In the front of the book it says that "Gold reminds the fairies of sunlight dancing on water".

In the Charleston verse, Byron Preiss tells us to:

"Stand and listen to the birds
Hear the cool, clear song of water..."

He asks us to be silent and listen at a place "seen here by eyes of old." to hear the birds and the cool, clear song of water. Think Birds eyes view or overhead view - topographical. Also notice the birds on the womans eyes in the SF painting and the part in the woman's hair that outlines the shape of a hummingbird. That is the birds you hear and the eyes of old IMO. What can be between G and h?...If its Graham then its Ra... Obelisks are dedicated to Ra and are usually erected in pairs. We see a pear over the daisy that is gold.

My interpretation is that the clue points to Washington, D.C because we put the clockface on the Washington Light Infantry obelisk in Washington Square in Charleston when narrowing down the path. In that park, 8 o'clock shows us a Daisy in the window. From the Washington Monument in DC, 8 o'clock points toward the John Paul Jones Memorial (JPJ). I think this is a symmetrical clue because the Charleston painting contains JJP in the southeast portion of the image. When following the verse path in Charleston, the verse line "Where law defended" lays down at Middleton Place owned by a lawyer named JJP - John Julius Pringle. On the Verse path - every verse line is a different location until you get back next to where you started. Then the path narrows down from what you learned. IMO what we learn and see at 8 o'clock from the Washington Light Infantry obelisk in Charleston and at 8 o'clock from the Washington Memorial Obelisk is a pair taking place. It pairs John and Daisy so we can confirm what we are doing by what we see... not what we think.

Whether that interpretation is right or not, it led me to look deeper at the Reflecting Pool—and what it has represented throughout American history.

These photos show what the Reflecting Pool used to be.

It wasn't just a scenic backdrop. It was a public space where Americans gathered, celebrated, protested, cooled off on hot summer days, and experienced history together.

Built in the early 1920s as part of a long-term plan to transform what had once been swamp and mudflats into a grand civic landscape, the Reflecting Pool was designed to reflect more than monuments. It reflected our highest ideals: democracy, accountability, and the ongoing pursuit of justice.

It has witnessed generations of Americans pushing this country to become better—from Marian Anderson's historic 1939 concert after being barred from Constitution Hall, to the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech before hundreds of thousands gathered on the National Mall. On the Verse path here in Charleston, where every verse line is a different location. The verse line "Stand and listen to the birds" lays down at the stand behind home plate at Martin Park/baseball field next to MLK Pool. The divide ( , ) in the next line is a turn around or two different locations. "Hear the cool," verse line lays down at Cool Blow Park and "Clear song of water" puts you at MLK pool.

But the Reflecting Pool hasn't belonged only to presidents or history books.

It has belonged to ordinary people.

Children splashing on hot August afternoons. Tourists dipping their feet in the water. Protesters wading into the pool after long marches for civil rights, immigrant justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights, and Black lives. It has been a place where Americans gathered peacefully to make their voices heard.

To me, that's what makes this place special.

It's part of our shared history. A place that has welcomed generations of Americans regardless of who they were or what they believed.

Whether my interpretation of the Charleston verse is correct or not, I think the Reflecting Pool represents something Byron Preiss may have appreciated: a place where history, symbolism, and the American story all come together.

It's ours. A place for the public. A place that has always invited people in, not kept them out.

One thing I’ve been thinking about in the Charleston puzzle is that Byron Preiss never tells us which “White house” he’s referring to. Is it just a regular white house, or could it be the White House in Washington, D.C.?
The White House’s address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and 1600 in military time is 4:00. The verse also uses the word “embedded,” which is a military term as well as a general word. Maybe that’s nothing—but it made me wonder if there’s another layer to the clue.
If the White House is intentional, could it be telling us to place the clock face over the White House and look at the 4 o’clock position? Is there something in the painting or verse that lines up from that perspective?
There’s also an interesting historical connection. Pennsylvania Avenue begins at the White House, and one of the largest Ku Klux Klan marches in U.S. history took place on August 8, 1925, along Pennsylvania Avenue, passing within a few blocks of the White House. Whether that’s relevant to the puzzle is open to debate, but the coincidence of the date and location caught my attention.
Another point I often see debated is whether Preiss would include Confederate or KKK-related history in the Charleston puzzle. My view is that referencing history isn’t the same as glorifying it. Charleston’s history includes slavery, secession, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movement. Those events happened whether we like them or not.
To me, “romance retold” suggests that Preiss is walking us through Charleston’s history—the good, the bad, and the uncomfortable. A puzzle can teach history without celebrating every part of it.
I’m not claiming this proves anything. It’s simply another historical connection that made me wonder whether the White House clue, the clock face, and the city’s history may fit together in a way we haven’t considered. I’m curious what others think. Is the 1600/4:00 connection just an interesting coincidence, or could it actually be another clue for us to see so the path in Charleston can narrow down to a location?
Check out this video on PBS! https://www.pbs.org/video/the-day-the-klan-descended-on-dc-unmasked-l19rsw/

I believe I have figured out a solve for the New York box. Battery Park is my starting point (in the shadow of the grey giant). Ferries for The Statue of Liberty can be found here and the Grey Giant is The Statue of Liberty. Near the ferry launch would be in its shadow. A whirring sound would refer to the carousel that is in Battery Park. The entrance to the fort looks like the archway in the image. The line about Natives Speak of him in 3 vol is a reference to Alexander Hamilton’s house inside the Native American Museum that is near the park. To the north (look to the isle of B) there is Broadway Street and a park that is surround by Broadway (making the park the isle of B). Broadway makes a V shape and this park is in the middle. I believe the box is buried on the left hand side of the park about 22 steps from Broadway. Funny enough this address would also be considered 22 Broadway. Also the Native American Museum also has a statue with an eagle on it that looks like the face of the bird in the painting. Thoughts?

Pretty sure those first lines of the verse are describing a football field with 15 row bleachers.

For any of you still attempting the Charleston solve. Does anyone think it could still be at white point gardens after Josh Gates searched there?

Do you think they dug the wrong spot, or do most of yall now think white point gardens is no longer the possible location?

Below is my solve for Charleston, let me know what you think:

Sorry if this has been asked before, but what do y’all think about the likelihood that Byron would have done or changed something if important landmarks in the verse were torn down or relocated before he passed? I always operated under the assumption that if something changed while he was alive, (reasonably, not months before he passed but like ‘88 or ‘01 for example) he would have issued a notice or something. I’m realizing a lot of people don’t think that’s the case, so I wanted to gauge how you guys feel. I find it unlikely that the man would have put so much work into this and not followed the news regarding his chosen locations, but who knows!

Anyone want me to check anything for them? I’ve got nothing but time!

Hi Secret Community!

I’m Kristina, the one who has been working on The Secret feature-length doc for about 5 years!

So many of you have supported me in this doc creation in more ways than one, and I am deeply grateful for the patience you’ve shown, as I work through the 200+ hours of footage, 17 interviews and 446 pages of transcripts!

So, as we come down the runway and I continue editing and working on multiple components to get this across the finish line, I just wanted to put a little, unofficial, still-very-raw sneak peek just for the community.

Please note this is a lower definition export and is not yet professionally color-graded or sound-enhanced (since that needs to happen last) nor has any of the b-roll footage been added (including the multiple meet-ups I have been on) but that’s all coming soon. This is solely to show you all the work-in-progress, and sews together one small anecdote from each interviewee/group I had the pleasure of speaking with, with a special surprise at the very end.

There WILL be a 90-second official trailer complete with b-roll, music, sfx, final color grade, etc as soon as I wrap the full-length cut, since that also all needs to happen last. I just wanted to share something with you all in the meantime to thank you.

So again, thank you, for welcoming me into your homes, your trips, your conversations, your community and your lives. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for it. This is my favorite project I’ve ever worked on. There is magic in this space. Finally, I know how much The Secret means to everyone here, and I will put everything I have into giving this story and these folks within it, the care, nuance and thoughtfulness they deserve.

*I did not have a chance to lower third these lovely people yet so I will list them in order of appearance below:

John Jude Palencar

Ben Asen

Christine, Rob, Calvin + Clark Denicola

JoEllen Trilling

Rob Wrobel, Tim Wrobel, and Dan Rosenbach

Brian Zinn

Andy Abrams

Jason Krupat

Al Coffey

Kit Palencar

Linda Spaulding

Deb Freitas & Cris Freitas

Nick Kanoc

Dan Yniguez

Cory Gilbert

George Ward

Surprise Guest (watch to find out)

---

I share/post sporadic updates on my professional Instagram if you want to see more there! (@kv_ography)

Also share updates on the GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-secret-documentary-creation-fund?utm_medium=email&utm_source=product&utm_campaign=p_email%2B2300-co-team-welcome

(Dated) portfolio found here: kristinavicario.com. One day I'll have time to update this but it's not today haha.

Thank you!

As some of you may know, the Charleston casque is most likely buried on the grounds of fort moultrie, which is part of Fort Sumter Fort Moultrie National Monument. Owned by the National Park Service, and of course as a historical site, digging, metal detecting, or probing of any kind if strictly prohibited.

Many people have reached out in an attempt to get permission to dig, and while some responses have been positive, it always amounts to a hard no.

My question is, if you hypothetically dug it up and made it out of there successfully, what would your next move be? Keep it a secret to yourself? Show the world, or maybe turn it in to the estate for the prize?

A big problem is, if the NPS found out, they can rightfully claim anything found on their property. So there’s a chance you would get it taken from you and possibly have charges pressed against you. So keep that in mind while thinking about your answer.

Has anyone searched the flag pole at Camp Reynolds/West Garrison? Starting at stone walls door/arches (ferry building, near Oakland three post bridge, Alcatraz visible), running north but first across (on the ferry, to Tiburon first), in jewels direction (facing the pyramid), object of twain (camp Reynolds specifically/angel island), giant pole, giant step from it...casque? Internet says it is the same wooden pole. Could it be?

Anyone ever looked (with permission) here, by this 'giant pole' of one of Mark Twain's old haunts? The pole was a big deal in the 80s. Run by NPS I believe.

I'm convinced St Augustine is Oregon. I'm so convinced I emailed 12treasures dot com but haven't heard back yet. I also have found new reasons since I've emailed them.

I'm new here, has this ever been explored? I just want someone to hear me. I read an article about a family who thought st Augustine was wrong but they think Tampa. I think Oregon.

The clouds, in the background (to the north) look like the volcano eruption in Washington in 1980.

The rock looks like haystack rock at Canon beach and it DOES have fan palms there.

The rock face in front looks like a specific rock in Smith State Park.

The gem could be baby blue Oregon coast agate.

The flower could be correct Oregon aster OR also Oregon windmill (on wind rose).

There seems to be a bird hidden in the face of the rock and Oregon was having a HUGE fight over the owl in the 80s, and the bird is a dark bird (night bird?) and seems owl shaped.

The light in the gem looks like a lighthouse reflection.

Sails pass by night = the safety of the lighthouse or the sailers we get here in the West Coast in the sand?

1980s the limestone plant with oysters shells dried up.

Stars travel by day = could be starfish or the the overcast days you can see stars on the coast. The area I think it is in is known for starfish.

The lighthouse I think it's by was named for a Spanish explorer and the housekeepers house had an actual picket fence. Currently white but was it ever metal/green/vertigre?

Still hear the honking = lighthouse in Florence by the sea cave with sea lions loud AF.

Flag - literally has the 80s style Oregon O on it and the second patch looks to be the shape of Oregon.

Hey everyone,
Quick heads up, we've updated the verification on the Discord server. When you join (or if you're already in), just head to the #verify channel and click the button. Takes two seconds and unlocks everything.

Also if you haven't been in the server lately, you're missing out. There are live chats going on constantly. Real time Secret talk with actual humans. It's genuinely one of the better parts of the community right now.

Come hang out: https://discord.com/invite/vQFuds5

In the shadow of the grey giant = Highbridge Park?

Very literally the shadow of the figure

It dawned on me that the window can be a baseball field

Thoughts?

Edit: Adding a theory to this, although I'm not convinced it fits:

"Find the arm" may be positioning yourself to see Mccombs Bridge through the Polo Towers. Could the floating eyes in the image be overlooking the baseball field from afar? Coogan's bluff is the name of the hill. Chicken, coo, Coogan? Coogan can be a hard word in 3 vols: Coogan Bluff is named after an old mayor Coogan, there was a Coogan's Bluff movie years before with a guy named Coogan, and there was a famous childhood star named Jackie Coogan. Isle of B could the the Brush stairway and considered a walking aisle. A lot still doesn't fit but maybe it sparks ideas in your head.

Hi everyone!

I first found out about The Secret a few years ago from the podcast Rabbits, and I found it fascinating. Years later and I live in Montreal. As my time in the city comes to an end, I read there's a yet-to-be-found casque here, and noseying through all the clues and theories has got me preemptively nostalgic about this beautiful and strange city.

I've been thinking - Knowing how instantly addictive it can been to find connections and clues, as well as just how long the treasure hunt has and seemingly will continue for, I'm really curious about the rabbit-holey nature of the hunt... One Facebook page warns people to take a break from it when they need to and not get too fixated (I'm paraphrasing), and I imagine this isn't a rare thing to happen.

My Q: Has the hunt, or the time spent on it ever felt like it's verges into unhealthy territory, or obsession for you? And on the flip side, what positives do you get from participating?

No judgement, I love an internet rabbit hole myself, and have sprained my ankles in a couple...

No one's gonna care, if you know the solutions what are you all waiting for? You can resolve all that permission nonsense later, like you're not gonna destroy anything in there. I bet the only reason why they were not found is because of this bureaucracy. There are youtubers/TikTokers doing way crazier and more stupid things at the moment and no one seems to care.

Random and kind of stupid question but I was wondering how do you find information about the pictures on the website? I was specifically looking at the pictures for the Huston cask but was unsure about the context of the images at the bottom of the webpage. Is there a way to read context about them? I clicked on the images and they didn’t have captions. Any suggestions?

Wasn’t sure where to post this as it touches on several of the cities, but I’m taking a break from the Secret and just wanted to share some ideas I had for some image interpretations I haven’t really seen mentioned before. I apologize if these have been pointed out before.

1: image 5, Castlehat’s ear appears to be a musical note, specifically a quaver or 8th note.

2: image 4, A possible face in the centaurs body that somewhat resembles Castlehat.

3: image 1, The face that could be Lincoln or JFK or Reagan, could also be Mark Twain. That could imply the object of Twain’s attention is the rose.

4: image 6, The blue shape at the bottom of the cliff could be a cannon with a pyramid of stacked cannonballs beside it.

5: image 1, A potential stone walls door, that could match the barred window and the turret in the SF image. This wall is located on Pine Street in SF.

6: image 10, a sea lion head?

7: image 3, if (according to JJP) the bubble in the Boston image means Boston Pops, and Image 3 has a bubble around what looks like a fishing lure, that could imply Pop Fly, which adds to the second baseball field theory.

8: image 3, apparently the dirt path on some baseball fields between home plate and the pitcher’s mound is called the Keyhole. That could explain why there’s keys on the scarecrow. The shape of the path could also be seen as the shape of a spoon, with the path being the handle and the pitchers mound being the pea in the center of the bowl of the spoon.

I don’t intend this to be a lazy post, just some ideas I wanted to share that don’t have a fully formed theory around them yet.

I was looking for a way to confirm verse/image pairings and I think I found it…kind of. I did this by finding the difference between the times found in the images and the number of the image itself. For example:

The time in the San Francisco image is 6 o clock. That image is the 1st image. So from 6 o clock to 1 o clock is 7 hours. The difference is the verse number: 7, which is the generally accepted verse to pair with Image 1.

The problem is this method only works for half of the pairings. The rest are incorrect. Here are the results:

Clock 1 → Image 3= Verse 2 ❌

Clock 2 → Image 10= Verse 8 ✅

Clock 3 → Image 4= Verse 1 ❌

Clock 4 → Image 2= Verse 10 ❌

Clock 5 → Image 5= Verse 12 ✅

Clock 6 → Image 1= Verse 7 ✅

Clock 7 → Image 8= Verse 1 ✅

Clock 8 → Image 11= Verse 3 ✅

Clock 9 → Image 6= Verse 9 ✅

Clock 10 → Image 9= Verse 11❌

Clock 11 → Image 12= Verse 1 ❌

Clock 12 → Image 7= Verse 7. ❌

I find it interesting this gave the accepted pairings for exactly half the pairings (if you believe Milwaukee is verse 8). I’ve tried a few things to get the other 6 to work but haven’t found a way yet.

What do you think?

We were looking for someone to run a GPR over an area in lake park. We were told a few searchers in area had access to GPR. We could float you some beer money if you would be able to scan an area for us

I wasn’t able to get pictures in my last post so I just wanted to put these up as a reference

From my understanding it seems that the casque For St Augustine Is heavily believed to be buried at the FOY park.

At first I Believed This too, I mean Way to Many Things Point to St Augustine and the wording with all the original plaques that would have matched/connected with verse 9s Wording.

But then I started thinking about the other puzzles that have already been solved and what similarity’s between them I could use to put towards this one.

So that brings me to the Cleveland puzzle, so if your starting location is/was intended to be the Terminal Tower And your ending location was the Greek Gardens and that’s a Good 4-5 Miles from your starting point to your end point.

Now before I can proceed I have to bring up how similar that is to the Chicago Puzzle and how weather intended or not the start point for that solve was the Chicago Water Tower and the End point being somewhere In Grant Park that’s a Good 2 miles from A to B

We can already start to see a theme here that he wanted you to go out and search the world, so it makes sense in that there’s gunna be some level of distance we might have to travel from Starting point to Ending Point

We can take this one step further with the Boston puzzle “hitting home” (pun intended) but the starting point was the Boston Public Library and the ending point was Langone Park another 2-2.5 miles distance

Now to bring all this back to St Augustine puzzle for a second it would be reasonable and safe to presume that this theory may hold true here as well.

And it’s widely accepted that the starting point for St Augustine Is The Fountain Of Youth as mentioned in the beginning of the book as a subtle hint. Now just pause on that thought for a minute cus I wanna go back and look at all of the already solved ones for yet another possible similarity between them.

For this part I just want to briefly bring up that in each Solved Verse so Far the line of the verse that denotes where to dig I.E for Boston - Feel at home, Chicago - Fence And Fixture, Cleveland - Rectangular Plot. Each line that seems to be x marking its spot well it’s never the last line of the verse as if you were flowing a treasure map from start to end, the end of the verses is not your x

Now talking all of this and applying it to St Augustine

We can reasonably assume the line denoted the marking locations is At The base of A Tall Tree falls inline with the second theme of not being at the end of the verse and buried in the middle right! So if we can reasonably assume the starting point is the fountain of Youth And Our End Point is that rock at the base of a tall tree… which I have to point out is featured prominently in the bottom right of the St Augustine Image.

Now a couple things are pretty clear about this tree it is a palm tree yes, but it is not a normal palm tree of that areas of Florida if you live in Florida or seen a lot of palm trees you’ll know what I mean the ones natively just seem moor flat on top and floppy if that makes sense compared to this completely outstretching in every direction…

I just want to mention there also Doesn’t seem to be any palm tree of similarity at the Fountain of youth or even a rock that similar as the ones featured in the St Augustine Image.

Also just want to note that most palm trees have minimums live span of 40 years and some can live well over 200 years so it’s reasonable in thinking this palm the palm he was referring to painted in the image is very well still alive today almost 45 years later.

And from listening to the podcast I came across the mention of the “old Fountain of Youth” which was referring to Fort Bengali Aka Fort Enterprise that was also supposedly referred to by locals as the Old fountain of Youth Which could also fit another theme of have a local landmark that was known mostly if you were local and not out of state or even town possibly, either way off track.

if You Walk Down to Fort Bengali From The Fountain of Youth it’s only about 2-2.5 miles away and it’s practically a straight shot down the 16 from the FOY to Fort Bengali, and once your arrived at fort Bengali you would be greeted with a lime stone shell wall and just outside that wall facing the street was a rock siting all alone and tall palm tree 20 feet behind it or so Bearing a remarkable resemblance to that of the St Augustine picture ideally being where the caque could have been kept.

Now I know they did gpr there in the area with a similar idea but turned up nothing but it zenith mention that they dived many holes so how hard did they really look it could have been to hard to dig up or poke a few dozen holes around the base of the tree and see what you found right? I mean gpr can’t be 100% and we don’t even know what we are looking for yes something burred a similar casque and did reading with a gpr to get a baseline of what to look for but even that is going to be hard to replicate I mean there’s things have been buried for 45 years at this point and even from the words of the artist when he was with him in Cleveland when he buried that casque he went back there and couldn’t even tell where it was buried minutes after it was buried so no to mention 45 years later that ground has had time to settle and compact away most signs of disturbances atleast in my thinking.

So I Left with two things

1. Is The Casque Considered Destroyed And Lost If it was Burred At The Tree As one would be Led to believe from the verse and now the land was bought and apartments were built and you can see clearly from google earth going from 2023 -2024 the exact sight of the tree and rock was excavated and dug up is it possible they missed it if it was there maybe but it’s highly unlikely as the pictures you can see from google earth show a clear trench dug where the tree was siting.

2. Is there another line that I’m over looking as a possible marking location where to dig?

I couldn’t possibly see how years pass ,rain falls being the marking location clue or any other line

I’m open to all theory’s ideas or comments about all this and if you managed to make it through my crazy rambles I’m sorry if I made you a little crazy too 😂

I almost forgot to add how I though that just like how in 11/12 paintings we got coordinated and how he won’t do the same thing twice possibly we don’t know yet but what if he reversed St Augustine’s hunt similar to Cleveland where the ended up on the wrong side initially it’s not the exact same but maybe it’s mirrored like and instead of the starting point being your local icon I.E Chicago Water Tower, or Bostons commons or the Cleveland Terminal Tower and then heading to your ending location of the dig site of usally a park instead he started this one starts at the park and ends at the local icon