A Beginner’s Guide to The Secret

Article Written by Dustin White

(Special thanks to J. Boylston & Company, publisher, for giving MW permission to use images of The Secret (Available on Amazon))

(Join the discussions on where the buried casques can be found on the new  The Secret: A Treasure Hunt Facebook Group (managed by Dustin and Deidra White)

It’s the beginning of the 1980’s. Pac-man fever is sweeping the nation. ​Star Wars​ and ​Raiders of the Lost Ark have catapulted Harrison Ford to super stardom. The royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has captivated the world. Michael Jackson and Olivia Newton-John are burning up the charts. The space shuttle Columbia​ makes her maiden flight. ​Dungeons and Dragons​ rule the basement. MTV is launched, ​He-Man​ is huge, fur coats are all the rage and across North America, twelve treasures are buried by publisher Byron Preiss as part of an elaborate treasure hunt.

Preiss is inspired to create a massive treasure hunt by the frenzy a picture book called ​Masquerade​ is causing throughout the United Kingdom. Released in August 1979, ​Masquerade​ took the country of England by storm and launched the genre of Armchair Treasure Hunts. Author, illustrator and designer, Kit Williams created a children’s book on a challenge by an executive from publisher Jonathan Cape to see if he could make a children’s picture book that wouldn’t be looked through only one time and put down with little reason to pick up again. The result was thirty-two pages of a whimsical tale featuring a hare named Jack that is tasked with delivering a treasure from the moon to the sun. While on the journey of delivering the parcel, the treasure is lost. It is up to the readers to carefully look over the paintings and story to decipher the clues as to where Jack had lost the treasure. Treasure hunters turned the countryside upside-down searching for a fabulously hand-crafted gold and jewel-laden filigree pendant shaped as a hare. It was buried in a hare-shaped ceramic container, that Williams referred to as a casket, to protect it from the elements and to foil anyone that tried to locate the treasure with a metal detector. The casket was inscribed: “I am the keeper of the jewel of Masquerade, which lies waiting safe inside me for you or eternity.” The golden hare was recovered in March 1982 ending the hunt for ​Masquerade​.

Back in North America it is likely that Byron Preiss worked on his own solutions for ​Masquerade ​and saw an opportunity to try to duplicate its success on his side of the pond. Preiss upped the ante and decided his treasure hunt would include twelve buried treasures spread across the United States and Canada. He would use beautiful paintings like ​Masquerade,​ but he would also use clever poetry to provide additional clues and award precious jewels to his victors. Byron called his treasure hunt and the mythology he created along with it, The Secret​. (AVAILABLE ON AMAZON).

Beyond the treasure hunt, ​The Secret​ is a story about the ‘Fair People’ and what became of them. He had been working on this portion for years prior to adding the treasure hunt element to his book. “Goblins, dragons, fairies, leprechauns and other fantastic creatures of the Old World.” The story goes that the ‘Fair People’ journeyed to the New World to escape the encroachment of mankind. In their view what humans call ‘civilization’ is destroying nature and their beautiful homes in the Old World. They crossed the ocean to immigrate to the New World and begin anew. They were disappointed when they arrived in the New World for mankind had already taken residence there as well.

However, the ‘Fair People’ learned that these humans were not like the men and women they fled from in the Old World, these people had a great love for nature and hadn’t been corrupted by ‘civilization’ yet. They lived in harmony for hundreds of years until men from the Old World ‘discovered’ the place they had moved to. The ‘Fair People’ recognized this as the beginning of the end and they vanished from the eyes of man into their environment. They “offered a simple truce: Their treasure, their precious jewels, would belong to Man if he could find them. In exchange, all the strange and wonderful descendants of the Fair People from the Old World and the New would henceforth live and be seen among Man in peace.” Byron himself crafted the story about the ‘Fair People’ coming to and then leaving North America, these sections of the book are titled: “The Tale, Simply Told”, “The Passage to the New World”, “The Litany, of the Jewels”, and “The Vanishing”. It is likely that there are elements in these sections of the book that are worth looking into concerning the treasure hunt, but not much has been proven at this point beyond the link to immigration being important to the story and the treasure hunt. Each site of the treasure hunt links back to an immigrant group that can be used to hone in on a dig site.

Sean Kelly and Ted Mann, both former editors and writers for National Lampoon, wrote the section of the book called: “A Field Guide to the Fair People of the New World” which makes up the bulk of ​The Secret​. They worked with Byron on the satirical backstory of each of the seventy-five descendants of the ‘Fair People’. They detailed where someone might find one of these descendants in the present day. They also explored the habits of these creatures and a bit of their history. Again, it isn’t known if there is valuable information in the story bits in “A Field Guide to the Fair People of the New World” as far as the treasure hunt goes, but you may not want to rule it out completely. Many hunters write it off as containing no clues to the treasure hunt (Byron himself suggested that there aren’t clues in this part of the book but he may have been actively trying to steer people away from progress in the hunt when he stated this in 2004 since he wasn’t profiting off ​The Secret ​anymore and it took time from other projects he was pursuing to help treasure seekers continually). You never know, you may be the right person to makes sense of something that nobody else has figured out before.

In the early 80’s Byron commissioned artist JoEllen Trilling to create a ceramic container and a ceramic key as the treasure boxes and their contents that he buried coast to coast for his treasure hunt. The plan is for searchers to recover the treasure box and key. Send the key back to Byron to claim precious jewels as your reward. Preiss had at least fourteen ceramic keys and ceramic containers that he called ‘casques’ created; the original prototype, twelve pairs to be buried and one pair that was elaborately painted for promotional pictures. The casques are covered in faeries and mythological beasts that are beautifully detailed and hand painted. JoEllen Trilling had already been tasked with creating sculptures of thirty-nine of the ‘Fair People’ to be captured on film by photographer and personal friend of Byron Preiss, Ben Asen. The mythology and sculptures of the ‘Fair People’ had been worked on for years prior to ​The Secret ​becoming a treasure hunt. It is unknown if clues to solving the puzzles of ​The Secret​ are included in the artwork of Ms. Trilling but it is worth investigating.

Asen photographed the descendants of the ‘Fair People’ in many places around New York City including Central Park and even in Byron’s home. He also traveled with the descendants, bringing the sculptures to places like Washington DC and San Francisco to be photographed for ​The Secret​. The photos were shot in color but due to budget constraints all but one picture (a group shot) of the descendants of the ‘Fair People’ appear in black and white in the final printing of the book. It’s generally thought that there are no clues associated with these photographs but further research should be pursued.

The remaining thirty-six descendants of the ‘Fair People’ featured in ​The Secret ​are hand-drawn and also presented in black and white by artists John Jude Palencar, John Pierard, and Overton Loyd. These drawings are fantastically detailed. Some treasure hunters believe there could be hints to the locations Byron hid the casques in these drawings. For example, the descendant named ‘Alibi Elf’ is drawn in what appears to be in jail cell sitting next to a man that resembles Robert Stroud, better known as “The Birdman of Alcatraz”.  A bird in a cage is also featured in this drawing further hinting at a connection to “The Birdman of Alcatraz”. The man that looks like Stroud is seated next to a window with bars in it, this window resembles a window on a giant rock (Alcatraz is commonly referred to as “The Rock”) in painting number one. Most treasure seekers theorize that painting number one in The Secret​ would lead a searcher to San Francisco. This connection between a specific drawing and a specific painting could be a secret message of sorts that tells you to “Look in San Francisco” or “Look where Alcatraz is located”.

Over the course of nine months in and around 1981, Preiss traveled from sea to shining sea to bury his casques. Once in the area he wanted to use as the burial site, Preiss would do additional local research and take many photographs of the surrounding area. He would bury the casques at no more than three and a half feet deep in a protective plexiglass container. Around this time he began crafting the poems that would be instructions on how to retrieve his buried treasures. Preiss called these poems “verses”. The verses are what directs a searcher to the burial site once they determine the city and state they believe the treasure is located.

The photos that Preiss had taken around his treasure brutal sites were sent via FedEx in a dossier with notes to artist John Jude Palencar. Everything that was provided to Palencar had been stamped with “THE SECRET” on it. Palencar used these notes and photos to create twelve beautiful paintings that would be presented in full color in ​The Secret​. These paintings feature various creatures and beings on dreamlike landscapes. One features a centaur in a forest while another features a woman floating above a body of water. Masterfully, these paintings had clues and hints to the whereabouts of the buried casques seamlessly woven into them in astonishing detail. Almost all paintings had some type of coordinates hidden in them to help narrow down the search area (Credit to Quest 4 Treasure forum member ‘Fox’ for discovery). Nearly every square inch of painting could be seen as a potential clue. Palencar hid the clues that would direct searchers to the right area (generally city and state/province) so they could begin deciphering the clues in the verses to get to the treasure ground and ultimately to dig up the buried treasure.

By mid 1982 Preiss had buried the casques with their keys and crafted the verses. John Jude Palencar had finished the paintings. The paintings and verses are in no particular order in the book to add another level of difficulty by having to discover which painting and verse combination will need to be paired to be able to find the buried treasures. Pierard, Loyd, and Palencar had completed the illustrations of descendants. JoEllen Trilling had her sculptures brought to life by the photography of Ben Asen. Sean Kelly and Ted Mann had detailed the descendants in their field guide. Where can we find “The Gardengoyle'”? How does “The Gnome Enclature” mess with the language we use every day? Where can we find instructions that lead us to buried treasure? The answers are in ​The Secret​.

Byron did press for ​The Secret in late 1982, highlighted here are a couple newspaper interviews. He talked with the St.Louis Post-Dispatch​ in October 1982. Some major takeaways from this interview are quotes from Byron that: “The stones (jewels) that are worth the most will be the hardest to find”, and that the burial sites will be “within reasonable driving distance” for all residents in the United States and Canada. Another article came out November 1982 in the ​Chicago Tribune ​where the difficulty of the treasure hunt is again relayed, “Preiss says some of the puzzles are easy, and some are hard. He expects at least one treasure to be unearthed within 30 days. Others, of course, may never be found”.

A Treasure Hunt for Everyone

The time has come for North America to go on a treasure hunt! ​The Secret: A Treasure Hunt ​is published and released by Bantam Books in November 1982. Not a lot is known about the very early days of the hunt just that the possibilities are endless and the casques could be anywhere. JoEllen Trilling’s sculptures are placed in hiding spots around the country and readers are encouraged to find them and send in photos they take of the descendants of the ‘Fair People’ out in everyday life. The pictures of the descendants and stories of found treasures are intended to be published in the second volume of ​The Secret​ that was planned to follow up the first book.

The year following the release of ​The Secret​, a group of friends in Chicago, Illinois unearthed the first casque and key. This happened at Chicago’s Grant Park in the summer of 1983. Eric Gastorowski, Rob Wrobel and David James worked on the puzzle together. They discovered the clues in painting number five that told them a casque was in Chicago. Using verse number twelve to narrow the search down to Grant Park (the method they used and clues they found will be detailed in an upcoming article dedicated to the painting and the verse used to find the casque). A friend of theirs, Danny Rosenbach, was helping them dig and became frustrated when they didn’t find the treasure. He threw the shovel he was using at the dirt wall in the hole he was digging in and knocked away some dirt that exposed a small cavity revealing the first discovered casque of ​The Secret​. They sent the key inside the casque to Byron Preiss in New York and in return he sent them a glittering emerald worth more than $1,000. The friends are interviewed for their local news stations and featured in a newspaper article in the ​Chicago Tribune​.

After the find in Chicago, the hunt and the excitement around it begins to die down. Hunters would continue to pursue the casques but little to no progress is being made and it remains this way for twenty years. Fast forward to 2003. In April on a treasure hunting website/forum called Quest 4 Treasure (Q4T), a user named “catherwood” begins posting about the verses and paintings of ​The Secret​. No longer was there no place to discuss theories or share ideas. The efforts of the users on Q4T helped reignite interest and the fruits of this endeavor begin paying off almost immediately. People begin posting ideas asking each other in this vein: Could a casque be in New Orleans? Maybe the clues they’re interpreting for the Big Easy should instead be directing you to dig in St. Louis? Was a casque really found in Chicago? (Twenty years later it was still just a rumor!) “Eighteenth day, Twelfth hour, Lit by lamplight” surely has to be referring to Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride to warn New Englanders that “The British are coming!”, right?  Birthstones and birth flowers are discovered and discussed. Each puzzle is linked to an immigrant group according to the list in “The Litany of the Jewels” at the beginning of the book. The new revelations and possibilities are endless!

In early 2004, Q4T user “Johann” had found a newly published website about the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. As you’d expect, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens showcase many different cultures (Italian, German, British, etc.) in beautifully manicured gardens. One of the web pages had information and images for the Greek Cultural Garden that eventually led Brian Zinn and Andy Abrams to dig up the second casque and key on May 8th, 2004. Using painting number four and verse number four to find their dig site (the method used and clues they found will be detailed in an upcoming article dedicated to the painting and the verse used to find this casque). Brian and Andy met with Preiss in person at his offices in New York City. There he presented them with a gem.

Important dates and events between the most recent casque and key find in 2004 forward.

• July 9th, 2005 Byron Preiss tragically passed away in an automobile accident. Byron left behind his wife Sandi and daughters Karah and Blaire. It is believed that he was the only person that knew where the casques were buried and he took that information with him. The treasure hunt continues and his wife has stated that if someone recovers a casque they will honor the find with a gem reward as Byron intended.

• In April 2006 ​The Secret​ Wiki launches, becoming a large online resource. The site has tons of valuable information: high-resolution images of the paintings, history of the treasure hunt, speculation, and proposed solutions. However, take the “solutions” they offer with a grain of salt. Any “solution” is just a theory until a casque is produced. The author of this article first became aware of ​The Secret through the wiki page and became discouraged when reading the “solution” presented as fact for the puzzle believed to be in San Francisco. The wiki states that the casque and key are un-retrievable in Golden Gate Park. This is one of many theories concerning the potential San Francisco puzzle. The remaining ten puzzles should be considered still in play until a casque and key are produced that would suggest otherwise.

• Veteran ​The Secret​ treasure hunters; John Michaels and George Ward, launch “Shhh The Secret Podcast” in December 2017. It began as a once a month podcast that highlighted a particular verse and painting combination for discussion. The podcast has featured many guests including: Rob Wrobel, found the first casque in Chicago, Illinois in 1983, Brian Zinn and Andy Abrams, found the second casque in Cleveland, Ohio in 2004, JoEllen Trilling, the artist that made the casques, keys and the Descendants of the ‘Fair People’ sculptures for ​The Secret​. Ben Asen, the photographer for ​The Secret​.

• January 2018 ​The Secret​ is featured on an episode of “Expedition Unknown” on the Travel Channel. Josh Gates and his team travel across the country learning all they can and attempt to dig up two of the remaining casques. The first place attempted is at Lake Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with journalist and filmmaker James Renner in a brutal thunderstorm. The scene ends with the cast and crew running for cover as thunder can be heard and lightning strikes are too close for comfort. The second site attempted is at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in St. Augustine, Florida with Brian Zinn, Andy Abrams, and park owner John Frazier. The crew enlists the help of ground penetrating radar devices with little success. Many dig attempts happen on that visit but ​The Secret​ remains as elusive as ever. The episode also features segments on the Chicago casque find with Rob Wrobel and Eric Gastorowski showing Josh Gates exactly where they dug up their casque in 1983 and the Cleveland find with Andy Abrams recounting the casque recovery in 2004. Preiss’ daughters Karah and Blaire were interviewed by host Josh Gates on board a ferry to Ellis Island with an emphasis placed on how important the immigration theme is to the book. Byron’s daughters also speculate some of their theories about where a casque may be hidden in New York City. Gates also pays a visit to John Jude Palencar’s studio and attempts to get information out of him concerning clues to the whereabouts of the remaining hidden treasures with no success. Palencar tells Gates that he can’t say anything due to contracts that he signed and that he wouldn’t say anything anyway because he wants to be loyal to his friend Byron’s memory. The host ends the episode by saying that this was his favorite expedition he’s ever done for his series. He’s been around the world multiple times over experiencing amazing things, for him to say that this is his favorite expedition is really saying something. In the months following the airing of the “Expedition Unknown” episode, new Facebook groups dedicated to ​The Secret​ begin popping up. One group is launched for each of the suspected casque burial sites by the creators of “Shhh The Secret Podcast” and more groups are launched by others. The information shared on these groups is invaluable. The majority of members which number into the thousands are very helpful and many great theories are shared there.

• August 2018, International versions of ​The Secret​ are discovered. For more information visit: Exciting Developments in The Secret Armchair Treasure Hunt 
• On October 6th, 2018 a documentary titled “The Secret of Byron Preiss” debuted at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Journalist and filmmaker James Renner crafted an hour and ten minute long documentary that features interviews with the family and friends of Byron Preiss, the artists that worked on the book and the treasure hunters that found the casques and keys in Chicago and in Cleveland. Check out the trailer for the documentary on YouTube. Dustin White’s review of “The Secret of Byron Preiss” can be found here: https://mysteriouswritings.com/review-on-the-upcoming-documentary-the-secret-by-byron-preiss/
• John Michaels announced in August 2018 that he came into possession of the original casque and key made by JoEllen Trilling that was a prototype for all the casques that were buried in 1980 and 1981 by Byron Preiss. The original casque and key are painted in beautiful detail and was buried in a tribute hunt for fans of The Secret. Kit Palencar, son of The Secret artist John Jude Palencar, creating the painting for the tribute hunt in the spirit of the paintings of the original book. The painting and the verse were released on February 14th, 2019 and the game is afoot.
• In late February 2019 a claim had been made that the casque and key thought to be hidden in a San Francisco, California had been found. This information was announced on the Quest 4 Treasure message board by forum user “Meteor”. This treasure hunter was revealed to be a well known treasure hunter from France named Dr. Gerald Gay. The object that was recovered was dug up by Dr. Gay at the top of Huntington Falls on Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park. Later it was revealed that the object that was retrieved by Dr. Gay was a fake casque. JoEllen Trilling and John Jude Palencar could not authenticate Dr. Gay’s find as an authentic casque that was buried by Byron Preiss. Anyone that has studied The Secret for more than a week would be able to tell that the “casque” presented by Dr. Gay was not legitimate. It is unknown if Dr. Gay was a victim of a prank and somebody buried that casque there for him to dig up or if he buried it there himself so he could dig it back up while in front of a treasure ranger of Golden Gate Park. No casque found.
• At the end of March 2019 a breakthrough in the Tribute treasure hunt happened when Lisa Tillman, William Harvey, Gabrielle Sandbothe, Anthony Jaussaud, Nicholas Kanoc and Caroline Ewen identify Louisville, Kentucky as the city the Tribute casque is likely hidden in thanks to the discovery of the Heigold House Facade and the finds made in nearby Cherokee Park.
• In April 2019 the Charleston Post Courier runs a story about “Expedition Unknown” planning a visit to Charleston, South Carolina to search for the casque thought to be buried in White Point Garden.
• A new episode of “Expedition Unknown” titled “Cracking The Secret” airs on October 2nd, 2019. The episode features Josh Gates hunting for a casque thought to be in White Point Garden in Charleston, South Carolina with Coy Lothrop the winner of the $50,000 Breakfast Tea and Bourbon treasure hunt in 2017. Josh and Coy gain access to examine the much researched and rarely seen USS Maine Capstan that was removed from the park over a decade ago. They finish their expedition by digging near the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument and come away empty handed. The episode also features Deidra and Dustin White, the hosts of “Boots and Armchairs: A Treasure Hunters Podcast” hunting with Josh Gates for the casque believed to be in hidden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Deidra and Dustin take Josh on a trip through Golden Gate Park beginning at McLaren Lodge and ending in Lindley Meadow near the base of the former home of a giant totem poll called “The Goddess of the Forest”. Deidra and Dustin apply their theory of “The Secret of The Secret” at the site using advanced augmented reality technology putting the giant totem pole back on her pedestal digitally to cast a shadow onto their dig site. The digs attempted at Lindley Meadow were not successful. Josh Gates highlights the Gerald Gay fake casque scandal.

 

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