Something I noticed about the lat/long of Cleveland was it was closer to the Airport than the Cultural Gardens.  Given the assumption that BP was efficient in his plans after preplanning in his NY office, then would it be fitting that his sites would all be within an hour or so travel from Airport or Trainstation locations?  Is there any reason to believe he took a train at all?  I'm goin with Air travel as his MO.

the airport is about 17mi from the gardens,and the train station is about 7mi from the gardens, and the chicago grant pk is about 18mi from Chicago O'Hare, and the train is about 2mi from the pk i think he used air travel too

Mitchell Airport is 8 miles from downtown Milwaukee..only minutes to rent a car and drive...

He certainly didnt take a train to San Francisco...

Out of laziness I'm not going to bother putting this in a more appropriate thread...only trains (rumble) have something to do with V12P5.  How did those guys find the Chicago casque without a map??!  Crazy.  I read the verse and solution for the first time today.  Nice to see folks nailed most if not all the elements.  The fence and fixture and tree covered area above the high castle-esque wall seems like the place for the casque.  I had the idea there was a statue geometry thing happening to some extent.  I can't tell how to get an absolute fix on the exact spot though.  Like the "hat" in the image I wrapped a big sheet of paper over my head to see if it could be used to approximate position on the map as an overlay.  I made two of the corners fit over my ears.  Not good results...

In a way, they did have a map. "The end of ten by thirteen" described the intersection of two straight lines of trees (not visible today), where they dug.

Okay, just looking at the map, would the simplest solution be to draw a triangle between three statues to narrow down the area and then follow the 10 by 13 for precision along with the post and central clue?

I think the real clues were to look beyond Lincoln's shoulder, and to notice that there were two lines of trees (10 x 13). Once you are in the right vicinity, these two clues would have led to a spot no bigger than a square yard, by my guess. There are several site confirmers. I've been to the location a number of times, and the spot could have been narrowed down quite specifically.

Did anyone else catch the details about Preiss telling Egbert that he received a photo of the site near M and B because a slab (marble/cocrete?) may have prevented recovery of the casque and so based on the correct reasoning for the location he gave up the jewel prize?  I'm not sure where I gleaned that, will follow up when I find it...but this fact bothered me when I saw pictures posted of the Chicago casque...did he recover the casque AFTER getting the jewel from Preiss?  Was there a motive in Preiss to speed up events?

well sure there was, its called publicity. having someone find one, and get a jewel certainly caused some buzz and probably there was a corresponding bump in sales of the book... As I recall they were close, but BP told them exactly where to dig. One of the "finders" said, if BP wasn't there they would have missed it by  few inches...

I've been reviewing lots of info today and through it all I keep tripping over connections that give me fits of wonder. Immigration ties in at every turn where there is a founding moment in our nation's history.  Mexican-American, French, Canadian, Spanish Exploration, Elizabethan, Italian, Asian, Native American, and a healthy smattering of the Germanic all make an interesting stew served with loaves of Ancient Greek and Celtic fairy tales. Statue's and stone work seem to be common.  Just today I was surprised to see Rodin's Thinker in the Palace of the Legion of Honor and I thought "hey, that guy fits my Rodanthe = the Rodin, idea.".  "Lane", "Cast in copper", seem like examples of crossover links to other locations.  Is this hunt rife with double meanings? The Bowman statue in the Chicago solution links to the San Francisco's Betsy Ross Flagpole as it was Bowman who added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegience.  I have a growing list of connective ideas.  I is evident BP toyed with linkings.  He must've isolated some criteria for planning his route for all the casques.  Find the biggest pole in the nation named after the First maker of the American Flag.  BP had his own Revolution of America. Form a business trip perspective, i can see him hitting 4 or 5 major airports, but from a touristic standoint, he would've had to do something more distant, like take a ferry, train, trolly, or tram even.

rental cars. I would hate to take public transit from the SF airport to Lincoln park it would take hours!

Im losing a sense for where to put some ideas...not wanting to start a new thread.  General questions i suppose...anyways, something i just came across that really sticks with me is the large scale attention of the May 18th erruption of Mt St. Helens in 1980.  Did Preiss bury casques in 1980 or was it earlier or later in a rush to make the book publishing deadline? I feel like he did put together the 5th verse with respect to that event.  Its just a feeling.  I wonder if he traveled to Oregon or Washington to get a closer look.  There was a huge influx of tourists during that time as a result of the national attention.  Just today i caught mention of it in a Charleston Photo...Charleston?? hxxp://www.flickr.com/photos/deepereyes/809713971/