FYI the folks at Something Awful are currently working on this hunt, based on the findings established here at Q4T. The thread is here . The search at SA is based on these cities: C1  - San Francisco C2  - Charleston C3  - Roanoke C4  - Cleveland C5  - Chicago C6  - St. Augustine C7  - New Orleans C8  - Houston C9  - Montreal C10 - Milwaukee C11 - Boston C12 - NYC Please don't derail the thread by posting about other locations - there are other forums people can use for that. I'm afraid Something Awful has a $10 initial sign-up fee, but if you're a Secret junkie like me it's worth a few quid to watch a bunch of new people arguing about it. They've even scanned in the Introduction which I know you all love, so that's good.

That's cool, the more human processors we have on this puzzle, the better.

Sometimes, the main forums -- such the General Bullshit forum where that thread is located -- are open to the public.  In fact, I'm surprised that thread isn't publicly viewable.  It may be in the future, so if you don't feel like paying to register, keep checking back. I'll try share what we learn there, and I know a bunch of people from that thread have registered here and are just waiting for accounts to clear.

Neato!

Glad to see that we here at Q4T could help.

Will somebody please core dump the occasional summary of anything juicy that squeezes out of the ugly head of the SAbeast?

erexere wrote:: Will somebody please core dump the occasional summary of anything juicy that squeezes out of the ugly head of the SAbeast? Irony at its finest.

I found the image slightly distasteful, although I'm sure it was well intended.

Sorry, I mean it in the nicest way possible.  I have the utmost respect for anyone with any level of interest in solving this hunt and I applaud any forum that is willing to shoulder any piece of this conundrum.  Since the registration process is a little slow around here and practically nonexistant at Tweleve.org, Something Awful offers an ideal solution.  Charging for access is a pretty good filter for keeping out the rabble.  It's an active site, while this one is barely kicking.  Shecrab stopped twitching back in 2012 just when she was gaining some ground with her rigorous analysis.  There's a lot of good ideas to be gathered from all of our dithering and unfruitful dig attempts here at q4t.  They might be reinventing the wheel to some degree, but that's a good support process for gaining familiarity with the complexity involved with searching for needles in haystacks.  Heck, I've been reinventing the axles and shock supports around here and all it gets me is an occasional troll dropping from fox. I think there's some serious excitemenet yet to be had in this hunt.  Careful review of many many posts here reveals that the user base has become less and less enthusiastic.  There's a lot of ways to look at the verses and images.  Denying that has caused a slow stagnation here.  We weigh what's likely or unlikely on a whim without any concerted effort to understand the nature of constraints that may or may not be shifting given the range of differences between one set of pairings and the next.  It might boil down to the task of dealing with a large pile of dirty laundry around here; we've failed to sort through the clutter and properly challenge ideas that may or may not be fruitful.  SomethingAwful is a reboot, hoping to have a clean slate and momentum push in the right direction right out of the gates.  I just hope those users are willing to step up and challenge any of the currently prevailing ideas that in all actuality are speculative. I'm currently maintaining the view that the first line of verse is extra special and has both intro and outro benifit to finding the casque.  I believe the most consistent and dominant methodology in finding casques will come from making observations about the "tops" of things: roofs, domes, peaks, spires, etc.  I don't think it's hard and complicated, I don't think it's easy either.  This hunt is simply tricky and only more challenging than it needs to be because of anachronisms imposed by 31 years.  There's some simple ways to go about locating a specific spot in any given situation.  I believe recognizing that aspect of the puzzle is the key to unraveling the verse.  Chicago gave us a "ten by thirteen" phrase which basically translates to the word "grid".  There's a nice grid of trees in Grant Park.  Locating the point on that grid that is closest to the fence and fixture was obvious even though the finders faced some stumbling blocks.  My favorite proposal for Houston seems completely obvious as well.  Standing on Miller Hill there's only a few "tops" to focus on: the peak of the theater, the Atropos Key sculpture, and a few light towers.  That three of those things line up precisely, gives us a really easy location, but nobody seems to go for simple...tht's irony, since I'm a chronic fool when it comes to proposing the overcomplicated.  Maybe I'm finally getting over that.  Maybe we all have our moments.  I believe we're on the verge of finding several casques.  I look forward to seeing some results whether us or them.  Good luck all.

erexere wrote:: Will somebody please core dump the occasional summary of anything juicy that squeezes out of the ugly head of the SAbeast? Unknown: Eh, screw it, here is my complete solution. I'd appreciate it if any Florida goons give me first shot at digging it up! Step 1 The negative space to the right of the rock formation looks like the outline of the state of Florida. The palm tree and Spanish conquistador imagery also suggest Florida. Conclusion: The sixth cask is in Florida. Step 2 The gem in the rock formation looks like a star sapphire. Star sapphire is the birth-stone for September, the ninth month of the year. The birth-flower for September is the aster. There are nine asters near the bottom of the picture. The ninth verse has a lot of Floridian imagery, including seashells, tall grass, and rainfall. Conclusion: The ninth verse corresponds to the sixth cask. The cask would have originally been rewarded with a sapphire. Step 3 The conquistador's flag bears an unusual shape: a small square set in a circle with four triangular points. Disregarding the circle we have the shape and cartographic symbol for the Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine, Florida. Saint Augustine's history is full of Spanish influence, which agrees with the conquistador. The first letters of lines 11 through 15 spell "SELOY". Seloy is the name of the indigenous tribe (or possibly their leader) that met Ponce de Leon when he landed in Saint Augustine. Conclusion: The cask is in Saint Augustine. Step 4 In the stream near the bottom of the picture is the silhouette of a man with an arm raised. This is reminiscent of the statue of Ponce de Leon in the Plaza de la Constitucion in Saint Augustine. Ponce de Leon is the most well-known figure in Saint Augustine's history. The second line of the verse is "Written in water". Legend says that Ponce de Leon discovered modern-day Saint Augustine while searching for the Fountain of Youth. Conclusion: The cask is near the Plaza de la Constitucion, the Fountain of Youth Archeological Park, the Castillo de San Marcos, or near any other landmark or park referring to Ponce de Leon in Saint Augustine. Step 5 Line 1 of the verse is "The first chapter". Saint Augustine is the oldest continuously European-inhabited city in North America; the first chapter of European influence in North America. The sign outside the Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park says "The First Chapter; Our U.S. History". Line 9 of the verse is "Shell, limestone, silver, salt". Saint Augustine is known for the use of coquina in buildings and monuments. Coquina is a form of limestone made from seashells. The Fountain of Youth Archeological Park is the site of the "Landmark Cross", a set of coquina stones laid on the ground in the shape of a cross, that dates back to Ponce de Leon. The Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park is also the site where the "Salt Cellar" was discovered. The Salt Cellar is a small silver trinket presented by Christopher Columbus to Ponce de Leon. Line 10 of the verse is "Stars move by day". There is a planetarium in the Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park. Conclusion: The cask is in the Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park. Step 6 Line 8 of the verse is "You can still hear the honking". The Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park is bordered by four roads: Coleman Drive, Dufferin Street, Magnolia Avenue, and Myrtle Avenue. Conclusion: The cask is near one of these four roads (as opposed to in the park proper). Step 7 Line 5 of the verse is "Behind bending branches". Of the four roads that border the park, Magnolia Avenue (to the east of the park) has a canopy of oaks that bend over the street from both sides. Conclusion: The cask is off the west side of Magnolia Avenue. Step 8 Line 6 of the verse is "And a green picket fence". The park exit driveway on Magnolia Avenue is bordered by a green picket fence. Conclusion: The cask is buried in the area where the park exit driveway meets Magnolia Avenue. Step 9 Line 7 of the verse is "At the base of a tall tree". There is one tall tree in the picture, a palm tree. There is a single palm tree by the green picket fence at the Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park exit on Magnolia Avenue. Conclusion: The cask is buried at the base of the palm tree at coordinates 29 degrees 54' 27.24" North, 81 degrees 18' 55.20" West. [url=hxxp://"https://maps.google.com/?ll=29.907032,-81.316429&spn=0.001483,0.004683&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=29.90703,-81.316431&panoid=aJP4NWJ9QP8HVL2mjCaYPA&cbp=12,182.09557000000007,,0,-0.42672000000000004"]Click here[/url] and turn to the left. The green picket fence, palm tree, and planetarium are all visible. Notes I wasn't able to find any conclusive latitude/longitude in the picture, other than the number 2. I also couldn't find anything to match the shape of the rock in the lower right-hand corner; I assumed it was just there to provide scale, so that the palm tree could be identified as the "tall tree". I don't have any explanation for lines 3 and 4 of the verse: "Near men; With wind rose". I'm hoping they will become clear when I get to the park. "Near men" is pretty vague. "With wind rose" sounds like it could refer to a flag, or a statue that implies wind, or something like that. Ultimately, the combination of "Shell, limestone, silver, salt" and "Stars move by day", along with all the references to Ponce de Leon almost certianly means it's in the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. The presence of the green picket fence, tree canopy, and palm tree are pretty conclusive, in my opinion. The park is open to the public (for a small entrance fee) and they allow food, dogs, and weddings, meaning that they're not super concerned about preserving the landscape perfectly. My suspected location is right by the park exit, away from flower beds, monuments, or anything else other than a tree, a picket fence, and a gravel driveway. I called the office and spoke to a woman named Amy. She said that she's had several inquiries about buried treasure on the park since she started working there in October of 2012, and one person was kicked out after being caught digging - she didn't say where. The park grounds are privately owned by a family, but run by the park director. The office told me I need permission from the owner, who is only accessible via email. I'm currently waiting for a reply. einTier" post="416395731 wrote:: More Houston Starting from scratch.  What if it's Tranquility Park , not Hermann Park?  It was opened in 1979 and celebrated the moon landings, so it would have been the new hotness back then. Look at these towers and tell me they don't look like the pillars in the background and the one under the rhino head.  They're the only things in Houston I've seen that even remotely match those things. What about the lines in these verses? Or... Doesn't that describe the Apollo rockets pretty well?  People dreamed of flying to the moon, but it took a wingless craft to get us there. I'll try.  There hasn't been much yet, honestly.  A lot of beating around the same bushes, though we're casting aside a lot of "known knowledge".  There's a lot of stuff here and other places that we're not convinced matches exactly, though everyone accepts that it does as a starting point.  The thread is also fairly chaotic, because every city, every verse, everything is shoved into that one thread.  The closest anyone has gotten is Florida.  Here's their post. The other one that's had some interesting developments is Houston.  One guy thinks there's something about Rice University next to Hermann Park, but he's not sharing anything until he can go and maybe dig up the cask in the next week or so.  Good luck to him.  I've also proposed an alternate theory around Tranquility Park.  It's a new idea, and I haven't been able to work on it yet, but some think it might have merit.  Here it is: In Houston, we're fairly convinced it wasn't in the Children's Zoo though it might be in Hermann Park.  Other than the Rhino and Camel statues on top of the pillars, there's little to tie it to the zoo and the Children's Zoo specifically.  Even the verse commonly associated with Houston only really has "982" as the anchor, everything else seems shoehorned to fit.  There a few things in that verse that just don't make sense in Houston.  We haven't written off Hermann Park entirely, we just think it might be possible that it's somewhere else. If someone knows of a good program to archive webpages, I'd be happy to archive the 47 page thread (in less than two weeks!) as it sits now.  It's one of the more active and popular threads at the moment with over 100,000 page views.  Most of our members haven't gotten access here, so they really aren't cribbing.  WhiteRabbit is there, of course, but he's been one of your main contributors.  I'm the only one of two I know of from that thread that's had their access turned on.  About the only thing I carried over there from here is the information where wilhouse was convinced the Houston cask was in the Children's Zoo.  I did that primarily to explain why I thought the Children's Zoo reasoning was wrong and how a simple theory about where the cask might be buried quickly turned into "truth".  But honestly, the best scenario for us is for everyone to work together on this -- the more heads, the more likely someone is to pick up on something that solves the whole thing. I hate that SA requires you guys to pay a $10 fee just to look at the thread, but please keep in mind that SA isn't a puzzle or treasure forum.  It's a general (awful) humor forum that's one of the largest on the internet.  I've been there almost a decade now, and the reason we have a membership fee is that with so many members, the only way that we can keep the forums from being overloaded with crap and crap posts is to wield the banhammer fairly liberally.  It doesn't take much to lose your account, and at $10 a pop, the trolls who would disrupt such a place run out of money and interest real quick.

How about this?  Here's an archive of the pages, in order. hxxp://s.f-shot.com/ajax/hide.php?i=2dd ... 6966bbe73d hxxp://s.f-shot.com/afae189d4e76542785947f8a3e76be86 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/7872da6be8bbdbf7d82f60b3393a582c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/e816e1d7ddf4938c89bc8defd5c9905d hxxp://s.f-shot.com/6af1d8ebd004de72f7bf5e3864edd919 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/6da7ad60fe1dc666cd62baa66521d1fa hxxp://s.f-shot.com/2ae491b8444305acff5df87b18ed988d hxxp://s.f-shot.com/a09f7f7607478908495cda2e058990fd hxxp://s.f-shot.com/4d6cea25a8eef6e0f076d8090415e68c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/bc3a344315b46cfbdc893b2b529767d8 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/f1a59ce369fbabb8de0121308812ec63 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/bb065bab87124f2cd6c285b3e5781173 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/7ba739584e37266fd139c2645e59f2f5 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/9ff8d23ce2cedcbeeaccdea2f2255fef hxxp://s.f-shot.com/a53a88e6d52816f19a3a873828a1d388 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/389585f7aab1cc7214eb3430b578f79f hxxp://s.f-shot.com/ea22565cc337274480128e7c555d06f3 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/cf8f3169afcd68d96c896ebce4987e81 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/35ec116a6e9ee0467a3fef8eade9edb4 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/0a724c0592af8d25eec49eb23dd3c8ee hxxp://s.f-shot.com/c88418eff700214e5b6cd6f8221008a2 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/ab5c930e6b6876c4373a912421fbaa07 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/cf52808d0df7260ff1ea1ee7c25ec48e hxxp://s.f-shot.com/75f49b2bacd9d011ff927c012bcc8ef4 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/f0b4b26c1f234e5305e329135a50858c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/69c6c44bd88ffd7f12d3a0de47f75da7 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/033f0f975efcac6ec61131af03608454 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/b78bd22c13cd12988173f028328900b4 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/39d4d34e7952e60c60c0e25094f8a9d3 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/bfae1e6fba09f622b7c2ebd3730dfcd1 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/0fd9a08e951489c29098f9e7deb1dc57 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/e15525a432194a3300c7ceeb9d525e5e hxxp://s.f-shot.com/532aec5867db146395f16948acb16904 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/658b8e158e7ee6b2627d297f42e8f41f hxxp://s.f-shot.com/1f40591f864caeaf530e7f65885fd542 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/a7a0cea7e0223142d87acbe0aafd100c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/5bc06aadfd560ff4ae8d5c486349387c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/e8dba0a783b046a9e3f6780966c6af9b hxxp://s.f-shot.com/dc7a9583f39e32e1058be1fbb6565c1c hxxp://s.f-shot.com/d37c2c987bc4e3bd8e77786ef301037d hxxp://s.f-shot.com/90fb04b3b6b7c1cfb0ac621dbe382bf4 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/0351a3fbba85e73314dc53c58dbd0ce8 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/50f238f17a66fdc56ea8997074ecf6a2 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/4dbd32ff061a86066fc3959e43de2b50 hxxp://s.f-shot.com/0fd4ba4309ddac67f780a254571bc42a hxxp://s.f-shot.com/08da564bac7cd37fb9195baf9384aadb hxxp://s.f-shot.com/f6de9069e84e3ecceebd527df8d6ad5f Best I can do on short notice.

wow, that's cool!  Looks like the magic is happening over there.

GaryLeeLoveBuckets" post="416341549 wrote:: I believe what he later said when pressed about it was "All I can say is I." Because of how strange it is, I'm wondering if it is, itself a clue.  Could the second "I" be a Roman numeral 1?  There's two I can point out, one in the middle of the orb pillar and one near the top of the camel pillar. Unknown: and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the use of the word "I" is punishable by death). My latest reply, which isn't in the archived threads. HOUSTON HOUSTON, WE HAVE A DEVELOPMENT HERE OK, something I just noticed, looking back through the thread.  Someone mentioned that "cold as glass" in the verse that's supposed to be for Houston refers to a line in Anthem that mentions train tracks. At one point, Preiss was pressed as to where the cask was.  I cannot find the quote right now, but his hint was, "All I can say is "I"". All this time, everyone has thought that he was referring to the I shaped section of Hermann Park or the I shaped pillars in the image.  I went back to look at the synopsis for Anthem and this jumped out at me. f**k, I've got goosebumps now.  I think we need to go read Anthem.  This is the first time I've seen any connection to Houston and Anthem.

Hell yeah!  I love the "I" clue.  That literary note is a worthy find. My inclination is to think of the shape of a section of railway track.  It's basically an "I" beam isn't it?

By the way, Anthem is in the public domain.  You can read it here: hxxp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1249 A small bit of trivia.  Shortly before midnight tonight, the thread at SA will have been active for two weeks.  As of right now, it has 1842 posts and 102,014 page views.  That means it's averaging over 130 posts and 7300 page views every single day.  There's a lot of interest and a lot of eyeballs working on it.

We just upgraded from turn based to real time. Does everyone have a shovel?

erexere wrote:: Hell yeah!  I love the "I" clue.  That literary note is a worthy find. My inclination is to think of the shape of a section of railway track.  It's basically an "I" beam isn't it? Yes.  That is true.  But the verse that is said to refer to Houston has the line "cold as glass", which is found in Anthem.  There's an obvious connection.  In the novel, that line refers to a train track that the protagonist finds -- it's actually a subway line that he finds near the city theatre.  This is where begins to write the book Anthem.  There's also a forbidden forest in the novel, which is said to be full of mythical beasts that will devour and kill anyone venturing in -- "no lion fears?" -- but they do not actually exist.  The protagonist finds an abandoned home after venturing through the forest. There's a lot more, but that's just what stands out to me so far. Houston does not have a subway.  However, there is part of the Houston Tunnel system that is accessible from Tranquility Park and happens to be directly across from the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, which replaced the Houston Music Hall and Sam Houston Coliseum.

The letter "I" is also a single vertical line.  It could be an insight on finding the spot where site markers fit into a straight line.  Of course, this is just one of a million possible interpretations.

Thinking more on Anthem and Tranquility Park. " Fortress north, cold as glass " "Fortress" is mentioned exactly once in Anthem.  It is the home the protagonist finds and intends to make into a fortress to keep out the "evil" people from the city he left behind.  He keeps his books there, because they are the most valuable things he has in the post-apocalyptic world he lives in.  All the knowledge that had been forgotten is there. The Houston Public Library is nearby, and I'll be damned if it doesn't look like a fortress.  It was built in 1976. What if "the 982" was a bus? Houston Rhino information For those wondering about the names of the Rhinos at the Hermann Park Zoo (wilhouse at Q4T thought there could be a connection with names and the poem) their names were Marci and Bu.  They'd been there since 1971 and died in the mid 2000's. hxxp://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-Zoo-loses-its-last-rhino-to-old-age-1806735.php

For info, discussion at Reddit. hxxp://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMyste ... _treasure/