I see elements of the search area in overlays from Images, but they tend to point to multiple areas within the city that the casque is located. The claw may very well be Castle Island as both a visual clue to the city and to emphasize “castle” , but it doesn’t have to be a contiguous area on the map with the rest of the bird. If you look at the spheres in Image 11, rotate your map in the Common until they line up.
Big sphere is Parkman Bandstand.
Sphere in front is Soldier and Sailors Monument.
Sphere all the way on the right is baseball infield.
Sphere near bird is Brewer Fountain.
Sphere at Dolly Parton’s hip is round flower bed on Tremont.
These kind of overlays ground you in a city.

I like the theory that 18th day represents 18 day blvd, which is Joe Moakley Park

drunknerds

I like the theory that 18th day represents 18 day blvd, which is Joe Moakley Park

And Joe Moakley Park used to be called Columbus park until 2001….hmmmmm….even better

drunknerds

I like the theory that 18th day represents 18 day blvd, which is Joe Moakley Park

Just a short distance from the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Archives, JFK library, on and on and on.
I don’t like Boston anymore…

Hey guys,
I’m not in Boston but did some quick digging and saw something that I’m curious if anyone has ever noticed. I think the two circle area is obviously related to the picture, but I don’t see a dig clue near by. It’s also not really referenced directly in the verse. So if we are there the verse goes:
All the letters
Are here to see
Eighteenth day
Twelfth hour
Lit by lamplight
In truth, be free.
So the garden area near by is the letters. Eighteenth day, twelfth hour is an obvious reference to paul revere’s ride on the eighteenth day.
“It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.”
It’s telling us to look for a bridge. At the twelfth hour, he was crossing a bridge. If we continue past the two circles up charlesgate we get to commonwealth. Which might have been previously referenced in the verse. We turn left to face the bridge and you see this fencing stuff that looks like the lipped item on the bottom left of the image and the columns look incredibly similar to the item holding up the ball on the lower right. The bottom part of the fencing look like the trim that follows along the “N” (if you are using the grid picture) This is on the corner of Charlesgate E and Commonwealth. That’s 3 things on the same fence that match the picture IMO. I only see them in this area, and there are a few with areas to dig next to. Maybe two or three areas. There might be other clues better seen in person. But I think this is a good match and matches up incredibly well with the verse. If someone walks them down and finds a crack matching the one from the picture or something like that, I think we find the casque here.
Sorry I didn’t upload pics. Trying to type it up in a rush. If anyone could take a pic of the fence and post I would appreciate it. But Google Maps has good views of it.

This is a picture of the bridge abutment near the 2C area. There has been some talk about the “4” shaped concrete joint that is created on the sidewalk around the base of the light pole. If you look at the picture where the circular border is stretched out to align with the sidewalk, the “4” doesn’t line up with the light pole location.
This “4” lines up very well with the stretched out circle. Also, it is original to the bridge and definitely pre-1981. The sidewalk and corresponding concrete joints are impossible to date. (And more than likely have been replaced since 1981)
https://flic.kr/p/23vuUPG

There’s a park right there:
Where are these matches you are talking about, in relation to this viewpoint?

drunknerds

There’s a park right there:
Where are these matches you are talking about, in relation to this viewpoint?

Turn left instead of right. The other direction. It’s a concrete wall, maybe 2 to 3 ft tall.

Hopfully this makes it more clear.

https://imgur.com/a/ybhSa
This park is intriguing

strike13

https://imgur.com/a/ybhSa
This park is intriguing

There is a set of stairs near that park very close to the waters edge. The concrete railing looks very similar to the image in the book that has the character sitting with a shovel. The Citgo sign is clearly visible from that spot as well. It is an interesting area.

BINGO

There is a set of stairs near that park very close to the waters edge. The concrete railing looks very similar to the image in the book that has the character sitting with a shovel. The Citgo sign is clearly visible from that spot as well. It is an interesting area.

I did notice that. And again we have those similar sphere lamps, like in the CG area. Have you been by here yet Bingo? I want to check this spot and over by castle island/park/ft independence.

boogieman

…Just something about it that makes it not a window….

Well, for one thing, no planet would be lit from above like the orb in the window.  So, do we turn the picture to make it more realistic?  Is it NOT a planet?  What else would it be?

Scottrocks, don’t take offense at this, please–but you seem to be determined on claiming Canada for this image. Have you gone through the thread on this image carefully? Have you seen the matches–not speculative ones, but exact ones–for the designs on the woman’s dress, the scroll-work and vines, the latitude and longitude numbers? They don’t point to Canada. They point to Boston. The fact that we have not found a casque in Boston yet does not mean we haven’t matched most of the elements to that city.
As for your Castle Loma, the fact that it has a crenellated wall does not mean much–there are crenellations in a lot of architecture, all over the place. To date no one has found an exact match for that box castle–only parts of it–but the best ones have been in Boston.  One crenellated wall is not enough of a marker to claim a certain location for it. I don’t believe the artist has put “decoys” in the images.
I would urge you to read through the posts in this thread and look at the images we’ve posted. A lot of people have researched this image and have come up with the same place–and that place has been Boston. I don’t mean to discourage your efforts, but why put all this energy into a place you only have one or perhaps two “maybe” matches for? So far, Boston has been the best match for most of what is in the image and in the verse as well. It’s best not to try to make the image fit your preconceived notions–and that’s not always easy. (I once thought this image pointed right at Pocatello Idaho, but I no longer believe that it does.)
Also, though you are correct about the Maple Leafs being Toronto’s hockey team, the maple leaf itself is far more pervasive in Canada than just the hockey team’s name–it’s on the national flag.

I showed the box image and Casa Loma to mom and she did not think it was a match because Casa Loma did not have pointy tops on the spiers. This may be significant or it may not be. The strongest indicater that this may be Casa Loma is that the wall looks similer to the wall on the box image and the fact that the thumb is on the wall in the image could be telling us to look at the wall. It could be Casa Loma with the pointy tops as decoies.
I hope to get this image and verse along with all the arguments for and aginst Boston to a distant relative of mine who has lived in Boston since before most of us were even born in the next few days. Hopefully they can shead some light on wether this is Boston or not.
Most likely the box image is the city identifyer and the Window is either a pond or circular item in the park.
Here is a streach. Could the three flowers be a crude three sided interpatation of the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s logo? Either way if you look on the right side of the flowers you can see what looks like the maple leaf on the Canadian flag. This could be a double confirmer for Toronto as Toronto’s hockey team is called the Maple Leafs.

no don’t go digging around lampposts!! it was just an idea, a possible “letters lit by lamplight”
from the prudential building (at copley square, i think) there is a skywalk observatory, which would give us the sky look of the middle of the oval
but you can see everything from there just about, but it mentioned the “Dreams of Freedom Immigration Museum” on MILK Street, and i had noticed that it looked like a MILK BOTTLE in the right corner of the picture with a cork orb on it.
and it looks to me like “post office square” is close to that, which could be “all the letters”………
or it could be because this is called “newspaper row” (i think) and the BOSTON GLOBE had their offices there, and we do have a GLOBE in the picture

museum of science observatory at science park also could be the scene in the oval,
isn’t this close to the longfellow bridge? and he’s the one who made “18th day, 12th hour” famous.

I may have an image that will put the location discussion to a rest
(if someone can perform a location confirmation)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/takomabibelot/968593790/
Match up the iron railing (I assume it overlooks the courtyard)
with the iron waste coat of Pandora….
mighty close…..

hey trohn i saw those before when i was trying to find a close up of the doors at the library.. but they just don’t seem to look like the same curlicues to me.  i’ve been searching for those curlicues also, i saw something close on a plaque at a graveyard but don’t know if i could find it again.

but on closer look…they are very close

slappybuns

but on closer look…they are very close

an on site inspection (with the book in hand) is needed.

I don’t see it.

boogieman, don’t look at the inside curlicues, just the big ones, that look like a big C.

I don’t think we ought to get wrapped around these curlicues so very exactly. I don’t think there is going to be an exact match anywhere.
If you trace the curlicues you can, however, make letters out of them. You can spell “Copley.” No lie. Try it.

“near those who pass the coliseum with metal walls”

She looks like an Irish redhead in a Kayleigh dance outfit.
I like the AXIS remark.  Fits with my idea to dig about 500 feet north of Mother’s Rest.
Looking more closely at the globe’s axis it resembles this spot in Charlesgate Park.
All the letters HERE are TWO C
Note the violet flower is in the same place I have found to be a spot where your back is to the stairs and you face the water.  Walk five paces west and dig.

The top one doesnt look like a c it looks like a Q

*Original text here removed as to not offend* Love ya, MF  😉
My opinion is this is a visual match, just like the Rose Garden, and one I’d bet BP intended us to find. So close to the site, it draws us away. I still think the images are there to confuse us and to draw our attention away from following the verse (after we use them to verify the city, of course).
RDU to BOS, $196. I’ve got an itch.

maltedfalcon

The top one doesnt look like a c it looks like a Q

Here’s my John White impersonation,

four21thrasher,thats exciting about the garden paths a-z,great find,here is some info i found
i wish the street-view had been better.back bay boston italian connects? all i could find was food
related,maybe it was covered and i missed it,id be totally frustrated too,about Roanoke Island
oh has anyone mapped it,for the iconic,go aways,and turn right or left,i forget how it went
——–
work that was done
One of our most significant field work projects this summer included working on Mother’s Rest in the Back Bay Fens.
more
http://encgreenteam.wordpress.com/2011/ … hers-rest/
——————-
a set of stairs,not pos but i think these are the stairs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muddyriver … otostream/
stairs off boylston street
http://binged.it/w2ImOC
http://binged.it/zema0I
street view of stairs bing map,you may have to have silverlight installed
http://tinyurl.com/822gm2g
in case the tiny doesnt work
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=42.346 … ORM=LMLTCC
mothers rest/VG
http://g.co/maps/jjrq4
map and info
http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/map/
http://emeraldnecklace.org/static/filel … page_2.pdf
————
2 bridges,with walking path
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muddyriver … hotostream
another
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muddyriver … otostream/
walking from MRplay area,ped tunnels under agassiz road
map of pk
http://binged.it/zZuYZe

I think BP doesn’t say six steps because then:
1) the green tower would not be in the middle section, it would be in the first third.
2) it would eliminate the play on a tower in middlesex (i.e. tower in boston).
3) there was not six steps to take in 1981.
4) you would not be on the overpass of the turnpike near those who pass the coliseum.
I appreciate the maps of the other bridges, but I’ve checked them out to. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are trying to narrow down the verse), you cannot reach those bridges by following the verse. Also, the pic of the stairs with concrete sides and rails is not the stairs in Mothers Rest.

WhiteRabbit

Basically, you need to be able to pinpoint a precise spot using either the verse or the image. I like this area a lot, but we haven’t narrowed it down very closely yet. It might need a visual confirmer you can only see when you’re there, but it’s worth searching for it in advance in case you don’t…

I don’t think the image or anything found within will ever pinpoint the site. Frankly, the images have been confusing us after being matched with a verse. Sure, you might be able to see something in the picture when you are standing atop the casque, but the image still wouldn’t pinpoint it for you. Otherwise you would have to be physically on top of the image.
I think the verse gets you closer than any image would, if you follow it correctly and to the author’s intent. I also don’t think the verse pinpoints the spot, but it will put you within feet. This was true for both the Cleveland and Chicago solves.
I’ve been trying to only use the images to get to the city, and then using the verse to pinpoint a starting spot. I try to only use the verse and what is visible or named from there.

I think at least one of the verses has been stylized in the way your approaching this, might as well be Boston.  I keep thinking the Cleveland didn’t need a verse at all.  Im banking on the one hoof pointing down to the relative spot at the base of the wall.
In this image, we have lots of symmetry going on.  The verse is doing some symmetry of its own.  Just go with your instincts and good luck!

Glossiphoniidae

The verses
DID
put you within feet! You had to do some grunt work then and move several dozen cubic feet of soil, but you were directed to within feet of the casque.
How about this as a solve for 18th day (d), 12th hour (h)? It might explain the use of “area,” and would definitely be a play on the Longfellow poem and the bridge too.

although I would have guessed 18 down 12 horizontal.

Glossiphoniidae

I also don’t think the verse pinpoints the spot, but it will put you within feet. This was true for both the Cleveland and Chicago solves.

I totally disagree with your statement here.
In chicago
The end of ten by thirteen; Is your clue; Fence and fixture; Central too;
you lined up the trees in a grid and projected the spot where the missing tree would be 1/2 way between the fence and fixture . that effectively narrowed the dig area to a 3 foot by 3 foot spot.
In cleveland  once you were in the rectangular retaining wall, In a rectangular plot
Beneath the tenth stone; From right to left; Beneath the ninth row from the top; Of the wall including small bricks;
markings on the wall told you exactly where to dig a 1’X4′ spot.
Now it is important to rembember the casques were up to 3’ deep, which means in Chicago, you needed to move 3x3x3 cubic feet of dirt (27 cubic feet.) in Cleveland you needed to move 4x1x3 or 12 cubic feet,- but frost heave had broken the caque and moved it around over the past 30 years which means they pretty much had to dig up the whole rectangle.
Say you narrow it to  a 5×5 foot area, that’s 75 cubic feet you need to move a 6×6 foot area means you need to dig up 108 cubic feet.  A 10×10 square means 300 cubic feet of dirt, you would need a backhoe.  If you cant narrow it to the spot you will never find it.
You need to solve the clue 18th day, 12th hour as they probably point right to the spot.

maltedfalcon

although I would have guessed 18 down 12 horizontal.

I tried that – From the pic you can count out twelve granite blocks starting from the right side of the bridge where it starts, going out toward the middle, but that leads to only about 5 blocks down. If you count out 18… well, I can’t from my desk, but the proportion seems to be about 3:2 the whole way across (18:12).
In all honesty, I don’t think this really has anything to do with the placement (although, I would try anything I could once standing by the bridge). I am simply thowing out ideas to questions posed.
Anybody want to take a trip and dig with me?

The verses
DID
put you within feet! You had to do some grunt work then and move several dozen cubic feet of soil, but you were directed to within feet of the casque.
How about this as a solve for 18th day (d), 12th hour (h)? It might explain the use of “area,” and would definitely be a play on the Longfellow poem and the bridge too.
It seems that around 18 stones from the start of the bridge would be about 12 stones down to the ground. Given the uneven stone-laying, I would imagine at 18 stones out you would run into a few columns downward that are 10 to 15 stones down. I’ll bet only one is 12 if this is a correct assertion (though I doubt it is). Unfortunately, you’d have to be there to verify.

forest_blight

omg… Horace Greeley.
“Go west, young man!”

LOL! You liked that, didn’t you? I am still chucklin’ about this one.

Considering the names of early historians and authors, T. and X., I’ve been wondering if 18th day 12th hour might be referring to an event connected to a date sometime after or “late” or in memorial of the passing of the 18th century, which the war of 1812 or battle of 1815.  Kinda shrinks my Leif Ericson theory, but I didn’t know about the O’reilly memorial until today, maybe that’s the ticket.  The one thing other than BPL’s location is that memorial  makes perfect sense to trek down Boylston St. (John
Boyle
O’Reilly, who was also an author).

erexere

… other than BPL’s location is that memorial  makes perfect sense to trek down Boylston St. (John
Boyle
O’Reilly).

Yes, “in his direction.” The unnamed “his” that you wouldn’t understand until you walked the five “steps” off in the correct direction and found him.

Has this been mentioned?
“Gillette’s industrial solution: world corporation; an account of the evolution of the existing social system together with a presentation of an entirely new remedy for the evils it exhibits”
Boston
THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1908
The fairest flowers afield shall bloom on paths the martyrs trod,
Who, fighting, died, the cause of truth defending.
That Love at last may triumph and man
In truth be free
.

maltedfalcon

Has this been mentioned?
“Gillette’s industrial solution: world corporation; an account of the evolution of the existing social system together with a presentation of an entirely new remedy for the evils it exhibits”
Boston
THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1908
The fairest flowers afield shall bloom on paths the martyrs trod,
Who, fighting, died, the cause of truth defending.
That Love at last may triumph and man
In truth be free
.

Niiiice.
I don’t think it’s been mentioned before, but that is definitely a ringer. It’s also as obscure as some of the other quotes across the puzzles. I would say that confirms that the verses truly are referencing obscure obscure quotes.
I’ll buy it. After reading the full text of that section and the title, I might go as far as to say this pulls the reasoning of Pandora’s box together with the verse. Do you think this has any significance to locations or path, though? I’m not so sure.

Glossiphoniidae

Niiiice.
I don’t think it’s been mentioned before, but that is definitely a ringer. It’s also as obscure as some of the other quotes across the puzzles. I would say that confirms that the verses truly are referencing obscure obscure quotes.
I’ll buy it. After reading the full text of that section and the title, I might go as far as to say this pulls the reasoning of Pandora’s box together with the verse. Do you think this has any significance to locations or path, though? I’m not so sure.

You get that from searching “In truth be free”?  that’s a wild daisy chain of interesting stuff.  It echos of yet another Horace, another Ball, and yet another equestrian statue, the George Washington in BPGarden which is still connected to the Emerald Necklace park system.

How about the “Feel at home” as a reference to being in a Garden?  Adam and Eve in the Garden.  A dam in the garden?
http://www.bahistory.org/HistoryMillDam.html

Pretty sure Feel at home is nailed by Mother’s Rest.

Another question: What does P11 (or V3, for that matter) have to do with Italy? This is supposed to be the “Italian” picture.
P4/V4 definitely had the requisite Greek connection — both image and verse, in obvious ways. The location (the Greek Cultural Garden) was clearly and strongly Greek.
P5/V12 had Irish connections. The image included some Celtic patterns and the verse mentions “Fair Folk,” a mainly English / Irish / Welsh way to refer to fairies, if I recall. The location, too, had Irish elements since Chicago has a large Irish population and celebrates St. Patrick’s Day in ways that are visible from space.
But I can find nothing that links P11 or V3 to Italy. Our girl in P11 doesn’t look particularly Italian. I find that very odd.

The BPL is “Italianate”. (See Google.)
(I was wondering if Roman Numerals might come into it.)

This was the iconic image for me.  Ever since ATT I can’t resist looking for road segments.  I lingered for a long time at this little area but I had a hard time with the stairs/water orientation.  Luckily I widened my radius a bit to discover the Lief Ericson statue and then a little house on a corner by some more of those light globes.
There’s a lot that I’m not really set on with the verse but I have a fairly plausible spot to consider in the Charlesgate Park section of the Emerald Necklace Olmstead Park System of Boston.  I’ve essentially built on some of what I previously posted and once again fling my Polluckian theories at your canvas.
I got to thinking about a wordplay on “all the letters are here to see” that perhaps it was saying “all the letters
here
are 2 C”.
This little double circular area is easily perceived as two letter C’s.  This is reminiscent of Verse 8’s “Grand 200” where there are also 2 C’s interpreted as Roman Numeral 100’s.
Earlier I posted a pic showing some stairs on the opposite side of this little house structure but then I realized it was too blind to the view of all the things that I think visually align to find the right spot by matching some combination of lamp light globes to the spheres in the image.  I just discovered there are actual stairs going into one of the C’s.  Standing up on the grass with your back to them and facing the water (red circle), I think you’re expected to take 5 steps west (Lief Ericson statue faces west and IS viewable from this position, just turn your head over your right shoulder to see).
A couple things to note, the Charlesgate Building a block and a half north has a south facing facade that matches the outline of the woman’s head.  The cute little house has an elevated roof design so it’s technically open all around the eves.  This seems to me a good comparison to the open lid on the house shaped Pandora’s box in the image.  House = home.  I like the idea of pairing a little house with the line “feel at home” just a bit more than Mother’s Rest, since everyone is so adamant these days on having less wordplay or stretched interpretation.  Also, it’s a fact that Mother’s never rest at home…they are always busy running around to help the kids, keeping the house tidy, and nagging dad to get off the couch and help mend the chaos in the home.
[maybe that explains why I found the couch moved outside by the garbage can today…]

Glossiphoniidae

I tried that – From the pic you can count out twelve granite blocks starting from the right side of the bridge where it starts, going out toward the middle, but that leads to only about 5 blocks down. If you count out 18… well, I can’t from my desk, but the proportion seems to be about 3:2 the whole way across (18:12).

what about 18 steps down and then 12 blocks horizontal
Is there a lamp on the street right above this spot?

maltedfalcon

what about 18 steps down and then 12 blocks horizontal
Is there a lamp on the street right above this spot?

There is not… the wall/bridge does not begin immediately adjacent to the stairs.  There is a good 15 feet between where the stairs lead down and the wall starts. (i.e., there is not a stone to start counting if you were to walk down the stairs for 18 steps and then started moving horizontally). I would also think this not feasible b/c it is over nalyzing the clues (I think anyways). I only offered the depth and height becuase it was a straightforward conclution, but to make this 18 steps down some stairs and 12 steps toward the wall is too big of a cognative jump for me considering the scenery and layout.

I think you’ve nailed this one four21thrasher – I reckon the casque is somewhere near that wall between the steps and the bridge like you say. There’s plenty of arches in the image which might represent the bridge – I quite like this one…
I wouldn’t underestimate how awkward BP might have made it to pinpoint the spot though. I would expect some kind of wall marking, and probably also some maths. I like the idea of using 18th day, d=distance, 18 bricks/feet/yards etc.
* * * *
It’s academic really, but was also wondering about:
Take five steps in the area of his direction
Take five, rest, Mother’s Rest
The area of his direction is the north – steps at the north of Mother’s Rest.

maltedfalcon

That Love at last may triumph and man
In truth be free
.

Unknown

Unknown:
It will be ripe in reason. It will be strong in love —
The newer time, the better time, the crown of God’s endeavour;
And songs of joy will ring from earth and reach to realms above.
When men shall learn to live In love together.
The earth will yield its fruitage to the hands that give the toll.
In the fuller time, the truer time, toward which the day is breaking;
And Greed no longer leagued with Power, shall claim the tyrants spoil,
Nor Want shall stagger o’er the graves she’s making.
No more shall children labour to dwarf the limb and soul,
In the gladder time, the brighter time, for which the world Is wait-
ing;
Their holy feet shall press the flowers, not strive to win the goal,
Adown the murderous mart of man’s creating.
And thought will grow more potent, and man be more like God,
In the clearer time, the purer time, the Heaven to earth descending,
The fairest flowers afield shall bloom on paths the martyrs trod,
Who, fighting, died, the cause of truth defending.
That Love at last may triumph and man In truth be free.
In the happier time, the holier time, the Age’s harvest reaping.
Our hands of help must reach to those, the millions yet to be;
We hold the Future’s final hope In keeping.

Great find MF – that must be it. It seems to be a poem called “The Coming Age”.
Reminds me of the verse in the introduction:
New World Elf, Goblin, Centaur, Troll and Fay
Five centuries since their shining elders spoke
Man’s ship made land. They fled his awful form
Dark ones hid jewels and disappeared like smoke
Spirits lay treasure down and slipped away
The First Age ended; the New Age began
The wind still brings the sounds of that Sweet Swarm
Now, for their Honey – find it if you can

Xieish

If I’m wrong I don’t think they will ever allow digging in this park again, which is toast for anyone else who wants to dig over by the benches, but luckily I don’t think its there.

Oh, no! – not the benches?
We will have to wait 200 years now.
http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=time+capsule
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/01/06 … opened.cnn
(16806)

lol, it looks like a column!! or a monument or something to me.
nah, i dunno if it’s anything, i can’t see it in the book, just in your picture.
sorry

And there you have it.
I think the thing is buried somewhere on Castle Island. Who’s got a big shovel?
(GRIN)
Good work Slaps!! As usual! Now at least we have some harder evidence that this thing might be in South Boston. A lot of the area fits bits of the image. Now we need to match more parts of the verse: We need to find the stairs and the coliseum–and the green tower of lights.
I spent over two hours on Flickr going through over 9000 (that’s right–nine THOUSAND) photos of the Boston area. There weren’t too many in South Boston, most of them were in the other parts of the city. I didn’t find a lot of usable stuff–but many of the photos we’ve posted on here already were there. I feel like I could find my way around this city in the dark!

William Tudor, in the 1800’s christened Boston
“The Athens of America.”
There is speculation about what exactly he meant–generally it’s assumed he meant because of the culture and the classical educational benefits available, but there is enough evidence to support a different theory also: that he was referring to democracy itself. At any rate, the nickname stuck, and Tudor was the founder of The Boston Athaeneum.

i know what you mean about the time it takes, i wasted a lot on the moakley federal building, there was some “truth” quote on it by brandeis, til i found out it wasn’t even there in ’82 ,
i should be looking into the charleston one because i’m going to be down there next weekend….
but not yet

ck, i don’t know if you noticed, but on that picture you posted with the dots (circles), look at your #1
in the middle at top, follow that line til it starts to curve right, then turn your picture sideways and you’ll see a column, right beside the curve
i see it clearly in your picture but not when i look in the book, does it look like something to you?

Which picture is that, Slappy? I can’t find one with dots….!

the one on page 38 in this thread, where you dropped the background of the swirls in her dress.

Castle Island:—1776, fort was repaired by troops under the command of Lt.
PAUL REVERE
every fort located there was always informally known as
The Castle
Edgar Allan Poe based his story “The CASK of Amontillado ” on an early Castle Island legend
fort independence is the EIGHTH
fort built there
monument to Donald Mckay, shipbuilder, “Flying cloud and Sovereign of the Seas”

Does it look like anything to me? Sure—a couple things. What are you thinking it looks like?

Following that zipcode idea, I found a site which overlays Google maps with zipcodes.
http://www.zipmaps.net
This number looks like 02115 backwards…
…which is this area.
(Right general area, though I’m not entirely sure which of these two specific sites is included. Might be worth looking for these codes in other images.)

…
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The
Somerset
, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
…
I mostly liked that this is the name of the building next to this park.

That’s line 19 – might relate to the number and “quill” on the arch.
From the introduction:
“Cradling Italy, calm as the clouded moon, dark as Tuscan wine, lay the Tyrrhenian, inmost sea of the Middle Kingdom. Upon its sleeping surface bobbed a motley flotilla…”

i know a lot of info,its as close as ive come to a 1980 description
well while looking for the light pole in and out of pk,i ran across this info
and from the imgs,i dont think there were ever light poles in the pk near MR
or stairs,just on the street,and from the imgs and movies,they seem to be in
the same place as now,the info is labeled 2000 & 2002,im not sure if the img and
movies were taken then or b4,or if its just a copyright label
——————-
copyright credit belongs to…..
Marginal Landscapes As Critical Infrastructure: Boston’s Back Bay Fens
Kathy Poole
Published in the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, 10-14 April 2000. Copyright Kathy Poole, all rights reserved
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/f … ginal.html
———
from the img,i would not bury anything on that side of the river,im thinking
the stair or play area is it as 421 has suggested,but im still not sure BP
would have considering the below description,but the area does seem to go to verse
———
snip near bottom of pg
Displaced Landscape (1950-1982)
The result was the influx of new populations. Those without the money to patronize drinking establishments turned to the Fens as their outdoor bar. One cleanup effort resulted in the collection of ten thousand beer cans, but this reportedly did “not even scratch the surface.”24 Plus, lack of maintenance allowed homeless people to ‘construct’ dwellings within overgrown shrubberies and inhabit unkempt, unused buildings like the Clemente field house.
img near bottom of pg
text to img
Fig. 8. ‘Sex Rooms’ in the Back Bay Fens.
Repository of History (1983-1996)
Making Cities
———-
to much text to paste up here…..,from reading i think small improvements,were made up
until,and when and after Kathy Poole,wrote this paper
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/f … ginal.html
————
on the img pg it says click for text,but that didnt happen and i have
not had time to look for the article that goes with img,there is a search
but it seems it requires some detailed info for it to work properly
——————-
mothers rest and the VG labeled yr 2000,in the map feature MR is there in 1997
notice the stone wall around the play area
lg img
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/c … /a0541.jpg
source
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/f … images.php
the 2 Cs labeled yr 2000
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/c … /b0097.jpg
source
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/f … images.php
————-
movies,need the quick time plugin,in the Boylston Entry movie,you can see a
shot of the stairs at the end,was shot labled Copyright © 2002 by
Kathy Poole and the University of Virginia
in the Gatehouse Area movie it shows MRplayarea with the fence and the gate
and is labeled Copyright © 2002 by Kathy Poole and the University of Virginia
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/f … ies01.html

Unknown

Unknown:
the 2 Cs labeled yr 2000
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/c … /b0097.jpg

Wait, stop the presses. How can that circle NOT be the casque site?? It looks like the stone circle in P11, and it’s even lit by lamplight. That would explain the utility of the picture, too — the star could denote where in the circle to dig, if that is dirt and not concrete. Does it still exist?

I love the 2 C’s site.  I really must say I’ve obsessed a little too much with trying to pinpoint things.  Narrowing it down to a general area is good enough.  It’s a whole ‘nother task putting a shovel to it.  I think we are going to dig just outside the arc.  Maybe globs or stones line up somehow.

forest_blight

Wait, stop the presses. How can that circle NOT be the casque site?? It looks like the stone circle in P11, and it’s even lit by lamplight. That would explain the utility of the picture, too — the star could denote where in the circle to dig, if that is dirt and not concrete. Does it still exist?

Looks like it’s bricked in.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.34830 … 9,,1,13.15

I’m very excited by all the recent developments in Boston. I was (and remain) enthusiastic about Mother’s Rest Park (MR), but this 2C place looks like a great spot to bury a casque, especially while dressed in a utility worker’s outfit. I’m thinking the smaller of the two circular enclosures.
Pros
:
It’s about as “lit by lamplight” as it can possibly be. Also, reference to the nearby Beacon St.?
From Google Earth, I can verify the 2C was there at least as far back as 1995. When was it built?
It’s a circle of stone, just like in P11. Do the stones match?
One can put one’s back to the stairs (steps).
Cons
:
From the photos it looks like you can’t get from Mother’s Rest to 2C without crossing traffic. So in going to 2C we’d lose the nice proximity to MR and “all the letters.”
It’s bricked in. But was it in 1981?
Question: Is there a marker, plaque, or memorial of any kind around that spot?

Glossiphoniidae

My opinion is this is a visual match, just like the Rose Garden, and one I’d bet BP intended us to find. So close to the site, it draws us away. I still think the images are there to confuse us and to draw our attention away from following the verse (after we use them to verify the city, of course).

Unknown

Unknown:
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. After graduating from Harvard in 1829, he briefly studied law before turning to the medical profession. He began writing poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, “Old Ironsides”, was published in 1830.

(…though perhaps it might be possible to interpret the verse in such a way as to lead to this spot…)
It does kind of remind me of the globe…
…and three spheres…
(Sorry Erexere, I know you were saying all this days ago, only just catching up.) BP does seem to reference all kinds of local stuff visually and I still like the bridge, though it’s also an interesting spot.
Here’s a couple more snaps…
More steps in front of this small building here to the left of the CC, and the river behind, and apparently a fence. That might give you an exact place to dig without counting stones etc.
A green tower of lights…?
Alternative route brainstorming…five junctions north of BPL puts you on Beacon St. with its green “Beacon” signs – “green tower of lights”.
If you head west down Beacon St you pass the New England College of Optometry which is one of the round-tower matches. I like this one because it also has the shape of the building to the left of it. (You can see one of the beacon sign examples in this pic.) Beacon St is on the route of the Boston Marathon – “those who pass the coliseum” etc.
If you turn down Charlesgate E a couple of blocks on you arrive at the CC site.
With metal walls…Feel at home
Randomness…”Feel at home” reminds me of the song: “Consider yourself (at home)” from Oliver, and “metal walls” sounds like Old Ironsides. This brings us back to my old friend Oliver Wendell Holmes who lived at 296 Beacon St. Doesn’t seem to help much though, unless he’s linked to Charlesgate somehow.
(four21thrasher – I tried reproducing your Photoshop montage trick, but while I like the way the lines seem to overlay to form that “H”, I couldn’t do anything else with it. I haven’t tried holding it up to the sun because there isn’t one where I am…)

I wouldnt have known…these book references really tease the imagination.  Im sure the idea of reading the book is helpful.  Tell you what, im so sure someone will find a casque in the near future, i’ll go order it right now.

(From I2 discussion)
I mentioned T-Ball because those are set on or next to the home plate and the globe lamps at the 2 c’s look like giant T-ball.  Theme wise it doesnt follow the Paul Revere or ancient historian stuff, but it does go with Fenway Park some.  “Feel at home” can then have this meaning as you stand next to a globe lamp.

I like the idea that he buried it at night under lamplight too. I was thinking about having the same people go back and check out some of the areas directly around the 2 circles and checking some of these locations as well. Does anyone have specific spots they’d like checked?

All the letters
Are here to see
There’s a Boston alley called
Pi Alley
(aka “Pie Alley”). There’s a legend that it got this name because it was used for dumping unwanted printer’s lead type. (The Boston Herald was just round the corner.) A
printer’s pie
is a jumbled pile of type. Revere’s work involved lead engraving. The shape of the nearby building matches the image.
West entrance:
East entrance:
All
ey the letters…?
“Pie Alley” is also a
bowling
term, meaning a lane which is easy to score on.
Face the water
It’s next to Water St.
Here’s an overview showing, left to right, Boston Public Library, Granary Burying Ground (Revere), Pi Alley.
Lit by lamplight
There was a Pi Alley cinema.
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6416/
In truth, be free
Liberty Square…?
(Looking at Water St. OK, so it’s not exactly inconspicuous…)

Hey great res on the pics! I just noticed that the ball (the round blue speckled ball) in the shot, is reflected in the bubble, it could be the clock in the image, I would have to call it 2:00 am (2:00 position, and the image depicts night time.