Thanks for sharing more thoughts. It’s nice to see that good ol’ enthusiasm. I think it’s not a bad way to go about solving this puzzle, since it’s exactly how I wanted to apply the image to a couple different park areas. I know a few other people are very interested in the Jackson Square area, but I’ve not one of them. I’ve never been convinced of the “only three stand watch” as it applies to that location.

One reason that this makes sense is that the country of immigration has been important in finding the first two casques. The city of New Orleans as a whole is a French settlement, but Jackson Square is the only park within the French Quarter.
We were discussing the numbers, since the number 19 seems out of place as it does not pertain to the coordinates of the city. This is probably here to help solve what the number is hidden behind the mask, which may be the final detail to how to apply the map. Added up, the visible equal 138. Though not a significant number at first, if my high school math education serves me well, we can look at the numbers as degrees of an angle. If we use them as interior angles, then we subtract that from 180 degrees and we have 42 (which as we all know, is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”). If we looked at them as exterior angles since they do break through the lines surrounding the face, then we subtract from 360 degrees and we have a remainder of 222. Incidentally, George Washington’s birthday is 2/22. The place across the street from the park is the Washington Armory. We are not convinced that this is significant, but we feel it may be worth mentioning if it sparks something significant in the mind of someone else.
And after observing this community for the past few days, I do feel more comfortable in plugging our theories into the Think Tank here. If this whole post is bogus, feel free to ignore it and let it sink into obscurity.

Justify your reason for making it into a math problem. Ive given the angles idea some attention but it doesnt feel compelling.

It just looks like one. You are given different numbers on three corners of a parallelogram, the fourth corner being intentionally hidden behind a mask. Remember geometry class, where you were given all of the angles of a shape except for one and you had to solve for it? I think that is why the placement of the mask is significant. It is beckoning us to find out what is behind the mask.

I totally see what you’re saying and I believe the mask hides something important though I don’t see it as justification for completing a math problem. I’ve not come up with an alternative for the purpose of the number 19, even in my Basin Street location. If 29 and 90 are lat long values or grid values, should we treat the 19 the same way? 19 plus 10 makes 29. We can look at numbers many ways, I just dont see enough justification for a geometry problem in that way. Right now its just a number on a clock…as if it were a date like “1929”. Remember Clevelands 1881 and 1442? I think this is similar.
I think theres more to the Sarmiento connection than St. Charles or St. Peters. How do those tie into a France theme?

Mark X

19 seems out of place as it does not pertain to the coordinates of the city

If you consider image 4, we get “1442” and “1881”. The coords are 41 and 81. In other pictures we see adjacent pairs and reversals with the coordinates, so you could say that BP was offering us 41 42 and 81. Likewise in NO he could be offering us 90 91 and 29.

IMAGE 7 JACKSON SQUARE MAP
This is a work in progress. Notice the similarities in design, particularly the area titled the Moonwalk near the top. We have a square area with concentric circles inside of both areas. We felt that the similarities in design could not be ignored.
To see this area for yourself on Google Maps, click
HERE.
The Verse Breakdown
At the place where jewels abound (Mardi Gras in New Orleans, duh)
Fifteen rows down to the ground (At the top of the pic, you’ll see stairs in front of the MOONWALK that are shaped like the area above the clock. People sit on those in rows. From the top on down to the ground, there are 15 rows.)
In the middle of twenty-one (the number eleven is in the middle of twenty-one)
From end to end (there are eleven apartments on each side of the park…you can confirm by counting the chimneys that are facing the park the same way)
Only three stand watch (Three spires on the St. Louis Cathedral)
As the sound of friends
Fills the afternoon hours (It’s a place where people hang out during the day)
Here is a sovereign people
Who build palaces to shelter
Their heads for a night! (The original excerpt is about the St. Charles Hotel, but it also mentions St. Peter in Rome. The street on the right side of Jackson Square is St. Peter)
Gnomes admire
Fays delight (Could be alluding to the design on the casque)
The namesakes meeting
Near this site. (Jackson Statue in Jackson Square, possibly meaning the area around the base of the statue.)
LAGNIAPPE
The animal head hidden in the squares in the image has the same open mouth as Jackson’s horse on the statue in the middle of the square. Also, if you were to make the overhead view of Jackson Square the same size as the clock on your monitor, that horsehead square on the image coincides with the location of Preservation Hall.
The arm appears to be coming from what is called Pere Antoine Alley, a friar whose body is located inside of the cathedral. It is said that his ghost haunts that alley, and it is good fortune if you spot him. Could that be his ghostly image, wishing us fortune in our search?
Now, here’s another thing to ponder. There are four statues in Jackson Square that are in the corners under the trees. Each represents a different season. The area in the image that is covered by the mask coincides with the Father Winter statue. This could be a potential dig area, since this is the December image.
HOWEVER…the Summer statue is a boy, so if we rotated the map so that the boy on the clock was facing the boy statue (bottom right quadrant of the square), then the second hand noting 15 seconds would be pointing towards the 15 rows. Seems convenient, right?
NOT SO!
We still don’t know where the X would be on the map.
Except for the fact that the map has
four X’s
on it, only two of which (the X and the XI) are over grass and dirt.When we investigated the area for the single X spot, we found an area of grass marked off with spray paint. It was uncanny how exact this spot was, and we began to wonder if one of our team beat us out there. However, no one has admitted to doing so.
There are more notes, but I think I have probably bored you enough already. We are open to suggestions. We have many boots on the ground in New Orleans right now.
-Mark X
(And I do apologize for opening another thread on this, but since it looks like this forum is slightly less than active, I decided to put it up front so that people don’t see the same old threads at the top and don’t bother clicking to see what the latest word is.)

It is possible that he figured that only putting two numbers would have been too easy, so he added extra numerals into each image to raise some doubt while providing the correct longitude and latitude for each location. With only two casques found, we cannot say for certain that Preiss used the same methodology in each case. Trying to figure out his thinking process will be key to solving the remaining verses and images. Once a train of thought is firmly established, methods become clear as day. I remember reading my third Dan Brown book and knowing who the bad guy was as soon as he was introduced in the story. Similarly, after a third casque is uncovered, BP’s preferred style of representation will be triangulated and we will have a clearer picture of how his mind worked. This should help with the discovery of the remaining casques.
Still, I can’t help but wonder what exactly that mask is hiding in the corner…if anything at all.

Mark X, Regarding “We may do some more investigating tomorrow of the square.”: I would love for you to amuse me and poke around the shrubs behind the middle of the bench that is located where the 10 and 11 would be on the clock. (In case it is the 21) and I just noticed that the small hand of the clock is missing. Is the boy’s hand pointing at the X suggesting that it is at 10 o’clock? X marks the spot? Good Luck! I would love for someone to dig up another casque!!
Kalessin, Regarding “is Jackson Square park possibly a beginning point, or an ending point of this kind of walk?”: I was wondering the same thing. I just can’t imagine that BP would have a park drawn into that much of the image that wasn’t where the casque was buried.
Maybe this verse’s clues are scrambled or even backwards. (Just noticed White Rabbit posted that) I know I need to read what other’s have written on the forum because it may negate what I am thinking, but I figured that the Fay in Fay’s delight was probably referring to LaFayette. LaFayette suposedly adored Washington. He named his only son George Washington LaFayette. Could Washington or his son be his delight? I noticed that Jackson Square is in the middle of LaFayette Square and Washington Square. Depending how you count the blocks, it could be said that Jackson Park is in the middle of 21 blocks between LaFayette Square and Washington Square. If you start at LaFayette Square, you pass the St. Charles Hotel on the way to Washington Square.
From Mark X Post: “Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night! (The original excerpt is about the St. Charles Hotel, but it also mentions St. Peter in Rome. The street on the right side of Jackson Square is St. Peter)”
If the verse is referring to St. Charles Hotel and mentions St. Peter, it makes sense to pass the Hotel and head to St Peter street where both Jackson Square and Preservation Hall are located. All of that to say, I think that Jackson Park would have to be the ending point. At least if my theory is right, that BP had to ensure that there is a specific location that can be determined if you decipher the puzzle correctly.
Maybe I should ask all of you who have been studying The Secret for years–Is there an agreement that BP hid a specific dig spot for each casque in the puzzles? Often it seems that most of the discussion is very general, instead of identifying an exact spot. Or is that because people do not want to share that kind of info? Just curious.

WhiteRabbit

I think that’s a bit of a myth really. The things referenced by the verses tend to be all over the place in no particular order, Chicago being a typical example.

I should have started with, “A number of hunters believe that… “
You may very well be right! More to contemplate…

gajojo

Mark X, Regarding “We may do some more investigating tomorrow of the square.”: I would love for you to amuse me and poke around the shrubs behind the middle of the bench that is located where the 10 and 11 would be on the clock. (In case it is the 21) and I just noticed that the small hand of the clock is missing. Is the boy’s hand pointing at the X suggesting that it is at 10 o’clock? X marks the spot? Good Luck! I would love for someone to dig up another casque!!

Unknown

Unknown:
Kalessin, Regarding “is Jackson Square park possibly a beginning point, or an ending point of this kind of walk?”: I was wondering the same thing. I just can’t imagine that BP would have a park drawn into that much of the image that wasn’t where the casque was buried.

Unknown

Unknown:
Maybe this verse’s clues are scrambled or even backwards. (Just noticed White Rabbit posted that) I know I need to read what other’s have written on the forum because it may negate what I am thinking, but I figured that the Fay in Fay’s delight was probably referring to LaFayette. LaFayette suposedly adored Washington. He named his only son George Washington LaFayette. Could Washington or his son be his delight? I noticed that Jackson Square is in the middle of LaFayette Square and Washington Square. Depending how you count the blocks, it could be said that Jackson Park is in the middle of 21 blocks between LaFayette Square and Washington Square. If you start at LaFayette Square, you pass the St. Charles Hotel on the way to Washington Square.

Unknown

Unknown:
From Mark X Post: “Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night! (The original excerpt is about the St. Charles Hotel, but it also mentions St. Peter in Rome. The street on the right side of Jackson Square is St. Peter)”
If the verse is referring to St. Charles Hotel and mentions St. Peter, it makes sense to pass the Hotel and head to St Peter street where both Jackson Square and Preservation Hall are located. All of that to say, I think that Jackson Park would have to be the ending point. At least if my theory is right, that BP had to ensure that there is a specific location that can be determined if you decipher the puzzle correctly.
Maybe I should ask all of you who have been studying The Secret for years–Is there an agreement that BP hid a specific dig spot for each casque in the puzzles? Often it seems that most of the discussion is very general, instead of identifying an exact spot. Or is that because people do not want to share that kind of info? Just curious.

I believe the clock is set at midnight (which matches December, and the numbering that’s been worked out for the images; see the wiki for a table), so one hand is over the other. The fancy curlicues of the hands might hold some kind of text or clue, though…
The park may hold the clue to the final location elsewhere. Clock-based puzzles that have some word, number, or other non-clock solution are not unknown..
At a guess, I think the written clues involve literary references, puns, and disguised instructions, and the visual clues involve disguising, puns mirroring, and hiding. Personally, I don’t think BP zoomed too far off into esoteric la-la land, as the puzzles should be solvable.
If by “hid a specific dig spot for each casque” do you mean “there’s a visual clue of the treasure ground”? Many people believe that there are image clues of the treasure ground in every Image; this is certainly true in the solved Images.
If you read the rules and the book and the solved puzzles, it seems like there’s an image of the treasure ground or things at the treasure ground in the Images, and the spot is identified from the Image and Verse. However, the spot wasn’t narrowed down to a one-foot-square location in either of the solved puzzles. One spot was a two-by-twelve-foot stone shrubbery planter, and the other a location pointed out by lining up trees. Even with BP himself present, the Chicago casque was difficult to find in the ground and was only revealed by some earth falling away in the second hole the hunters dug.

Mark X

. The place across the street from the park is the Washington Armory. We are not convinced that this is significant, but we feel it may be worth mentioning if it sparks something significant in the mind of someone else.

I’m going to go off into (as I’ve called it) esoteric la-la land for a moment…
In this area we have Jackson Square park and Washington Artillery park; Jackson is on the $20, Washington is on the $1. In the middle of twenty-one could be what’s between the two parks: Decatur Street, the 15 stairs that go up, and at the top of the 15, a big round plaque from 1976 dedicated to Mayor Maurice “Moon” Landrieu and the Moon Walk which is over at the river’s edge. Round bronze plaques are
unusual
.
If this is a real clue, I’d bet we’re talking about the 15 level stairs, or the big round moon plaque, because Decautur Street doesn’t really seem to go anywhere as a road or a clue.
(The next further level of esoteric: “In the middle of twenty-one” gets you to a common phrase, “twenty-one gun salute”, the middle of which is the work “gun”, one which is sitting in the middle of the artillery park.)
Jackson Square park, the area at the top of the 15 stairs, and the Artillery park are full of plaques. There’s even one on the fountain that’s between the Jackson statue and the cathedral. Photos of these could be handy, as not all of the plaques have photos on the internet, for those of us far from New Orleans.

The next time I go out there, I will photograph all of the nearby plaques just so that we can archive them here. Near the armory are stepped levels of plants, similar to the one where the Cleveland casque was found. The only problem is that there is no way anyone would allow a dig right there in such a prestigious spot. It may have been easy to bury something there over 30 years ago, but the post-Katrina environment is all about…well, preservation.

While I’m posting all over the place, I may have found a disguised city confirmer and sports logo (NFL Saints) in the Image.
There are two flowers on the upper corners of the clock face; the right-hand one is a narcissus, aka daffodil or jonquil, with six petals around a central bell (two petals not visible behind the bell).
Looking at the flower on the left, notice that the three visible petals at the back of the flower have the four-lobed form of iris petals (one petal would be behind the bell, and is not visible). The “lis” in fleur-de-lis is a yellow iris (see Wikipedia, etc).
Consider that the bell of the flower has a “crack” right in the middle of the side towards the viewer.
This flower may very well be wearing a disguise which is a pun: Fleur-de-Li(berty)

We were not able to visit Jackson Square today, but we did notice something interesting in a few pictures that we took earlier this month. We will investigate the connection between the photo and the verse and bring our findings to this forum as soon as we have something concrete to offer.

Jackson Square closes its gates when it gets dark, so any nocturnal investigating constitutes trespassing. We’re still trying to 100% the location before we move one blade of soil, especially in such a high-profile public location. Something did occur to me recently that may tie the square closer to the verse.
In the middle of twenty-one
From end to end
Only three stand watch
Our pet theory of the moment is:
In the middle of twenty-one is the number eleven. We have always bookmarked that number because the way it is written.
From end to end implies a line. There are eleven players per team on the field at a time in American football, and they line up from end to end.
What is the name of the team that this city is so proud of? The New Orleans
Saints
.
Only three stand watch. Immediately surrounding Jackson Square are St. Peter and St. Ann streets, and behind it stands the St. Louis cathedral.
Three Saints, standing watch.
It is a fun theory to toy with, though we are not sure how much BP enjoyed watching football. Enough to include a reference in verses about gnomes and fairies? Sadly, we may never know.

Sports team clues in other Images:
Chicago NBA Bulls. A bull’s head with horns logo hanging off of one of the hooks in the image
Cleveland NFL Browns. JJP is quoted as saying “There’s something about the centaur’s helmet, but I can’t remember what it is”. A few months ago, I noticed that the centaur is wearing a brown helmet, which is the Browns’ only logo.
Boston NBA Celtics: A green four-leafed clover in the small fairy’s wing (the Celtics have used three-leaf clovers in their logos over the years)
The Montreal image is a stretch, there’s a “67” and a little image of the Habitat ’67 apartments; 1967 was the Montreal Expo, but I haven’t yet found the MLB Expos’ “M” logo, or for that matter the Canadiens “C surrounding an H” logo. Tough image.
In the New Orleans image, if there’s any logo, I’d expect a fleur-de-lys or some other indicator of the NFL Saints (or maybe something that obviously visually implies saints). They didn’t have any other major-league teams when the puzzles were being created.
As I think more about this, not every city in the list of 12 had pro sports teams at the time, and I have a hunch that not every city has a sports team clue. I’d love to find a few more, though.

I love the Jackson Square Park location, it really does seem to fit.
The solutions for the two casques that have been found, and the general solution direction for other cities, is that the hunter starts at one place, and goes on a walk where the clues direct, to the final treasure ground.
While this doesn’t have to be the case, I wonder if finding a start point, travelling some distance following clues, and arriving at the final treasure ground with image confirmers (as was done in Cleveland and Chicago) is the same method used in New Orleans. Put another way, is Jackson Square park possibly a beginning point, or an ending point of this kind of walk?

Hi Mark X! I have not paid much attention to the New Orleans casque, but when I saw your picture of Image 7 next to the Google map of Jackson Square, I was blown away. It so clearly matches. I am assuming that others have mentioned this, but since it’s 1am and I am too tired to look, I thought that I would share what I noticed when studying your post.
I tend to look at the puzzles through a psychological lens. I try to figure out what BP was thinking when he was trying to get readers to the X that marks the spot. Before I had read your other post, I saw the 15 rows on google map and then tried to figure out “the middle of 21”. The only “21” that I could initially see was by joining the X and XI on the clock to make at Roman numeral 21. I then read where you wrote that the only X’s on the image that had grass near it was the X and XI. That made me want to zoom in on the street View of Google images to see if I could find anything else with 21. I am not positive that I had the right angle, but I noticed a long bench that from end to end has 21 legs (at least I am pretty sure it does). I think that it is right where the X and XI would be on the clock. There may be a four sets of those benches and I have no idea when they were put in the park. It is pretty easier to imagine friends sitting on the bench talking while BP was digging around.
The apartments don’t make sense to me. I would think that BP, if refering to the apartments, would have said “In the middle of 22 from end to end”, meaning that it is in the middle of the park with 22 apartments on both sides OR “In the middle of 11” meaning that it is on one side of the park or the other. However, that would have meant the casque was hidden near the X or the III. If that was the case, I would guess the casque would be at the Roman Numeral 9–X marks the spot. But I don’t think that is what he meant.
I always presume that it was not BP’s intention to have parks dug up all over the country. He, if at all responsible and desiring to sell books, had to have an “X marks the spot” in every puzzle. The only line in Verse to that I could see being the X marks the spot is the “in the middle of 21” line. Therefore, I think the 21 has to be in the park.
Have you seen any pictures of the park when BP was there? I am curious as to what it looked like.
Regardless, you sold me on Jackson Park. Thanks for sharing.

We do have some archived images of Jackson Square during the early 80’s. They’re not very good, though, but it shows that not much has changed since then. In fact, the area looks almost exactly the same since the early 1900’s. Our earliest photo is from 1938.
We may do some more investigating tomorrow of the square. We have a very good theory on where it is in the square, and it looks like the perfect place to hide something. We need to run a rod down there and see if we hit anything before we ask permission to break ground, though. We won’t ask unless we know with absolute certainty that we have the right spot so that it’s a one-time deal.

Kalessin

The solutions for the two casques that have been found, and the general solution direction for other cities, is that the hunter starts at one place, and goes on a walk where the clues direct, to the final treasure ground.

I think that’s a bit of a myth really. The things referenced by the verses tend to be all over the place in no particular order, Chicago being a typical example.

…they represent the four seasons; you can see pics of three of them here, but it would be interesting to get more.
http://www.noladailyphoto.com/tag/four-seasons-statue/
Summer looks pretty drowsy, and I wondered if he might even have his eyes closed, leaving three to stand watch.

Thank you!
While you’re taking pictures, there are apparently statues or memorials of some kind in the four corners of the park. Can you describe/photograph them?

One of our team noticed that the Winter statue resembles a gnome (albeit a very tall one). That is the place we are looking at right now. There are 3 feet of dirt between the base of his statue and the sidewalk, and two trees about 2 feet apart directly behind him. So if he is the gnome, and he admires the Fay’s delight, then it must be near him.