Quest4Treasure Archives

im quite certain he's hidden somewhere. im leaning towards the roanoke painting, cause his initials are absent from the published image...so he signed it with his face see if you can find him. look for his pic in the back of the book. have fun...

He's in Ohio.

for real though... a good portion of the outer edges of the Roanoke painting were cut off before publication... there is a leaked picture of the whole painting (its super blurry) Ill see if I can find it for you.

I'm sorry but....which image are we talking about here exactly? Roanoke? you mean this one?

still dont see any initials... and that doesnt change the fact that its revealed specifically by the puzzle...

I would say that might not be the case, because this image or picture is consider blurry, in a very poor and low quality way, if he's sign. was the initial JJP, the chances of you seeing it in this picture is near impossible, if it's the full JxxxJxxxPxxxxx one, you MIGHT see a dark blurry line, and that's it. So based on what we saw in Josh Gate's video, chances of his signature on every painting are very very high. But keep this in mind, what we see in the book is what the editor wanted us to see. And nobody know why, but outside the book, we know now for a fact that image 8 in the book was edited and his sign. was framed in a black box and no other JJP in the book gets that treatment. the full JxxxJxxxPxxxxx sign. only appear to be seen in image 1. BUT, on his website, of the Castle Hat image (image 5), you'll see it's lapped over the original JJP we see in the book. What does that mean? Copy rights maybe? Nobody know exactly why. But it's there for anyone who's curious to check it out.

Unknown: and that doesnt change the fact that its revealed specifically by the puzzle... It's allegorical Josh. He's there, but not really meant to be found. A warning, possibly to those who would seek him out, looking for inside information. Or a figment of an overactive imagination. To tell you the truth, I'm having a hard time keeping up with all these hidden images.

JoshCornell wrote:: still dont see any initials... and that doesnt change the fact that its revealed specifically by the puzzle... I thought that Travis had convinced you to being open to using Photoshop to look for stuff, like "hundreds of wolves", "NCC 1701", and "$5 Footlongs" ...? Soooo....use Photoshop. Look in the dark part of Image 3's pedestal for his initials or signature.

photoshop? not sure what youre on about. ive never typed the words photoshop on here. till now.

JoshCornell wrote:: photoshop? not sure what youre on about. ive never typed the words photoshop on here. till now. He is suggesting you use photoshop to enhance the contrast/brightness of the area at the bottom of the pillar to see JJP personally I have only seen the P and the underline. so im still not sure.

i just use the wiki scans and tilt my laptop screen around, but you are actually told by the puzzle a specific technique to use.

No, if this is how you get the signature you're wrong, meaning you get this signature by creating it yourself. because no matter how good you are with photoshop, your base material is bad to begin with, that being said, a poor photograph or a low pdi scan , so to enhance it, you're basically just creating more noise and possibly more uneven moires. for a quick second you might think ah now it looks much better, but that because you've added the extra to it yourself.

JoshCornell wrote:: i just use the wiki scans and tilt my laptop screen around, but you are actually told by the puzzle a specific technique to use. Really? I didn't know that, What is the technique you are supposed to use?

the puzzle also tells you that if youve figured it out, you should let others figure it out for themselves... (im not joking) therein lies the journey

"In 1956, while in Windsor, Ron Wilson moved in across the hall from Jennings. Jennings came over one day and asked Ron if he had a deck of cards. He then proceeded to show Ron the trick he had learned in the Navy. Afterwards, not knowing Ron was a magician, Jennings asked him if he knew any magic. Ron then showed Larry “Out of This World,” which completely fooled him. Jennings asked Ron to teach him the effect, but Ron resisted. Instead, he told him to think about it. Jennings eventually figured it out, and Ron continued to teach him magic, introducing him to the world of magic, including the magic of Edward Marlo and Dai Vernon."

As mentioned, JJP's full signature is in the Roanoke image in the pedestal. There are a few other paintings where his sig/initials appear to be missing but I believe are just hidden. I believe I have found a few, but not all.

!!!!!!!!

Unknown: I believe I have found a few, but not all. Can you apply the same skill set to finding the missing latitude and longitude coordinates in Image 10?

Ah.... that's another story. And perhaps a different thread entirely. My opinion is - there aren't any in Image 10. For a reason. When I run into exceptions like this, I try to think of them as opportunities to find a hint that BP/JJP left us. Because I choose to believe these guys were too smart to lay this out haphazardly or without a solid reason for the things they did. I think the exception is a hint. (Or sometimes the easy one - that can help point the way). Ex. I think that they hid clues in each of the paintings that allowed us to match it up to the city. Image 10 / Milwaukee is the exception because they intended it to be the easy one. They used a rebus. I believe that they intended that to be the easy one - and that once it was realized that there is something in each painting that can help match up the right city - one might have a chance at figuring out that there are lat/long number clues in the other paintings. And then finding them. Ex. The "missing" JJP initials in Image 4 / Cleveland. I don't believe that they're missing but rather hidden in the wall. (See below) And that this is a clue from JJP that there are things hidden in the wall (perhaps other things). I don't believe these types of decisions they made are at random. So when I find an exception or wonder why they didn't do "x" in this painting, etc. - I see that an an opportunity to possibly find a hint. Just my opinion.

in cleveland image the second j is clearly a face, the ear is very obvious.

i think both those are things, but im not convinced either are his initials...

JoshCornell wrote:: in cleveland image the second j is clearly a face, the ear is very obvious. I think....i found it...but not sure, so I don't wanna post pic... instead of JJP, I saw bLL....or something like that...on the right side of the image

i see exactly where youre looking...not it...its gonna be his pic im pretty sure. left of far right clock right? above far right bubble?

good eye! I just think the pattern looks a little odd.... since this puzzle was about backward....it make sense

theres definitely something there...i cant tell what it is though...

Unknown: theres definitely something there...i cant tell what it is though... In my experience with this puzzle, that's usually a sure sign that you're on the wrong track. YMMV.

well, i can tell you with absolute certainty,,,you dont know whats going on. but thats ok.

Unknown: you dont know whats going on No need to make it personal Josh. I wasn't attacking you directly Just the idea of vague, or hard to see things in the Images, whether they be numbers, letters, faces, or wolves. Toward that end, I was using "you're" in the general sense. My apologies for the confusion. Carry on.

perhaps, maybe you should consider the alternative...?

Unknown: maybe you should consider the alternative...? I have Josh, and long before the puzzle captured your attention (just ask Erexere). All I can say is that if the puzzle does, in fact, work the way you think it does, then you are the only person on the planet who can solve it. Because you seem to be the only one who understands the connections and methodologies that you are using, in their entirety. The rest of us, for the most part, are in the dark despite your best attempts to explain what you are thinking to us.

Erpobdelliforme wrote:: I have Josh, and long before the puzzle captured your attention (just ask Erexere). All I can say is that if the puzzle does, in fact, work the way you think it does, then you are the only person on the planet who can solve it. Because you seem to be the only one who understands the connections and methodologies that you are using, in their entirety. The rest of us, for the most part, are in the dark despite your best attempts to explain what you are thinking to us. im definitely not. i know of at least one other person who is perfectly capable. surely others are out there...both of us are musicians with film degrees though, so there might be something to that lol.

not my best, definitely partially veiled lol

Unknown: im definitely not. i know of at least one other person who is perfectly capable. I'm not talking about solving the puzzle, or even parts of the puzzle in general. I'm talking about solving the puzzle (or parts) using your specific methodology. I'm glad you've found someone who understands where you are coming from, and with whom you can discuss your ideas. The puzzle was not meant to be solved by people working alone. Share the clues

Erpobdelliforme wrote:: The puzzle was not meant to be solved by people working alone. Share the clues How do you know it was meant to be a group effort?

jayheedan1 wrote:: How do you know it was meant to be a group effort? I know this wasn't directed at me, but I'll provide an answer. In short, because different pieces of information inform different puzzles in more and less helpful ways. When the guys in chicago found statues, and it was determined they were helpful, others began looking for statues in "their" puzzles. Or, "Hey... you found coordinates in your picture, maybe I should look for some in mine." Before any lit clues were found, there was somebody who first noticed one... let's say it's melville. Sharing the information that there were lit clues that were found made other people say, "hey, maybe i should be looking for lit clues in 'my' puzzle." This would help them resolve problems they were having with some of the lines. Same with other types of clues. No single clue in and of itself was going to give any one treasure hunter a solution. However, eventually, someone would have enough pieces to solve A puzzle. Once a solution was correct, others would be able to play off that information to help with another.

Hirudiniforme wrote:: I know this wasn't directed at me, but I'll provide an answer. In short, because different pieces of information inform different puzzles in more and less helpful ways. When the guys in chicago found statues, and it was determined they were helpful, others began looking for statues in "their" puzzles. Or, "Hey... you found coordinates in your picture, maybe I should look for some in mine." Before any lit clues were found, there was somebody who first noticed one... let's say it's melville. Sharing the information that there were lit clues that were found made other people say, "hey, maybe i should be looking for lit clues in 'my' puzzle." This would help them resolve problems they were having with some of the lines. Same with other types of clues. No single clue in and of itself was going to give any one treasure hunter a solution. However, eventually, someone would have enough pieces to solve A puzzle. Once a solution was correct, others would be able to play off that information to help with another. Here's the caveat... no one knows whether the information they are using is correct (or rather, that they are using it correctly) until a casque comes out of the ground. Until the casque in chicago, and really cleveland, too, to provide more evidence, came out of the ground, the coordinates could have been anything. Once that was determined, it gave a lot of other groups who were floundering some help. Thus, the solutions must be solved and shared to be helpful. Share the clues, goodness first. That is how the puzzle progresses, and why it is a waste of time to dig in several cities right now. Without more information from previous casques coming out of the ground and being shared, you will continue to find several hundred exact spots in each city where another could be. And THIS is why there had to a starting point. Find the picture, dig a whole where it tells you to. It can be done. It is in the ground. And THAT is why there is not another that is the same. You have to learn or it becomes unmanageable very very quickly.

Relevant

Sandpiper121pp wrote:: Hello fellow treasure hunt people...  I too recieved an E-Mail from Mr. Priess today and here it is.... He responded... I am truly sorry you are disappointed. When the book was published there was no internet, no email and no chat rooms. Many people are trying to participate by viewing (illegal) reproductions of the art on the internet, something never contemplated by the book when I wrote the treasure hunt. Nor did the book stipuliate EMAIL as a way of communicating with us. I am unaware of any other 22-year old treasure hunt that is still allowing people to participate. So I would say that we are being reasonable under the vastly changed circumstances of the 21st century. This was his response to me asking about why E-Mail submitted answers were not allowed.  So...  get the shovels...   let's dig up the world!  😀 Hehehe...  seconds after I got this E-Mail he responded back with another one for me... I wrote... I understand...  it just comes down to now we have to be on the money and I personally cannot afford to fly all over the United States looking for a casque.  I hope you understand that I did not mean to come across rude... just upset that I am now out of the hunt for I cannot make it to the location I found.  Oh well...  I will wait to see if somebody else finds it there and if they do then I will just have to be satisfied with that.  One final question...  do you ever plan to make a second book and or reveal the remaining locations in the future if you discontinue the hunt for them? He responded... We don't plan a second book. There is no restriction , by the way, on finding a person in another place to do the digging for you and splitting the jewel if you win... So like I said...  get out the shovels...  let's get to digging up the world!!! From what I pieced together over the posted contacts with BP is it wasn’t supposed to be a group hunt. Certainly a bunch of minds working together on a single task will likely increase the chances of solving the puzzles, and back in the 80’s no doubt small groups of family/friends would work together like the Chicago puzzle. But how would someone share this amount of information amount with this many people in the early print days as BP stated it was never a contemplation, Since the internet largely didn’t exist when the book came out. He has adapted (after knowing about sites like q4t) stating it is a 22 year old hunt and perhaps instead of traveling someone in that city could dig it up and share the jewel since the offer to mail in the solution using the page in the back of the book wouldn’t necessarily be accepted.

jayheedan1 wrote:: From what I pieced together over the posted contacts with BP is it wasn’t supposed to be a group hunt. Certainly a bunch of minds working together on a single task will likely increase the chances of solving the puzzles, and back in the 80’s no doubt small groups of family/friends would work together like the Chicago puzzle. But how would someone share this amount of information amount with this many people in the early print days as BP stated it was never a contemplation, Since the internet largely didn’t exist when the book came out. He has adapted (after knowing about sites like q4t) stating it is a 22 year old hunt and perhaps instead of traveling someone in that city could dig it up and share the jewel since the offer to mail in the solution using the page in the back of the book wouldn’t necessarily be accepted. This email only proves my point...BP had to be involved in the beginning, seemingly. Once he had found the forums and and we had the internet, and he was already 20-years over the puzzle with suggestions of churchhill downs still coming at him, f off. Share the information with others. You have the internet. He no longer needed to be involved/bothered, seemingly. Bring him a casque. There seemingly was at least one more that you could bring him without his help. Either that, or he knew the puzzles would likely never be solved and was giving it the death blow. Either way, BP never proved to be very helpful except to the Chicago guys... eventually, so the story goes. It's almost a shame that Egbert actually dug up the casque and was told he got all the clues. It might have been more helpful if he hadn't, and instead told BP he was diggin at 10x13 but couldn't find the casque. Would BP have responded, "go back and recount the stones, and try to account for the directions," like he did for the Chicago guys? Had they gotten close enough? We'll never know. Did the Houston guy find him to be helpful... "It would not be a waste of time to dig there," or the st. louis guy... "right location, wrong spot"? Do his statements in this email or the others he was reported to have made appear to be trying to help or encourage anybody to find a casque? Or, maybe those people just didn't have the correct information yet, and BP needed previous ones solved first in order keep the puzzle moving.

I agree, I don't think this puzzle was designed to be solved by a single person/a group working out the simpler puzzles and then moving on to the more difficult puzzles and applying lessons learned.. It was entirely designed for locals to spot there local clues, recognize the locations and work out the verse that fits. Masquerade. Like BP said in his email "When the book was published there was no internet, no email and no chat rooms"

Unknown: Many people are trying to participate by viewing (illegal) reproductions of the art on the internet, something never contemplated by the book when I wrote the treasure hunt. Seems as if the 'new' method of perpetrating copyright infringement is what he didn't contemplate.....in addition to the proliferation of the worldwide web and global, digital collaboration. (Can't blame him for that response, 20+ years into it...)

Unknown: Worst business idea ever. I'm having a hard time understanding this comment. Would you care to elaborate? Either way, I'll post my thoughts, but it might save some time and typing if I could understand why you think the idea of a book which may contain a progressive treasure hunt that everyone thinks they can participate in (at least initially) is a bad idea. Preiss was in the business of selling books, and this seems like a pretty clever hook to me.

Unknown: I agree, I don't think this puzzle was designed to be solved by a single person/a group working out the simpler puzzles and then moving on to the more difficult puzzles and applying lessons learned. You have actually conflated two separate ideas in the comment above Matt. Let's take them one at a time: 1) I don't think this puzzle was designed to be solved by a single person/a group... I agree with this statement. The complexity of the task alone (given the resources available at the time the book was published) would have been a non starter. And given the relatively paltry reward, no one would have seriously bothered. 2) I don't think this puzzle was designed (to be worked out by solving) the simpler puzzles and then moving on to the more difficult puzzles and applying lessons learned. That's exactly how it was designed. With each puzzle that's solved, another group of people, whether they are working as a group or as individuals gets more information. And that information allows them to potentially solve the puzzle they are working on, whereas before, they had no shot. You can argue that we have 12 self-contained puzzles, each one with enough information to be solved independently. Or you can argue, as I have, that the puzzle is progressive. But those two ideas are, for the most part, mutually exclusive.

Erpobdelliforme wrote:: You have actually conflated two separate ideas in the comment above Matt. Let's take them one at a time: 1) I don't think this puzzle was designed to be solved by a single person/a group... I agree with this statement. The complexity of the task alone (given the resources available at the time the book was published) would have been a non starter. And given the relatively paltry reward, no one would have seriously bothered. 2) I don't think this puzzle was designed (to be worked out by solving) the simpler puzzles and then moving on to the more difficult puzzles and applying lessons learned. That's exactly how it was designed. With each puzzle that's solved, another group of people, whether they are working as a group or as individuals gets more information. And that information allows them to potentially solve the puzzle they are working on, whereas before, they had no shot. You can argue that we have 12 self-contained puzzles, each one with enough information to be solved independently. Or you can argue, as I have, that the puzzle is progressive. But those two ideas are, for the most part, mutually exclusive. Yes I realize in your theory you think that is how it was designed. but I think they are 12 similarly designed yet self-contained puzzles, can looking at a solved one help find an unsolved one, Yes because the methodology is demonstrably similar, do you need to solve one to solve another? no I don't think so, I certainly don't think they build upon one another, that hasn't been shown at all. I feel in reality the only thing keeping other casques from being uncovered is simply the radically changed environments over the years.

maltedfalcon wrote:: Yes I realize in your theory you think that is how it was designed. but I think they are 12 similarly designed yet self-contained puzzles, can looking at a solved one help find an unsolved one, Yes because the methodology is demonstrably similar, do you need to solve one to solve another? no I don't think so, I certainly don't think they build upon one another, that hasn't been shown at all. I feel in reality the only thing keeping other casques from being uncovered is simply the radically changed environments over the years. I concur, other than some being more difficult than others nothing has shown that the puzzles are linked in a specific sequence or that they are unsolvable on their own merits apart from the other verse/painting pairings.

And there's a bit of intimidation there... work out a proposed solve, get permission, get a dig team together, and when the dirt starts to move, your volunteer crew discovers that digging is really hard work, and that you need to shovel up a half a ton of dirt to even have a hope. Even with a completely worked out correct solution and you're digging in the right place, there's no guarantee that your hole will hit where the casque was buried -- just look at the stories of near-misses before success in Chicago and Cleveland.

Unknown: I'm convinced these arent solved because people arent actually digging holes. I'd argue that you have this almost exactly backwards. "A little digging is your task".