Solution to The Secret Golden Gate Park casque location
Hi everyone,
I believe that I have solved the location of the San Francisco "Secret" casque. I first emailed this solution to Josh Gates at
digitalgates@hot.mail.com and then, when I received no response over the course of a month, I emailed this solution to the pbworks website. I emailed Expedition Unknown because, in working with the wonderful guys at SF Parks and Rec (Brian and Kevin), I found out that the Expedition UnKnown team planned to film at the park in a different spot from the one I believe the casque was buried.
I emailed my solution to the pbworks website in an attempt to head off what I felt would be a wasted effort on the part of the film crew. And, if this solution is accepted as viable, I wanted to end fruitless effort on searchers' part and alleviate the burden on Parks and Rec staff as well.
Here's the email to Josh Gates about this solution:
Brian Dewitt (brian.dewitt@sfgov.org), of Golden Gate Parks and Rec suggested that I send this email to you.
I had applied for a permit to dig in the park and, during discussions with Brian and Kevin Tibbetts, I learned that a dig had been arranged for you to film.
I was just informed by Brian that the area I applied to dig in was excavated to a level of four feet after Byron Preiss buried the casque.
I am convinced my solution is correct. I want to share it with you in the event that your dig is unsuccessful.
As most solutions agree, start in Shakespeare's Garden. ("At stone wall's door..."
Leave there and enter the Music Concourse. (Not far away..." My wife Denise and I went to the Monet exhibit at the de Young last Thursday--Sutro Tower is sooo close...)
Then, go to the Francis Scott Key monument. ("Education and justice...Education refers to the Academy of Science. Walk past that and you see the Francis Scott Key monument. This is where the solution diverges from others because of the missing word "Liberty". When you hear, "and justice for all" as other solutions have pointed out, you think of the Pledge of Allegiance. If you substitute "liberty" for education, you have the tie-in with the monument since Liberty crowns the top of the monument....with a furled flag in hand.
)
"Sounds from the sky/Near ace is high" confirm that the Music Concourse is correct (the amphitheater and Hwy 1 "bracket it to the south and north). As many solutions point out, "Near ace" can refer to Highway 1 which is north of the Francis Scott Key monument. That focuses you on looking toward Hwy. 1.
So, if you look north from the Francis Scott Key monument, you see the St. Francis statue.
This ties in with the next clue: "Running north but first across." If you 'run' north from the FSK monument, you see St. Francis holding a cross, facing away from the north, facing in a southerly direction.
The next clue has been really difficult for others to solve: In jewel's direction is an object of Twain's attention. What I found was this: Preiss used a little known fact from Twain's life as the basis for this clue. In 1861, Twain joint the Confederate Marion Rangers but lasted only two weeks. He "de-enlisted" because of the looming threat posed forces led by a colonel in the Union army: Ulysses S. Grant...Grant's statue list to the south of the St. Francis statue. if you draw a line through the two, it intersects with the place I wanted to dig. "Attention", a military term, further reinforces this, btw.
The final lines have been difficult for many to solve because Preiss's clues need to tell you exactly where to dig. This solution resolves that problem The final clue deals with the Cider Press Mill statue. A young guy pulls a pole with two hands on one side and a foot braced to push on the other. If you extend his foot to take a "giant step", it comes down on the place I wanted to dig, the place intersected by a line drawn from the St. Francis statue through the U.S. Grant statue.
Hopefully, this convinces you as much as it convinced me. If so, and you bring some kind of ground penetrating radar, you can see if, somehow, the casque is still there. If don't have that equipment, maybe you can persuade them to dig anyway.
My goal in unearthing the casque was to find someone who would pay at least $50,000 for it. My wife Denise and I spearheaded the building of a middle school in rural Cambodia in 2007 and have created a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (Doris Dillon School in cambodia EIN 47-1509301to support it. Last year 60 high school and college students, parents, teachers and professors did volunteer work at our school. Each time we and others work with students and families, we find more that we can do. So, our yearly fundraising is over 7X what it was when we started 11 years ago and growing. As anyone involved in no-profit work knows, the pressure to fundraise is relentless. I had hoped that finding a buyer for the casque would somehow provide a year's worth of funding at present levels.
Here's the link to our website:
https://www.dorisdillonschoolincambodia.org
Of course, I would be glad to meet with you when you're up here to go over the solution I discovered. My wife Denise and I are retired teachers and so we've moved beyond the 'fame and glory' period of our lives and are into the 'legacy' years, so I'm not trying to angle for a spot on your show.
Two more notes:
Denise and I met you when you were filming King Stephen's arm in Budapest (the scene was cut). We told you how we loved your humor and you replied "Hi, I'm Josh...where are you from?" We so many others about how naturally unassuming and approachable you are. With you, we feel, there is no such thing as a TV persona you put on when the camera rolls.
My attempt to solve this mystery has taught me a little about how Byron Preiss approaches creating his clues. I was shocked at how little time I needed to find a solution that I'm convinced is correct for the New Orleans casque (the key stumbling block is figuring out who the word "namesakes" refers to.). The spot is in a place that, I don't think, has been dug up to a level of four feet...if you want, I can work with you and your staff on this solution.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Let me know your thoughts.
***
This solution works really well from a 'boots on the ground' perspective, if you walk through the clues one at a time. The way he wrote the clues creates a sense of discovery as you walk from one statue to the next. The catalyst for me in solving this is the word 'liberty', substituted for 'education'. When you stand before the FSK statue and see 'Liberty" above his seated pose, it leads you directly north to the statue of St. Francis, key to the name of the city. (btw, "to see" could connect to the two 'C's" in the name Francis Scott Key, although that could just be a coincidence....).
A further confirmation: when you stand at the dig site, facing the two white 'female lion' Egyptian-Type states across the street, the head of the one on the right is turned slightly so that it looks directly at you. As noted on the pbworks site, the woman in the painting resembles these statues.
I applied for a dig permit and was one day away from digging when Brian from Parks and Rec called me to explain that the area was dug out to a level of at least four feet when the DeYoung Museum underwent a major reconstruction. The current underground garage was added too, so he felt that the casque has been inadvertently dug up during the construction work and dumped with the dirt that was moved elsewhere.
Let me know your thoughts on this solution. Thanks.
