stabbity posted:

I'm in Milwaukee and my running route takes me past these locations all the time. I'm totally willing to go check places out if people figure out more (I'm terrible at riddles).

allta posted:

Cask 10:

The Location for this cask is thought to be Milwaukee
Verse 8
View the three stories of Mitchell
As you walk the beating of the world
At a distance in time
From three who lived there
At a distance in space
From woman, with harpsichord
Silently playing
Step on nature
Cast in copper
Ascend the 92 steps
After climbing the grand 200
Pass the compass and reach
The foot of the culvert
Below the bridge
Walk 100 paces
Southeast over rock and soil
To the first young birch
Pass three, staying west
You'll see a letter from the country
Of wonderstone's hearth
On a proud, tall fifth
At its southern foot
The treasure waits.

davey4283 posted:

On Milwaukee:

The 3 stories of mitchell sound like the botanical domes..

The outline of the building in the picture looks like one of the old/condemned VA buildings on the back of the property and you can definitely see the 3 botanical domes of mitchell park from there. I know that there are lots of old stone steps back there too.

There is a lot of property back there, its all public access and sounds plausible since the last 2 were found in similar areas.

Cast in copper.. There are a lot of copper memorial type things on that property since it's very old and protected by the government.

Is anyone else familiar with the Milwaukee VA back grounds? It's been about a year since I went walking back there.

[edit]

Neutrino lol, we gotta brainstorm about this.

"Ascend the 92 steps
After climbing the grand 200
Pass the compass and reach
The foot of the culvert
Below the bridge
Walk 100 paces"

I was thinking stone steps in a park but I guess it could mean the amount of steps in city hall or something. I'm trying to think of a place in downtown where you could walk up that many stairs and find yourself in a park or public area suitable for burying something like that.

I guess back in the day you could probably bury something in front of a bunch of people without looking very suspicios.

Abugadu posted:

More info on the Milwaukee one:

http://www.lemontiger.co.uk/images/misc/thesecret/milwaukee.pdf

davey4283 posted:

Upon further review, I'd say that that building is probably city hall. A lot of that guys breakdown sounds far fetched but the steps leading up from lincoln memorial do sound plausible..

davey4283 posted:

Its also hard to say whether or not those steps or any other set of public steps have been remodeled at any point in the past 30 years to be more or less than their previous count.

[Edit]

This is interesting and I'm off today so I think I'm gonna go check some of this stuff out with the dog. You're more than welcome to goonmeet with me on this.

The picture of city hall might only be a reference as to what city this picture/message pertains to. The actual clue might not have anything to do with city hall.

davey4283 posted:

I checked out Red Arrow Park and I'm betting that's it too.

The silhouette of city hall is the same as the picture while standing on water st.

I'm pretty sure 'cast in copper' doesn't mean lincoln, it refers to our courthouse downtown like on the back of the penny.

I think the numbers just after that may refer to the steps of the courthouse as well.

I could not find the woman playing the piano however I found a womans face carved above the front of the pabst theatre which may or may not be something.

I think past the culvert refers to the milwaukee river in some way and below the bridge may refer to the foot bridge going over state street from the marcus ampitheater. I'm not sure when that was built though. I'd say 30 years sounds about right though. I know the actual building was erected back in the 60's.

It would make sense if it was said bridge since red arrow pack is south east from it.

I also noted several birch trees at red arrow.

I'm down to meet down there however I work at 5pm so I cant really do anything past 4.

crashdome posted:

I have two birthdays and a graduation this weekend otherwise I would totally be there. I've got a flexible schedule and I enjoy biking so I'd be happy to take pics or wander around looking for things. I have PMs now so feel free to PM me if you need anything.

crashdome posted:

It's only 20 mins to downtown from me via bus (with a bike) and I can wander around and see if I find anything interesting. The fireplace (wonderstone's hearth) has me intrigued simply because it would seem like it refers to something so obvious that it would jump out at you.
The distance in time also has me wondering what it's talking about. As much as a few of the verses seem to be speaking of something we are almost sure about, I feel that without all the clues to tie it all together it will just be incredibly more difficult to find.

edit: Actually, if it was in Red Arrow Park, would it not have been dug up when the rink went in?

acmpsu21 posted:

Milwaukee...


This doesn't help much for the location of the actual treasure, but I'm about 99.9% sure that the phrases "As you walk the beating of the world, at a distance in time, From three who lived there, in a distance in space" refers to North Old World 3rd Street. It has the word "world," old is the distance in time, 3rd refers to three who lived there, and north is the distance in space.

I'm in Oak Creek until Wednesday morning, so if I can figure more out, I'm willing to scope out the area.

acmpsu21 posted:

Milwaukee...

This might either help us or send us in the wrong direction, but some rando, website I found when trying to find out what wonderstone is said this:


http://www.minerals-n-more.com/Wonder_Stone_Info.html

So the letter of the country of wonderstone's hearth might be a letter from the Greek alphabet?

BJG posted:

...silently playing...

Marietta Ave, between the University and Lake Park.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietta_Robusti

It crosses Kenwood Blvd. The "beating of the world" (whirled?) might then refer to Kenwood mixers.

Crusty Nutsack posted:

I disagree. Marietta Avenue seems like a stretch to me. There's countless random paintings of a woman with a harpsichord; Marietta's certainly isn't famous nor does she have any connection to Wisconsin in the slightest. I think those lines will relate to something in the environment, not something completely removed from the situation. But hey, I could be wrong.

Dr. Bit posted:

A couple thoughts about Marquette (that hopefully don't throw us off-track):

In one of the successful searches, the centaur in the picture identified a Greek theme for the quest, and the cask was in the Greek Gardens. In a similar fashion, the robe may be of significance for Milwaukee, and would most likely point to a Marquette/Jesuit theme. That's the only thing I can think of that associates robes with Milwaukee. It's definitely one of the weirder and more striking things about the picture, and my first thought upon seeing the picture was "what does a magician have to do with Milwaukee?" It makes a lot more sense as a Jesuit robe.

So the two big things in the downtown area having to do with Marquette are the University and Pere Marquette Park. If we start at Marquette University, that would put Mitchell's Mansion (now the Wisconsin Club, formerly the Deutscher Club until it was renamed in 1917; it was also started by 3 businessmen, read here for more http://www.wisconsinclub.com/fw/main/History-4.html) at the beginning, which would match up chronologically with the riddle. If we walk down Wisconsin, cross the river and loop around City Hall, placing City Hall later in chronology, then come back around to Pere Marquette Park, that may be the circuit we're supposed to follow.

For people who know the area, and especially the University, it might be worth glancing at that route on google maps and seeing if anything matches up.

Emacs Headroom posted:

What if we work backwards, and assume that the author would 1) have to be burying these things, and 2) would have to assume that they wouldn't get dug up or destroyed accidentally for the forseeable future (say 50-100 years).

In NYC, that doesn't leave too many options with the constant development. Even the parks (like Bryant Park) are liable to be dug up occasionally.

If it were me, I'd go either with heritage sites or national parkland or endowed land (like the Cloisters -- endowed by Rockefeller, who might be "he of Hard word?"). It would also have to be somewhere the author had sneaky physical access to though.

shinything posted:

Milwaukee

While I'm not exactly following this, I did toss the Milwaukee stuff to my mom, who lived downtown through the 70's and early 80's, to see if she had any insight into what things might mean! Basically the things I think are most interesting that she picked up on are the interpretations of "nature cast in copper" being a tree in one of those metal surround-things they use on the south side sometimes, and the "three who lived in space" referring to the Apollo astronauts. If she comes up with anything more useful, I'll post it.

Occams taser posted:

The photoshop tricks are cool and everything, guys.

But I don't think anything more than making the images lighter would do much..(photoshop wasn't around when these paintings were made)

and they were meant to be viewed from the book.


I'm just pointing that out there, and I think maybe some of you are tricking yourself into seeing things by using these "tricks"

Athanatos posted:

Milwaukee


Where was this? Gmaps link if you can.

Saltin posted:

Milwaukee

I don't know the city at all, but could "A letter from the country" "Of a proud tall fifth" be a reference to the Letter Carrier's Monument, which is at the base of the Germania Building, which happens to have 5 corners (it was also the tallest building in the city when it was built)? I always assumed Letter from the Country referred to the country the puzzle seems to be associated with, which is Germany. It's not too far from the culvert like entrance to city hall and a bridge.

It's definitely not too far away from city hall if you read the puzzle like "walk 100 paces once you're on the far side of the bridge", and the direction is more or less correct?
Just a thought.

Luminous posted:

Local person goes to a library and, likely, uses micro fish fiche to find what is needed.

crashdome posted:

I'm beginning to think it's pine needles from what I can connect it to in the painting's ground cover like this:

Goldaline posted:

Milwaukee

This keeps nagging at me every time it comes up. I think the two lines:

Step on nature
Cast in copper

Might be meant to be taken together rather than separately. I know here in Philadelphia we have inlaid copper plaques in the sidewalk in a couple places, is there any kind of thing like that in Milwaukee with some kind of nature motif?

TipsyMc posted:

Bankok posted:

Here's a link to scans we did today with an original copy of the book. For some reason I couldn't get them to upload to imgur.com (think because they were over 10mb each) so had to use flickr.

Edit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46823115@N02/sets/72157633959792176/

Infidel Castro posted:

The Miller brewery is probably too far west to be possible, as it's in the Miller Valley around 35th & State St. However, the Pabst brewery is at 9th & Juneau and was still in operation back in 1982.

Dr. Bit posted:

Milwaukee


Nobody's suggesting it's a locust tree; it's pretty clearly a cicada, which is often called a 17-year locust (that's what everyone was calling them when I was growing up in the 80's, and that's what's been suggested in some of the resources we've been looking at). That could refer either to Locust St or potentially to a locust tree. Probably doesn't refer to a bug carcass, unless someone made a bronze sculpture of one somewhere.

Edit: so if the cask is downtown (which is not close to Locust St), then I suggest people keep an eye out for locust trees. If it's in Lake Park, then it's very likely Locust St has to factor into the directions somehow.

The Adama posted:

Cask 10

So, I'm waiting on permission from the property owners to dig, but I'm pretty positive I have Cask 10 figured out, and that it will help with a lot of the others.

If we go with Milwaukie, OR:

I'll put up pics in a bit, but the map overlays with all sort of stuff in the area, and most of the juggled objects correspond with clues.

The ball in her hand is near an area where Mitchell St is divided into three sections by city blocks, and each one is at a different latitude.

The millstone corresponds with Oswego Lake Park, which is roughly in the shape of a harpsichord.

The head of the walking stick aligns with Cedar Island Park.

Cast in copper refers to the key itself, and on the map, it is near Three Creeks Natural Area, but more importantly the on ramp I-205 aka the Grand 200.

The 92 steps means take the exit for 92nd St. Drive on pas West Mount Scott(Compass)

To the Culvert(Johnson Creek Rd.)

This is where you start actually walking.

Walk SE and you will literally find a young birch. And a little farther on to the SE there is a small separate stand of trees. And there are 4 more birch trees there. So pass three more, and the final, fifth birch is where it is buried. I went there, and at the southern foot of that tree was a big rear end rock.

TheLastManStanding posted:

It's not almost, it is an exact silhouette.

einTier posted:

That's probably a generic clue. If you look at the solved puzzle images, you'll find there's a lot of clues to get you to the general area. For instance, on the Cleveland puzzle, Terminal Tower can be seen -- but that's 5.5 miles from where the treasure was actually found.

I'd like more information on how the poems were matched with the images.

crashdome posted:

In other news, I did find this today and like an idiot I didn't take a picture (pic not mine and only one I found on Internet):


I passed RIGHT BY IT when I did my trek along Lincoln Memorial last week and missed it entirely because I was focused on looking for birch trees in the tree line and then wandered over to the flag pole.

Still can't see how it fits yet, it is pretty much the only "compass" I have found and the building in the background is Villa Terrace.

Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:

How about the whole rest of the book? What else is there in the 200 pages and why are they being ignored?

Jimong5 posted:

Milwaukee

I was thinking the line "As you walk the beating of the world" might refer to Mason St

Deteriorata posted:

So let's make this very clear. He made the puzzles with what he perceived as varying degrees of difficulty. He expected one to be found in 30 days, and some might never be found.

The argument that these are all supposed to be superficially easy is not supported by Preiss himself. Some of these are going to be obscure and difficult.

Dr. Bit posted:

Milwaukee

This may be helpful, though it's not definitive and it's an early picture. This is an old painted photo (from the 1940's) that shows the river by City Hall. Though some of the buildings cover it up, it looks like there were never any trees along the river where the RiverWalk is now. You can see Pere Marquette Park a little higher in the photo. I was a little concerned that some of the instructions in the verse might have been pointing us to trees that were once along the river and are gone now, but it doesn't look like that's the case. Unless, of course, it's pointing to trees that were ripped out when Pere Marquette was re-landscaped.

EDIT: actually, that's not Pere Marquette Park at the top there. I don't know what that is.

EDIT 2: that green spot at the top is where a bunch of condos are now, perpendicular to Highland Ave. Hopefully those weren't built in the 90's, they look kind of modern on google maps...

Cru Jones posted:

Just checking in, has anyone actually left their computer and moved some dirt?

Dr. Bit posted:

Milwaukee


Well, Grand Avenue Mall opened in 1982. It's located on the 200 block of Wisconsin Ave. (previously called Grand Avenue), and it has this quadruple staircase. I can't count the exact number of steps in the image (or in any image I've found), but if each of them has 23, then that will make your "92 steps." There are also various skywalks in the area that may be the "bridge you walk under." There's also Zeidler Union Square, a park across the street south of the mall.

crashdome posted:

Those stairs existed long before the mall. I'm still trying to workout the bridge and SE paces by looking at the 1963 aerial map and the 1980 topo. Man, I wish there was a 1980 aerial view.

edit: Here are a few paintings of the interior circa 1920 http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=1920s+Interior+Plankinton+Arcade+Milwaukee+Wisconsin+WI

edit again: I'd like to reiterate to non-natives that even though it was the Plankinton Arcade pre-1982, the street of Wisconsin Avenue was informally the "Grand Avenue" for it's grand buildings/mansions.

TipsyMc posted:

I think you are right about the woman, Neutrino...

Maybe the cask is inside The Safehouse

Urban Smurf posted:

Which direction are you coming from to see that "woman with harpsichord"? Btw, she doesn't have any hands, maybe that's why she's silent.

blurradial posted:

In the book, wonderstone is used as a term for gems the creatures cared about so much. All of these gems were made by Viking Elves. In Juneau Park, there is a statue of Leif Ericson--credited and posed as discoverer of the New World. As they say in Raiders of the Lost Ark--"they're digging in the wrong place" (?)

homullus posted:

Milwaukee

If it really is verse 8, it calls for walking 100 paces SE over rock and soil. Depending on whether you use the modern "single-step" or traditional "every other step" for a pace (and how long your pace is), you need ~250 to ~500 feet of rock and soil to traverse in the vicinity of city hall.