Would You Pick Up A Shovel to Dig for Treasure? Part 5
- rosewaterkit
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
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—NEXT SEVERAL ENTRIES REDACTED.
THE SECRET JOURNAL—Confirmation bias and other maladies, Fall 2023:
I was wrong about New Orleans.
Not in a “I looked and it wasn’t there” way.
I was wrong because I learn the key image that I had built my entire theory about did not exist in 1982. The circular feature of Annunciation Square, the one I likened to a clock face, was installed in 2005.
For weeks on and off I reach out to NOLA colleges and universities and libraries. I reach out to the city archives. I connect with several locals who can check out documents for me. There are architectural plans from the early 1920s of Annunciation Square that put its circular feature directly at the center of the park.
This actually would work even better for my theory, if the white moon in Painting 7 represents the aerial view of Caesar’s Superdome, as I had suspected.
But I cannot find one photo that demonstrates whether or not the 1920 plans were ever carried out. It takes months before I finally receive several photos from a professor at Tulane University that prove, without a doubt, that a circular feature never existed in Annunciation Square before 2005.
For a long time, I fight against the feeling of being wrong. I’m upset because I want to defend the aspects that feel “right.” I love the arched Annunciation Square sign. I love that the park is right in between two 1521 addresses. I love that it’s in the Lower Garden District. Eventually, however, the flimsiness of my initial theory catches up to me.
I note that the Coliseum Theatre façade I had grown attached to was torn down long before 1980. I note many little things that just don’t add up perfectly. It is a painful but necessary exercise. My New Orleans theory has completely failed against the confirmation bias test. While I still believe in my NYC theory, I well understand how fragile all of these ideas are, and that they are ultimately just that—ideas.
THE SECRET JOURNAL—A new opportunity arises, Spring 2024:
It turns out that out of all twelve treasure locations in The Secret, only ONE city is willing to permit an official treasure hunting dig. It is a city filled with heart and character. A city which I’ve now come to know and love almost as dear as my hometown. This city is the illustrious San Francisco.
PREISS’ THE SECRET, VERSE 7:
At stone wall’s door
The air smells sweet
Not far away
High posts are three
Education and Justice
For all to see
Sounds from the sky
Near ace is high
Running north, but first across
In jewel’s direction
Is an object
Of Twain’s attention
Giant pole
Giant step
To the place
The casque is kept.
PALENCAR’S THE SECRET, PAINTING 1:
Even though my initial theory on San Francisco is riddled with flimsy connections, I sign up for a dig permit anyway. This has to be helpful for my research, I reason. Plus, behind the scenes, I’m starting to brainstorm a new fiction book that takes place in San Francisco. Being boots on the ground could be useful in more ways than one.
THE SECRET JOURNAL—Complications lead to teamwork, May 2024:
I score a dig permit for June 2024, but unsurprisingly my submitted location has not been approved. I have been given two weeks to submit a new location or else my dig permit will be forfeit. With slightly more humility under my belt thanks to New Orleans, I begin scouring the internet in earnest for other people’s proposed San Francisco theories. Maybe I can at least dig for someone else and check their idea for them.
After a few days and readings through tens of theories online, I come across a Google document authored by Jeff Cross. The Secret Solution - Google Docs. I highly encourage checking it out for his many stunning visual references. His theory starts, as so many of the San Francisco theories do, at the Shakespeare Garden monument in Golden Gate Park.
This make sense, actually. The line “The air smells sweet” could apply to flowers anywhere, and yet it carries a special literary reference paired with Shakespeare’s famous line from Romero & Juliet: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And there is indeed a prominent rose in the painting, as well as engraved on the benches within the Shakespeare Garden.
Jeff makes other clever visual references between parts of Painting 1 and areas within the Shakespeare Garden in his document. The next big stop in his theory is the Francis Scott Key monument just north of the California Academy of Sciences, which memorializes the US flag. The lines “Education and Justice for all” feel very much like a play on the end of the Pledge of Allegiance’s “with Liberty and Justice for all.”
From there, Jeff takes the reader to a few other places of note, but his real strengths as a puzzle-solver come back into play as he reaches the Cervantes Monument. He notes some excellent visual references to the monument in the painting (seriously—check out his Google doc), and the final step of his theory, that Don Quixote’s sword points to the casque’s location, feels downright romantic with how perfect it all is, how perfect it all would be.
I contact Jeff and we agree that I will be his “boots on the ground” for my upcoming dig. The Recreation & Parks department in San Francisco approves the new location. The dig is going to happen.
As the countdown begins, I find other aspects within Jeff’s path that make so much sense to me. There’s a line, “Running north, but first across in jewel’s direction.” Just north of the Francis Scott Key monument is a statue of Junípero Serra holding out a cross directly toward the Cervantes Monument—and I mean direct. They are yards away from each other. It’s a literal cross in jewel’s direction.
I also really love the connection between the Shakespeare Gardens as a starting point and the Cervantes monument as an end point. Shakespeare and Cervantes were both famous writers who died the exact same day: April 23, 1616. They feel very connected—a yin and yang pair. If the first lines in the verse refer to a Shakespeare symbol of the rose smelling sweet, then why not have the last lines refer to a Cervantes symbol of Don Quixote fighting the “giants” in his quest.
This would also put a clever double meaning to the Twain clue. Mark Twain is a famous writer, who would have studied previous famous writers such as Shakespeare and Cervantes and drawn inspiration. And Twain's pen name is itself a clue--"two." Is an object/ Of Twain's attention. If Shakespeare and Cervantes make a pair, and the Shakespeare bust is our starting object, then the final object is the second of the two--the Cervantes bust/monument.
THE SECRET JOURNAL—Journey to San Francisco, June 9, 2024:
My sister B and I meet in San Francisco on Sunday, June 9th. We pick up shovels from the nearest home improvement store, then check in at our Airbnb. As we’re in the Sunset neighborhood and are just down the road from Golden Gate Park, we waste no time in taking an evening stroll to our dig site the day before the big dig.
The sword in Cervantes’ hand disappeared in the 1990s, but we already have a plan. We’ve brought along a slim, extendable metal pole to place in his hand so we can see exactly where to dig. This is not a problem. The problem, we soon learn, is that there is now a giant wild succulent growing in our “x marks the spot” location, and that we will have to be flexible with where are put our shovels in the ground.
THE SECRET JOURNAL—The Day of the Dig, June 10, 2024:
We stumble around the Cervantes monument early the next morning and by luck we come across a thin path behind the monument that leads near-ish to our initial spot. We have seen archived photos of the monument and we know that it’s sandwiched by hidden stairs on either side. We theorize that perhaps Preiss might have dug slightly behind his initial planned spot because of the steps. There is a small chance the casque could be back over here. Plus… we don’t really have any other options. There is no chance we can dig at the succulent—we’ve already asked and heard no. This is our one opportunity to give it our best shot.
The “treasure ranger” on duty shows up and our clock starts. We have one hour for the dig. We waste no time getting to work on our planned routine. My sister will use the full-sized shovel, and I’ll go in with my sharp trowel to loosen the dirt. We switch back and forth every few minutes.
Twenty minutes in—we hit something.
…to be continued in Part 6…
Every clue is a whisper. Every step, a story. Are you paying attention?
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