image 1

[Voltaire]

One final suggestion before I head out for the day:  "In jewel's direction" may refer not to the prize, but to Julius (Jules) Street, which is just north of Coit Tower.

That one kept me up last night wondering...  How exactly would I get away with digging at a public landmark in broad daylight?

Any tips on digging etiquette or protocol, just in case I get lucky a few more times and decide to go down that path at Coit Tower?

[Voltaire]

Okay, one MORE observation, again going with the Coit Tower theme.  I about peed my pants when I realized this one--and it was from reviewing a picture that I took two days ago, back when I was a relative novice!

I have a picture of a very striking low-relief freize on the wall of a nearby residence.  It's three stories tall, and judging by the architecture and artistic style, it dates from the 1930s.  It depicts a shirtless man holding a globe while three airplanes fly overhead.

It's also right across the street from the east pedestrian walkway to Pioneer Park, the home of Coit Tower.

Could this be "Near ace is high?"

Of course, the man is gigantic, so it could be "giant step," too.  I'm more inclined to think that this line is a literal direction to take for the exact spot where the casque is to be found, though.

Sadly, I can't upload the pictures because I have no way to shrink them on my laptop.  I've emailed my "ace" picture to forest blight, though, so maybe he can do it.

[forest_blight]

Mark Twain published in San Francisco's The Golden Era in the 1860s. Here are the articles:

http://www.twainquotes.com/Era/eraindex.html

I went through them all, and besides some very good reading (check out his hilarious Biographical Sketch of George Washington, March 4, 1866), many SF locations are given attention, some more than others. Here is a list of the ones I noticed:

September 20, 1863
Lick House (huge hotel once located on the corner of Montgomery and Sutter, considered the "finest hotel west of the Mississippi;" destroyed 1906 along with pretty much everything else I'll mention)
Occidental Hotel (like Lick House, also located on Montgomery St. between Sutter and Bush)

September 27, 1863
Lick House

September 27, 1863
Lick House
Goat Island (Duchess of) (Goat Island is now Yerba Buena Island)

October 11, 1863
Montgomery St.
Occidental Hotel
Lick House
Seal Rock Point (NW corner of peninsula)
Cliff House (NW corner of peninsula)

March 27, 1864
Lick House
Seal Rock Point

June 17-23, 1864
Occidental Hotel
Opera House (?)
Metropolitan (on Montgomery St. between Washington and Jackson)
the Academy of Music (on Pine St., below Montgomery)
American (theatre on the corner of Sansome and Halleck)
the New Idea (a theatre)
the Museum (?)
the Bank Exchange (?)
Maguire's Opera House (on Washington St. above Montgomery)


July 3, 1864
Cliff House
Ocean House (a SF hotel, location unknown; where Sloat Blvd. meets the beach?)

January 28, 1866
Kearny St. (a N-S street that, if it could, would run directly through Pioneer Park)

January, 1866
Police Court

January 28, 1866
Russ House (hotel on W. side of Montgomery St., between Bush and Pine)
Cosmopolitan Hotel (once at 100 5th St.)
Occidental Hotel

February, 1866
Montgomery St.
Clay St.
Washington St.

February 25-28, 1866
Occidental Hotel
South Park (a park on South Park St., near southern end of Embarcadero)

Twain also wrote for the Daily Morning Call:
http://www.twainquotes.com/callindex.html

I haven't gone through these in detail because the others took all morning, and I'm supposed to be working (!). But one mentions the Bella Union Melodeon (corner of Washington and Kearny).

Anyway, many of these, plus other material, were apparently collected in the books Washoe Giant in San Francisco and Mark Twain's San Francisco, both of which may be worth obtaining and scouring at some point.

[forest_blight]

Here's a close-up I found of some of the windows in Coit Tower. Note the shape:



Voltaire: As for the air smelling sweet at Ghirardelli Square, we could group the line The air smells sweet with Not far away rather than with At stone wall's door; i.e., "if you're standing at Coit Tower (which also isn't stone, but concrete from what I understand), nearby at Ghirardelli Square the air is sweet, but here, high posts (successive telegraph towers) are three." So, we (might) have the following:

At stone wall's door

At Coit Tower...

The air smells sweet
Not far away

Within sight is Ghirardelli Square with the "G h" backwards...

High posts are three

There were three telegraph towers here...

Education and Justice
For all to see

You can see Berkeley and Alcatraz in those paintings that have the same shape as Image 1...

Sounds from the sky

?

Near ace is high

The dude with the globe and airplanes across the street?

drew: wilhouse and Fox connected ace is high to poker over on the Verse 7 thread, and you're right, that makes a lot of sense.

Running north, but first across
In jewel's direction
Is an object
Of Twain's attention

ay, there's the rub

Giant pole

What could "pole" refer to? We are already aware of the Coit Tower reference, so this meaning would be redundant. Something else then?

drew: Ralph Stackpole has "pole" in his name.

Giant step

There are some pretty giant step-like thingies in front of Coit Tower. Are they diggable? If so, the spot might resemble the planter area of the Cleveland find.



http://www.virtuar.com/ysf2/ap_coittower.htm

To the place
The casque is kept.

[Voltaire]

I'm heading out the door.  Call me on my cell phone at 443 306 5220 if there are any important tower-related finds, as I plan to have breakfast then be in that area all day today taking pictures or maybe even digging.

Again, I'll be wearing a black pullover and a green polo shirt underneath.  I'm male, white, 6'2", with short brown hair if you want to stop me and say hi.

[forest_blight]

Just got off the phone with Voltaire (the treasure hunter, not the famous historical figure). He has some exciting updates, but I'll let him share them later. Hot on the trail now.

[fox]

it's right near where P.Dreizen lived!

ahhh, the infamous P. Dreizen    still say US was apple 

[fox]

is there a Havana St nearby?  wondering if CC  ( http://www.mayoff.com/5-01coitDCP01905.jpg ) could be object of Twains attention.  He had a famous quote about CC that went like this:  "In a museum in Havana there are two skulls of Christopher Columbus, "one when he was a boy and one when he was a man.""

just some more ramblings.  CC statue is so close by tho.

[fox]

I know this is a stretch, but somewhere in my mind I remember that a telegraph tower used to be known as a "pole", meaning that the possibly something on the Telegraph Hill could actually be the telegraph pole?

wilhouse

here is mention of poles used.  http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/cal0091.asp

[forest_blight]

fox: I wonder if it could be that simple! Is there dirt on top of the pedestal (Giant step) in which one could dig?

[forest_blight]

Voltaire's frieze on Montgomery:

[fox]

a little more precise location of our pole?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutge ... et-114799/

maybe the "Giant step" simply refers to the giant statue who would take giant steps.

dirt on this pedestal fb? http://www.flickr.com/photos/allaboutge ... 799/  doesnt look like it and i dont see BP digging in the fenced in area around CC.  Could be nearby tho

[forest_blight]

fox: Sure looks like a lot of dirt to me. Anyway, something to think about.

As for the plaque, would you believe Voltaire read me the contents of that plaque on the phone about an hour and a half ago? We were quite excited that it mentioned the pole.

[fox]

another thought... could the table's pedestal in this P represent Coit Tower?  We still have yet to decipher the table.  I know it isnt the exact shape of Coit Tower  http://www.magazinusa.com/images_st2/ca ... _tower.jpg  like the buildings located in the 2 "found" P's but.......

could it be something more like this?  http://www.geoffreydrewmarketing.com/an ... nozzle.jpg

"The artists also claimed that the building was a mockery because they assumed (as do many today) that architects Brown and Howard had designed the monument in the shape of a fire hose nozzle in memory of Lillie Coit's fondness for the Fire Department, an intention that the architects consistently denied."  found on history of CT http://www.coittower.org/history/histor ... tower.html

the stem on the rose atop the table seems to curl into the letter "C" for Coit also

[Voltaire]

Alright...  Here is a point-by-point explanation of all I managed to find today.  Executive summary:  If I had had a shovel--and a little time alone--I would have dug.  The site is very crowded with tourists, though, so any dig will have to be early morning or late at night if possible.

Before you ask, I have photographs to document every word of what follows.

Alright, start with verse 7.

At stone wall's door
The air smells sweet

Going up to Pioneer Park from the east side (Montgomery St), there is a long flight of steps made of concrete, not stone.  They are, however, surrounded by tons of different flowers, many of which I photographed.  They include roses, if it matters, and I am assured that in springtime the air smells wonderfully sweet.

Incidentally, the nearest street address to this point of entrance is 1445 Montgomery.  Now turn to the woman's robe in Image 1.  Consider the number of sides of the figures surrounding the "Gh:"  They run circle, square, square, triangle, or 1-4-4-3, the address that the lot should have had (it's not marked, but this should be it).

Go to the top of the concrete stairs, and there is a stone wall partly surrounding the top of Telegraph Hill around the border of Pioneer Park.  It's real stone--jasper--and not fake concrete stuff.  The air smells sweet here too, thanks to abundant flowering currant bushes.

Not far away
High posts are three

Telegraph hill has been home to three high posts.  First, there was a semaphore tower, the foundations of which are still standing.  Second, there was a telegraph post, which is not in existence any longer.  Third, there is Coit Tower itself, whose windows all have the shape of the outside border of Image 1.

Education and Justice
For all to see

These are likely the paintings of Alcatraz and the University, as discussed above in the thread.  I've photographed them myself, and my one remaining doubt concerns the capital letters:  There simply aren't any personifications of Education or Justice in evidence, and these are what we would expect from the capital letters.

Sounds from the sky

There is a memorial to Marconi, the inventor of radio, just across from the northwest end of Pioneer Park.

Near ace is high

The Montgomery Atlas, located at 1360 Montgomery Street.  He certainly looks like a flying ace, who can span the globe thanks to the airplanes flying overhead.  The closest intersecting street is called Alta, which means high in Spanish.  A line from the Montgomery Atlas through the Marconi memorial would go straight through Pioneer Park, and, I believe, directly across the treasure site as well.

Running north, but first across
In jewel's direction

In a slightly different direction, Montgomery runs north-south; number 1360 is south of 1443, where the stairway can be found to Pioneer Park. But if you go north to the end of the street, you hit Julius' Castle, a restaurant and club that has been in operation since 1922.  Julius = Jules = jewel's.

Is an object
Of Twain's attention

I haven't read enough Twain, but I understand that this exact neighborhood was a favorite topic of his.

Giant pole
Giant step
To the place
The casque is kept.

Atop Telegraph Hill, the memorial plaque for the semaphore tower describes the device as a "tall pole."  My best guess at this point is to take a giant step from the foundation of the tower in the direction of Ghirardelli Square.  That square, with the backwards "Gh" plainly visible, is in a more or less direct line with Marconi, the semaphore tower, and the Montgomery Atlas/Ace.

Difficulties:

I drew very few matches on the architecture.  The image just doesn't show much relating to Coit Tower and its environment.  Yes, there are roses, and yes, there are the arched windows.  But everything up there is in this very spare, art-deco style, or else in done in 1930s-era socialist realism.  The motifs up there are nothing at all like the picture:  No yin-yangs; no roman numerals even.  (On a lark, I looked at every one of the engraved bricks that were placed in the steps to mark sponsors of the park's refurbishment.  Preiss doesn't show up...  Oh well.  That one would have been a dead giveaway.)

So...  What do you all think?