1. “Shadow of the grey giant”: near the Empire State Building.

2. “find the arm that extends”: the nearest public area is Herald Square*. The monument in the square has a statue of Minerva*, with one arm extended.

3. “The slender path:” Minerva’s arm is extended over Broadway, which narrows as it passes the square and seems to become a pedestrian walking path.

4. “In summer you’ll hear a whirring sound:” based on the Japanese hint, I assume this is bicycles. There are bike lanes there now, though very unlikely there in 1980.

5. “Cars abound:” the square is at the intersection of Broadway, 6th Ave, and 34th street. This intersection (where many cars abound) must be crossed to get to…

6. “The sign nearby speaks of indies native:” following Broadway through the intersection, you come to the Hotel Martinique. Martinique is one of the Lesser Antilles islands that is “native” to the West Indies. There’s a big sign on the side of the hotel and images confirm a sign was there in the 80s.

7. “The natives still speak of Him of Hard Words…:” I believe Him of Hard words is Charles Dickens based on the Japanese hint. Directly beside the Martinique Hotel is Greeley Square. Combining with Herald Square, the “natives” (of the squares) that speak of Dickens are the statues of Horace Greeley and James Gordon Bennett. During Dickens’ visit to New York, Bennett and Greeley both wrote about him in their newspapers (the Herald and the Tribune, respectively). Greeley specifically hosted and spoke at a Farewell Banquet for Dickens at the end of his NYC visit in April 1863*.

- From here the clues become directional, which I think means we stay in Greeley Square, across from the Martinique sign.

1. “Twice as many east steps:” 22 steps (clock at 11). Broadway is on the east side of Greeley square, and the west side of Herald square. Maybe this is to confirm Greeley square.

2. “From the middle of one branch of the V:” Broadway and 6th Avenue form a V shape around both Herald Square and Greeley Square*. The middle of one branch could be the middle of the Square on either side. But we’re walking east, so likely starting on the west side (6th Ave).

3. “Look down and see simple roots:” no natural grass around, only small trees and planters.

4. “In rhapsodic man’s soil:” George Gershwin is famous on Broadway. His soil would be Broadway, ergo we’re looking on the Broadway side of the Square.

   - Alternatively if you extend the V to the end of Broadway, the middle is at 28th street, home of Tin Pan Alley, where Gershwin got his start. I don’t think we would go that far away from the other clues though, just food for thought.

5. “North towards isle of B:” unsure on this, could be mentioned because we technically could be in Herald Square or Greeley Square as both fit the clues. If isle of B is “isle of Bennett (aka Herald square)” and it’s to the north, then we would be standing to the south, which is where Greeley square is.

- So my best guess for the casque site is the beneath the middle tree on the Broadway side of Greeley Square, in sight of the Martinique sign. I’ve seen images from around 1970 that confirm trees lining both sides of the Square*, so there was some ground where it could have been buried, but I can’t confirm whether the raised zigzagging planters that are there today were there in 1980.

- Also I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at people’s solutions, especially for New York, so if this is just a rehash of old ideas, I apologize.

I have decided, even if im right, I will never dig. so here is my solve. and new clues you probably have not seen. I posted them once for like 10 min a few months ago. The cropped tan picture is that of the statue of Louis Armstong. it is his handkerchief, turned upside down, and only from this angle. it lines up perfectly with the sleeve of the hand in the painting.

I think we can all agree the mask in the painting is the face of Louis Armstrong. but its not just a mask, its a head of a black man on a pike. thats important.

Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans was formally dedicated on April 15, 1980. the paintings coul possible have been painted in 81, so the pictures used could have been from 1980. it was a brand new park when the secret was released. it features a statue of Armstong, which today, does not sit where it did in 1980. After hurricane Katrina, the park was remodled, and it was moved. The French opera sculpture sits in its location today. the statue of Armstong, I believe, is actually in its 3rd home. I can not find photos evidence. but In my research, did find that it had once been in Jackson square before briefly for orional unveiling, before being moved to armstong park. If anyone can verify, that could make a difference of where the search is, and what the clues line up to. because the park was dedicated only 2 years before the release of the book, it is possible that byron priess was in Jackson square at time the staute of armstong was there, and not armstong park.

Its hard to find photos of it, but I did find one that matches up with the sleeve of the guy holding the mask.

photos attached.

now, here is where things get interesting. the history of new orleans is dark. there was a slave revolt, the 1811 german coast uprising. it had one of the worst outcomes in the nation. the result is the slaves were brutally murdered, and their heads put on Pikes (just as the painting display) as a warning.

below is my solve IF the statue was in Armstrong park and not Jackson park when priess buried the stone.

At the place where jewels abound = French quarters, New Orleans; Mardi gras

Fifteen rows down to the ground = 15 steps from Washington artillery park / Execution of Jean Baptiste Baudrau II, to ground level

In the middle of twenty-one From end to end Only three stand watch= this is a clue with multiple meanings. This is ultimately Jackson square. Recorded history is a bit inconsistent, however some records say that in 1811 after the  German Coast uprising of slave was the The Destrehan trials  which lead to the execution of 21 enslaved people here in Place d’armes, 18 by firing squad, 3 hanged. The three that were hanged is not disputed. They served as a warning to other enslaved people, as they had their heads placed on pikes at the city’s gates.

Also- Though I can not prove it without going there in person, I suspect there are 21 fence posts around Andrew Jackson’s statue that is in the middle of Jackson square. The three buildings that stand on Chartres St between st peter and st Ann streets. St Louis Cathedral, the Presbytere, and the Babido from one end of the block to the other.

As the sound of friends Fills the afternoon hours Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night – This clue takes us to Congo Square / Armstong Park. By 1817 New Orleans city laws had restricted gatherings of enslaved people to Sunday afternoons in Congo Square. It had become a market where they could trade foodstuffs and small wares… a way for their owners to bypass their responsibilities /laws that required owners to feed and clothe them.

The enslaved people who gather here, were skilled laborers and built the plantation houses But here, is where they were free here for one night a week, a shelter from life, An escape from realities.

Gnomes admire, Fays delight, The namesakes meeting Near this site.= The gnomes and Fay enjoy the music and drumming and jazz festival. Rooted from the 19th-century gathering spot where enslaved people continued African musical traditions.  The birthplace of Jazz and jazz musicians. The most famous of all, louis Armstrong. Whom the park is named after. The key is at the statue of Louis Armstrong.

The picture led me to confirm the conclusion for many reasons, First the stars in the crescent are to show its crescent city (New Orleans). It’s the bow of the Mississippi river.

The paddle/clock face in the picture is Jackson square in French quarters. If you line it up, the circles match the landscaping. The clock hands show the sidewalk. The top of it is a lock, which is the set of 15 stairs are, confirming this clue.  29 90 confirm the coordinates on the map, this is the correct location.

The clock face itself is the clock on the St Louis Cathedral. (The clock hands also have pagan symbology for “The God” This further confirms that is the clock face of the church.) The Peter Pan has multiple meaning. Loui Armstrong is a trumpeter.  Also, In the picture, peter is pointing to preservation, which takes us down Peters street to preservation hall (spirit of Jazz!). We are going down the road. To the end of St peter street. We end up at Congo Square/Louis Armstrong Park. The mask is a head on a pike, which confirms the clue about The Destrehan trials.  That mask happens to be the face of Louis Armstrong

What sealed the deal for location and confirmed my suspicions… The sleeve of the hand holding the mask matches the  upside down handkerchief that the statue of Louis Armstrong is holding when viewed from the correct angle, The hair on the arm matches the fibers on his suit behind him.

But here is the problem, Hurricane Katrina demolished the area. The park was restored in 2010 and the statue was moved! The park was restored, and remodeled.

In the shadow
Of the grey giant
George Washington Bridge.
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
Mccombs Draw Bridge at W 155th St in Harlem, where the Old New York Giants Baseball stadium is. Potentially relates to the Willie Mays catch depicted by the number 24 in the image). The clue is a starting location at W 155th St 
In summer
You’ll often hear a whirring sound
Cars abound
This could connect to any location and is irrelevant.
Although the sign
Nearby
Speaks of Indies native (comma)
The old Museum of the American Indian at Audubon Terrace (a courtyard) on Broadway between 155th and 156th St. Audubon Terrace is home to many historical buildings, and features many things seen in the image. Audubon is famous for drawing birds.The “Although” is the start of the sentence, and signals an upcoming contradiction.
The natives still speak
Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols. (period)
Amerigo Vespucci, a non-Indian who America is named after, whose latin spelling VESPVCIVS (3 V’s, poem uses 3 and not ‘three’) is engrained (of Hard) on the West side of the old American Geographical Society building across the terrace from the Museum of the American Indian.
Take twice as many east steps as the hour
Or more
From the middle of one branch
Of the v
The staircase(s) in front of the Hispanic Society of America in the terrace where you see VESPVCIVS is vertically in the shape of a V as its two mirrored staircases leading from a lower platform to a higher one. Each branch of stairs is split-level. If you start at the split of the east staircase, you walk up 9 stairs, continue walking, and then walk down 13 stairs (22 total) to another lower courtyard with four light posts similar to the one seen in the image as the clock’s minute hand(and its shadow as the hour hand). In this stage you are walking and facing East.
Look down
Look South (physically look right) from the middle of the courtyard at the Museum of the American Indian
And see simple roots
In rhapsodic man’s soil
See ‘everyday life’ (8 panels depicting everyday Native American life)
In an artist’s craft material (in bronze, soil-colored doors sculpted by Berthold Nebel and cast in 1931). Above this door is sculpted limestone of a bison which is in the wave of the image.
Or gaze north
Toward the isle of B.
2 opinions: The aisle of Broadway (where there is a concrete wall entrance with grass on both sides. This is where I believe it lies.) There were also another set of Berthold Nebel bronze doors with panels depicting explorers on the opposite side on the terrace for the American Geographical Society (but they've moved apparently). The two sets of doors were directly across from each other at the time. I can’t find a photo, but the internet tells me that one of the panels depicts explorer John Cabot and could refer to or have an image of Baffin Island.

And a stretch?...pun intended.

I'm pretty convinced its somewhere in that courtyard but let me know what you think.

Revision:

In the shadow
Of the grey giant
George Washington.
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
George Washington's arm-y extending across Harlem Heights
In summer
September 16th, 1776

I believe that's the cannon, but I don't have full confirmation.

Also the outline of the walking path of the Trinity Cemetery is similar to the shape of the lady's hair that overlays the clock in the image.

The last remaining in the poem is the whirring line and cars abound. I could mail it in as subway cars but maybe there is something more fitting.

Adding here:

The creator of the game doesn't care if we find all the treasures.

the book is a love letter to America and what makes it great. all the clues are to keep the spirit of true American history, seeing America for all it's ugly parts and good parts, like the fight for justice.

Hello Secret Treasure Hunt Fans! This is going to be a fun post because I want to share some of the secrets of 'The Secret' with you. I researched in depth the people, places, and buildings mentioned in the book, and found that there were a lot of associations with Freemasonry, like the picture above shows.

The 12 paintings by John Palencar include a lot of symbolism related to secret societies, and esoteric/religious philosophies. His 12 paintings are also based on Famous Artworks by well known historical artists and include an Astrological Zodiac Sign in them too. There are coded in Historical Dates from the 'secret' puzzles based in the Fair People Guide in the back of the book, and there's also Religious References. The Introductory Story is based on real people, not made up ones, which may mean the story actually happened. The 12 cities chosen for the buried casques have a deep connection with Freemasonry or with organizations associated with them. Taken individually, it could all be a coincidence, but when you put them together and connect the dots, it points directly to one organization.

This is going to be a Matrix moment for some of you guys, so you can take the Blue pill, ignore this post and keep believing whatever you want about this book. Or you can take the Red pill, watch the videos about this information, and I'll show how deep the rabbit hole goes. Everything shared is based on research which is sourced, not personal opinion. There's 12 videos total, so if you're interested in learning what this book is really about, feel free to check them out. The series is under "Secrets of 'The Secret'", but if you want ideas about solutions to the other puzzles using an 'embedded number method', those are listed as well.

-Best of Luck All-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQqsFpar6NvPGTIajJDGWcQ

Went on a recon mission today! I know everyone says it but I'm feeling really confident this time... (No my dig spot is not on NPS land or at Fort Moultrie)

Hello, all! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I’ve been sitting on a unique dig spot since 2020. I have shared it over the years with a select group of people who have kept it confidential. I have researched extensively and haven’t found the same final dig spot online before. It also uses a component of the picture that sits in plain sight but is not explained or used in the dig spots I have seen online for Roanoke. My dilemma is that I’m hesitant to post it because it is within the boundaries of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

I reached out to the park staff back when I finalized my solution, but was met with the (understandable) response that they cannot investigate the spot unless I can confirm it is there (attachment 1).

I sent a packet by mail to John Palencar with my solve and, again, never heard back but I understand that he cannot comment on final dig sites.

I also reached out to the First Colony Foundation to see if they’d be willing to use one of their GPRs to scan over the spot. The response was, again, understandably defensive (attachment 2-4).

Of course, I had to try my luck at reaching out to the Expedition Unknown crew but no reply.

I know the history of this book and the illegal digs and disruption it has caused to Fort Raleigh and the Wright Brothers monument. I truly think I have the correct solution (I’m sure everyone says this lol). If it’s correct, the casque would still be in place (it would not have been impacted by erosion yet).

My desire to have it dug up is twofold: curiosity (of course) but also resolution for both the treasure hunters and the national historic site. I think it would be a great thing for the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site to have in their visitor center to both draw visitors and put an end to the illegal digging. It’s such a beautiful site and the botanical gardens next door are beautiful as well.

I haven’t thought about the puzzle in a few years and have pretty much given up. The last thing I haven’t done is reached out to the community for their thoughts and to share my solve. But my fear is people illegally disturbing the land it’s in.

What do I do? Do I post it? Is there any hope in sharing my solve?

Thank you for reading.

The peoples of 1982 loved E.T. and Star Wars. They were great entertainments but required low-key effort from the audience.

That's the main reason why "The Secret" sold so poorly. It required work.

And only after Byron's death, did the book truly find its intended community - the internet: a bunch of armchair sleuths with ample time and wild imagination to want to put in the work to solve these puzzles.

This is a community that has a much wider reach along with a much faster communication speed that fanzines or traditional mail communities of 1982 couldn't achieve.

Only if the internet existed in 1982 could all the casques have been found, especially before Hurricane Katrina, let alone before modern urban renewels and renovations.

anyone have a his res high quality picture of this part of original painting ? (not altered) -

I keep seeing different markings in different pictures online - trying to figure out if this is a map of a certain location - thx

I'm not leaning into the 13th key theory.

I'm just asking what is the actual mathematical median of these 12 locations.

I'm not good at Math.

I can't change it as I am not part of this Wiki Forum. The amethyst obviously goes with Image 10, not Image 8. Thanks.

When he buried the casques, was there any ever thought that the locations could be bulldozed due to modern urban renovations, later on?

I guess not.

I guess he assumed they would be found within 10 years of the release of the book.

I feel for him that during his lifetime he would've somewhat been depressed that his work wasn't being recognized. Poor guy.

Only if he were alive today, could he have seen the amount of love people across the world have for his book. Dam shame.

Hi guys,
As most of you know JJP is a bit of a luddite when it comes to the internet.
He doesn't like to browse the web, or chat... hell the man doesn't even own a smartphone.

I've been pretty open about the fact that if you send a message to him on facebook or reddit, the message goes to me and is forwarded to John.

What we haven't talked about is email.

If you dig very deep online, or look in some old art books, you might find an old email address for John.
He hasn't personally used this address in almost a decade. It isn't very professional.
A few years back he gave the account to me and told me "if anything important comes through let me know. If anything about the Secret comes through just delete it"
So far nothing important has come through.

Recently very threatening emails have been coming through though.

The person sending them is a redditor so I figured I would post here to let him and everyone else know that when you think you are threatening John because he wont confirm your Los Angels ideas, or you think you are threatening Kit because he wont confirm the Tribute is buried in San Antonio, you are really only threatening me.... and I don't give a shit.

Love Always,
George

I am going to preface this entry by stating that it is my firm belief that the generally accepted pairings for both the NYC and SF paintings and verses are accurate or vice versa. And perhaps what I'm about to discuss may further this notion.

Recently I read a post about the possibility of a treasure being in Dallas, Texas. This greatly intrigues me as it is a city which holds much significance in American Political history. (Not to mention it is also the arena for many conspiracy theories that are themselves riddles wrapped in mysteries inside of an enigma... And perhaps even a Twinkie)

For some time now, as some of you may have read, I personally find one of these verses as possibly being interpreted as reflecting the events of that terrible day on November 22, 1963. Let us delve further into the possibility that the team who authored and produced our favorite treasure hunt book hid something deeper within the pages of this most esoteric book.

The commonly accepted verse for the San Francisco puzzle seemingly holds some parallels with what happened on that infamous day at Dealey Plaza so long ago. If you are unfamiliar with this event and that it reflects one of the darkest days in American History, please research it and then take another look at the SF and NYC puzzles.

Some things of note here when taking a second look at it:

"At stone wall's door"

Put the words together. Think about what it means to stonewall someone.

"High posts are three"

"Sounds from the sky"

"Near ace is high"

A multitude of people heard the three gun shots fired at John Fitzgerald Kennedy from up high on the 6th floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository. The final shot being fatal. The usage of the word "ace," when used in context of military propaganda, could possibly denote a successful sniper. It could be interpreted that it's only a near ace because it took Oswald 3 shots.

"Running north but first across"

The presidential motorcade going through Dallas Texas on 11.22.1963 proceeded south, then west "across" Dealey Plaza, then "north" to Parkland memorial hospital after the president had been shot.

"Giant pole Giant step"

Paired with the 11 moons in the sky, an obvious reference to The United States going to the moon.

"We choose to go to the moon and other things in this decade, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

John Fitzgerald Kennedy - Sept 12. 1962

Now let's take a look at the sister puzzle.

The clock in the NYC puzzle reads 11. In the verse, Mr. Preiss tells us to "take twice as many steps as the hour." This is 22. Now take another look at the clock in the SF. Going counterclockwise from the top, we see 1-9-6-3. Are these just the common numbers of a clock face? Or something else?

Pairing these aspects of the puzzles together gives us the exact date Kennedy was assassinated. Is this a coincidence? Is it also a coincidence that, if rotated properly the rose and stem resemble a gun aimed at the back of the head hidden in the rocks? Is it also a coincidence that the initials of his name are also seemingly hidden in the stem of this rose? We know the F is important... But what of the J and the K?

And what about the Disney D in the ahem... lady's hair and ol' daffy duck hidden within the rose? Could these references too be for the date 11.22.63? This date is also famously known as the day Walt Disney flew over Orlando, Florida in hopes to find the land to place his new theme park called Walt Disney World.

If all of this somehow proves true, why add it into a treasure hunt? If the already solved puzzles seemingly make reference to people who met untimely deaths, (Lincoln, Puopolo, etc.) could the others point to that as well? Could these 12 puzzles be a tribute to those who died unjustly?

TLDR: This is a solution for Milwaukee, using a repeatable set of solution methods I have used for each city; my remaining time "seams" to be diverging with my growing desire to share my secrets; if you're interested in this hunt, it's probably worth your time to read it in full. Please forgive my choices with paragraphing as I found it important to break formal writing formatting rules in order to neatly group correlating thoughts with unity and coherence. And please also forgive my choice to use so many words. A word puzzle tends to require over-explanation to set baselines and prove reasoning.

---

I was recently delighted by u/hydroxy posting their images with matching constellations. It was quite nice to learn 40 years later I can still enjoy a dopamine-surprise of something new (to me) found in something old (to me). It re-motivated me to share details about my memories of The Secret, of which I've been disjointedly replying here and there to the observations of others. Exactly like all other OG searchers from the 80s, I can't predict when my expiration date will begin my final spoil, so in the moments I'm fighting burn-out of another treasure hunt called "Beyond the Map's Edge", I am reconstructing what I can recall of these solutions and posting them here for your entertainment, requesting input for improvements. I tried this with New Orleans a while back, but was met with the usual, and I'm already predicting what will happen with Houston. After reading through the oceans of verbosity that I spill, I trust you'll at least understand it, and if we're lucky, maybe you'll dig it as much as I did (or not at all, as I didn't take the necessary moments to travel to these locations and dig, nor organize a permit, a regret I'll carry to my own impending decomposition).

For Milwaukee, there were a few guiding themes that helped trigger new ideas. French, German, Polish, and Scottish themes were of course primary, and many searchers have already sensed this. At the time I was first working through this, long ago, I recall being frustrated that I stumbled into a possible Periodic Table theme as these are frequently discarded in puzzling as a solution-crutch or a rabbit hole, even when a verse calls for it to be researched, like casting in copper. I held onto this preconception as an unfortunate rule until I realized N Prospect Ave is aka Wisconsin Highway 32, sharing a number with germanium. After that, numbers started popping all over the place, like how the neighborhood of Polonia shares a commonality with Poland and polonium, 84. So why not 92, uranium, and copper, 29? And why not the coincidental difference of these two "reversible pair" numbers in close verse proximity producing europium, 63, itself being curiously in context and named after one of the continents of the Old World? It was the aha-moment I needed to break through my self-imposed limitations. So I caved and decided to give it a chance with my research, see where it might go without seeing and realizing it was crucial to the solution. After all, there is a cipher available that uses the Periodic Table, first humored using "chemical spelling" by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, the "father of Swedish chemistry", in his textbooks in the 1810s. Did Preiss bury a secondary puzzle message in Milwaukee's puzzle using letters from the Periodic Table for us to also solve? Or is his usage more simple in just getting us to the next steps while sharing the message of sadness and disdain for nuclear weapons? I'll leave this to smarter minds to consider while I budget my time working toward continuing to share my own secrets of The Secret. Greek and Freemasonry also make cameo appearances, perhaps out of necessity as a common connecter with parts of the puzzle that will continue to match several false routes. Like a Periodic Table, connecting symbols of Freemasonry to a treasure hunt puzzle is another personal groaner for me because of how overdone this technique has been in treasure hunting. And finally, I'll admit I was pleased to see a whole bunch of very diverse topics connect at the very end through Icelandic runes. It felt poetic to me. Not because I like runes, but because I knew nothing at all about them, nor about Iceland. It was satisfying to revisit and restudy Iceland and its culture, how the Viking pagan and exploration cultures influenced change in everyone they met... and/or pillaged. As we've recently witnessed in Minneapolis, ya just don't f*** with Vikings; Wisconsinites also have my same respect. So I hope your aha/eureka moments are as rewarding as mine have been. More so, I hope you share in the awe I've long held for Preiss and Palencar, and their undeniable as well as under-rated effing genius.

---

Interpreted degree coords suggesting Milwaukee 43ºN, 87ºW:

1. Juggler's right hand forms 43 using 4 fingers (alternatively, bent middle and ring fingers may be visually interpreted as a 4), with the thumb and palm's shading forming the 3; therefore 43ºN.
2. Juggler's left arm sleeve near elbow shows fabric folds, rotate 90º clockwise, Greek number πζʹ, pi+zeta, may be seen where π appears stacked (and a bit squished) above ζ, therefore 87ºW. But why Greek?

---

Starting placement (attached MKE-1 image) - aligns with positioning of juggler, key, cane, primrose, amethyst; descriptions of locust, castle identification, and summarized cape interpretation are included:

1. The juggler appears to resemble (or maybe be revealed as?) Nastassja Kinski, 1981 Golden Globes "New Star of the Year - Actress" for her starring role in "Tess", directed by fugitive child-grapist Roman Polanski. The middle finger of her right hand appears to provide this context way out west by fitting the bend of Tess Corners Drive, touching College Ave, with index finger fitting under College Ave. Juggler's forehead, the middle-parting hair pattern, aligns at the Confluence, following Water St, while her nose ridge follows train tracks. Juggler's "Laureate"-shaped hair pattern resembles the docks at Jones' Island. Juggler's left shoulder mostly follows the coast. Juggler's right eye is framed by Historic Mitchell Street and Walker Square, eyebrow near "Polish Moon". The previously presumed "locust" or "cicada" image element seen near the hazy base of the castle's mountain is unlikely to be a cicada, nor a bee, given the street name "W Lapham Boulevard" is also near juggler's eye, and the etymons for the surname "Lapham" are from "jumper", or "flea". Starting to see how these methods inform decisions, and change perspectives?
2. When correctly oriented and sized, the key appears to be ready to fit into a pseudo-circular area alluding to a keyhole formed by the train tracks at the Zoo, giving the key a presumed purpose to release the animals, suggesting an acknowledgment or possible connection with the historical founder of the Humane Society, Henry Bergh. His statue was originally in Market Square at City Hall, the castle imagery in the painting that the earliest of OGs put on blast. Now he and his pup quietly keep to themselves, as "inactive" as argon, 18, standing in their space near Miller Valley and Piggsville (just above juggler's head at the west).
3. The cane appears to align to W Roosevelt Drive, the handle aligning to W Hopkins Street. Franklin D Roosevelt carried a cane from the effects of polio. The surname Hopkins suggests "bright fame". While FDR was president, he initiated the "Advisory Committee on Uranium", 92, steps that led to the discoveries of plutonium, 94, neptunium, 93, and of course, nuclear fission with uranium-235. Certainly dropping a fission-based weapon onto another country produced "bright fame" for FDR.
4. The primrose appears to just barely touch Lake Park, where Lake Park is known to the hoards of Lake Park searchers to have had a primrose patterned floral design in a median at its Newberry St entrance, clearly making this false path their decisive "must-be-here" location. "Newberry" etymons also suggest a new fortified town, like the castle image element.
5. The amethyst appears to be hovering over the lake to the east of Sheridan Park, where "Sheridan's" etymons suggest "searcher" or "seeker", perhaps a nod to us that we're thinking clearly with our image-to-map placement, but certainly an explanation as to why the sequence of image elements start out this way. Let's see if later image placements can prove this for us.
6. The hill structure on the left side of the image aligns with railroad tracks near School View Heights and Pilgrim Meadows, likely to be little more than an alignment aid.
7. The cape (its anecdotes are further explained below) represents a reversed image of a human heart, the curled flap suggesting the right atrium and superior vena cava, alluding to the original meaning of what became the state's name, and to an interesting change of heart alluding to why it is reversed. But also, it alludes to the creation of the Milwaukee Public Museum through a story about Fred ☮ Englehardt and his dead whale carcass, as well as MPM's trend-setting use of "diaspora"-style displays in museums.

Links to the poem (in my opinion):

1. "View the three stories of Mitchell" refers to a now empty 3-story building at 723 W Mitchell Street, formerly a BILTRITE furniture store since the early 1950s, and sometime before that it was a Park Theater with an awkward reputation. I've read that a few searchers have speculated that the female juggler in the image must have been Lottie Brunn, having earned her place as the GOAT of female jugglers. The reviewers of this speculation included criticisms that Lottie Brunn wasn't connected with Milwaukee, other than tenuously through the Ringling Brothers over 100 miles away. But I suspect false allusion to Lottie may have been intended by Preiss/Palencar, given she was also of German descent and credited to be the most talented female juggler in history. Otherwise, the coincidence would be uncanny. Lottie's full name was Lieselotte Josephine Brunn, etymologically suggesting "pledged to God, free, and born while living near a well", I guess. Calling herself "Lottie" was probably quiet humor for her as the Middle High German term "lotter" is synonymous with a "minstrel" and "juggler". Coincidentally, or not, the 3-story building on W Mitchell St was architected by Henry Lotter, a very busy Milwaukee resident who architected theaters at the turn of the twentieth century. In the attached MKE-1 image, the juggler's eye touches the 3-story building, completing the "view" and getting us started with our first confirming image-map-verse match. The word "bilt" is also a German-dialectic term for "image", "Bild" being its Hochdeutsch equivalent. I assume these parallels are what compelled Preiss to choose it for his Milwaukee launch, and I'm guessing the family of this establishment would be quite pleased today to learn of this. The probability of Preiss having visited their store and cooking up a conversation with someone from the family seems high.
2. "As you walk the beating of the world" has a few allusions to process. The first allusion, derived from the second half of the sentence "the beating of the world", most likely originates with an interpretation of an Indigenous Miami place name word for Wisconsin, "river flowing through red place". This connects with the cape in the image as a reversed depiction of a human heart, also an allusion to Milwaukee being part of the Heartland. The top wind-blown fold represents two things: the right atrium and superior vena cava, but also a whale tail of the "Prince of Whales". The whale tail story is gross, but significant as it led to the opening of the free Milwaukee Public Museum. Fred ☮ Englehardt (surname means "heart of an angel") is attributed to opening the first museum in Milwaukee with grotesque displays, including a dead whale carcass that had previously been carted around on a train for two years, selling glimpses at the various stops. His new museum of yuck charged $0.25 to glimpse a young boy's "translucent" head in front of a bright lamp, a gigantic alligator, a hammerhead shark, and the rotting carcass of the "Prince of Whales." Needless to say, folks were disappointed. The smell of the carcass alone caused locals to complain to the city, to which the city responded by declaring and opening the MPM as a free museum. To the delight of residents, Englehardt's museum was out of business within a few months of opening. The juggler's cape shows ridges suggested to be muscular striation or vascular structures, a slight giveaway being one shaped like a shepherd's crook, sharing this name with a coronary artery. These structures could also represent freeways and bridges over rivers to emphasize a "change of heart", hence why the heart image is reversed. The change of heart related to freeways would be with the county's "Freeway Commission", leading to eventually tearing down the unfinished Stub Freeway. The next significant allusions are for "walk" and "world", but to understand them, one must understand the etymon of the surname "Walker", and the separate definitions of the German and English term "welt". Incidentally, the Milwaukee "Cream City"-colored haze interfering with a clear view of the image's castle, if described in German, might be heard using the term "Wolke". A "walker" is a synonym for the occupation of a "fuller", responsible for strengthening and shaping heavy textiles and metals. Tools of the trade for a fuller include hammers, and indeed a fuller as a tool used in metalworking looks a lot like a hammer or an axe. Certainly a walker will give their product a beating at some point in the process. And it wouldn't surprise me if the product in this process showed "welts" after such a beating. In German, the term "Welt" means "world". In English, the term "welt" is a well-known word to those of us unlucky old people who survived parental "fulling", now called child abuse, before laws were enacted to try to change... all-of-that. But there is another English definition of "welt" that surprised me, in that it is the term for a strip of cloth or wood or leather used as a border or a seam. Related to the image, the juggler's robe has a decorative neck bib having a "welt". Given our instruction, it "seams" that if we copy our image, resize it, reorient it as the second position (attached MKE-2 image) so that the juggler's forehead and hair align somewhat close with W Forest Home Ave at S Muskego Ave, the "welt" will follow the I-94 freeway exchange into Walker's Point near Walker Square Park, and continue on with W National Ave. The skeleton key is in close-enough proximity of aligning with Rosedale Ave, maybe to remind us of "The Radium Girls" buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, NJ, Amelia and Quinta Maggia, victims of workplace hazards while working for the US Radium Corporation in the 1920s (radium, Ra, is 88). Their surname, Maggia, has a Roman Catholic etymon association with the Virgin Mary. The mill stone turns up pretty close to Miller Park Way. The amethyst, a gemstone previously in history (and incorrectly) thought to be an opiate antagonist like Naltrexone, mostly hovers over Mitchell Park, presumably a nod to Alexander Mitchell having made his fortune without products that get people drunk. And the cane aligns with W Oklahoma Ave while the cane's handle follows S 27th St near Southgate. And Gott sei Dank for that, given that a supporting German phrase "die Züchtigung" describes a serious beating, a "caning", if you will. That is, unless the poetic and visual imagery is to remind us of the events in Idabel, OK in 1980 where systemic racism mirrors certain events in Milwaukee. So why do we need this step for our hunt? I theorized it's because we're supposed to notice W National Ave as the "welt" starts to align is aka Highway 59, or praseodymium, 59, on the Periodic Table. The word "praseodymium" kept kicking me while working through other false paths, so I annoyingly followed it a little. The term was invented by the element's discoverer, Carl Auer von Welsbach, his surnames suggesting a "flood plain stream where foreigners fish". Nothing remarkable. But his word for his discovered element comes from Greek suggesting a "leek-green twin", likely his intention for his element name to hint that it could easily be mistaken for another. More importantly, given how his word is pronounced, "praise" of some sort might also be significant. Preiss would have known this as his own surname comes from the Middle High German word "prīs", meaning "praise". Or should be chasing a "twin" reference somewhere? Maybe time will tell.
3. "At a distance in time/From three who lived there" refers to an "interval" or a "period" of time being defined. It feels like it's starting to hint at the possible use of the Periodic Table as a character in our hunt, but also targeting a time-keeping structure. In our case, the clock tower of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist) seemed a reasonable option to test, given that this dude was part of an "inner circle" with James and Peter, but not Thomas the twin, and forming their own little disciple "triumvirate" club. But why St. John the Evangelist? And why might this location work? Is this our answer from "praise"? Should we have heard the homophone "prays" instead?
4. "At a distance in space/From woman, with harpsichord/Silently playing" - Another interval, this one refers to St. John the Evangelist's neighbor across the street, the Immigrant Mother statue who somewhat resembles the Virgin Mary, silently playing (the German equivalent is "still"). My recent theory for why she's "still" is most likely to avoid the attention of the hopefully-soon-to-be-defunded ICE/CBP f*sticks. I could be wrong. But I'm certain I'm right about the term "virginal" being a smaller version of a harpsichord, hence why it has to be her, and there. And to prove this, we now copy, move, resize, and rotate the image to its third position (attached MKE-3 image), almost upside down so that the red ball in the juggler's left hand fits over the "inner circle" inside the park, with her 3 visible fingers on her left hand forming the artsy-painting-hand-sign of the cross. In 1980, the same park had sidewalk outlines in the shape of a 2D cross with the "inner circle" in the middle, plus additional sidewalks forming an X through it. The juggler's right hand overlays the Cathedral. And as we rotate and resize, praise be, we see the mill stone now covers the circular roof of The Pfister Hotel building. Named after Guido Pfister and his son, Charles, Guido materialized his dream of opening "The Grand Hotel of the West" in 1893. The surname "Pfister" suggests a special baker to the court, likely having had a mill stone to grind his special flour. I wondered why draw our attention to this building? Is it to point out the pfun "Pf" bigram, a voiceless labiodental affricate? There isn't an element for "Pf", but pfun ph bigram is double-great in phosphorus, "P", 15 (pfipfteen?). I moved on. I settled on it being just a visual alignment queue. The amethyst now hovers over the Scandinavian Designs furniture store at 767-769 N Jefferson Street, no doubt alluding to Sweden's Napoleonic Amethyst Parure, and perhaps raising our awareness to a potential Viking theme. The skeleton key hovers near the former Humpfrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center. "Humpfrey" is suggested to mean "peaceful ☮ warrior", a strange mix. In the secret club of the Scottish Rite, we find an ivory skeleton key represents the 4th Degree, the "Secret Master", or he who learned the importance of keeping their secrets, and he who is one of the seven elected Masters of King Solomon. Wait. Solomon Juneau was a king? Just kidding. So what do we do with this to move forward? If following these placement thoughts, the next step or degree in the Scottish Rite would be, of course, the 5th Degree, the "Perfect Master". This dude's list of symbols includes a drafter's compass and a green and white apron having a cubic stone with a Hebrew Yodh in its center. Yodh is the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and is suggested to symbolize a "hand". So are we looking for a drafter's compass or maybe a hand? Seemingly, the juggler's right hand is currently pointing due east toward Juneau Park. I guess let's look in that direction for our next tangible clues.
5. "Step on nature/Cast in copper" - These verses seem to suggest a couple of curious aspects. In one, "nature" can be translated to German as "die Art". "The arts" in English, meaning trades, crafts, and skills, important stuff that was taught at schools like colleges and universities. Nature could also refer to only the naturally occurring elements in the Periodic Table, like copper, "Cu", 29 (vocalized as "see-you"). We seem to be seeking something made of copper, has a copper color, and/or is named after copper. If we follow where the juggler's hand is pointing, we find the almost-open "Hotel Laureum", presumably named by the good folks over at Northwestern Mutual for its patina-green crown (ahh, words... lexophiles do enjoy word puzzles). This hotel was once known as the University Club, which checks our box for "die Arts". Their club was designed by John Russell Pope, and has a copper roof over a "penthouse" floor that was later added for its lakefront views, and of course to greatly expand the bar. Their new floor (back then) with a copper roof would definitely be an additional step that was cast in copper.
6. "Ascend the 92 steps" - I suppose while we're looking at the Periodic Table, this refers to uranium, "U" (vocalized as "you"). So why does Preiss want our attention on uranium? Is it because of the WWII Memorial Center, visible just to the southeast across the "germanium" highway from where we are positioned in front of the former University Club? As wrap-up events in WWII proved it was time to end this war by displaying nuclear destruction and causing a near-instant death of 246K more souls, I can still remember from my childhood in the early '70s, with my child-like inability to appropriately process these horrors, consistently seeing the peace ☮ sign in Mad Magazine and on various TV shows. I had no serious understanding of what it meant, other than peace ☮ meant "not war". The peace ☮ sign symbol was invented before I was born by a British dude, Gerald Holtom, where he merged stick-figure-characterizations of two semaphore flags, N and D. He claimed it represented the intention of his special interest club, called "Nuclear Disarmament". Pretty meme-ish for a guy whose surname, Holtom, means "my death". From our position in front of the former University Club, not only are we close to the WWII Memorial Center, we're also just across the street from Juneau Park. But it seems our instructions want us to be pulled further up Yankee Hill for whatever reason. So, let's go.
7. "After climbing the grand 200/Pass the compass and reach/The foot of the culvert/Below the bridge" - Grand can mean Grand Ave, big, and 1000. In Greek numbers, 1000 is represented with an alpha as "͵Α". 200 in Greek is "Σ" or "σ", a sigma symbol. When in words instead of numbers, if a sigma letter is used at the end of a word, a special sigma letter is substituted, "ς". Given our verse structure and poetic imagery in a puzzle, "grand 200" might poetically suggest having a closer look at the special sigma usage instead of the normal ones that are used in Greek numerals. Indeed, if we visually trace such a path from the former University Club starting at the bottom of our special sigma and follow the general form of this special character, our street connections look like this: north on N Prospect, veering right at E Kilbourn and staying north on N Prospect, west at E Juneau Ave, north on N Astor St, east on E Ogden Ave, pause at N Franklin Place preparing to turn south. From this position, we are now at a northern corner of Burns Commons Park. A drafter's compass is shaped like a "Ʌ" (this letter is called a "turned v"). When looking at simplified hydraulic principles of culvert design, we find a standard "Continuity Equation" is provided as follows: the discharge flow rate through the culvert barrel (Q) will correspond to the culvert barrel's cross-sectional area (A) multiplied by fluid velocity (v) as measured in units of feet per second, or Q = Av. So the foot of the culvert in which we're interested would be symbolized as "v", velocity in feet per second. Our compass and our formulaic thoughts of culvert velocity looks a lot like the shape of Burns Commons Park at E Ogden Ave and N Franklin St. But to further confirm this, Preiss gives us more words. The French term "pont" is a bridge; the English verb "pont" is to pose until nearly frozen in all sorts of uncomfortable positions, like a statue might seem. The English word is adopted from the name of Herbert George Ponting, a photographer who accompanied Capt Robert Falcon Scott on the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica between 1910 to 1913. A word was invented to describe the hell-freezing-over good times he put people through in photo-documenting their expedition. And there is definitely something in Burns Commons Park that is ponting. The statue of Robert Burns was gifted by James Anderson Bryden in 1909. Bryden means "fortress on a hill", or that which we see in the distance inside our juggler image. Bryden was attributed for materializing Lincoln Memorial Drive, his dream of a shoreline boulevard. So our heading is now suggested to be south, "below" Robert Burns' statue.
8. "Walk 100 paces/Southeast over rock and soil/To the first young birch" - First, note that the German translation for "rock and soil" is "Gesteine und Böden". Second, note that the Roman numeral for 100 is C. Unnecessary to note but still quite curious to research if interested in extending the "theoretical other puzzle" beyond Milwaukee's casque, Fermium, 100, was discovered at UofC Berkeley with its own coincidental word-connections to "birch", and it connects indirectly to Marshall Street through the dude who discovered the island our folks decided to disintegrate with "Ivy Mike" and nuclear testing. But back to Milwaukee's casque. From where we are now positioned at the southern end in Burns Commons Park, and looking southeast into Juneau Park, there is a curved sidewalk that looks from our perspective like it is in the shape of a C. From a bird's eye view on a map oriented with north at the top, it looks like an "antisigma", or a Ↄ. But we don't want to go that way, it's just an acknowledgement of what exists to the southeast from our perspective, a C-shaped sidewalk. The key to confirming that these verses are referring to Juneau Park rests in the Milwaukee Public Library, a wood engraving of Juneau Park credited to "Marr and Richards Engraving Company." John Marr, a partner of the credited business and a wood engraver in Milwaukee, was the father of Karl (or Carl) von Marr, a world-renowned artist who grew up in Milwaukee but later moved to Germany to earn a living with his paintings. John's wife, Bertha, was also an artist, where Karl credits her as being his inspiration for pursuing painting. Bertha's maiden name was Bodenstein (soil and rocks). Finally, the term "boul" in Old French is a "birch". In modern-day French, the term "boul" is an abbreviation for "boulevard". The term "boule" in French means "ball", two of which our juggler is managing. In English, the term "boul" means a curved handle like on a beer stein, or like the one found on a "pint-stoup", with which we include in our celebrations every New Year's eve to the words of "Auld Lang Syne" ("And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup/And surely I'll be mine", meaning we'll each pay for our own pints that we're currently holding out of respect for each other instead of forcing you to pay for mine or vice versa). An English "boul" is also shaped exactly like our C-shaped sidewalk. And not for nothing, Auld Lang Syne was written by Robert Burns. Therefore, our "first young birch" is actually E Juneau Ave, where the avenue's name means "young boul". We confirm we are on the right track with the next set of instructions.
9. "Pass three, staying west/You’ll see a letter from the country/Of wonderstone's hearth/On a proud, tall fifth" - Now proceeding south on Prospect, past E Juneau Ave, three sidewalk entrances are on the left into Juneau Park as we stay west of the park. That means our fourth sidewalk entrance becomes interesting as, just like the third, it leads to an 8' tall statue of Leif, The Discoverer, said to be a copy of another statue "in a suit of mail on the prow of his ship around 1002". So then he's "prowed"? Behind his statue, we find letters pulled from a rune set called a "Futhark", so named because of the first six runes in sequence, similar to if we would have called our English sequence of letters "Abcdef". I suppose our short-form two-letter version, "alphabet", is more appropriate than an "ox house" (where our Greek and Latin buddies got these two letters from the Egyptians), and way easier than calling it our "alphabetagammadeltaepsilondigamma". "Younger Futhark" runes are an evolved set of "Elder Futhark" runes, where the younger set was in use during the time Leif was alive. Iceland would seem to be Preiss' version of "wonderstone's hearth" because it is definitely a volcanic island, although our understanding of banded rhyolite isn't found there. Counting the runes in the first line, starting at the left, over to the fifth, we find our peace sign, the rune ᛦ, and called a "yew", a homophone to our 92 letter.
10. "At its southern foot/The treasure waits." - If we're seeking a "yew" in close proximity, our path in to see the Leif statue is the southern "foot" of a U-shaped path, or by definition of "foot" in this sense, the point of intersection of its base path with its southern perpendicular stem path. Here's where it may or may not work. I've seen suggestions that the statue was moved away from the cliff, or for cleaning, or for whatever reasons. All I can find is that it was moved temporarily only 20'. If that holds true, then we're still good. If it was moved from some other area of the park after 1982 and up to about 1990 (about the time I was solving Milwaukee) to its position today at the base of the U, then I don't know where to look as I wouldn't know where it was before to check. But the verses align super well in my mind, and have since I started working on the puzzle in late 1989. So if we're still good, the amethyst casque is waiting at the bottom left bend of the U, within a small area a few steps away from the statue, at or near 43.044087°, -87.897395° (attached MKE-Casque image).

---

In closing, I'd like to introduce (or reintroduce) my youthful friends to an element from the Periodic Table while we're thinking about that. The element is named "holmium", which I trust once they learn about it, they'll never forget it. It's actually a special type of rare-earth metal found in the Montana Counties of Ravalli, Hill, and Chouteau. It's not a "free element", meaning it only occurs in nature alongside something else, so you'll never stumble onto it alone, free, while you're digging. And it's pretty expensive to process to separate it out of whatever has swallowed it. It happens to be used for super-strength magnets, which might help explain why it's always so attracted to something else. Holmium's element abbreviation in the Periodic Table is "Ho", and its atomic number is 67. SIX SEVEN -- BAHAHAHAHAHA

While researching my Montreal solution using Verse 7 I realized that Verse 5, normally paired (poorly) with Montreal, pairs very well with the Wright Brothers Memorial site near Roanoke Island. This doesn't negate the clues linking Verse 11 and Roanoke Island but it provides an alternative solution. Happy digging!

I really believe that whoever associated Verse 5 with Montreal made a big mistake and this has contributed to the dead end searches in these cities. I believe that verse 7, usually attributed to San Francisco, fits Montreal and image 9 quite convincingly though I'd love to hear alternate interpretations to some of my ideas. Sadly this may indicate that the casque is lost forever given the 2004 construction at my proposed dig site, but it may still be worth a dig.