Let's solve a 40 year old unsolved treasure hunt!

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Let's solve a 40 year old unsolved treasure hunt!

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BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Putty posted:

stfu

Thats a pretty rude attitude

# ¿ Mar 18, 2014 22:09

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 05:21

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I enjoyed reading this thread.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 16:10

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Get some GPR.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 12:38

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Get a fake beard and gain about 60 lbs so people won't recognize you.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 12:56

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

There's gotta be someone in a 300 mile radius that works for an engineering company and has access to GPR - wait, why does it take 60 pages to document your dig site?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 13:30

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Sammus posted:

Do it. Bring a poo poo load of documents proving why you think it's exactly there so when the park authorities get involved you can explain yourself in great detail and maybe escape jail time.

What did you do to get that avatar?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 14:29

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Get in touch with that documentary crew, see if they'll approach the parks department about getting permission to dig. Alternately, talk to parks yourself. Is this small town or big city?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 16:52

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I don't even care about the dig, I just want to read the justification.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 16:56

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Never Been Banned posted:

I'm honestly not sure how the authorities would even react if they caught me. This cask is actually kind of tucked out of the way. Close to a major city, like, really close, but just a bit outside of it. It's a small state park. There's a rules sign, and digging is obviously mentioned on there, but really all I'd be doing is chopping out a square of sod very carefully and going down 3'. It's pretty hallowed ground though, in a way. And the drat thing is buried pretty close to quite a nice monument.

I think they might initially freak out, but I have a hard time seeing a serious charge ultimately resulting from the event. Worst case scenario it might take a lawyer to help mitigate the charges down to something more in line with the actual crime of temporarily goofing up a lawn. Mischief or something. They aren't going to put a felony rap on a dude with a shovel and the best of intentions.

When I called them up a year or so ago to get permission, the bureaucrats I spoke to were pretty lame and intimidating, but the rangers and lower level officers I initially spoke to were totally cool, and even seemed curious for themselves about the whole thing. That's probably the type of person who's going to catch me or us or whoever ends up digging the thing anyways.

It really probably wouldn't be that bad, and that's still just *if* one were to get busted, which isn't a sure thing. There are nice windows at the spot where there won't be more than a passing car or two for upwards of 30 minutes. Just a luck of the draw kind of thing.

Talk to one of the rangers, get them interested, find out who you need to talk to up the chain. If you're not in an actual city and you have a local newspaper, talk to them and see if they want to write a story about it. Get people on your side and keep working up the chain until you find a friendly person that has the authority to make it happen.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 19:21

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Don Tacorleone posted:

I've never read this thread but it's always on page 1, has GBS solved anything besides how not to poo poo their pants?

You should read the thread, it's ok.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 19:23

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

TOILETLORD posted:

just buy a jump suit and spray paint a city worker logo on it.

Yeah! Real life is like cartoons and after school kids TV.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 19:33

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Waltzing Along posted:

Kinda hoping this guy just digs a hole and jumps in then someone else fills the hole.

Or that he posts his manifesto.

One or the other.

I want to read the manifesto. And then steal his treasure.

Is this the one on that island that urban smurf was going on about?

# ¿ Nov 6, 2014 16:38

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

xie posted:

The Rowland Institute at Harvard and its property used to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/mIzHQzj.png

The resolution sucks, but you can see near the gridline in the bottom center (near the words "use only") two streets coming off the Longfellow Br that converge to a point like >---, that's the beginning of the crack to the right of the portal behind the gypsy. The road is a straight, and then the tree line and building of the research center is the rest of the crack's shape.

When you are standing near there (as close as you can, or on the Esplanade by the water in front of it, where I still hope it could be buried) the Gypsy's hair (near the crack and the fairy) strongly resembles the skyline view from right there, including the specific shapes of the Hancock tower and 111 Huntington Ave (this building IMO is the most apparent shape, and can be seen without standing there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111_Huntington_Avenue)

It's not a parking lot, it's a building/condos now. The green space visible in the aerial is all gone. The Rowland Institute is now a huge research complex with condos around it. There's no parking

111 Huntington Ave was built in the 2000's. I was working down the street from it when it was being built.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 15:57

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

xie posted:

See that's interesting, and easily findable I'll try to take some photos from the spot on a clear day to compare the rest of the skyline to her hair. As i said, it's more than just "oh a shape!" but also very possibly wrong as well.

I can't remember what building was demo'd to make way for it. I'm sure you can find photos of the Hancock from that era though that might show the skyline.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 16:04

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

Listen, man, you're the one who started this all up again by posting here about totally finding it, so either start digging, post your solution, or stfu.

If you don't want to post the solution because someone will "steal ma treasure," well, you aren't exactly going gangbusters with most the important part of all of this -- the digging and finding -- so who loving cares?

Again, what this is really about is some weird attention thing because from my point of view, you've put nothing on the table and are just wasting everyone's time.

Why are you so upset?

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 21:17

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I like reading about this stupid poo poo. Thanks for the updates NBB and Xie.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 23:15

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I think that's real good stuff, whether it's right or not.

It's even better with the Poe stuff.

BigFactory fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 8, 2014

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 00:54

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I think it's entirely likely that priess wasn't very good at making puzzles.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 12:39

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

If that's actually the solution you're digging an enormous hole to find it. That's not precise at all.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 13:42

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

ExtraNoise posted:

The wheels are in motion. The more I've talked to NBB the less I believe he's full of poo poo. Was he premature to come in the thread and say he had a possible solution and not offer anything up? Maybe. But it's given us something concrete to focus on, to talk about, and I think we're now closer than at any other point in this thread to actually finding something.

idk, the GBS weirdos who come in here mad about nobody digging are the odd ones imo. We've had like 5 pages of discussion since NBB revived the thread with a couple of interesting theories. Chances are slim that any of these are going to be recoverable anymore, so talking about theories is probably as far as any of it is going to get from here on out. I drove past the Esplanade in Boston today and it's completely dug the gently caress up for renovations. If there was a casque anywhere near the hatchshell it's in a million pieces now. That's probably all of these. They're destroyed or under pavement. If you don't like the theories and speculation, this is probably a good thread to avoid.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2014 19:50

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

(1) Dudes OCDing for years over pieces of plaster buried in the ground who travel thousands of miles so they can take pictures of flagpoles and put them up on the walls of their basements like serial-killer stalkers and then post publicly about how they can't talk about it and take it to PM

(2) Dudes point out that (1) are hella retarded

Conclusion: Group 2 are the "GBS weirdos." Got it.

This really gets you steamed, doesn't it?

# ¿ Nov 11, 2014 20:47

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

Look, you and I have both been on SA for a while. This has all played out a thousand times on this forum. Do you remember all the stupid safe threads and how ridiculous they got? Remember how the mods eventually had to step in on those because nothing ever happened? This is just another one of those safe threads.

OP: omigod I found this safe, but it's locked and I don't know the combination. What should I do?
SA: Open it!
OP: I don't know how to open it. What should I do?
SA: We'll help!
OP: I don't know...it sounds like a lot of work and I might get in trouble.
SA: Who cares, open it!
OP: I don't know how.
SA: We do; you need these tools!
OP: I don't have those tools.
SA: We do; we'll meet up and help you!
OP: Okay, let's do this.

[months pass because so many people are now involved that no possible schedule can accommodate everyone]

[nothing ever comes of it all]

We're now at the "arranging everyone schedules" part of how this will all play out. Nothing will ever happen because "Geez, we just couldn't get everyone together who wanted to be in on this" and it will be quietly dropped.

This poo poo should be Mod Challenged.

You didn't like his writeup about the Charleston one? Or xie's talk about the one in the trainyard in NJ? I thought they were both entertaining whether they're right or wrong or we never find out. I think there's a group of people here who like looking at these as interesting but really pretty flawed puzzles, and don't take it much further than that.

Maybe you should stay out of threads like these if they cause you so much distress. Otherwise it just comes off as whining. Just my two cents. There's plenty of other threads, this one seems to make you upset.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2014 22:16

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Mnemosyne posted:

Never been banned said he posted in this thread specifically because he wanted goons to pressure him into action. Yelling at him for not digging is exactly what he asked for.

Of course, but then there's a couple of oddballs who seem really angry, which is taking all of this way too seriously and just turns into threadshitting.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 00:34

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Crusty Nutsack posted:

Jesus christ how many times do I have to tell you we knew about that same spiral staircase in the Plankinton building of the Grand Avenue for probably a year now lol they're not some amazing savant that all of a sudden figured something out! And we matched the city hall building to the outline in the image exactly, too! I guess that's your weird little "polaroid" thing huh!

4QT IS OUR SAVIOR AND THEIR WORD IS THE LIGHT

So yeah good for that guy or trying to solve the puzzle and stuff (there have been some rather long local articles about it, btw), but stop coming here to tell us how awesome they are over there for finding out the same stuff we all did a year ago.

What are you upset about, I don't get it? Who's "we"?

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 22:30

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Crusty Nutsack posted:

Because you're almost as smug as NBB lol

Yesterday when you said 4QT found the 92 steps stuff, I replied to you that we had found that too. So then when you go parading it out again today like they're geniuses, I'm going to mention it again.

Who's we? The something awful thread? The brave citizens of Milwaukee?

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 22:42

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Crusty Nutsack posted:

Uh, the people who have been following this thread since it started, maybe? Sorry, I guess I should have gone back through the thread to find the exact user names of everyone who was talking about that 92 step thing way back when.

Xie was a pretty active voice in this thread until it got plowed under by GBS 2.0.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 22:51

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Crusty Nutsack posted:

Then I'm surprised that the 92 step thing on the other forum was news to him.

I wish this thread hadn't died when GBS 2.0 started.

It's still being shitted up by humorless dweebs, but I enjoy that it's back a little bit. SO STOP BEING SO loving ANGRY EVERYONE! Just chill out.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 23:06

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Nah, it definitely got swamped in early November last year by 2.0 and never recovered. All the megathreads did basically. Most of them were garbage, but I liked this one.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 23:11

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

Well let's hear the theory! And yeah now that I see that it's very clear that's what it is, oh well. Like I said the whole point is to float ideas and see what's what.

He went over it like 3 days ago?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 00:00

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

xie posted:

The Hatch Shell is depicted in the bottom right of the image, in the striped 'globe' thing.

I posted about it the other day, but have you been on Storrow lately? The area in front of the hatch she'll is a crater. Hope it's not buried there.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 01:27

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I didn't see how close to the water, but it looked like every place that someone would conceivably sit going back to where the esplanade takes a bend was completely dug up for landscaping renovations.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 01:34

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

HerStuddMuffin posted:

The page I linked was last updated 3 days 8 hours ago. You're not even trying.

Bunch of excuses as to why you can't/won't provide any evidence. OK then.

The Hatch Shell is nowhere in image 11. Amazing, given that the image is dominated by a bunch of circles, and still that hemispherical structure is not even hinted at anywhere in the image. Seeing it hinted in there would be wishful thinking, talking about a "fairly photo-realistic representation" is downright delusional.

There's a bunch of symbols on the sides of her dress and not one of them is the Citgo logo.

Either you're blind, or I'm blind, or we're not looking at the same picture, but something is terribly wrong here.

Please remember that the burden of proof lies with him who makes the claim, and that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

The scariest thing to me is that I'm asking to be convinced, I'm practically begging for it, and you've got nothing.

I think the answer is you're blind, at least with those two points. The discussion on the hatch shell coping was like a page ago and the Citgo logo is a triangle within a triangle. Look again. I don't know if either of those things means the image is conclusively Boston, but they're both there.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 15:51

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

HerStuddMuffin posted:

If you want to convince anyone who does not already subscribe to your theory that image 11 is for Boston, then you need to somehow top this. That's the bar you have to clear. You have not cleared it.

Frankly if the bracelet read 40 instead of 42 I don't think anyone would believe the cask to be anywhere except in Salt Lake City. All the Boston matches are contrived. All of them. Show me one that is not. Of course you won't, because you don't owe me anything, and you're not in the business of providing me with evidence. I guess you're not in the business of having credibility either, then. People have been asking you and NBB to back up your claims because they want to believe in you. The day they stop asking for proof and just mercilessly mock you is the day they give up on you. That day is fast approaching.

What video game bad guy are you pretending to be?

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:37

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

HerStuddMuffin posted:

Apologies for the double-post.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:40

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

LOL does anyone actually say "that day is fast approaching" anymore?

Goons are the loving weirdest.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:44

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

HerStuddMuffin posted:

That's an animated, lit-up sign isn't it?

You know what, gently caress it. It's my own fault for seriousposting in GBS, I should know better.

ROFL fart.

I'm gay.

What are you going on about? Would a polaroid picture of Kenmore square from the 70's or early 80's look more like the picture I showed you, or a low-res png of the Citgo logo taken from the web in 2014?

If you've ever been to kenmore square the citgo sign doesn't look like the image you found. At all. It looks like the thing on her dress. Is the triangle on her dress 100% supposed to be the Citgo sign? Who knows.

Levitate posted:

He's right that a random checkered semicircle really doesn't look a drat thing like the hatch shell though.

It looks an awful lot like one ring would look like if you're drawing it from a grainy photograph and trying to disguise it. If that is what it's supposed to be, there are more obscure and abstract looking clues in the Cleveland image.

BigFactory fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Nov 13, 2014

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:56

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

xie posted:

The Citgo sign was not lit in 1981, but it was there. It is not animated. This has been confirmed with the Esplanade Society.

The sign was lit in '79 though. It was only dark for a couple of years.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 17:31

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

xie posted:

BP buried them all in 81/82, it was confirmed (via many hours of research and some help from the Esplanade Society) by 421 that the Citgo sign was dark at the time.

It barely matters, it's pretty clearly the citgo sign when stacked with everything else and that interpretation's been around for as long as the puzzle has.

And even during the daytime it looks more like the triangle on the dress than that black and white logo. Especially back then when it was all neon tubes.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 17:40

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Did you actually call in a dig safe on your spot?

# ¿ Nov 16, 2014 23:20

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 05:21

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Have you ever called in a digsafe before, xie? You need a contractor ID number and you need to mark the site with spray paint before you call, then you have to wait 3 days. And you have to give a reason for why they're going to send a half dozen utility companies out there to mark up the site. I don't think treasure hunt is on the list.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2014 00:24

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Let's solve a 40 year old unsolved treasure hunt!

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