Interestingly, straight from the Lake Park Friends website (
http://www.lakeparkfriends.org/explore/brick_arch_bridge.shtml
)…
A “… brick arch bridge spans the large north ravine allowing traffic to enter the park from the north end. Designed in a Renaissance Revival style by Oscar Sanne, an engineer trained in
Germany
… [it] opened in 1893. Sanne designed
four of the five
large bridges in Lake Park. Notice the terra cotta medallion designs and brickwork on the outer sides and the
quatrefoil
openings along the railing.”
Not that this has any effect on the current theory, just thought the proud tall fifth made sense as identifying the lion bridge (as it was 1 of Sanne’s 4 and 1 of 5 total, making it a “proud” fifth), maybe. I am unable to accommodate verse 8 with any other bridge. Although, I wonder if 1 of the 5 bridges in the park looks more similar to the presumed bridge in image 10. I wonder how passing three could play on this.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this WR… have you looked into this info previously, or elsewise considered it?

ONE STEP AWAY, I’M GOIN’ IN JULY!!!!!!!!!! FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ANYONE WANNA JOIN ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????
I LIVE IN EAU CLAIRE WISCONSIN, ABOUT 4 & 1/2 HOURS AWAY.
WHICH IS ABOUT 1,000,000,000 PACES OVER ROCK AND SOIL FROM THE THAT FREAKIN LADY WITH THE DANG PIANO THING.
-regulus

Actually, that’s pretty close.  What I meant was that, for instance, if Verse 8 matches (for the sake of this discussion) with Image 10, then the wonderstone in question would be the Amethyst.  Because each image has a corresponding country, “wonderstone’s hearth” in this case would mean Germany.  Whether this would be some sort of correspondence letter in German involved in a sculpture or actually the letter “G”, I have no idea.
Page 7: “You are about to learn of their wonderstones, the twelve treasures brought with them in their passage…”
I could have sworn that the term was used twice in the opening, but I can’t seem to find the second one.
Personally, I find it very hard to believe that the book would use this term describing all of the jewels in the opening pages, and then use it in a totally different context in a verse.  I’m not saying that I’m right about this; I just don’t want anyone to throw this verse out by only factoring in the South Africa/wonderstone link.
I think that reading this line as a reference to a trait that all the images share (i.e. jewel, flower, time, country) is very interesting to think about from the author’s standpoint.

Ok… found this… feel free to ponder.
From woman, with harpsichord
It came up when I was doing a search on Montreal’s  Mount Stephen Club  (where a “legeater” was found)
Photographed at the Mount Stephen Club, 1440 Drummond St. A marvel of Victorian-era architecture, the mansion was completed in 1883 as the residence of George Stephen, a co-founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Today, restored to its original grandeur, it is a private club but welcomes the public to Sunday musical brunches and guided tours. It is also available for private functions – at which a red dress might be just right. For information, call 514-849-7338.
OK… not a picture from the 80s or before…. but it sure got my attention.

Reevaluating the first line:
View the three stories of Mitchell
Another word for a story is an “account”.  A bank also has accounts.  The historic Mitchell Street Bank just looks too Greek to be avoided.  The point is to make the association to a bank and then figure out the alternate definition: similar objects in a row.  View the three stories of Mitchell becomes “view three things in a row”.  The double entendre of this is that the jewish etymology of the word ‘bank’ comes from ‘bench’.  There are a row of four benches on the west side of Kosciuszko and a row of three to his east.  I believe that when you dig, you must be actually looking at the three benches.  This might not mean you dig right at the benches, but if you did, I’d recommend digging at the spot just off their south side.  I think you still must draw a connection between the statue’s hat and a tree nearby, which I’m confident I’ve identified, but still waiting for good photos from someone surveying the site.  Maybe this is where you use the 100 paces line.  The tree is southeast of Kosciuszko.  Start at the tree and walk directly towards the tip of the hat and stop at 100 paces, facing the three benches.
I like that this version takes the seeker a good distance from the statue.  Put a blanket down and slow trowel it through the false bottom of a picnic basket.

here’s an off the wall thought…
does drinking affect the kidneys also?
erastus b. wolcott made history as the first to remove a diseased kidney………proud, tall fifth (of liquor)………:
http://www.lakeparkfriends.com/explore/ … atue.shtml

While it is a relief to hear that Allis doesn’t contain any artwork of women and/or baroque instruments (it may have been Villa Terrace I was thinking of), the picture I was referring to was a photograph, or maybe a copperplate.  You can BARELY see it in pics of the music room, but it is there, next to some sheet music.  If the treasure isn’t beneath the tree (which is strongly possible, given what we’ve discussed so far), then it would have to be near it in soil that needs several characteristics to be probable: No trees near enough to present a problem with the roots, not close to any sort of stream, even an itinerant one, and easy to dig at least three feet down.  There should also be some sort of…marker, rather out of place amongst forests…  I mean, after 25 years, you’d have to be able to find it without saying “next to a tree in the woods.”  In short, you are looking for a place that is ‘hidden’ enough not to pique the interest of a casual observer, but unique enough to recognize later, and in which it is possible to quickly dig a hole and hide something.  AP– there is absolutely NO WAY I am disturbing the habitat of shrews, centipedes, salamanders, folding-door spiders (or spiders of any type), and/or carpenter ants.  I don’t care if they don’t live around here, if it is proven that a casque is beneath the rotted deadfall, then I am setting it on fire first.

Here is a great resource for being able to SEE  the Lake Park for yourself.
Google has just made available, “Streetview” in some areas.  Lake Park,
and all of Milwaukee, is totally viewable!  In your “search” box try typing in
“Lake Park, Lincoln Memorial Drive, Milwaukee, WI”
and when Google gives you a map, click on it and then click on “Streetview”
up at the top.  You can see the lampposts for yourself!

animal painter – I just logged on to point out the very same thing! It’s quite amazing. You can see many of the trees we’ve been talking about.

Forest,  You know what they say about great minds….
I just added 5 more photos to the webshots D Tree album.
One thing I forgot to mention, was that I saw a yellow plastic ribbon
tied to a short shrub right next to the D tree…Did BP tie it there in
order to let searchers know they were indeed at the right tree if
they contacted him?
Scroll down on each photo at Webshots to see the captions
which explain what they are.
AP

Boogie,
Your help is greatly appreciated.  All ideas as to
how to approach this are welcome.
Here is a photo to show you the location of the
cape-tree in relationship to the ravine (culvert).
The ground on the side of the “m” bridge is very steep.
(The “m” bridge is the South Lion bridge.)
The wood-railed-foot-bridge that you see in the lower
left is at the bottom of the ravine (culvert) which
runs underneath the m-bridge.
The 100 paces are taken under the North Lion Bridge.

Hey, great pics AP.  No question you are in the right area.  Is it possible BP cut that tree?  How old does the sawn off part look in person?
How did you come up with “M”?  Not questioning, just asking.

Good luck to you, AP!!! I hope it works this time!!

boogieman

Hey, great pics AP.  No question you are in the right area.  Is it possible BP cut that tree?  How old does the sawn off part look in person?
How did you come up with “M”?  Not questioning, just asking.

Boogie,
I personally do not think that BP cut that tree. It would not have
been in keeping with his love of nature.  I have more photos
and will look for one that shows the cut end more clearly.
There is a sawn stump a few feet from the cape-tree.
There are cut pieces under the snow.
But the sawn limb of the cape tree looks to be older.
I am not as thoroughly convinced about the “letter”.
But here is what I am looking at to make the link.
AP

Fox,
It is a perfect match for the cape-tree!
The next question is…what is the
southern foot?  Is there a universal
definition of a “southern foot” of a bridge?
The entire base on that end of the bridge
is probably considered the “foot” of the bridge.
And it is the southern-most end of the bridge.
But it has 4 sides.
The southern-most side is at the top of the
bridge where the lions are located.
Would BP dig out in the open, right in front
of the lion pedestal?
Looking at the image of the cape tree, BP
would be down in the ravine to get that
perspective.
The Westerly face of the base (the side of
the tree) is very steep and full of the roots
of the cape tree.
The Northern-most face of the base is directly
under the bridge…one of the most likely sites.
The Southeasterly face is also a steep grade.
When the ground thaws out, I will do prodding
with the steel rod around the perimeter.
There is also the possibility that BP could be
referring to the other base of the bridge.
It has its most southern face directly under
the bridge.
So many areas…
AP

Boogie,
Here is a look at the sawn limb of the cape-tree
from on top of the bridge.
Does it look older to you?
AP

Kuh-Lai-Bah-Ti

Sorry I haven’t been as active as before, everyone, I just got a new job whose hours are insane.  Anyway: AP if you are completely and totally serious about digging smewhere, and are planning to take a day to do so, then I have a spot I would like you to check for me: 150 feet southeast of the eastern end of the concrete footbridge.  If you are not at the corner of Ravine and LMD, you’ve either come up short, or gone too far.  The spot in question is on the park side of a giant bush, where two sidewalks come to a point.  If this pic is any good, it will give you the exact area I am referring to.  You don’t have to dig if you don’t want to, but this is definitely a sweet spot (you don’t have to trust my judgement, but I think I found some definites for this location).  Incidentally, all of the other spots discussed on the forum are well within a mile of each other.

KLBT,
I just saw your post about the area by Ravine Rd.
If you want me to take a closer look and photos,
I can do that, too.  For now, digging would take
a back hoe!
BP seems to have been “all over the map” in Lake Park!
AP

On
a proud, tall fifth
At its southern foot
The treasure waits.
The words say ON a PTF…
ON.
Not under, or near–so I would assume that ON means ON. And that would mean where the lion was.  I don’t think BP would have had any qualms about digging in the open, but
could
he have? Is the ground conducive to it there? Bridges are usually built with a lot of concrete foundation under and around their terminal ends. We already discussed the difficulty of digging at the base of any tree–even a small one–and how difficult that is. So I’m wondering. AP–is there any way to take more pictures of the lions and the area surrounding them?
(We’re working you to death, aren’t we!)

The area I’ve specified is not terribly big from street view.  I’d say try between the bush and the hill’s slope… Near some sort of tree, just about where the woods end…

She,
I guess I had been connecting the line:
“You will see a letter from the country of wonderstone’s hearth”
to the line:
“On a proud, tall fifth”
And then going on to connect the last two lines:
“At its southern foot”
“The treasure awaits”
But, having been wrong in the past, I am definitely open to other ideas!
I will post photos of the lions later today.
AP

animal painter

Fox,
It is a perfect match for the cape-tree!

but was it a match twenty years ago?  I can’t believe the tree hasn’t grown or changed in all this time.  (but of course this doesn’t mean it isn’t so, just that i’ll be amazed — how long did “Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse” remain unsolved?  The map for that one involved trees.)

Catherwood,
It still may be a match…only slightly taller and bigger…
AP

this is getting so exciting! good luck AP!

Unknown

Unknown:
how long did “Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse” remain unsolved?  The map for that one involved trees.)

Only about 3 years, actually.
I think the guys who solved it did so shortly after the deadline had passed.

AP, that is a huge find. Congratulations, I can hardly wait until you unearth the next casque.
Again, Congratulations and good luck

it sure sounds promising. i just wish i was on a computer instead of my cell phone so i could see the cape tree. is it as perfect a match as everyone says it is? come on snow melt, so AP can dig up number three!

The foot of the culvert
Below the bridge
Walk 100 paces
Southeast over rock and soil
To the first young birch
Pass three, staying west
You’ll see a letter from the country
Of wonderstone’s hearth
On a proud, tall fifth
A reminder AP,  Egbert and his buddy toiled for what, 7 hours deciphering V4.  This one may take you longer.  I hope not.  It’s tough doing it from here, I can tell you that!  But we all want to help while trying not to hinder.
Just trying to orient myself here.  Where is the
culvert
compared to the “cape tree”?  And what bridge are we walking 100 paces from?  I’m guessing that digger’s culvert is under a different bridge than our M bridge.

MrBackstop

From the viewpoint you attached, the casque should be next to the Water Tower at bottom left which is the Southern point. The fencing is now out of the way since the landscaping was cleaned up.
As far as getting here, I started in the middle of the verse from where so many people kept getting to, the Lighthouse. So much solid research had already been completed over the years that it made sense to me to go from here.
Once I went passed the Lighthouse, down to the ravine and went the 100 steps SE, I realized two things. First BP would be referring to a Birch tree and secondly, “pass three” did not mean three Birch trees, but the Par 3 golf course in the park above.
The key to me was the phrase “staying west”. As you continue down the sidewalk on Lincoln you are staying to the west of those 100 steps you took to get to the first young birch. I just kept going in that direction until something in the distance stood out, the Northpoint Water Tower.
At this point I was to the west of the first young birch and passed the Par 3 golf course (red balls in image artwork).
The stone work of this tower is incredible and once I researched how the historic water towers worked I realized the hearth is part of it…..wonderstone’s hearth.
Now we just need melted snow, thawed ground and a little luck.

Okay awesome! Thanks for clearing that up! I didn’t understand the “pass three, staying west” part, but when you break it down like that it kinda makes sense. I like this and I really hope you’re right.
Not sure if anyone else noticed, but the Google cam caught a dragonfly in that screenshot up in the air to the right of the tower… maybe it’s a good omen!!

Oh, and one more point. I didn’t say anything about a steam engine being a hearth. That’s not a hearth.
The floor of a fire place is a hearth and it is generally made out of bricks or stone. So, the North Point Water Tower has a hearth….otherwise the steam could not be created in the 1800s to run the steam engine.

As for limestone, I just think BP was using “creative license” with the term wonderstone. When I looked at the stones on the tower it blew my mind how cool it looked, that’s as simple as that is to my interpretation of it.

Okay, that’s much clearer to me than “It used a steam engine to pump water from Lake Michigan for fire and drinking. That is your hearth.”
IT does look really cool

Unknown

Unknown:
forest……um, you’ve been quiet on this….haven’t you been there?

Yes, I’ve been to Lake Park, but not to some of the places AP and KLBT are describing. So I have just been sitting back and enjoying the banter. I may weigh in if I spot something no one’s noticed yet.

You guys are doing a great job!  It’s wonderful to finally see the layout of the area.  Some questions/points:
1.  The verse says, “Southeast over rock and soil, to the first young birch.”  If it is the FIRST young birch, that implies that there are other birch trees.  The interpretation that only the first tree has to be birch, would fit a line such as, “to the first, a young birch,” or something like that.  So, I think there are other birch trees (although they may not be there anymore).
2.  The verse seems to take you on a walking path up 92 steps, then the grand 200, then the compass, and then the culvert, bridge, and treasure.  If the lighthouse is the compass, that puts you past the girlscout ravine (unless I am misunderstanding the path that Stercox took), so the treasure would be way past the ravine.  I am not sure where the bridge is in the photo above, but it seems that “below the bridge” is where you start walking 100 paces southeast.  That seems to take you out of the photo above.  Stercox, did you walk that far from under the bridge?

Some quick notes and questions:
Egbert – I don’t believe that “92 steps” and “grand 200” are sequential.  I believe they’re the same thing.  To paraphrase, it says to me “Ascend the 92 steps.  After climbing the Grand Staircase,….”
I’m not convinced that the lighthouse is our compass, for the reason Egbert states.  I’d like to find something like a compass between the top of the stairs and the ravine/bridge.  Sundial, monument, word “compass” on a monument…..?
I know the northern ravine (Ravine Road) is crossed by a bridge.  Is Girl Scout Ravine bridged?
Pine

The distance one must walk to the lighthouse bothers me. If there is some other interpretation for “compass” that would put us nearer the CC, perhaps some actual birch trees could be located?

Forgive me for pointing this out but that whole path takes a southwest direction.  At what point are you going southeast?  Or did the red dotted line mark where you left the trail and headed into the wooded area?  Was that a southeast direction?
Also, just out of curiosity, what is that building at the top of the stairs?

Regarding the mysterious harpsichord woman, does anyone have any ideas for search strategies?
I have tried to google–Milwaukee woman harpsichord painting (or statue)–and, alas, I come up with thousands and thousands of hits.  Where is she?

I don’t necessarily agree that the 5th is a tree. at it’s southern foot does not sound tree like. More like a wall or sign.
You need to get some photos of what that area looked like in 82.  I am sure they have historical photos.  I personally don’t believe it will be under a tree, but that’s just me.  Trees are hard to dig around.  and all BP had was a 6 ft shovel.
you guys are doing a great job!
wilhouse

Here are lots of pictures that Varin took when she was walking the trail.  There are some very good pictures of the bridge, and culverts, along with old photographs of how things used to look.  I think it is worth checking these out again — I just wish I could get a better orientation of where things are (the bridges, the culverts, etc.).  One of the old photos seems to show a beautiful Lions Bridge next to the lighthouse.  I thought they weren’t near each other?
http://www.varin.org/vgallery/v/places/MilwBike/

On the harpsichord, I’ve been assuming it is a painting, or perhaps a street named after a known harpsichordist (Marietta?). Perhaps a tombstone or statue (silently playing?).
And what does “at a distance in space” refer to? How big a distance? And from where? The next line of the verse takes us to Lake Park (“nature”), so whoever she is, she must be between campus and the park.

I looked at the same Street names book at the local bookstore.  The three who lived there are Judge Jason Downer, Edward P. Hackett, and Clarence Sheppard.  Sheppard owned most of the property bordered by Hartford, Downer, Kenwood down to the shoreline.  I’m back in Columbus Ohio now and sadly must return to work.  Got Pine’s PM sounds like a great contact.(sorry I didn’t get back to you–Norton killed my internet access at home).  I think digging is in someone’s near future, would like to be a part of it, it would be a good group effort.  It will be a tough dig and I suspect that there will be plenty of pieces of the casque enough for everyone.    I thought about it all the way home–only the first tree needed to be a birch, the rest do not, I agree.  I collected some leaf litter under the monster tree and will have one of a local horticulturist tell me if this is a birch or not (just for academics–HA!).  I think it’s a tree that the casque is buried by instead of a wall or something else.  There’s nothing else around.  And I think its out on that grassy area, out of the ravine.  BP wouldn’t picked a tree in the ravine, too much change, erosion, water, it wouldn’t last–and going west in the ravine is up a steep slope.  But those trees–they aren’t going anywhere.  What about 200 acres??  May it is the CC…    Does Summit have anything to do with harpsichords??  I will try to post the pictures this weekend–no promises–but will try.  Fun trip.

I made a map to help us all orient ourselves. It’s too big to post here in one piece, but the whole thing can be downloaded here:
http://www.geocities.com/quantpsy/trove/map_with_text.jpg
Beware that your browser will probably try to compress the image to fit on your monitor. Holding your pointer over the image for a few seconds should make an “expansion” icon appear.
Here are the important bits:
Does this agree with everyone’s ideas about what is where, and how to get there? I couldn’t pick out *precisely* where the important trees are. Can you help with that, stercox?

Some brief notes and (possible) answers….
topo map
http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.as … ukee%7c%7c
aerial
http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.as … ukee%7c%7c
Starthinker — both ravines under discussion (Girl Scout to the S and Ravine Road to the N) run generally SE.  So does one that begins near the lighthouse and runs under a bridge.  The topo maps confirm this.  And the building at the top of the stairs is apparently called The Pavillion.
Johann and FB — my current idea on the harpsichord woman is to go after the name of a street or building nearby.  As an example, there is a painting called
Interior with Woman Playing Harpsichord
by Emanuel deWitte.  Maybe there’s a deWitte Street, or maybe it’s the synagogue Emanuel B’ne Jeshurun.  I think “distance in space” just means “nearby” this name.
Egbert — There’s a significant bridge directly north of the Staircase, over Ravine Road.  There’s also apparently one just SE of the lighthouse.  I think this is the Lion’s Bridge.
My biggest hang-up right now is the word “compass”……
Pine

I know what you mean wilhouse.  That was in the back of our minds all day.  We mitigated it by getting good consensus on the likely limits of the dig zone, breaking it into “zones” (without using that word) according to proximity to the tree and location of major roots, and exhausting each zone.  We tended to stop when we penetrated a consistent layer of gravel and clay that apparently underlay the site at about 24″-30″ or so.
Forest already did the short version (met, met park manager, dug, undug).  When stercox post pictures later, I think they’ll probably add more descriptive detail, and I’ll add my impressions later.
Great to meet everybody.
Pine

Wow, the patience you guys must of had.  I can’t see a lone man burying something in ground like that while trying to not attract attention to himself.  Although you didn’t acheive the intended outcome, well done, all of you.

whenever I see guys digging around trees like this I get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I look at your pictures and think, maybe it’s a couple of inches deeper, or a foot to the left.
I can completely sympathize with you all.  It’s there, we know it.
wilhouse

Geez!  I hope you don’t have a major let-down after this.  I certainly appreciate what you’ve all done and I can’t see how it wasn’t right there for you.  Reading back, I still think you were dead on.  Anyone ever find these guys from Chicago with their casque?  I hope they don’t have it.

You’d think if anyone found it they would be all over the internet bragging about it.  On the outside chance they don’t use the internet you’d think they would have at least tried to collect on it.  The site seems to be spot on.  I wonder what the odds are someone saw him bury it and dug it up later to see what it was.
I know I wasn’t there, but from the descriptions and can’t see how it’s the wrong spot.
Are you sure it wasn’t Milwaukee, Arizona?

To continue on a theme….
if it wasn’t for the Cleveland find,
we’d have thought about other
reasons the hole was empty.
A question on the path and the verse,
why have the treasure hunter, who is obviously
in Milwaukee and at Lake Park,
get onto Lincoln Ave., trace a curcuitous route
through the park, and end up back down a ways
just off of Lincoln Ave???
Are any of the verse identifiers (Pavillion, Stairs,
Girl Scouts, Lighthouse, Bridge, Culvert)
present in the Milwaukee image??
We see lawn bowling, walking stick, flower,
and tree leg…. and a circle (rebus).
My main question, is why take the seacher from
Lincoln (cast in copper) BACK to Lincoln
in other than a straight line…..

Try this address for the Staircase.  It’s just East of the obvious building.  The two “C” shapes are fairly obvious.  The stadium is South of there.  The narrow white strip immediately north of the Staircase is the bridge over a big gulley.  The roadway along the bottom of the ravine runs Southeast, putting you back at the bottom of the Staircase.
Hope it works.
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T … ee%7cWI%7c
Pine

ah, ok…now I finally see the light(house).
Thanks for clearing that up FB

So, where are all the pics of the dig?  And the story?  And my popcorn?

“Move along… Keep going… nothing to see here.”

They’re coming, Eg – patience! Got back into town recently after 8 days away, you know how it is.

I’m with you Egg.  I’ve thought all along (& believe I was the one who first introduced the 3 level home of MM in Atlanta to the boards) that this V is for Atlanta….to be more precise…my gut says the casque is buried somewhere in Piedmont Park….

View the three stories of Mitchell
I know, I know.  We don’t want to bring in another city.  However, I post this here for what it’s worth.  The 3-story house of Margaret Mitchell:
http://www.gwtw.org/mitchellhouse.html
Perhaps the verse may be referring to books instead of floors?

What verse? 8?

forest_blight

The Image 1 thread is chock full of goodies:
http://www.quest4treasure.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=770.0
, as is the wiki we’ve set up for
The Secret
:
http://thesecret.pbwiki.com/
.

Yah I know, I sat down and read the whole thing, and get up to date info on the wiki, but its not going anywhere for a while.  I know that I could find it if I could just get the starting point, Its the first line in the verse that I just cant get.  Thats really what I need to know.

“As you walk the beating of the world” = As you walk through the heart of town?
Could a brigadier general be seen as a proud tall fifth?

my laterally-thinking brain wondered if there was an alternative way to think about the steps, that “92” is a description but not the literal number of steps.
Ascend the “92” steps,
— the steps marked with a street address of 92, or
— the steps to a monument erected in 1892, or
— XCII is 92 in Roman numerals, followed by the grand CC, or
— some steps curving thru a garden path in the shape of a 92, or …

ok….. im still going on about the “cast in copper”
if you assume that you climb 292 steps of the staute…..then “see something from there (sounds shaky)
there are 2 spots VERY CLOSE to liberty island….
ellis island- (which has a bridge to liberty state park) and is in p12 i believe  and liberty state park….which is less than 2000 feet from lady liberty, has a bridge and birch trees.
so there are 2 more spots……
your treasure-backseat driver

ok….this is my second post here. I think im on to something…..but lets not break out the map just yet. I hope this info helps somebody gets a casque
I believe new york city is this one (verse
“View the three stories of Mitchell
As you walk the beating of the world”
Joseph Mitchell was a world famous columnist that wrote and lived in New York City. He worked for 3 different publications here, the “morning world”, “herald tribune”, and “world telegram”….the three stories of mitchell…
As you walk the beating of the world….i think means as you walk in the “newspapers beat” he was in…where beat of the world either indicates the greatest newspaper beat to have during his time 1930’s+ or indicates a beat where he covered all the immagrants from all around the world”
I feal REAL sure about this……but let me give you a grain of salt for you to take with this.
“Cast in copper
Ascend the 92 steps
After climbing the grand 200”
I”THOUGHT” this refered to the statue of liberty….she is made of mostly copper…..and i thought that you climbed 292 steps……looking on the net, i saw the steps listed at like 354 throughout, or 192 from base to pedestal….but heres a link to a story where a handicapped worker at the statue happily climps the 292 steps inside the statues double helix staircase to sweep them once a day, 5 times a week
http://www.ont-autism.uoguelph.ca/autnewsjul7.shtml
and the rest of the verse is exact directions from the statue of liberty or maybe from a point on liberty island you see from the view at 292 steps???…..there is a bridge to take to get onto the island…and trees there….(birch maybe)….and other small stautes on the grounds that could have a “letter from the country(maybe that even means the roman numeral on lady liberty’s tablet)”????anyways i really thought it was buried on Liberty Island…..
Well, bpreiss shot me an email saying
there is no treasure on liberty island
so much for my eureka ;0
tell me if you think the joesph mitchell clue makes sense….i think im dead on…..and i had hoped the the liberty clue as well…..but oh well lemme know if you thnk this can mean new york city….maybe someone can take this and say………EUREKA!!!!!   have a nice day
your new treasure hunting pal from indiana

Hi mrshamrock
welcome!
moot point now but no bridge connects to Liberty Island.
Id be suprised if there is a treasure in newyork and the box isn’t in Central Park somewhere.

the bridge…..
well, there is one coinnecting ellis island to liberty state park…..both very much in view of lady liberty……and liberty state park has birch trees in it……..maybe ellis island does too….
i think that this small area…may be it…but then again i am brand new to this
treasure hunter from indiana

Unknown

Unknown:
Id be suprised if there is a treasure in newyork and the box isn’t in Central Park somewhere.

as I posted in another thread, here is an email from BP stating there is not a treasure in Central Park
————————————————-
From:
To:
Subject: Re: Sorry to bother you.
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 8:08 PM
there is no treasure in central park
————————————————–
P12 is obviously that of NYC.  Now we know there is no treasure in Central Park or Liberty Island.  2 NY sites down… ??,???,???,???,??? to go  ::)
Shamrock, I really do like your ideas on Mitchell.  Many on the board, myself included have believed this line referred to Margaret Mitchell’s (Gone w/ the Wind fame) 3 story house in Atlanta.  I think the NY Mitchell definitely needs some investigating.  Thanks for the new lead.  The “cast in copper” always seemed to be that of Lady Liberty but the steps never matched.  Nice find on the sweeping of 292 steps.
Looks like it’s time to slow down the focus on Atlanta and start researchin NYC (where we know a casque to be).  Keep the fresh ideas coming Shamrock!

so a friend of mine’s, elderly mother, thinks she saw vermeer’s Woman at a virginal at the Milwaukee museum of art in the 70’s or 80s
I haven’t been able to find anything to confirm this story.
Currently the painting is owned by and kept at the London National Gallery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Stand … a_Virginal
how does one find out if it ever toured to milwaukee  or perhaps there is a copy there.

maybe it’s not Windlake but 11th instead coming from Mitchell st.  That then takes us to/from the old Bank with greek columns. A bank = the foot of a culvert, that’s for sure.

I’ve been reworking my thoughts on the verse today and I have to admit there’s some gaps, big gaps.  I don’t know what to make of the woman and harpsichord line.  The main issue for my theory is putting forth a good reasoning to support a long journey from the obvious Lake Park area to the distant not-obvious Kosciuszko Park.  It’s boggling.  I really like reverse engineering my conclusion to the point that it makes sense with the Birch trees I found on the west side of the park going up 10th to a spot where the northwest entrance to the park is actually 100 paces southeast of Windlake Road.  That’s not obvious, it requires cutting through the back lot of some corner houses.  I don’t know how that has changed in the last 30 years or even if there was ever a path that cut through or not.  I do think the outdoor field to the Montessori school was fenced back then as it is now.  I put in three calls to speak to the chief engineer for the school and still haven’t got a call back.  It’s not really so important to fact check that at this juncture.  I think it’s worth looking into how Windlake Road is determined…it must run back to the downtown and into Lincoln Memorial in order to pass the Juneau statue and descend the Grand Stair to the path that wraps around to Mitchell Hall on Kenwood.
Those strange lines about being at a distance in space and in time don’t fully explain the leaps necessary to get to Kosciuszko.  I’d like to see it flow.  I can’t accept it as a jump around verse.

I’m stuck on the “pass three” part. Somehow I need to get from Lake Park to the Juneau statue with that verse. That is if my theory holds water.
Another hang up I have is why make us take all these small steps through Lake Park just to end up back on Lincoln Mem Dr?

Deuce

I’m stuck on the “pass three” part. Somehow I need to get from Lake Park to the Juneau statue with that verse. That is if my theory holds water.
Another hang up I have is why make us take all these small steps through Lake Park just to end up back on Lincoln Mem Dr?

I like you’re approach.  The preceding line mentions a “first birch”, so it’s easy to assume “pass three” applies to more birch trees, but if we dissociate and think to apply it to three other things, we have no real indication of what type of thing we’re looking for, thus making what should be easy (with respect to starting at the right place) instead very challenging.
I haven’t really asked that question before, perhaps there is a specific reason to take us through Lake Park.  If we look for meaning in each reference, we might start with Mitchell Hall and consider it having to do with the history of educators in Milwaukee.  Taking a moment to consider how that information has helped me interpret the poem I might be rewarded with the conclusion that the line “You’ll see a letter from the country” is about a phrase having to do with a well educated person, “a person of letters”.  The lines that take us into Lake Park are about ascending a stair.  I don’t know yet how that helps interpret later lines.

silently playing
Thinking of a tennis court.  The instrument used to play is called a “racket”, which in alternate meaning would apply to being noisy, which is opposite to being “silent”.  If Preiss chose to reference the courts at a time when nobody was actively playing, a time when there were no racket’s present, then that might equate to “silently” playing.  The word “court” is also of interest as it could alternatively mean to flirt or curry favor, which seems somewhat interchangeable with “playing”.  Let’s say Person-A is said to be playing Person-B in order to gain influence.  It could be said Person-A is courting Person-B as a means of personal gain or invitation.
Would there have been Tennis Courts in Lake Park in 1981?

digger7

I believe Egbert came up with the 3-story building called Mitchell Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it is at the corner of E. Kenwood Blvd and Downer Street.
The next 3 cross streets Hackett, Summit, and Sheppard are all named for people that lived in Milwaukee. Not sure to whom to attribute this discovery.
Marietta Ave is the same name as Marietta Robusti a woman whose only confirmed piece of work was a painting called Self Portrait of herself playing a harpsichord.  Not sure to whom to attribute this discovery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietta_Robusti

From woman, with harpsichord
ew
I think I’ve said this before, now I’m saying it again, if each part of this line with comma separation is viewed on it’s own but both being about the same thing, then we are asking a few specific questions:
What is “From woman”?  A child
What type of harpsichord is played with a woman? A Mother-and-Child virginal.
Both parts of the line are essentially linkable to the phrase “mother and child”.
That might be the right approach.  The answer might simply be a link to Marrietta Ave.  I really think this could make sense this way,
Mitchell Hall = education
Kenwood Blvd = kitchen mixer
Three who lived there = three street names going east on Kenwood
From woman, with harpsichord = turn south on Marietta Ave
[image] turn east on Locust Ave, into Lake Park
Silently playing = tennis courts to the northeast
Step on nature = Oak Leaf Trail northeast
Cast in Copper = Lincoln Memorial Dr to Grand Stair
Then there’s a big leap past North Point to the southwest as you reach…

Going off of your “silently playing” idea being a sport, I would think about golf rather than tennis. Everyone must be quiet while someone swings the club. This could reference the golf course and even the two red balls in the image as a tee box.

erexere

From woman, with harpsichord
ew
I think I’ve said this before, now I’m saying it again, if each part of this line with comma separation is viewed on it’s own but both being about the same thing, then we are asking a few specific questions:
What is “From woman”?  A child
What type of harpsichord is played with a woman? A Mother-and-Child virginal.
Both parts of the line are essentially linkable to the phrase “mother and child”.
That might be the right approach.  The answer might simply be a link to Marrietta Ave.

I can see the first part “A Child” but the then you go back to woman
wouldn’t your logic actually indicate
A child with harpsichord?

I also can’t help but notice a possible harp in the womans hair in the image. Just right of her forehead.

Deuce

Going off of your “silently playing” idea being a sport, I would think about golf rather than tennis. Everyone must be quiet while someone swings the club. This could reference the golf course and even the two red balls in the image as a tee box.

That works too!
maltedfalcon, yeah, I thought that logic was fuzzy.  Marietta just fits, but in case there is some extra reason to put the line that way, it might suggest a “woman and child” reference for an alternate purpose put to use later in the journey.  I’m leaning towards the idea of Maria Montessori, a woman with method for educating children.

author=”decibalnyc”

So in 2012, after you had time to think about the whole thing, and then walk it again, did you notice anything you didn’t before? Also let’s just concentrate on the walk from the bottom of the stairs, to the bottom of the ravine. Did you happen to notice anything different from 2006 or do you feel it was pretty much the same as 06?

I can’t say I noticed anything puzzle-related the second time around. I had a lot of time on my hands, and walked a fair amount throughout the park, but I noticed nothing new related to the hunt. One of the ravines had been elaborately landscaped between 2006 and 2012, but otherwise it seemed pretty much the same.
FB

Forest,
Did you walk it more than once by chance?

I don’t remember what route I took, although the order of the photos in my link are a rough guide.

http://milwaukeedailyphoto.com/2008/08/ … rcase.html
Grand Staircase in Lake Park  Milwaukee
and of course it is a Frederick Law Olmsted park

I think if we’re going to equate a harp with a harpsichord, we have to do so under the assumption that BP had no idea what a harpsichord really is. Maybe he thought harp was short for harpsichord.
Because while it may be technically closer, musically, to a lyre or harp (or the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disney World), it’s much more visually similar to a piano.

Frisco

I think if we’re going to equate a harp with a harpsichord, we have to do so under the assumption that BP had no idea what a harpsichord really is. Maybe he thought harp was short for harpsichord.
Because while it may be technically closer, musically, to a lyre or harp (or the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disney World), it’s much more visually similar to a piano.

Or maybe he was intelligent enough to know that the inside of a harpsichord, and its function, is nothing like a piano. And hey… what do you know… the word, “Harp.”

Then why not just say “Harp”? Or even leave the name of the instrument out entirely? Or use “H”?
Using the wrong instrument name to point us to something vaguely similar would be like telling us to look for a tuba, but showing us a trumpet. Why bother?

Sometime in the early 90’s the south ravine exit was redone. An asphalt foot path was put in leading from the ravine exit to the sidewalk, alas a wood railing along with a drainage sewer were added. Prior to that it was a mound of dirt and stones.

catherwood

I cannot understand how a clue about an antique piano has anything to do with lyre-shaped lamps or an upright stringed instrument without a keyboard. I’ve quit following every theory with any mention of harps.
I do think that the comma must be important to the clue. We might not be looking for a woman AT a harpsichord, but perhaps we branch from a location tied to that woman and then procede by using a harpsichord clue in some way.

So, a harpsichord is not really an antique piano; in fact, a harpsichord is nowhere close to a piano. Pianoforte (proper name of “piano”) means literally “loud-soft,” as the sound can be either loud or soft, depending on how hard one hits the keys. On the other hand, a harpsichord has only one tone because its strings are always evenly plucked. Its strings are not “hammered” like a piano’s; rather, they are plucked like a harp when a key is pressed… thus, harp-sichord.
When BP says we are looking for a “woman” with a “harpsichord,” and we see a “woman” with a “harp,” can you really not understand how those things are super similar and quite equatable? Would it be an acceptable solution to you if BP simply said, “woman with h”?

just throwing out a cast in copper idea based on
walking down water street to jeneau park
Conceived to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s 1859 visit to Milwaukee and address before the Wisconsin State Fair, delayed by World War I, commissioned in 1932, the statue was dedicated September 15, 1934.    Removed during the construction of Milwaukee’s War Memorial Center, the statue was relocated near its original site in 1986 following renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Bridge.    Of cast bronze,
But
Lincoln pennies contributed by Wisconsin schoolchildren, underwrote the cost of the statue and its base
ergo
cast in copper…

Malted,
You did say “terminal tower”
My mind made the connection to the
iconic water tower…my fault.
Nice reasoning you came up with.

Sounds like the same story as the McDonough statue.

Malted,
Your idea of casques being near iconic water towers
has merit.  Milwaukee has one just a stone’s throw
from the lakefront…The North Point Water Tower .
AP

nope I said near Iconic images in the pictures (of which chicagos was the water tower.)
clevelands was the terminal tower – did I say water tower? oops if I did…
Milwaukee would be city hall (which is on water st.
SF would be Golden Gate Park.
Montreal would be the legeater… Or the legeater could be the end of the path… no way of telling at this point.

Four21…
I would definitely like to see another idea about the “harpsichord”….
!
AP

animal painter

Four21…
I would definitely like to see another idea about the “harpsichord”….
!
AP

me too! but i am talking about a different verse. i was never quite kosher with the painting reference because it seemed too far outside the scope of tangible clues (i.e., you needed to research) to find. that is why i am asking… if this same type of method (i.e., name of a painting referred to clues on ground) was evident in a different verse, it would make it more valid for both.

The painting of Marietta with the harpsichord is as good
as it gets to answer the question about verse 8’s
“Woman with harpsichord”.
Marietta Ave. is in line with the other streets named for
the three other famous people who lived in Milwaukee,
and it gets us down Kenwood Blvd to Lincoln Memorial Drive.
To which verse are you applying your painting/title?

How many believe that BP used “woman with harpsichord silently playing” to indicate Marietta?
I ask because I believe I have found another painting’s title that links to a verse line, and that the line would only make sense if you knew the title of the painting (which I flippin’ hate).

Apparently, there is a twelfth-century story about Alexander the Great finding the Earthly Paradise, where he is given a Wonderstone (English translation of the Latin).

I caught the idea of climbing to City Hall’s 92nd step and looking west out the window, but I didnt see the explanation for grand 200 to go with this approach.

City Hall is 200 wells St. and it’s the oldest “grandest” building in all of downtown. That would be my best application.

Oh, so are you taking the word ‘grand’ as meaning magnificent? Ah, caught your edit. Okay, thanks. Carry on.

If we are going to look in this downtown location…why don’t we start with using the monument in Red Arrow Park as the compass…it has a N-S-E-W with an arrow pointing up, usually the red arrow on the compass points north.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c … waukee.jpg
Now, someone find a bridge you can walk under that was there in 1981…only a few things close to this in the area…and all of them are skywalks between buildings.

decibalnyc

The revolving restaurant on the top of the Hyatt on 3rd and Kilbourn is called “The Compass”
I don’t know if it was the same in 1981, but it was defiantly there in 1981.

First, thanks for the sleuthing today! Kinda cool that I can post a theory on a forum, and 8 hours later, a total stranger is on-site checking it out.
Can you post a reference to this? The Hyatt website doesn’t mention anything called the Compass. I did find this article, though,
http://onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/ … osing.html
describing the closing of the restaurant in 2009. It was called Polaris from 1980-2009 (which could be a compass reference of course). And the shape is intriguing, because the rotating restaurant in aerial view is a circle with a square in the center:
http://milwaukee.hyatt.com/en/hotel/our … tures.html
However, it’s 20 stories up, so the shape wouldn’t be visible from the 92-step window, and the square is way out of proportion with the mllstone. So it’s intriguing, but I doubt it’s right.
Overall, I think your pictures are a mixed bag.
1) The fact that there’s a west-facing window at the 92nd step inside of City Hall is great. I think even this doesn’t “prove” that these are the right stairs, but in my mind, it makes these stairs at least as likely as the Grand Staircase.
2) I was hoping that the view from that window would make the next clue obvious – like if you could see a compass, or culvert, or some other visual confirmer. But if anything, the view is less helpful than I thought. In particular, the window is too low to see that raised platform on the Riverwalk that I thought could have been the millstone.
3) I really am not seeing the resemblance of St. John to the “building” in the neck. To me, it’s not even close to polaroid-perfect. And if we were really meant to see a detail as small as the key, it would be more obvious once we saw it. E.g. pointing the same direction as in the image, which it’s not. Personally, I doubt St. John is a clue.
4) On the other hand, the stone under the stage at Cathedral Park is quite interesting. I don’t like that it’s east of City Hall (not visible from the window). But could be a location/park confirmer. The picture you sent isn’t conclusive – can’t see the square in the middle, and honestly, it looks different from the image (bowed outside edge, non-flush top), but seems worth considering anyway. Is there a picture online pre-stage?
5) For the Red Arrow, it looks differently shaped than the arrow on the woman’s head (which I’d never noticed BTW). So I’m skeptical. But is there really a N-S-E-W somewhere on this monument? Where? Can you send a picture that shows this?? That would be quite interesting I think.
I still think some downtown Wells-centric location (Juneau Park, Red Arrow, Marquette, or Cathedral) seems plausible given all the evidence in this area. But no definitive idea of which, or where, or what the second half of the verse means (even if the first half is interpreted as I proposed, which is not certain at all).
BTW, one idea I played with is whether “pass the compass” means pass a the circle-drawing tool across the map. Taking the range and bearing from Wisconsin Club to City Hall, then passing the compass that distance again brings you tantalizingly close to the Juneau Monument. But it’s really past it (too far east to get to it by walking Southeast, and no bridges or culverts in that area.
Thanks again for the on-the-ground legwork!
-Len

https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+C … cf2c985d0b
Fountain
Also the match isn’t to St. John, it’s to the spire of St Johns Cathedral
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0413281 … zgOphA!2e0
and don’t forget about the eagles on the building, and the eagle in the bottom left of the image

decibalnyc

https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Cathedral+of+St.+John+the+Evangelist/@43.0417223,-87.9048686,131m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8805190634632837:0xf095dacf2c985d0b
Fountain
Also the match isn’t to St. John, it’s to the spire of St Johns Cathedral
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0413281 … zgOphA!2e0
and don’t forget about the eagles on the building, and the eagle in the bottom left of the image

Yeah, I knew what you meant – the building itself. I see what you’re seeing in the image, and see how you can construe it to be the cathedral tower. But I just don’t think it’s that great of a match. In the image, your “building” starts to narrow below the top of the arch, and it narrows in a rounded arc. Whereas in the real building, the side walls continue vertically well above the arch before the building gets narrower all at once at the next level. And the eagle doesn’t look that much like the vague bird-head shape in the image.
I just saw your picture of the Cathedral Square fountain, and while I kind of doubt it’s our millstone (the perimeter is faceted, not round, the top is not flat, and the square in the center is not depressed or flush), I think it’s a more plausible match than the cathedral.
Doesn’t mean I’m right. But to me, an image confirmer needs to be a pretty exact match – like City Hall itself, or like the Storrow Memorial in Boston, where details line up *exactly* with the depiction in the image. I’m applying the same level of skepticism to my own ideas, of course, which is why I think the raised platform on the Riverwalk is probably not right either, even though it’s an even better match to the millstone than the Cathedral Park fountain is…
-Len

Also don’t forget the biggest clues are what look like trees.

View the three stories of Mitchell
See the Wisconsin Club from…
As you walk the beating of the world
Wells St.
At a distance in time
How long?
From three who lived there
???
At a distance in space
Is this an open space or an enclosed space?
From woman, with harpsichord
The symbolic heart shape, is it possibly a reference to woman? Chamber music?
Silently playing
A band, but not the musical kind? A ring?
Step on nature
???
Cast in copper
Make a wish with a penny
Ascend the 92 steps
Plankington’s atrium rotunda has 4 flights of 23 stairs encircling a wishing well.
After climbing the grand 200
Pass the compass and reach
The foot of the culvert
Below the bridge
Walk 100 paces
Southeast over rock and soil
To the first young birch
Pass three, staying west
You’ll see a letter from the country
Of wonderstone’s hearth
On a proud, tall fifth
At its southern foot
The treasure waits.
An allusion to a waiter? A glass…a tumbler?
atrium (n.)
1570s, from Latin atrium “central court or main room of an ancient Roman house, room which contains the hearth,” sometimes said (on authority of Varro, “De Lingua Latina”) to be an Etruscan word, but perhaps from PIE *ater- “fire,” on notion of “place where smoke from the hearth escapes” (through a hole in the roof). Anatomical sense of “either of the upper cavities of the heart” first recorded 1870. Meaning “skylit central court in a public building” first attested 1967.

lengrano

I just saw your picture of the Cathedral Square fountain, and while I kind of doubt it’s our millstone (the perimeter is faceted, not round, the top is not flat, and the square in the center is not depressed or flush), I think it’s a more plausible match than the cathedral.
Doesn’t mean I’m right. But to me, an image confirmer needs to be a pretty exact match – like City Hall itself, or like the Storrow Memorial in Boston, where details line up *exactly* with the depiction in the image. I’m applying the same level of skepticism to my own ideas, of course, which is why I think the raised platform on the Riverwalk is probably not right either, even though it’s an even better match to the millstone than the Cathedral Park fountain is…
-Len

My only thought is that IF city hall is where we are supposed to ascend the 92 steps, and IF we are to start on 9th and Wells walking east towards the Pabst…we need to consider 2 things.
1. He is then turning us around to go west…the building in front, looking to the north west was not there in 1981….so we need to start looking for a “compass” that could be seen from that 5th floor window, somewhere on Kilbourn, or State St. as far west as Pier Marquette Park.
2. We interpreted the verse wrong, either it’s not the right location, or maybe you go all the way to the landing on the 5th floor and look east, or there are 92 steps somewhere else off of wells street.
If we are following the pattern on the chest down Wells St. the only place you would naturally turn would be on Milwaukee St. where the pattern wraps around the parking garage just past city hall. This would take you south of Cathedral Square Park, and you would miss it, but you would be pointing towards a bridge. This theory just doesn’t fit the verse. If the casque is in a downtown location, we are missing something. You would need to see the compass from the top of the stairs I think for this to work.

decibalnyc

My only thought is that IF city hall is where we are supposed to ascend the 92 steps, and IF we are to start on 9th and Wells walking east towards the Pabst…we need to consider 2 things.
1. He is then turning us around to go west…the building in front, looking to the north west was not there in 1981….so we need to start looking for a “compass” that could be seen from that 5th floor window, somewhere on Kilbourn, or State St. as far west as Pier Marquette Park.

decibalnyc

2. We interpreted the verse wrong, either it’s not the right location, or maybe you go all the way to the landing on the 5th floor and look east, or there are 92 steps somewhere else off of wells street.

decibalnyc

If we are following the pattern on the chest down Wells St. the only place you would naturally turn would be on Milwaukee St. where the pattern wraps around the parking garage just past city hall. This would take you south of Cathedral Square Park, and you would miss it, but you would be pointing towards a bridge. This theory just doesn’t fit the verse. If the casque is in a downtown location, we are missing something. You would need to see the compass from the top of the stairs I think for this to work.

Ah, that’s great info. But it’s really hard to know what existed back then. I just read, for example, that the gazebo in Pere Marquette Park was built only in 1994. Was the round base under it there earlier? Was there a square in the middle of it. Who knows…
Right. Certainly possible that the whole climb-City-Hall idea is wrong. We’re not going to find another literal set of 92 ascending stairs in this area. But like I said, the 92 could mean 1892 or something… Another possibility: Maybe the verse is telling us to Climb the 92 steps (with the window simply confirming that it’s the right set of steps), but then telling us to continue to climb the rest of the 200 Grand (i.e. to the top of the bell tower). Maybe that’s why there are two lines about ascending/climbing. Maybe if we go all the way up, we’ll see something we couldn’t see from the first window (including possibly that raised platform I pointed out on the west Riverwalk, that looks like the millstone. If there are really a total of 200 stairs to the top (as Atomic suggested), then that could be further confirmation that we’re supposed to be all the way up top.
I’m wondering if the pattern on the parking garage is just a coincidence – that BP used the pattern because it was on the Wisc. Club, not even realizing that it also appears on some random parking garage.
Anyway, I agree we’re missing something. And it could be a something that’s not even there anymore.
What also bothers me about this whole theory is “Pass the compass”. If it’s a compass that you see from the window, then how do you know *how* you’re supposed to pass it? On which side? The only way it would make sense is if you passed it while heading west from City Hall. I.e. not someplace on the riverwalk where you can pass it going N or S. And the culvert needs to be obvious immediately after you “pass the compass” since there are no other clues in between. Still stumped…
Is it possible that when you enter City Hall from Wells and climb up and back down again, that you naturally leave through a different exit (where the compass would be near that exit)? That could be an alternative reason for why he’s making us climb the stairs only to come down again. This seems unlikely, but thought I’d throw it out there…
-Len

If you entered City Hall on Wells (the furthest point south), you would walk to the middle of the west side of the building to go up the stairs, if you exited at the bottom of the stairs you would be leaving facing west on Water St, and if you could leave by the north side of the building you would be facing Red Arrow Park on Kilbourn…you would probably see the arrow. I guess I will have to go to the top and see what I see from all directions.
That design is not a general design, it’s on the Pabst Theater, the bank across from city hall, the parking structure, and the Wisconsin club (the Mansion) all facing Wells.
Why is it on the image…it could only confirm 4 buildings (that we know) 1 being the possible starting point. This is what is making me put the effort into this initially….because that design is on the image and the former Mitchell Mansion.

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not. Please let me know your thoughts.
At one time I felt this was a Lake Park confirmation. This is a Lawn Bowling segment from 2005…look above the lawn bowlers head and you’ll see a tree. I matched this tree with the arrow in the forehead.
Like I said, it could be a coincidence, and that tree may or may not have been there in 1981, but I thought it was a pretty close match.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbaxym0hsvtmj … g.jpg?dl=0

I prefer to think of ‘step on nature’ as some kind of landing, like a stage or a raised field, like this area outside the registrar’s office at U of O,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: … gon%29.jpg
. (this isn’t to suggest Eugene, Oregon as a location, I’m just using it as an example)

As a matter of fact…if you look, the Oak leaf trail could have been reached by either going east OR WEST on Kenwood, so taking it out of the equation actually does solve something in this case.

decibalnyc

I don’t think the Grand 200 refers to the Oak Leaf Trail, I think it’s City Hall at this point. New information I received yesterday (but un-verified) says there is a 92 step spiral staircase leading up to the bell tower of 200 Wells St. or City Hall. I need to check this out.

decibalnyc

Mainly I wanted to discuss this issue of the pattern on the neck. I need someone to show me how this is not significant. When you find a pattern of something from the image, ON a 3 story building built by the Mitchell family…and NOT on Mitchell Hall, or any other 3 stories of Mitchell.. HOW CAN U SAY THAT IS COINCIDENCE?

decibalnyc

I have a partial theory that takes us from 9th and wells and puts us in a park downtown…I can account for the Bridge, Culvert, Compass, 92 Steps, Grand 200, and Woman with Harpsichord. I have at least 2 unmistakable solid visual confirmations (neck pattern and Juneau Bell), and a handful of similarities which I can’t be 100% on, but they are intriguing.

Thanks again for the boots-on-the-ground effort! Let us know the spiral stair count, but also what the stair count is to even get to that landing where the spiral stairs start. One of the early posts on this forum said it was 200. If so, that number seems significant once again. I agree that it’s hard to imagine why we should be up there unless we had to be in order to see a further clue.
This photo shows that from the top, you *can* see that raised platform that I suggested could be the millstone. That object is prominent in your field of view when facing west. But I don’t love it. It doesn’t look that much like the millstone. And we don’t know if it was there in 1981. And it doesn’t have compass markings on it (at least not now). And while I think I can maybe make out the Wisc. club in the distance, it’s certainly not a great view of it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrokic/48 … otostream/
I’m glad I’m not the only one shouting this!
To be fair, though, I think that the pattern on the Pabst door is not at all the same. Similar, but different enough that I think it’s unrelated. And the inverted version on the bank parking structure doesn’t seem relevant to me either. So I think you’re down to 4 instances of it, incl. Wisc Club. The parking structure has the exact pattern, but I wonder if that’s just a coincidence. BP wouldn’t have scoured all of Milwaukee just to make sure the Wisc Club was the *only* place the pattern existed. I think he put it in the image because it confirmed the Wisc Club vs. other potential “Mitchell” places. I don’t think we can know for sure whether the fact that other otherwise unremarkable buildings have the pattern is relevant or not.
Can’t wait for you to share it! BTW, earlier you posted that the Red Arrow has NSEW compass markers. Wondering if you can post a picture of what you meant.
On the question of Step on Nature: I really doubt it just means step on a grassy / dirt area (although it’s certainly possible). I’d be looking for something one step less obvious – like a sign that says nature. Or even a sign that says “signature” (a word that has the word nature in it). But maybe I’m just too biased by the fact that the Boston puzzle used “Face the Water” to mean face a carving that said “Watertown”.
Also, the more I think about it, the more likely I think it is that Cast in Copper is a Lincoln Memorial reference in addition to being the bell reference. Doesn’t mean I think it’s Lake Park as LMD runs all the way downtown. And doesn’t even mean LMD, as it could also mean Lincoln Memorial Bridge. I don’t see a culvert there. But maybe decibal sees something I don’t see on Google.
One last thing:
I know it’s been looked at before, but North Point Park really does look like the millstone *and* is a reasonable “compass” reference:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/North … 6318d6e2e4
I can’t see how that could tie in with any of the verse, it’s not near Wells St., etc. So it seems like a red herring. But thought I’d throw it out there, while still focusing mainly on downtown-related solutions.

Len,
When dealing with the verse only, there are many things to look for in the city…Compass, Bridge, Culvert, etc… if you find something like this…try and place a visual from the image. One thing I would be on the lookout for, either by Lake Park, or anywhere else in the city, would be that eagle in the bottom left corner. This I feel is the = to the Bowman in Chicago. If we can find that eagle, or bird of some sort it would help.

And begin…..

Is that a hint to the casque’s location, or do you have four testicles?

A very revealing insight by four21thrasher…
Is there such a thing as the Golden Troll award? I see several candidates.

erexere

A very revealing insight by four21thrasher…
Is there such a thing as the Golden Troll award? I see several candidates.

I’m not trolling… I’m giving you testi-clues.

Glossiphoniidae

I’m not trolling… I’m giving you testi-clues.

Regardless, you’ll see a big package from the country
Of wonderstones hearth, C.O.D.
Peace.

Glossiphoniidae

I’m not trolling… I’m giving you testi-clues.

erexere

Regardless, you’ll see a big package from the country
Of wonderstones hearth, C.O.D.

… Corbett?

This would be the 2nd double meaning in the Verse
As you walk Kenwood
As you walk the beating of the world
Pick one they both apply
http://kenwoodchefrestore.co.uk/Sales%2 … 901Bx1.jpg
http://www.installdr.com/AdContent/Prod … 00×400.gif

Xieish

You can lose your entire life trying to find “men of hard word” in NYC, and no shortage of compasses for example.

“Of him of hard word in 3 vols” is a reference to Herman Melvile…. Moby Dick

Just for the record, I reject any homonyms -phones -grams. I don’t believe Byron intended ‘world’ to hint at ‘whirled’.
The kinds of latitude or double meanings should be limited to actual word definitions and possibly idioms, even then these puzzles are major a major challenge.
I dont even agree with the 2C’s in Boston, but it stuck because its easier to say than Charlesgate or Somerset.
We still have no solid explanation of the use of or lack of capitalization in cases like Hard word or man of oz.
Kenwood just doesn’t work for me. I call self-inflicted red herring on that one.

A good explanation does not mean anything unless it’s part of the greater treasure finding. It’s great to say that it’s Melville, but that’s not connected to anything else.
For example, my incorrect guess at Verse 3:
“Near those who pass the coliseum with metal walls” with the reference (CLEARLY, right?) to the Longfellow poem.
My target was Cambridge common, which sits about 10 feet north of Dawes Island Park, who is the other midnight rider. His path down JFK street led him right past where Harvard Stadium now stands, which is literally a coliseum with metal walls. That path is immortalized with a plaque that has the 18th of April on it (18th day, 12th hour) and his path is marked in the ground with golden hoofprints.
I’m not saying there isn’t a leap of logic there, and I also admit it’s wrong (I long stalled out on CC for Cask 11) but that makes
perfect sense
in a vacuum, and is why you cannot solve these puzzles based on piecing together the verse from your desk. The verses lead us around from a starting location, and if you try to find one of the later/middle clues first (not based on images, but on the verse) you go off on wild goose chases. Some of the clues only make sense in context. I’m not even saying you’re wrong, just that being right about a middling line in the verse gets you almost nowhere, as if you start at the beginning, that line will likely be self evident when you need it.
Melville isn’t a bad guess, but it needs to flow from something else, or into something else for me to pronounce it ‘solved.’ And the point is, even if you’re right, you can spend your entire life tracking down vague Moby Dick/Melville references in NY. Or you can pick any line and my example still applies, I’m not really sure what the point of nitpicking is. “rhapsodic man” can mean a ton of stuff. M&B is in a
solved
puzzle and meant 2 different things to Preiss and the solvers.

Rhapsodic man would be a reference to Gershwin.
All of this information is fairly easy to deduce from clues provided by Preiss himself. I understand what you are getting at, you can’t rule anything out until you have a casque.
There is nothing wrong with any method to solving a puzzle, but if a piece of information fits…why discount it because it doesn’t fit the puzzle just yet? I have every line in the Milwaukee verse dissected to have at least 2 meanings some three….point is ruling things out prematurely will also get you nowhere.
A lot of honest people put in a lot of time and real legwork on this board since 2003, there is a LOT of information here. Can we say it is all correct? It’s defiantly not all correct HOWEVER much of it makes a lot of sense. If you take the time to read everything from the beginning, you’ll be in a better position, based off common sense and a general consensus on solving these puzzles. I see a lot of people throwing out years of research and forming these new, more complicated solutions to a puzzle that in my opinion was close to being solved. I even abandoned some of my own theories after reading the whole forum. Even without the pictures now, you can still pick up good information that dates back 10 years.
I don’t consider any of the interpretations of the verse that I have come up with to be fact, all one can do is follow one’s leads. When I come up with a new theory, I go down there and walk it again…sometimes I see something new, and sometimes its a wild goose chase, but every day I seem to learn something. I know what I am looking for and I know what has already been found and discussed from reading the forums. If anything following these old leads and walking it a ton of times with a fresh perspective each time has enabled me to see clues that I hadn’t previously seen. It all makes sense if you just follow the clues…and read all the posts!!
“All the letters are here to see” – BP

Well I have walked it, in person, many many times. I have explored other theories, but none come as close to what has been established already. Not one other theory fits the verse completely. Also when you see all the clues in the picture (or as many as I have) it all makes perfect sense. I welcome someone to try and find it in Kozy Park, or Pierre Marquette park, or even Juneau park…I would be happy for anyone who could find the casque here wherever it is. I’m not shutting you down, but I’ve read some of your theories…and a few parts make good sense…but when you start reaching for things that aren’t there like putting it in a park with no bridge, or culvert, or putting the stairs and compass 6 miles across the city indoors from the burial site…I just have to disagree. By all means follow your instincts, and I hope it leads you to something you can dig up.

erexere

We still have no solid explanation of the use of or lack of capitalization in cases like Hard word

I’d like to know why Melville, one of BP’s favorite authors, isn’t a good explanation for Hard word in 3 Vols?
Moby Dick was written in 3 Vols and it is full of Hard words (meaning not joyful) and it was all about NYC.

Thanks for your thoughts, renovator. I suspect you are mostly right. And when is a birch not a birch? In Verse 4, for instance.
If a birch really *is* a birch, then the only possible way to solve this will be to find historic photos of the area, probably LMD, from the 1970s and 1980s. Surely a group with our treasure-hunting acumen, collective IQ, and motivation should be able to dig up photographs of LMD from that two-decade span. It has to be possible. Imagine how fantastic it would feel to locate someone’s nice vacation Polaroid of 5 birch trees in a row, facing LMD in 1978. Wouldn’t that be nice?
I suggest we turn our attention to finding old photos. Some suggestions:
1. Many newspapers keep a photo archive. This might include photos of the beach area during summers or celebrations, or marathons, or parades, with LMD forming the backdrop. Most photo archives contain photos never used in published articles.
2. As morbid as it sounds, automobile insurance agencies would keep photos of road accidents, so finding a record of auto accidents along LMD from that era might turn up photos of that stretch of road. The police and highway patrol also might routinely keep photos as evidence (these might be difficult to acquire).
3. Contact Milwaukee’s public works and find the companies to which they contracted both the initial construction work and repair work on Lincoln Memorial Drive. Surely they took surveying photos all along the drive.
4. Park service. This might already have been done, but try contacting the folks in charge of the park, and see if they kept photos in their archives.
5. Tourist photos. We could pool our funds and publish an appeal in the local paper for vacation photos from the 1970s and 1980s taken in and around LMD and Lake Park.
I want to know exactly how that stretch of road looked c. 1981, and I bet you do, too.

Unknown

Unknown:
I like what you’ve got, and I’d love to see the route walked and some image matches found along the way,

Here you go, although I should point out that this was done by someone else as I am no where near Milwaukee:http://kspot.org/trove/lakepark/lakepark.htm Also important to note is that while the lack of visual confirmers may bother some, it does not concern me at all for two reasons. The first is that the image matches we do have are pretty rock solid (tee markers, lions bridge face match, City Hall, Mill-Walk-Key). The second is that unlike some of the others, this verse is a literal road map from Point A (Mitchell Hall) to Point T (the proud tall fifth) with plenty of confirmation along the way. There is no doubt in my mind that if any one of us here had had this information in 1982, we would be the proud owners of a mint condition casque and would have the admiration of the rest of us. Your mileage may vary. For the record, I feel the same way about the Roanoke solve (that is, solved, just not recovered-yet). Which gives anyone who agrees with this line of reasoning four solid solutions to use to prove or disprove the methodology of the remaining eight puzzles.

Unknown

Unknown:
I think it’s very far-fetched to suppose that Preiss didn’t mean a birch when he said a birch, just because we can’t find it 30 years on

Unknown

Unknown:
If you were told to dig at the southern foot of a specific tall tree with no further information, how confident would you be of digging an accurately positioned 3ft deep hole in the ground…?

I’m not saying that at all. I’m allowing for alternatives in the absence of four young tree type things (“first young birch” and then “pass three, staying west”) in the area where I think the treasure lies today. I’m allowing for the possibility that a young birch might look like a young cottonwood, especially to a city boy like Preiss. I’m allowing for the possibility that the young birches that he saw didn’t survive like the mature trees we have there today. But mostly, I’m allowing that whatever they were, they were just markers leading you to the “proud tall fifth”. What Preiss actually meant is as relevant to me as what he meant by “after climbing the grand 200”, or “beating of the world”. In other words, I
Is this a trick question? Because if someone finds a tree of the right age in this area with one of the girl scout medallions on it (Letter G for Germany), I would strongly suggest they are standing on top of the casque. That, for this puzzle, and IMHO, is the best we are going to get after 30 years.

You have literally (literally) no hard evidence that either reference in NY is Melville or Gershwin yet you all repeat it like it was handed down on high from Moses.
Don’t give me a bunch of obscure quotes, either. Rhapsodic’s main definition has nothing to do with music, yet everyone is so convinced that Preiss was the cleverest person to ever exist – so there’s no way he’s just referring to a really ecstatic man. No, it has to be an obscure reference. And yet, not drinking that kool aid (which is the proper, skeptical, scientific approach) needs to be chided.
Yeah – I’ve read everything here multiple times. There’s a lot of great concrete information. Please don’t pat yourselves on the back too much for Googling Gershwin. Find me a real link to the puzzle and we’ll talk. As far as I’m concerned absolutely nothing has ANY credence until we can link it. Otherwise it’s just absolutely baseless speculation. This is exactly what i talk about, coming in an questioning that load of BS is exactly what you NEED, as a lot of ideas with no evidence have rooted in people’s brains over the last 10 years. Someone from outside needs to call a spade a spade sometimes.
So here it is: Gershwin and Melville are both horse poop evidence without a single shred of hard evidence connecting them to the puzzle. I’m not saying they’ll both be wrong, but a lot of people repeating something doesn’t make it correct..

Unknown

Unknown:
Thanks for your thoughts, renovator. I suspect you are mostly right. And when is a birch not a birch? In Verse 4, for instance.

Thank you FB.
But I really can’t take credit for re-hashing what many here have already accepted as being as you say “mostly right”. I get it. Until a casque is unearthed, mostly right is the best we can say. Fair enough.
And while I like all the ideas for trying to see what the area actually looked like 30 years ago, I think a much simpler approach in the short term would be to focus on finding the “proud tall fifth”. I have an idea on that, but wonder if I should just put it out there for everyone, or give the more dedicated members of the forum first crack to accept or reject the idea.
Any guidance from you, or the others would be appreciated.

There’s nothing obscure about Rhapsody in Blue. To many people, it’s the most obvious association for the word; a much simpler musical link than “M and B”, say, and no harder than “man of oz”.
Add the fact that Gershwin is from Brooklyn and of Russian parents, and it’s really not much of a stretch. Sure, it could be something else, it just probably isn’t. (Personally I see it as a general link with the verse and image, either for Brooklyn or possibly even just NY.)

Everything you wrote is a huge stretch! M & B isn’t a musical reference, it’s their first names! You’re absolutely right the two have nothing in common.
Everything there is pure speculation – we don’t even know it’s a rusosan church and not just the griffin back of the Ferry building! Not a single shred of evidence.
The verses are walking directions, there are not suddenly “NYC confirmers” in the middle.

Xieish

we don’t even know it’s a rusosan church

Well, it’s the Russian image, and it sure looks like one.
But TBH I’m not entirely sure why you’re discussing a puzzle you claim to have solved, but the details of which you’re not willing to disclose, in the wrong thread.

Oh, and one more thing that I should mention, as someone who has dug his fair share of holes. The frost line in Milwaukee is probably close to 48″. Something this brittle is probably going to suffer significant damage from the annual freeze/thaw cycle, never mind over 30 of them unless it is buried below that. A tree might offer some protection, as the heat it gives off might protect the casque somewhat, but of course, the closer the casque is to the tree, the harder it will be to unearth, as many here have already found out. And in this scenario, we trade frost damage for root damage. Realistically, at this point, we are probably looking for pieces of ceramic and plexiglass, at best.
It’s possible that Preiss dug deeper holes in the northern latitudes (Boston, New York, Milwaukee, Montreal), but the picture of the Chicago casque in the ground seems to discount this theory. Never mind the fact that it is almost impossible to muck out a 4′ hole with just a shovel unless it is really wide. Also seems unlikely at the base of a tree. So, it seems to me that the best hope of finding a casque in decent shape will be for the ones that were buried south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

WhiteRabbit

Well, it’s the Russian image, and it sure looks like one.
But TBH I’m not entirely sure why you’re discussing a puzzle you claim to have solved, but the details of which you’re not willing to disclose, in the wrong thread.

WR, Xieish doesn’t seem to play well with others. Siskel and I both have tried to explain that the way things get solved is through deductive reasoning…not discounting theories with extreme prejudice. There are a lot of theories that don’t make sense…Digger once insisted that a certain area by a bridge was checked….not many people thought this was the right spot, but we never shut him down, and we did check the spot. What happened? Well instead of Digger getting alienated for coming up with a theory that we all shut down, we took the 5 minutes to check and if you read on, Digger then came up with some interesting theories that helped progress the search.
If we all want to work together on this, there has to be some unspoken rules or at least courtesies. When Erexere comes up with wild theories, we tolerate it and they get read and even commented on. I feel he is reaching on some things, but he ins’t going around claiming knowledge over the rest of us, so I have no problem with his wild brainstorming…it’s out there, but he’s cordial about it. When you come out and say, I’ve figured it out and it’s under concrete…but I am not going to share…you’re going to loose respect and get some backlash. You don’t agree with things…ok that’s fine, but don’t discourage theories, and for the love of Preiss…don’t say things are wrong until you are holding a casque. If you don’t want to share…don’t claim you’ve solved it. I am trying to help you, if you really want help from all of the people on here who have been at this for 10 years, try not to piss them off.

I already apologized for being an a-hole. You’re free to accept it or not, this is not a continuation of that attitude. I’m working on the puzzle because as I said, without my own casque it’s
dumb
(yes, dumb, not wrong, not silly, DUMB) to say what I said and act like I did. I am not failing to play nice with others here, it’s quite the other way around.
I think you need to move away from the cult of personality that has risen up around some people here though. Just because Egbert and Siskel found a casque 10 years ago doesn’t mean they are the experts on this hunt, or that they completely understand it. Do the Chicago finders have any grand insight to these puzzles? Maybe they’re still working that 4 block section of Colorado. The proper way to prove any hypothesis is through falsification. Just because you’ve been here for 10 years doesn’t mean you know a single shred more than I do about these puzzles. I’ve also been working on them for years (full disclosure: not 10). I’ve read every single word ever written about them on the internet (or at least what’s still available), often multiple times. I know what’s what. I know how much amazing work has been done over the last 10 years. I do not count Gershwin/Melville among their ranks. I’m sorry I wasn’t lining up for my interview with James Renner, I guess that means I’m not a true Treasure Hunter.
Go back and look at the theories I had about Cambridge Common in Boston – I had the verse
so clearly
and so cleverly solved – but couldn’t find a connection to the image. You have fallen in love with a meaning that has absolutely no proof to it, and no, I don’t care how common you think the reference is. I didn’t know it, and I’m a pretty quick person who grew up in the NYC area and lived there for 20 years. This belongs more in the methodology section but you don’t solve a puzzle by falling in love with your own clever solve, you solve it through
constant
attempts at falsification and openness to being wrong, not a staunch defense of a fairly esoteric literary reference.
You are essentially arguing with the point that nothing confirmed should be treated as highly suspect. You are arguing that and demanding that I take something with no evidence as the truth. I will never do that. You find me some evidence and I will be 110% on your side, marching with signs in the street saying how I was wrong.

(Fair enough; Rhapsodic man could be anything, and we shouldn’t stop looking.)

Xieish

I already apologized for being an a-hole. You’re free to accept it or not, this is not a continuation of that attitude.
I think you need to move away from the cult of personality that has risen up around some people here though. Just because Egbert and Siskel found a casque 10 years ago doesn’t mean they are the experts on this hunt, or that they completely understand it.
Just because you’ve been here for 10 years doesn’t mean you know a single shred more than I do about these puzzles.
I don’t care how common you think the reference is. I didn’t know it, and I’m a pretty quick person who grew up in the NYC area and lived there for 20 years.
You are essentially arguing with the point that nothing confirmed should be treated as highly suspect. You are arguing that and demanding that I take something with no evidence as the truth.

Are you hearing how you sound? An apology is worthless if you don’t recognize your own faults and alter your behavior showing the apology is sincere.
Eg & Siskel, I would say, are more expert that you or I on this, they have some actual PROOF that they were right, and understand it enough to locate a burial site. They have a casque, I don’t…you better believe if they say something I am going to listen. Notice they don’t post often, just when something needs to be said. The last post Egbert made on NYC was almost immediately criticized. I took the time to research it more and I found another Melville book where the line “hard words” was written…does it have anything to do with the verse…who knows, but it’s a positive approach to Egbert’s information to be taken however, and it’s a contribution to the information, not a ad homonym attack as you displayed here.
Just because you don’t know something, doesn’t prove that the something is wrong, it just proves that you don’t understand it like others do, and instead of trying to understand it, you are doing what you criticize against…that is hypocrisy.
Again, I am not arguing, I am only pointing out that positiveness, tolerance, and understanding for others works best. Think about what you are typing and ask yourself how you would feel if someone said the same to you. It’s more your tone that what you are saying. Maybe people would open up to your idea’s if you weren’t so over critical of theirs.
Also this is the last time I am going to be off topic in a post…I’ve said what I feel is right, you can try to adhere to it or ignore it, but I have more pressing things to handle. Best of luck.

Xieish

You have fallen in love with a meaning that has absolutely no proof to it, and no, I don’t care how common you think the reference is. I didn’t know it, and I’m a pretty quick person who grew up in the NYC area and lived there for 20 years. This belongs more in the methodology section but you don’t solve a puzzle by falling in love with your own clever solve, you solve it through
constant
attempts at falsification and openness to being wrong, not a staunch defense of a fairly esoteric literary reference.

Xieish

Go back and look at the theories I had about Cambridge Common in Boston – I had the verse
so clearly
and so cleverly solved – but couldn’t find a connection to the image.

I think you are talking about “Rhapsody in Blue” by Gershwin. If you are, the reference is not literary nor esoteric – it is a well-recognized piece of music. Just because you “didn’t know it,” doesn’t mean it is not well known. By the way, “M & B” are not first names – they are last names.
You clearly believe that you are much more intelligent than the rest of us. So, why are you wasting time with us idiots?

Egbert

You clearly believe that you are much more intelligent than the rest of us. So, why are you wasting time with us idiots?

OBJECTION….LEADING

In hopes to get this back on track…
We might consider that the North Point Lighthouse was still in operation in the early 80’s
Did BP want us to travel at night? The lighthouse would have been a spectacle to see in the evening from lake park. Just a thought on the Harp lamps being the Harpsichord silently playing…meaning go at night when the harp lamps are lit.

Whoever came up with the Pabst pattern matching the woman’s collar pattern, thank you. Im feeling the blue ribbon (in line with a Goodness first concept) might help a case for a Milwaukee tour starting at 9th and Juneau, a more historic and proper start, followed immediately by viewing the Mitchell mansion (Wisconson Club) and continuing straight south.
Nobody makes a puzzle anout Milwaukee and doesnt crack open a can o Pabst….its just not possible to do otherwise.

erexere

Nobody makes a puzzle anout Milwaukee and doesnt crack open a can o Pabst….its just not possible to do otherwise.

Sorry in advance….
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/imag … pezOxaz6pD
Alright, back on track…

Do it, see if you can find more things associated with the images. There are 3 birch trees in Pierre Marquette park near the north bridge, I don’t think they are that old, but maybe they are the offspring of prior trees. It’s also by the hall of records, you might check that out as well, and it’s in the shadow of city hall.

I had a new idea on the harpsichord and silently playing line. Still trying to work out the kinks.
Suppose the casque location is to be found in relation to the boot of a statue. Would it be helpful to insert a hint in the verse about a FOOTMAN, a liveried servant whose duties include admitting visitors and waiting at table?
I think this is an especially nice fit given the last line of verse goes “the treasure waits,” being a possible hint at waiting a table or “taking orders.”
If the hint for a footman exists in the way I think it does then its executed in a very quirky manner: implication in the form of a clue about a chambermaid. I think “from woman,” means “maiden” and “with harpsichord,” as meaning “chamber” (chamber music). The next line is equally strange: “silently playing” as “vacuuming”. I wonder if the back-and-forth motion of vacuuming is considered “playing”, similar to the motion of some ball sports as the teams play up and down court or field. I like this conne tion most because one of the first vacuums was known as the “goblin”, a totally cool built-in reference for Fair Folk, and the most popular brand name and synonymous with the act of vacuuming: hoovering, or the Hoover. The connection here is again with the FOOT, as in hooves, a slight tweak to hoover, and a bit of a backpedal for me in my attempt to be free from wordplay, homograms and such. Is it conceivable to think this puzzle implicates footman by feeding us a clue for a chambermaid?
I feel like I’ve landed on the right end result for Milwaukee, that is the madness in the verse has coaxed me to that point. I still dont understand the culvert and bridge reference. Is that a plain reference or possibly something more tricky?

Unknown

Unknown:
I have an honest question…Does anyone think this casque still remains unfound?

I do. More to the point, I think the casque is within 200 yards of the foot of the North Lion Bridge Ravine, near what appears on Google Maps to be an old ¼ mile track oval but is being called the soccer field on this forum. I’ll explain my reasoning, but should state in advance that most of what follows has already been suggested by members who are more familiar with the area, or the hunt in general.
Start at Mitchell Hall (3 stories of Mitchell) on Kenwood Boulevard (the beating of the world) and proceed east past Downer, Hackett, and finally Shepard (three who lived there). Next it’s Lake Park (step on nature) and Lincoln Memorial Drive (cast in copper) until you come to the Grand Staircase. Up we go (ascend the 92 steps). I realize that there is some ambiguity on the Kenwood clue (not to me however since in the mid to late 70s and early 80s, Kenwood made some of the best stereo receivers sold in the US-I’ll bet Preiss owned one himself) and the woman with harpsichord (although the Marietta solve certainly seems plausible), but taken in totality, the first 10 lines of the verse lead you to the top of the Grand Staircase as surely as the first 7 lines of Verse 11 lead you to the Elizabethan Gardens in Roanoke, North Carolina.
Which leads me to my first take away point-You don’t need to fully explain all the clues to get to the treasure ground. There is still uncertainty about exactly what M&B stand for, but that didn’t prevent the Chicago casque from seeing the light of day. So the fact that the next clue “after climbing the grand 200” is ambiguous is of less consequence if what follows next is not. And in this case, what follows is pretty clear cut, even after 30 years.
Walk past the North Point Light House (pass the compass) and you will find without too much trouble a bridge (two actually), a culvert (most likely gone now but enough historical evidence to accept that it once existed), and a path (“rock and soil” as opposed to the asphalt and concrete that you have been walking on) which if you follow SE, leads you back to LMD (about 100 paces, give or take). Again, solid confirmation that you are on the right track but just in case you need more proof, we have two solid visual clues as well: the red balls (golf tee markers) and the woman’s face (which looks eerily similar to the lions on the bridge).
At this point, you have walked maybe 1.5 miles, used 16 lines of verse with significant confirmation almost every 200 yards, at most. The image was nice to have, but realistically, the verse is so specific in this case that besides confirming that you are looking for a casque in Milwaukee (Mill-Walk-Key), it almost seems unnecessary. If we are in the right place, then it stands to reason that the verse will lead us directly to the casque. And follow the same protocols (in this case, confirmation every few hundred feet that you are on the right track).
Upon reaching the foot of the ravine, my assumption is that Preiss saw something similar to this:
http://tinyurl.com/ksm7ueh
“the first young birch”. I’ll anticipate the objections and suggest two things:
1) Yes, the tree pictured is on N Wahl Avenue, and not on LMD where I am suggesting the treasure will be found (see what I did there). The point is that the Milwaukee Parks Department has been planting trees in this manner for at least 50 years, and probably a lot longer than that. It would have been an easily distinguishable landmark and solid confirmation that you were still on the right track. Especially if there were more, all in a nice neat row (pass three).
2) Yes, the tree pictured is not, in fact, a birch but probably a cottonwood. Does this matter? Do you think it mattered to Preiss? Maybe the saplings look more similar than different. Maybe “birch” is just his way of saying “tree”. Follow the line of freshly planted trees, but don’t cross LMD (staying west). Quibble about the difference between tree species when you collect your jewel.
Allow for the very real possibility that they were birch saplings in 1982, but for whatever reason, there are no longer mature birches there. Most importantly, don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees. We aren’t looking for the “first young birch”, but in fact, the “proud tall fifth”. The “birches” just lead you there.
So, in conclusion, I believe the casque is still where Preiss left it over 30 years ago. Three feet under the southern foot of a tall tree (with a distinguishing letter marking it), or where that tree once stood. The remoteness of the location would suggest that this one was not found or destroyed by accident, or has been lost to erosion, remodel, or renovation.
A long winded first post to be sure, but still only my two cents.

I would personally feel more comfortable with birch meaning something other than a tree altogether rather than it meaning another type of tree.
I like what you’ve got, and I’d love to see the route walked and some image matches found along the way, that’s how you can confirm you’re on the right path for sure.

Im going to go with the Wisconsin Club as the target for viewing the 3 stories of Mitchell. I only say this because I believe its important in three ways 1) its a mansion 2) its 3 miles from where we will find strong evidence for a casque and 3) its on 9th street.

I think it’s very far-fetched to suppose that Preiss didn’t mean a birch when he said a birch, just because we can’t find it 30 years on. Though whether the “fifth” meant a birch is more debatable.
If you were told to dig at the southern foot of a specific tall tree with no further information, how confident would you be of digging an accurately positioned 3ft deep hole in the ground…?

I agree with that. If ay any point you find yourself hand waving away the obvious for something you want to fit, it’s a good idea to take a step back.
Yep, birch could mean a lot of things, but if you’re going to say “whatever, a cottonwood is fine” you’re really just trying to believe your own theory.
There were definitely trees used as markers in the Chicago solve, right? Are we positive on that? I feel like a lot of the info about the Chicago solve is a bit nebulous, probably because it was solved by local teenagers who recognized the verse clues and statues. I never got the sense that they 100% solved it from start to finish, even without the M&B controversy. My heart wants BP to not have used trees since they’re easy to move/change/uproot just through weather events.

There were a LOT more birch tree’s back in 1980, the park has changed considerably. I would guess that “birch” meant birch tree back then as it’s been confirmed that there were “a whole lot more birch trees before 1995” according to a parks supervisor.

Xieish

My heart wants BP to not have used trees since they’re easy to move/change/uproot just through weather events.

…ay, though unfortunately, he does seem to go on about them quite a lot.

OK but city hall is on the other side of Kilbourn, you’re starting point A from Starbucks on that map. That’s a good 70-100 yards away.

I have a pet theory that the line “cast in copper” not only helps us find a typically circular wishing well, it may have been worded in such a way as to be a hint for Polish astronomer Copernicus, “copper in cast”.