Would You Pick Up A Shovel to Dig for Treasure? Part 4

The Story of a Real Life, Secret Treasure Hunt

Not all treasure maps are drawn on parchment or sealed in bottles.

Some are hidden in plain sight.

Welcome to the Secret Treasure Hunt blog series, where every Wednesday from now through 10/22 I take you through the last three years of my life as a treasure hunter. There are secrets and discoveries below, but if this is your first time here (hello!) I recommend starting from the beginning.

THE SECRET JOURNAL—A new search: New Orleans DATE REDACTED

After documenting my search process for the New York puzzle, both the park (Part 2) and specific tree (Part 3) I tell myself to let The Secret treasure hunt go for now and return to other research avenues for my nonfiction book, perhaps start working on a YA fiction project, or attend to one of the tens of ongoing projects around my house and yard.

But I do not do this.

Instead, I fixate on the NYC Secret. It’s not fair that there is no possible way to confirm the final location. Preiss died unexpectedly in 2005, leaving the official solutions to The Secret lost to the world. The only way to be right is to have a casque in hand. And the one I think I might have found is at best underneath concrete, and at worst destroyed in the Grace Playground construction projects completed in 1994 and 2022.

There are still eight remaining unsolved puzzles I have not yet looked at. What if one of those casques is still in the ground, untouched and ready for the taking?

I return to the book’s collection of verses online and begin copying and pasting the remaining verses into a word document. I pause at Verse 2, the verse supposedly linked up with New Orleans along with Painting 7. I don’t know why, but I decide to check this verse out further. Maybe because it’s shorter, and feels less cryptic at first glance.

PREISS’ THE SECRET, VERSE #2:

At the place where jewels abound

Fifteen rows down to the ground

In the middle of twenty-one

From end to end

Only three stand watch

As the sound of friends

Fills the afternoon hours

Here is a sovereign people

Who build palaces to shelter

Their heads for a night!

Gnomes admire

Fays delight

The namesakes meeting

Near this site.  

PALENCAR’S THE SECRET, PAINTING #7:

THE NEXT THEORY—DATE REDACTED:

Now that I have seen the solutions to three of Preiss’ puzzles and come up with a theory for a fourth, I feel some confidence about diving into another puzzle. I make a note to myself that every reference in the verse is probably the most straightforward one. And that if Grace Playground is correct, the location that Preiss chose in New Orleans might also  be a small, not well known, urban park.

The latitude and longitude coordinates of New Orleans, 29 and 90, are in Painting 7. In addition, the lines from the verse “Here is a sovereign people/ Who build palaces to shelter/ Their heads for a night!” is a reference to the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, which confirms both the city as well as the verse and painting pairing.

Excerpt from Abroad in America

I read the verse a few times, study Painting 7 for a while, then turn to a map of New Orleans and bop around a bit. There are not a lot of parks near St. Charles Ave. The clues about 15 rows and the middle of 21 and 3 standing watch feel too vague to try to marry an answer to, so I set those lines aside. The clue about the sound of friends makes me think of either a playground or a nearby/adjacent elementary school. I go about trying to solve the puzzle in a bit of a backwards way. I look up photos and histories of the urban parks to see if anything reminds me of the painting and verse ingrained in my head.

I am drawn immediately to Annunciation Square. It’s not far from St. Charles Ave. It’s not a huge or important park—meaning it’s not highly trafficked. There is a school nearby and a playground on the east end of the park. Most importantly, I see the word ANNUNCIATION arched in wrought iron over the front gate. It looks exactly like the word PRESERVATION arched over the clock. In the real park, just behind the gate, is a big circle in pavement with a smaller grass circle in the middle, much like a clock face.

The grandfather clock face in Painting 7 reminds me a lot of a historical photo I come across of a nearby landmark to Annunciation Square. The photo is of the Coliseum Theater.

Courtesy of cinematreasures.org

In Painting 7, the coordinates to New Orleans are hidden in the clock corners: 29 and 90. But there is also a 19 directly across from the 29. I research the phrase “1929 New Orleans” and see two main results: a big street car worker strike in NOLA in 1929, and the old film “New Orleans” which came out in 1929.

The film reference draws me back to the Coliseum Theater, which was a cinema theater. I see that the theater was located in the 9 Muses Neighborhood of New Orleans. Each muse represents a different art. Thalia is the goddess of comedy theater, represented by the comedic mask, just like the one featured in Painting 7.

The Coliseum Theater, when it was standing, was located at the corner of Coliseum St and Thalia St. Coliseum. Theater. “The namesakes meeting.”

A few blocks away from this site is Annunciation Square. I take a little walk via Google Maps and notice something interesting. I see the wrought iron fence on Race St and keep walking, turning onto Annunciation St. I notice the addresses are in the 15XX range. I go to the center of the park along Annunciation St. The address is 1521. I get a theory now, and keep trekking around the park on Google Maps. I get to the parallel street on the other side, Chippewa. I get to the middle of that street. The address is 1521.

Fifteen rows down to the ground/ In the middle of twenty-one/ From end to end.

My partner D gets an idea. If the addresses are in the 1500s, he wants to know where the numbers start. He pulls up the map and scrolls up and up, until he gets to where the addresses begin from 100. Canal Street. I know this is an important street, but I’m not particularly drawn by this until I realize that the St. Charles Hotel—the hotel referenced by the quote in the verse—stood at 201 St. Charles Ave. It’s two blocks over from the intersection of St. Charles and Canal. This is where the address numbers start from.

One aspect about this theory I especially like is the play on words from the verse. At the place where jewels abound can mean the French Quarter, or along St. Charles Ave since it’s one of the main Mardi Gras parade routes, or even near the location where the St. Charles Hotel stood, since that’s a final clue in the verse. But the second line, “Fifteen rows down to the ground” feels like an double clue. The Lower Garden District neighborhood is directly south of the St. Charles Hotel/ Canal St./ French Quarter. Down to the ground might signify Lower Garden.

There is one crucial element still missing in this puzzle. If we are lead to Annunciation Square, we still have not been directed to the exact dig site. And in all his other solved puzzles, Preiss tells the reader exactly where to go, to not disturb earth at random. [Chicago: “The end of ten meets thirteen is your clue.” Cleveland: “Beneath the tenth stone from right to left/ Beneath the ninth row from the top.” Boston: “Feel at home.” New York City/ Brooklyn: “In the middle of one branch/ Of the v/ Look down.”] This must be the same. Once you get into the Square, where do you go?

There is also one line I have not yet come up with a theory or solution for. I think I know the fifteen rows. I think I know the middle of twenty-one. But I do not yet know what the Only three stand watch line refers to. There is not three of anything in particular in the park. There are more than three trees, more than three entrances, more than three streets around Annunciation Square. BUT. In Painting 7, while the hour and minute hand point at twelve, the second hand is curiously pointed at the three.

Why? Why 15 seconds after twelve? What if we are meant to read this line not as looking for three figures standing watch… but going to the watch face in the Square, around that cement circle behind the wrought iron fence, and stand where the three would be if it were a clock? What if, when we do that, the treasure is buried just under our feet?

I call up my sister and ask if she’s interesting in flying off to New Orleans with me.

…to be continued in Part 5…

It’s not about an answer; it’s about discovering what others miss.