Let's solve a 40 year old unsolved treasure hunt!

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Let's solve a 40 year old unsolved treasure hunt!

bonestructure: Sep 25, 2008; by Ralp

rookhunter posted:

I think you are generally right but there seems to be exceptions.

That shape was what caught my eye when I first clicked on the thread. I'm a native Charlestonian, so one of the first polysyllable words I learned in school was "peninsula," while drawing that familiar shape.

I think the clues in the images will mostly be things like that -- visuals that are recognizable if you're very familiar with a place, or if you can actually go there and look around.

Morally Inept posted:

From the look of that one that was found, the key was broken. After so many years I'm sure the whole thing may have just disintegrated into the soil (except for any metal parts).

I'm hoping that the Charleston cask is still intact or mostly intact since the ground doesn't freeze here. That's assuming that Hugo didn't get it, wherever it is.

Edit: Thanks for those Cleveland pics! That shores up another pet theory of mine, that Preiss went to some trouble to bury the casques in tucked-away places in the parks he picked, where the digging wouldn't be destructive or cause an eyesore. That makes sense in terms of not deliberately tearing up beautiful parks, and also for being able to bury something without leaving traces that would attract a lot of attention. While I was walking through WPG today and thinking about that, I was struck by just how few places like that there were, even in a relatively large park like White Point Gardens. Maybe that will help in narrowing down possible locations.

bonestructure fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jun 20, 2013

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:39

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# ? May 14, 2024 04:10

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:

People thought the Boston cask corresponded to Salt Lake City because one of the rocks around the window is shaped a little bit like Utah or something.

I've always thought it looked more like an American Flag than anything else, with the telltale crack giving it the flag shape, rather than an elongated one. Total hunch, I've got nothing concrete on that part of the painting.

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:40

rookhunter: Jun 14, 2013

bonestructure posted:

I'm hoping that the Charleston cask is still intact or mostly intact since the ground doesn't freeze here. That's assuming that Hugo didn't get it, wherever it is.

I'll wager most of them are damaged in some way. I have high hopes for SC because of the sand but I guess we will see.

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:47

demonicon: Mar 29, 2011

I dont remember seeing this brought up before, so apologies if it was, but I have found two references to the first 2 lines of verse #3 associated with Boston

First:

quote:

If Thucydides is
North of Xenophon

There was an artist in the 19th century, named Xenophon Cleveland that lived for a few years in Boston in the Hyde Park.

quote:

After his years in Waltham, Xeno-
phon lived a while in Hyde Park (since
1917 a part of Boston), Massachusetts.
In 1887, apparently while a resident of
Hyde Park, he painted several large pic-
tures of the �Charles River Night Car-
nival� as seen at Waltham. He and his
family resided in Hyde Park at least until
November, 1890.

Besides painting he also decorated houses so maybe there is a house near hyde park he decorated? Maybe the one he lived in?

Here is a link to the pdf about him: http://www.historicnewengland.org/preservation/your-older-or-historic-home/articles/pdf209.pdf

second:

There is this quote:

quote:

On the eve of the American Revolution, Horace Walpole predicted, in 1774:
�The next Augustan Age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will perhaps be a Thucydides at Boston, Xenophon at New York, and in time, a Virgil in Mexico, and a Newton in Peru.�

So maybe the location is actually between New York and Boston?
Then it goes on with

quote:

In the area of his direction
A green tower of lights
In the middle section

5 steps could mean 5 langitudes north and then there is a green tower of lights somewhere maybe? I will check this further, just throwing this out now.

edit:
After looking further, there is actually a light tower in a town to the north, in Marblehead. And it was changed

quote:

in 1938 to fixed green

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marblehead_Light_(Massachusetts)

And in Marble Head there is Castle Rock, looking like this: http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/9665702.jpg

Edit: Sorry for heavy editing, but I didnt want to make a new post for the same 2 lines of the verse.

demonicon fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:50

TotalHell: Feb 22, 2005; _{Roman Reigns fights CM Punk in fantasy warld. Lotsa violins, so littl kids cant red it.}

rookhunter posted:

Cask 2
Interesting note for those searching near white point.
There appears to be some map theme in the picture.

I also found out that the Arthur Ravenel Jr bridge replaced two bridges, the Grace Memorial bridge and the Pearman bridge

It's not a perfect match:

But it's also not too darn bad. Good catch. And the Fort Sumter ornament is even pointing out (approximately, depending on how you tilt the image to make the road match up) toward Ft. Sumter.

Thing is, I'm not sure what it tells us about where the treasure is. I would say that if it fit better through resizing then wherever the gem in the corner is, that's where the treasure would be. But it doesn't really match anywhere too nicely. The closest thing is the Fort Moultrie Monument, which once again give that a strong case, but you'd have to do some extreme resizing/tilting of the image to make the gem overlay there, so much so that the road wouldn't match anymore.

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:53

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

That clue is vexxing me more than anything else right now. I spent some more time poring over HLS and Harvard Yard today and can't find anything.

In general I don't like clues that obscure or that much of a reach, but who the hell knows. They could mean something else? Roads, buildings, who knows.

It could also be a sign that I'm just flat out wrong about the location, but Chicago was found without solving every line in the verse, so I'm not giving up hope

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:55

LargeHadron: May 19, 2009; They say, "you mean it's just sounds?" thinking that for something to just be a sound is to be useless, whereas I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are.

Somewhat Heroic posted:

While only seeing this thread last night and not reading ~60 pages of postings, what am I missing where there is a green dot in Salt Lake City as a location of one of these; but none of the verses seem to go with it. Was the old wiki incorrect on this? I apologize in advance if this has already been explained, I live in salt lake and would love to get in on old treasure hunting!

Yeah, everyone (including me) is pretty set on cask 11 being Boston, but I guess there's no harm in looking around SLC for things that match the image. Or, maybe traveling north a bit to 42N 112W. Who knows.

# ? Jun 20, 2013 23:55

I. M. Gei: Jun 26, 2005; CHIEFS

BITCH

We should totally make a thread to solve the Thomas Beale Codes after this.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 00:25

Somewhat Heroic: Oct 11, 2007; (Insert Mad Max related text)

Cool, thanks chaps! Probably no buried treasures in these hills anyhow.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 00:41

tacodaemon: Nov 27, 2006

Raccoon Leaf posted:

Houston

Start at the train, go through the "woods", step across the small bridge (the only one that was there at the time), go to this mystery area, get to the spot to dig. Where do you dig? "In the center of four alike" near a sign that has the three "winged" Houston Parks and Recreation Department leaf logo. Dig with your back to the steam engine, so that you can look back from the treasure ground and see it behind the water spout.

I know I'm basing this on a ton of assumptions, including:

1. There was something significant in that spot, and 4 things that were "alike".
2. The HPARD logo been a three-part leaf since before the 1980s.
3. There was a water spout in the lake back then.

The three-leaf HPARD logo was only adopted in 2003, and one of the Chronicle columnists poked fun at them about it because of "leaves of three, let it be".

Before that there was this logo, which you can still see on some signs here and there:

Maybe that's not that important to your hypothesis though?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 00:55

GWBBQ: Jan 2, 2005

demonicon posted:

First I really love this thread, and all the possible clues and all the puzzle solving that goes on in here. I havent finished reading this thread yet, but I wanted to point one little thing out, that just crossed my mind, maybe its even come up already.

I noticed that a lot of people are not only using google maps for historical reference but also to compare the images to shapes in the pictures. I dont thing this is the right thing to go about this. This puzzle was created in the 80s and supposed to be solvable by common people reading the books in the 80s. These people didnt have easy access to sattelite images and maps. I think, for the most part, that clues in the images refer to shapes that you see at the ground. When you are actually at the place, not when looking at the place top down. Of course I realize that we have to use old sattelite images and maps because a lot of things have changed, but I dont think we can directly compare clues in the pictures to those images.

I'm with you. I've spent probably 50-60 hours since this thread was posted on the cask 12 image, half of which was on Google Maps/Earth looking at maps, historic imagery, and street view. I think it's a fair assumption that the irregularities in the window pane are clues, and they don't match maps or aerial views of any city in the US with a noteworthy Russian population/history and a population over 1000. If we're going to find a match for that window, it's going to be a window or architectural feature that's easily noticeable from a sidewalk or park. I can't find a match for the bird, but I'd put money on the odd hybrid of eagle and seagull (a combination that's hard to search for thanks to the band Eagle Seagull, who formed in 2004) being something obscure that becomes obvious when you see it. I've gone through a bunch of possible ideas regarding the woman, and had a whole lot of close but not quite matches; I think she's a lot more significant than just having the Statue of Liberty's face for a few reasons - I feel like her pose and the direction she's looking are relevant, the obvious face in her dress is a clue, and the fact that the dress covers her feet (which you don't see often in artwork, are all significant.

I'd like feedback on an idea, and would also like to know from the Q4T veterans if this has come up at any point. I posted previously that the woman in the Cask 12 image could be a general depiction of the goddess Columbia in addition to having the Statue of Liberty's face, and posted a couple of pictures of statues showing Columbia with her arms in almost the exact same pose. Assuming it's in NYC, take the idea that the woman could be Columbia and consider the lion's face in her dress, and you get Columbia University, whose mascot is the lion. Does anything else in the picture or one of the verses point there?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 01:32

demonicon: Mar 29, 2011

Okay, to finally make a condensed post I would really like to make a case for Cask #11 being north from Boston, namely Marblehead

First, if we look at the first lines of the verses:

quote:

If Thucydides is
North of Xenophon
Take five steps
In the area of his direction
A green tower of lights

There is this quote

Horace Walpole posted:

On the eve of the American Revolution, Horace Walpole predicted, in 1774:
�The next Augustan Age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will perhaps be a Thucydides at Boston, Xenophon at New York, and in time, a Virgil in Mexico, and a Newton in Peru.�

I dont know how famous this quote is in the U.S. but it is a quote that does associate Thycydides with Boston and Xenophon with New York. Coincidentally New York is South of Boston.
If we then look at the lines
"Take five steps (cities)
In the area of his direction (this would be north)"

And count 5 cities north from Boston we come to a city named Marblehead. This City, since 1938 has a light tower with green lights, which are fixed lights since 1960. This corresponds to the next lines
"A green tower of lights"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marblehead_Light_(Massachusetts)).

The following lines probably refer to landmarks when you actually get there, so I will ignore them for now.

Then we have the Image depicting a Bird and a Castle. If we look at marble head we see Castle Rock, that depending on what photo and angle you look at looks like the one on the picture.
Marblehead Neck is home to a bird sanctuary, as well as Castle Rock and Chandler Hovey Park at its northern tip, where Marblehead Light is located. The birds most commonly found there are these guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warbler
Again, depending an what photo you use, they closely resemble the bird on the picture.
Also, we have a few "balls" in the picture that could remind one of marbles.

Additionally Marblehead is an old and very historic town with a lot of parks and landmarks and some smaller islands located in the sea. A lot of good places to bury the cask.
Also, further along in the Verse there is talk about a light showing the target of the dig site, which would be very possible for a light tower with a fixed light to do.
Finally, and this is a bit farther stretched, there is this book (written 1978), about marblehead (look at the woman on the cover) http://www.booktopia.com.au/marblehead-joan-thompson/prod9780595153930.html

I will investigate further, but maybe some of you guys more knowledgeable about the area could tell me if I am gone in the completely wrong direction or if I could be onto something here.

demonicon fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 01:44

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

Don't entirely buy it, but its not insane. They're probably in major cities, most likely accessible from major airports.

The verse solve is tough, you can fit then anywhere. And arbitrarily deciding it means 5 cities north is really a reach, but in general I like your thinking - it's not impossible, but I'd need to see pictures of the stuff you say is similar.

There isn't much of a Revere connection either. I dont think the bird is going to be a vague match like that (if one at all) - it will be something visual to the spot, or symbolize something.

xie fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 02:09

Abugadu: Jul 12, 2004; 1st Sgt. Matthews and the men have Procured for me a cummerbund from a traveling gypsy, who screeched Victory shall come at a Terrible price. i am Honored.

It seems like the position of the gem in the portraits doesn't have a bearing on the final digging spot or location, based on Cleveland and Chicago. Unless we find one that proves otherwise, I think it's a misleading detail.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 02:18

Urban Smurf: Jun 12, 2013; Take this avatar, rotate it 180 degrees, mirror it, mark a point from the tip of the dogs noses and you will see it will line up to this image of the centaurs tail "exactly."

I just finished editing my post on page 60 for SF. I think I just spotted a match to the woman's crossed arms.

Urban Smurf fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 02:56

Deteriorata: Feb 6, 2005

Urban Smurf posted:

I just finished editing my post on page 61 for SF. I think I just spotted a match to the woman's crossed arms.

I doubt those trees looked much like that 30 years ago, if they even existed. I think you're largely just seeing random stuff and forcing into your theory.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:01

Yip Yips: Sep 25, 2007; yip-yip-yip-yip-yip

Urban Smurf posted:

I just finished editing my post on page 61 for SF. I think I just spotted a match to the woman's crossed arms.

Yeah that's your most insane theory yet.

rookhunter posted:

Cask 2
Interesting note for those searching near white point.
There appears to be some map theme in the picture.

I also found out that the Arthur Ravenel Jr bridge replaced two bridges, the Grace Memorial bridge and the Pearman bridge

I think this is worth looking into, but what does it tell us?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:26

wa27: Jan 15, 2007

Urban Smurf posted:

I like the curvy tree crossing over on itself, maybe it looks like the arms of the woman in the image. Yes, I think I've found a convincing match.

Well I'm convinced!

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:33

Urban Smurf: Jun 12, 2013; Take this avatar, rotate it 180 degrees, mirror it, mark a point from the tip of the dogs noses and you will see it will line up to this image of the centaurs tail "exactly."

Deteriorata posted:

I doubt those trees looked much like that 30 years ago, if they even existed. I think you're largely just seeing random stuff and forcing into your theory.

Anyone's theory looks like it's forced.

You do raise a very good point about trees and how they change over the years, decades in this case. I've been studying trees and their growth for awhile. It's interesting to look at the different species and their environments. Depending on things like rainfall, exposure, soil type, altitude, and latitude they have trends. I doubt we'll find a picture of these exact trees from 1980, but maybe we can find some similar trees in the area and work to establish some confidence in this prospect. I have learned that lots of trees along windy coastal areas are quite old 50-100 years and they still look small. It's hard to tell from this google image, but even if the tree didn't look like a pattern fit, I'm already establishing some good logical constraints for considering this spot.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:34

dms666: Oct 17, 2005; It's Playoff Beard Time! Go Pens!

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

Question:

Does anyone have the slightest idea what the hell this might be?[/b]

I always thought it was a pelican/bird on its side. Alcatraz was called Island of the Pelicans

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:37

Invicta{HOG}, M.D.: Jan 16, 2002

I'll be around Harvard for a few hours tomorrow starting at ten if anyone wants to meet up. Maybe get lunch together or something. Plan to walk to the coliseum.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 03:49

LargeHadron: May 19, 2009; They say, "you mean it's just sounds?" thinking that for something to just be a sound is to be useless, whereas I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are.

demonicon posted:

Marblehead

The birds most commonly found there are these guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warbler
Again, depending an what photo you use, they closely resemble the bird on the picture.

Definitely look into this further. I have to call you out on the warbler claim though. My wife is a bird person (her mother is a starling) and she took one look at that sentence and laughed. Keep an eye out for a bird statue, or something related to a bird-of-prey like a hawk or falcon.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 04:31

The Monkey Man: Jun 10, 2012; HERD U WERE TALKIN SHIT

dms666 posted:

I always thought it was a pelican/bird on its side. Alcatraz was called Island of the Pelicans

That's definitely not a pelican, its beak is tiny.

Has there been more progress on the New Orleans cask? I thought that Audubon Park was a great lead.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 05:02

LargeHadron: May 19, 2009; They say, "you mean it's just sounds?" thinking that for something to just be a sound is to be useless, whereas I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are.

Somewhat Heroic posted:

Cool, thanks chaps! Probably no buried treasures in these hills anyhow.

Don't give up so soon! We don't have any goons looking around SLC. I'll get you started: on the illustration, the most clearly defined numbers are 42 and 112. The coordinates 42N 112W put you pretty close to a city called Logan, a bit north of SLC. There are letters on the woman's sleeve that spell BOS. BOS is the code for Boston's airport. You know the name of our airport? Logan. There...have fun with it. Oh and feel free to try out other verses too. Nothing says for certain that the one we picked has to go with the illustration.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 05:21

TX297: Nov 7, 2005; IM A HUGE FAGGOT WHO STEALS BYOB AVATARS.

Urban Smurf posted:

Anyone's theory looks like it's forced.

You do raise a very good point about trees and how they change over the years, decades in this case. I've been studying trees and their growth for awhile. It's interesting to look at the different species and their environments. Depending on things like rainfall, exposure, soil type, altitude, and latitude they have trends. I doubt we'll find a picture of these exact trees from 1980, but maybe we can find some similar trees in the area and work to establish some confidence in this prospect. I have learned that lots of trees along windy coastal areas are quite old 50-100 years and they still look small. It's hard to tell from this google image, but even if the tree didn't look like a pattern fit, I'm already establishing some good logical constraints for considering this spot.

Ok, this just crossed the line into troll territory. That's how I'm going to explain it to myself.

Edit: I can still put this on my resume, right?

TX297 fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 06:46

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

I'd really like to get someone in StL involved, as Preiss hinted pretty strongly at it & nobody is working it.

Not all theories look forced, or if they do, they at least make some sense. Saying the Gh in SF was Ghiradelli may have been forced, but it was falsifiable & the thought process makes sense...

xie fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 06:49

PunkNickel: Oct 29, 2011

xie posted:

I'd really like to get someone in StL involved, as Preiss hinted pretty strongly at it & nobody is working it.

Not all theories look forced, or if they do, they at least make some sense. Saying the Gh in SF was Ghiradelli may have been forced, but it was falsifiable & the thought process makes sense...

Would you be using the legeater cask picture for St. Louis?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 07:00

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

Probably, since I'm not convinced that lamp is unique. It's a cast, not an art piece, and there are similar ones that have been found, albeit with a different top.

But really, Boston is suspect (though less so than I said 3 weeks ago!), NY seems solid but besides the gargoyle lacks image clues, etc.

The guy who dug up Cleveland dismissed the correct theory at first (Egbert didn't crack it, just finished it off) because it was "known" that it was in PA.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 07:04

PunkNickel: Oct 29, 2011

xie posted:

Probably, since I'm not convinced that lamp is unique. It's a cast, not an art piece, and there are similar ones that have been found, albeit with a different top.

But really, Boston is suspect (though less so than I said 3 weeks ago!), NY seems solid but besides the gargoyle lacks image clues, etc.

The guy who dug up Cleveland dismissed the correct theory at first (Egbert didn't crack it, just finished it off) because it was "known" that it was in PA.

Okay, if that is the case then what other picture then would be the one that is buried outside of the states. I know I read in this thread that Preiss admitted that there was something buried in Canada. So, what would your guess be as to which cask is not close enough fitting all the other locations that it could be in Canada?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 07:51

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

I think some people on Q4T feel that one could be Vancouver, but I forget which. Possibly Charleston/SF? I haven't waded through absolutely everything so far.

I'd say any of them that lack a single direct image match are suspect, no matter how much we think we know about them. Cleveland->Philadelphia was because of the OBVIOUS Bell & letter L for liberty, so even if we think there's a single location marker in the painting it's up for grabs.

The issue once again is that Preiss confirmed a St. Louis connection. Either something else is going to be in a St. Louis park, a park named St. Louis, etc. You can interpret his e-mails to kingdom come, I don't want to get too far down that rabbit hole. I just think it's really dumb to ignore possibilities because of what we think we know.

It was years ago but as I said, the Cleveland solve was completely out of left field, someone basically came into the Philly thread (where people had already spent significant time on the ground) and said "uh I think it's here" and it still took quite a bit of photo convincing.

xie fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:00

Jick Magger: Dec 27, 2005; Grimey Drawer

xie posted:

I'd really like to get someone in StL involved, as Preiss hinted pretty strongly at it & nobody is working it.

Not all theories look forced, or if they do, they at least make some sense. Saying the Gh in SF was Ghiradelli may have been forced, but it was falsifiable & the thought process makes sense...

I'm in StL, I've been following this thread pretty closely. I've only half-heartedly looked into the Montreal/Boston ones as being connected with StL, but nothing has really jumped out at me as immediately suggesting Missouri/St. Louis at all. I'll try to work it this evening when I get home from work, though.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:24

BJG: Jun 4, 2013

xie posted:

I'm not convinced that lamp is unique. It's a cast, not an art piece, and there are similar ones that have been found...I think some people on Q4T feel that one could be Vancouver

The only person talking about Vancouver is Urban Smurf. Everyone else on Q4T thinks the Canada casque is most likely Montreal, because nothing else matching the legeater has been discovered. The only other images with a vague resemblance that have been posted at Q4T are that thing in Boston library and this page from a Fiske ironworks catalogue. Neither is a close match.

I'm not saying the lamp is unique, I'm just saying no-one has found another yet.

BJG fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:27

Invicta{HOG}, M.D.: Jan 16, 2002

Jick Magger posted:

I'm in StL, I've been following this thread pretty closely. I've only half-heartedly looked into the Montreal/Boston ones as being connected with StL, but nothing has really jumped out at me as immediately suggesting Missouri/St. Louis at all. I'll try to work it this evening when I get home from work, though.

I had initially thought that the Montreal one could be STL given the jewel box but the legeater so strongly suggests Montreal that I dropped it. If we could find the legeater in STL...

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:27

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

I'll be curious what someone else thinks of my Boston site. I just really don't like the "St. Louid" [sic] thing meaning Louis Armstrong - it just is such a huge reach that I don't want to close off one of the more concrete clues we have.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:48

The Monkey Man: Jun 10, 2012; HERD U WERE TALKIN SHIT

xie posted:

It was years ago but as I said, the Cleveland solve was completely out of left field, someone basically came into the Philly thread (where people had already spent significant time on the ground) and said "uh I think it's here" and it still took quite a bit of photo convincing.

I was wondering how they ignored the dead-on Ohio map in the image, but then I remembered that there's a building called the Ohio House in Fairmount Park.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:48

BJG: Jun 4, 2013

xie posted:

I just really don't like the "St. Louid" [sic] thing meaning Louis Armstrong - it just is such a huge reach that I don't want to close off one of the more concrete clues we have.

I agree, I've gone off that too. I'm coming round to Jackson Square and St Louis cathedral, which seems more plausible, especially if the verse in the theory Byron was responding to was the verse for New Orleans. I'm open-minded about St Louis, it's just that I can't see it being any image other than (9), and the leads for Montreal seem stronger.

There's some stuff pertaining to Canada on P27 of the introduction.

The 1649 battle took place near Georgian Bay.

There's a square called Place Jacques-Cartier in Montreal near Habitat 67 and St Helen's.

BJG fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jun 21, 2013

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:49

xie: Jul 29, 2004; I GET UPSET WHEN PEOPLE SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WASTEFUL THINGS THAT I DONT APPROVE OF

The Monkey Man posted:

I was wondering how they ignored the dead-on Ohio map in the image, but then I remembered that there's a building called the Ohio House in Fairmount Park.

I just don't think they saw it - it wasn't brought up before then. The Terminal Tower wasn't seen either - the guy posted the park first & once everyone felt it was too strong to ignore. Once it was established it was probably in the cultural gardens in Cleveland the rest fell into place. I didn't see a single post about the map - that might've eluded everyone at the time completely. (At least publicly on Q4T, there was obviously a lot of offline/elsewhere work being done in 2003.)

That's pretty much how I hope Boston goes, and I like that if I'm right, we're working with known-solid methodology.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:50

LargeHadron: May 19, 2009; They say, "you mean it's just sounds?" thinking that for something to just be a sound is to be useless, whereas I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are.

The Monkey Man posted:

I was wondering how they ignored the dead-on Ohio map in the image, but then I remembered that there's a building called the Ohio House in Fairmount Park.

Haha, these kinds of coincidences are a real bastard.

# ? Jun 21, 2013 15:57

rookhunter: Jun 14, 2013

GWBBQ posted:

I'd like feedback on an idea, and would also like to know from the Q4T veterans if this has come up at any point. I posted previously that the woman in the Cask 12 image could be a general depiction of the goddess Columbia in addition to having the Statue of Liberty's face, and posted a couple of pictures of statues showing Columbia with her arms in almost the exact same pose. Assuming it's in NYC, take the idea that the woman could be Columbia and consider the lion's face in her dress, and you get Columbia University, whose mascot is the lion. Does anything else in the picture or one of the verses point there?

The connections to the statue of liberty has been suggested. I've seen no theories for Columbia that I can remember.

This has been suggested for the bird:

I'm open to the treasure being in Manhattan so I'llsee if I can find anything to link verse.

Yip Yips posted:

I think this is worth looking into, but what does it tell us?

Not sure, there may be more map references. Some think that clue leads us to Sullivan Island. The problem I have with that theory is why not just outline the island like in Roanoke?

# ? Jun 21, 2013 16:23

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# ? May 14, 2024 04:10

Deteriorata: Feb 6, 2005

OK, I'm curious about this. I've been leafing through the book and found these lines on pages 29 and 30:

According the origins map, the Alven came from the Lowlands, and in the Litany of the Jewels (where they're described as gnomes, not dwarves) their treasure stone was an opal. Opal is the birthstone for October, which I think is the picture we're using for Montreal.

Has this been addressed by the Q4T folks (or anyone else)? I get the legeater is pretty unique to Montreal, but is there any discussion of this picture actually referencing Manhattan?

(the book also has references to Massachusetts, Florida, and the Pacific NW)

# ? Jun 21, 2013 17:27

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