Just got back from St. Augustine dig. Sad to report that the casque was not found. Here's the story. I started looking at P6 back in the fall of 2004 and always felt that it was a Spanish conquistador, likely Ponce de Leon. I researched St. Augustine back then as it fit the immigration theme that was being developed and the Spanish theme for the hunt. There were several additional clues (really dropped hints) in the book's preface on pg 22 and pg 30 as well. During my research, I ran across some images of two signs within the park on some travel website. The signs mentioned
shell, limestone, silver salt, even in that order. I had visited the Fountain of Youth park as a kid and remembered the Planetarium there. The pieces started coming together. Further research kept confirming the FOY park and I planned a trip in January 2005. Unfortunately, one could never dig there because the park is private property and an archeological site. At first, I thought that the clues pulled you out to the coastline and on that trip we found much more to confirm the park as the hiding place, but the clues blew through our coastline theory. I made another trip to St. Augustine in summer of 2006. This time we tried to firm up our thoughts and lock in on it. Still no digging was allowed. During these visits I became friends with one of the staff members, Jenny. She has been a vital person in the efforts to find this casque. And my hat is off to her. We have bounced ideas back and forth and her interest and excitement about this hunt has been contagious. Jenny has been the catalyst in brokering some dig time with the owners of the park. We planned another trip this March to test out our theory:
Start with P6:
There is not much to get you to the FOY park. But not much is needed, since it is hinted at in the book and is a famous place. There is Ponce de Leon. The longitude 82 in the big rock. Although, St. Augustine's longitude is 81+, using 81 would have put you in the Atlantic Ocean, so I believe that BP used 82, close enough. I do not see a clear latitude in the picture. The flowers form a rough sketch of a spanish galleon. A solid confirmer is the schematic symbol on the flag and even the shape of the flag itself. The symbol is found on an archeological site map found at the park. It symbolizes an obelisk monument out by the coastline.
Much of the big rock imagery seems to be subjective. I've been looking at this for years (and so have you). Even those who see the park everyday have ideas about the imagery, some of it is really good, but not everyone will agree in what they see in that big rock. I believe there are many loose confirmers. I have not seen anything concrete that will lead one to a specific dig site. And maybe its not meant to. I will say, that we have found no utility for the rock--tree combination in the lower right of P6. And it may be important??!
Now V9:
The first chapterThis is a literal clue and a confirmer. These exact words are used on an entry gate sign at the FOY park
Written in waterAllusion to the history and lore of the fountain (water) of youth. The two lines are seen in juxtaposition at the FOY gate at the entry to the parking lot. No changes since BP's time. These lines can be interpreted to say "The first chapter of our nation's history was written at the Fountain of Youth".
Near men
With wind roseThe verse is a little disordered. The next six lines, starting with
Near men localize the dig site. You will not see these clues until you work your way back to the Planetarium. There within the vestibule of the Planetarium you will find a display of a
wind rose, another literal confirmer, meaning the words
wind rose are used. Across from the
wind rose is a replica Spanish ship with men on the deck.
Near men with wind rose can be interpreted to mean "Near the planetarium vestibule".
Behind bending branchesOn Magnolia avenue running in front of the park is a well known and impressive tunnel of branches that line that street. And behind those bending branches is the FOY park.
And a green picket fenceThe park has several picket fences and they are all green, some recently repainted. No changes since BP's time. One of the fences runs perpendicular to the outside wall along Magnolia avenue. The wall runs N-S and the fence runs E-W. This begins to create a boundry. And inside that boundry is the Planetarium.
At the base of a tall treeThere are hundreds of trees in the park. But when you can identify the boundries of the search you start to eliminate many of them. There are Live Oaks, palms, pines, elms etc. I always thought we would be looking for a palm tree given P6. But I don't see the clues leading us there (I could be wrong--since I did not find it). It would have had to have been a mature tree (to be tall) and near the vestibule of the Planetarium. How does one eliminate further trees in this area?
You can still hear the honkingIn the early 80's, and during BP's time, the park had a goose pen behind and slightly west of the planetarium. Nearly a dozen geese there (only 3 out on the actual goose pond at the time). In a single line of verse, you can eliminate many trees now that are within the sight line of the goose pen. This arrangement eliminates all but one tree. The tree is within 6 ft of the Planetarium vestibule wall (on the other side of the wall hangs the wind rose). The tree is out of sight line of the goose pen, but you could easily still hear them honking. This tree died several years ago and on one of our trips we could find where the park had ground the stump.
The area around the Planetarium has not changed since BP's time. You will find it looking the same today as it did then, except for the loss of two live oaks and the goose pen which is now gone. One oak was taken down in a hurricane (but was within the sight line of the old goose pen), the other oak is our proposed tall tree.
When we found out it was an oak and not a palm tree, our hearts sunk. We knew there would be a heavy root system making digging in this area very difficult. And the fact that it was not a palm kept nagging at us--and still does. But we followed the clues. The next several clues function as confirmers and lead you from the park entrance back to the planetarium.
Shell, limestoneOn a sign found very near the entry. The words shell and limestone are found literally in this order on a sign describing the coquina structures there.
Silver, saltOn a sign found within the Spring house. The words silver salt are found literally in this order on a sign describing a casque found at the FOY left there by the Spanish.
Stars move by day
Sails pass by nightThe planetarium runs regular shows all during the day, showing you how sailors used the night sky to navigate. There is a ship mast and sails within the planetarium that gives you the perspective of being on the deck of a ship looking up into the night sky. More on this later.
The last stanza...
Even in darkness
Like moonlight in teardrops
Over the tall grass
Years pass, rain falls.This last part of V9 is very cryptic, poetic and subjective. I always felt that it referred to the planetarium--the look of the small lights used to simulate stars in the darkness of the planetarium, just like the brightness of moonlight but the size of a drop. Tall grass may be a reference to the wetland grasses at the coarstline or the bamboo in the area--who knows. Years pass--The discovery globe program's script talks about "eons and eons passing..." the Planetarium script talks about "Columbus coming to the new world in
1492....then Ponce de Leon in
1513". Rain falls--During the Planetarium program a
thunderstorm is simulated right after the discussion of the years.
Good guess--but subjective. I have come to find out that these last few lines are very, very important and that they hold a solid literal confirmer that will marry this verse (V9) to P6, for even the toughest skeptics among us. It is unlikely to be a coincidence and may impact how we look at other verses in this hunt. The discovery of this clue is not mine, but my friend Jenny's. About 3 days before we left for the dig, Jenny emails me this....
Sails pass by night
Even in darkness
Like moonlight in teardrops
Over the tall grass
Years pass, rain falls
SELOY...is the name of the old indian village that the FOY park sits on. There is a sign at the park referencing this. A major acrostic clue!! And it was right in front of us all the time!! Just goes to show you, new clues can be found even when you've studied it for years.
THE DIGWe arrived in St. Augustine late Friday night and ate dinner with the owner and Jenny and her husband Jay. The owner relayed to us how easy it would have been to bury a casque here in the early 80's. There was no security and there was only one lamp lit for the entire 15 acre park. We discussed the plan of attack. The owner set up very specific rules for us. He does not want publicity or it to become public knowledge, unless it's found and he would like to see it found. He does not want other people digging randomly in the park--it is after all a protected archeological site. He does not want this discussed with any employees because they may go around digging on their own. The archeologists were not present working in the park, otherwise we could not have dug that weekend. We had to wait for the park to close before digging which left us about 3 hours hours before dark. We had to put the site back the way we found it and we had to get this accomplished before security arrived for the night. It was all very clandestine. And so, we dug. Looking at the clues the six instructional lines starting with
Near men create north (fence), east (planetarium vestibule), south (goose pen), and west (bending branches, Magnolia ave) boundaries. Using the sight line from the goose pen and the fact the tall tree needs to be near the vestibule, we dug at the base of a ground up stump from a dead oak tree. I might say that roots are the bane of my existence! (Milwaukee De ja vu). Three of us dug on two different nights. We dug until our hands were bloody stumps. Thank God for Advil!! We gave it our best shot but it was not recovered. And I cannot say how discouraging it is to say those words out loud. The root system is complex and creates an extensive network at varying levels at the base of that tree. They begin about 1 1/2 feet down. It is a hard wood and difficult to chop and clear. Plus we had time (and energy) constraints. Conclusion: It is there under the roots or it is close by but requires a slight change in the interpretation of the verse. Certainly, every tree near the vestibule could be dug up, but it would need to be done in stages and the others are live trees (roots again). We plan to go back soon. We've worked hard to diplomatically maintain a positive respectful relationship with the owner.
And I'm going to say this as delicately as I can and without intention to offend---The owner will likely only deal with me in brokering further digs as we were the first to ever broach this with him. I do not want to sound like I am trying to grab this one exclusively. It is actually his wishes. But this is a team effort and I recognize that. He now feels comfortable with this that I am able to go public and post all of what we have found there in the hopes that the Q4T Brain Trust will collaborate, as we always have, in finding it. I don't think that he is opposed to having future small teams with us to come to the park to dig if a dig site sounded solid. He actually is quite excited about the casque being there (and has looked for it himself) and thinks that it would make a great story and bring postivie publicity to the park. Above all, this relationship must be maintained in good standing--or the opportunity to find this casque could be lost forever.
SUMMARYIf you
believe that the FOY park is the casque site, then there are some interesting insights found with this particular puzzle that may apply to other P/V match ups.
* Many of the clues are found inside buildings and not exclusively outside--and these are literal confirmers, not just allusions to what the buildings hold. Ex. "Seek the sounds of rumble brush and music hush" in V12 alluding to the ART building near the dig site in Chicago as opposed to "Silver, salt" or "wind rose" which are literal words used on signs within the building exhibits. If you do not go into the buildings you may not find these.
* The acrostic clue used here--SELOY. There may be other word puzzles within these verses we have not considered before (other acrostics, anagrams, etc). This opens up a whole new realm of potential discovery.
* You need to really go to the sites to see them up close and personal. You can only get so much on-line. If you are close to one of the prospective sites, then GO-- and photo-document it as thoroughly as possible.
* Digging for these is tough work! Ask Egbert and Siskel, Ask Wilhouse, Ask Forest Blight or Pine Tree. Ask others that have dug. Plan carefully and don't kid yourself--permission will likely be needed for every dig and you should try to get that permission or you could blow it for future attempts. And for God's sake--get a lot of help! OUCH!
IMAGESP6 V9 St. Augustine: I have posted the confirmers and views of our dig in this Webshot album. It starts with P6 and then follows the order of V9. All photos are tagged with captions. See for yourself.
FOY Tour: I have posted all the photos I have of inside the park from three visits for you to look at. The Webshots Rearranging function is not working right now for some reason--so they are only loosely arranged into areas of the park. I will continue to try to organize them when this function is working again. I've tagged all of these with identifiers too, but orientation may be difficult until they can be reorganized. Sorry.
http://community.webshots.com/user/stercoxAnd in Trohn's famous words....
Years pass, rains fall, casques hide.
Enjoy! Let the discussion begin!
