image 1

[forest_blight]

Wow, Voltaire, thanks for the report! Only a few notes for now.

First, the tower was restored in 1984, after The Secret was written, so it is unlikely that you would have encountered Preiss' name in the bricks. I don't know the extent of the restoration, but it might have disrupted things a bit. Perhaps a giant flagpole was removed from somewhere.

Second, I think you have hit upon the correct interpretation of the shapes as 1443. Excellent job. Even in the unlikely event that you turn out to be wrong that 1443 is a street address, the shapes certainly represent 1443 (or 3441 if we follow 'G h' backwards, but probably 1443).

[Voltaire]

1-4-4-3 was my husband's idea, which he thought up before we even knew the street address of the lot with the stairs on it.

Right now I am wondering if someone with better connections than my own in this city might be able to get us some quick permission to dig, say from the park rangers or something?  I worry because there are security cameras trained on the parking lot around the columbus statue, so it's not likely to be too safe at any time of day.  And digging under cover of darkness is just asking to spend the night in jail.

[Voltaire]

More documentation:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1360+Mont ... &t=k&hl=en

1360 Montgomery is where the Atlas/Ace can be found.  The street immediately below it is Alta, or "high."

Just to the left is 1443 Montgomery (the numbers are a bit screwy, I admit).  This is the lot with the staircase, the flower gardens, and the way up to the stone wall, which is visible to the left, curving around the southeast end of Pioneer Park (it looks like a backwards J).

At the end of Montgomery Street (covered by the balloon) is Julius' Palace.

Now, here's where it gets interesting...

To the northwest you can see Pioneer Park, with Coit Tower and the statue of Columubs.  To the north and a bit west of that is the Marconi memoria ("Sounds from the sky/ Near ace is high"), which looks like a half-circle rounded to the right.

Make a line between 1360, 1443, and Marconi...  and it goes DIRECTLY through the very spot of the old signal tower, which is at about the 11 o'clock position of the circle going around the Columbus statue in front of Coit Tower.

[drewsmith]

Could the "giant step" refer to the Filbert Street Steps?

Drew

[Voltaire]

If the giant step is the Filbert Street steps, then I have no idea where specifically to look for the casque.  As it stands, I've got one well-defined patch of dirt.

Also, the Filbert Street steps are by no means the only ones around.  The place is crawiling with steps, so much so that I wore out one of my usually sturdy knees and can barely walk anymore.

[drewsmith]

Personally, I have some doubts that the 2 symbols on the left and the 2 symbols on the right should be read together as a 4-digit number.  To me, that seems something of a stretch.  I would find it more likely that if you reverse the photo (so that the Gh appears correctly), you get 34 on the left and 41 on the right, which are a better match for the pier numbers just north of the Coit area.  Perhaps their only purpose is to orient you in the right neighborhood, just like the 122 and 123 numbers do regarding longitude.

I like the idea that "near ace is high" refers to Alta Street, but I'm not sure that the giant refers to an "ace".  He's not flying the planes!

Drew

[Voltaire]

More details, as I digest them...

1.  The Marconi park isn't just a fluke.  Consider the inscription below his profile:

"Fulgura praevertens vacvam vox permeat aethram."

Using what scant Latin I can muster, I get...

"Faster than lightning your voice permeates the empty aether..."

2. I could find no convincing items to match the table leg, but  there is a distinct four-holed spot next to the plaque marking the old semaphore pole.  It's clearly a place where something was torn out and where concrete was put to patch up the holes.  There were four of them, and I have a picture marking the spot.  Now what we need are old pictures of the area around Coit Tower to tell what used to be there, since I suspect the patching is recent.

[Voltaire]

Perhaps it's just the tail end of a wild, wild day, or perhaps I've made another find.  I will say, however, that I'm quite uncertain about this last one--unlike, say, Marconi being the "sounds from the sky," which seems a great fit.

So... on top of everything else leading me to the neighborhood of Coit Tower and Pioneer Park, is it just my imagination or...

Does Lillie Hitchcock Coit look a lot like the woman in Image 1?

http://images.google.com/images?q=lilli ... N&filter=0

It's also said that she wore long black silk dresses to social functions with her husband.  Being the butch women's libber that she was, she also wore a flannel shirt on top of it.

She died July 22, 1929, FWIW.

[wilhouse]

I think you're close on the trail. Now to figure out where to dig..

wilhouse

[drewsmith]

I'm not sure I saw a resemblance between Ms. Coit and the Image 1 woman, but how about this one?

http://www.helfenfinearts.com/biogs/ima ... ieldOz.jpg

Note that the artist is Otis Oldfield, our Coit Tower muralist.

Drew

[drewsmith]

Am I imagining things, or does this say what I think it says?

Drew

[Voltaire]

I give up.  What does it say?

I get "CB," "CBB," and "ACB," but that's about it.  Of course, I am certainly open to suggestions.

[forest_blight]

drewsmith: Nice observation on the claws - I never looked closely at them before. Upside down, they could be a "93."

(while on the subject of letters, there might be a DD at the very bottom of her robe).

The 34 and 41 might be read separately, but I disagree with reading them backwards. I think the "G h" is backwards because that is how the letters are seen from Telegraph Hill.

Voltaire: I'm afraid I see little resemblance between Coit and our lady. I can't place her ethnicity from her face, but the robe, the dragon, the origin of the pearl ("From far Cathay..."), and the yin and yang hint at Chinatown.

[Voltaire]

I spent a fair amount of time in Chinatown too, always with one eye out for the puzzle (and the other looking for cool stuff to buy).  I did not get any great leads from the place; even Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, which is located on California and Grant Streets in the heart of Chinatown, did not provide any satisfying leads.  Of the places I had a chance to explore, Telegrpah Hill remains by far the favorite.

[forest_blight]

A thing to consider is that the casque is not necessarily in Pioneer Park even if the reference is to Coit Tower. The tower could serve as a landmark or starting point for further directions (...Running north, but first across).