Unsolved 1982 Treasure Hunt

[BJG]

Back in 1982 Byron Preiss published a treasure hunt book called: "The Secret", illustrated by John Palencar, containing a dozen images and verses. The idea was to match an image to a verse and use that pair to find a "casque". The casque (a ceramic box made by New York sculptress JoEllen Trilling) held a key which could be redeemed for a gem. But Byron was killed in a car accident, and 10 of the 12 puzzles went unsolved. The location of the 10 casques remains a mystery. Although the gems are no longer available, the search for the casques continues.

I've put together some notes here on where I think these might be:

http://www.lemontiger.co.uk/images/misc/thesecret/map/

Finding someone willing to try digging them up is almost as difficult as locating them. Anyone in New York, New Orleans, Roanoke, San Fransisco, Charleston, Milwaukee, Montreal, St Augustine, Boston or Houston that wants to try digging a 3ft hole...? Let me know if you find one of these things...

Here's an article from the last time one of these showed up...

http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/egbert/secret.html

 

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[tjgrey]

I have stumbled across this and would like to check out the Charleston (Sullivan's Island) hypothesis. Has anyone reported to have looked or dug for this one?

 

[jambone]

I've been working on The Secret for years. You might check out the forums at Quest4Treasure.

 

[tjgrey]

I've been working on The Secret for years. You might check out the forums at Quest4Treasure.

Thanks for the reference! I have read through several of the Quest4Treasure forums for the casque that is thought to be in the Charleston area. I was curious if anyone on here had done any digging in SC...

Have you had any luck?

 

[0121stockpicker]

Cool, I've never heard of this and will check it out. Thanks for the post.

 

[Erexere]

Sometime soon I'd like to post a few more links and ideas. Would be nice to motivate a few folks to take a look at some interesting sites.

 

[coazon de oro]

Howdy All,

The picture thought to be of Houston, seems to me that it is of Times Square in New York.

The poem reads:
Our strongest tower of delight
Falls gently
In December night

That to me is describing the new year countdown every last day of December, with the ball gently dropping down the tower, and everyone cheering with delight.

Homar

 

[Erexere]

Hi Homar,

I like you're idea. It doesn't change the location of Houston in my mind, but maybe you are correct with the idea that we can celebrate a new beginning or a countdown of some event such as when the samara seed spirals down from a tree like a helicopter landing gently.

 

[Erexere]

I'm still putting a lot of effort into this puzzle and so I wanted to see how other searchers were holding up.

-Eric