Article Written by Dustin White
A fellow Secret Seeker, Ashley Haydel, and I, were discussing the suspected New Orleans, Louisiana puzzle for The Secret a couple weeks ago.
We were researching the Soule College building that sits across Lafayette Street from Gallier Hall that used to have a large clock with Roman numerals on it, much like the clock in painting number seven of The Secret that is typically thought to be connected to New Orleans.
While combing through whatever we could find on Google regarding the structure, I came across a New Orleans publication that used to be called “Preservation Press”. Nowadays, the locally printed magazine is called “Preservation in Print”. The word “Preservation” will be extremely familiar to anyone studying the suspected treasure casque and key thought to be in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The word “Preservation” is usually one of the first things people notice in the painting. It’s displayed right near the center of the painting in all caps, almost shouting at the searchers.
The “Preservation” in “Preservation Press ” immediately caught my eye and I thought that was really intriguing. I asked Ashley and we wondered if perhaps that was the “Preservation” we were intended to find instead of the common theory that “Preservation” refers to the jazz club Preservation Hall on St. Peter between Royal Street and Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Preservation Hall seems like a perfect match because of its proximity to many of the areas people have been searching regarding the New Orleans puzzle of The Secret for many years. Could there be a better explanation for “Preservation” in New Orleans?
Ashley and I looked at a few issues of “Preservation Press” together. I thought a good place to begin would be the December 1981 issue since the “New Orleans painting” features a turquoise jewel, the birthstone for December. It also features the birth flower for December, the Narcissus. In reality, Byron Preiss could’ve written the verses anytime after he buried the casques and to me, a December issue seemed like the best idea to look at first.
Ashley has a very similar idea and looked at another old edition of “Preservation Press”, the Volume 7 Number 8 issue from December 1980 and she saw something really incredible: The first story on the page was a reference to St. Charles Avenue and it’s history.
The article says that the road was known long ago as “Cours des Nayades” and that it was changed to “Route of the Nayades” before eventually being shortened to just the word “Nayades”. It was after this when it was ultimately named for St. Charles and it remains St. Charles Avenue to this day.
Nayades is a less common spelling of the word, “Naiads” and they are a type of fairy in Greek mythology.
Many people have studied the text in the line from the verse (verse two) commonly associated with New Orleans that says, “Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night!”, and made the connection that it is a reference about the original St. Charles Hotel that once stood in New Orleans, Louisiana and they have a very good reason to. It is a direct quote found in the 1976 book “Abroad in America” and many searchers believe the quote is directing attention to St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana. The quote from “Abroad in America” in verse two is followed by a mention of faeries: “Gnomes admire Fays delight The namesakes meeting Near this site.” Much like the December 1980 issue of “Preservation Press” we have a link connecting St. Charles and faeries.
If people need to figure out that clue without knowing that “Abroad in America” exists, how would they do that?
Speculative theory:
Byron Preiss picked up a local publication when he was in town to bury the casques at the various cities and used something in it to direct him where to bury the casques or he looked for something in the publication to use as a clue. He had the benefit of making anything he wanted into a clue.
Say he’s in New Orleans in December 1980 to bury his casque and he picks up the December 1980 issue of “Preservation Press”. He sees St. Charles Avenue on the front page and decides to use it as a clue for his treasure hunt. The article educates readers that St. Charles Avenue used to be named for a type of Greek fairy. Is that our “Fays delight” from the verse?
A quick hypothetical recap:
“Preservation” is written in the painting and could lead locals to look through old issues of “Preservation Press”.
Researching old issues of “Preservation Press” at a local library leads to the discovery of a link between St. Charles Avenue and Naiads.
We can’t be sure about this and all we can do is speculate. Maybe Byron Preiss expected some locals to know about the quote, “Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night!”, was connected to the old St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans without finding “Abroad in America” because it was something that was probably known by some locals but not necessarily common knowledge.
This could absolutely be a coincidence but we think this theory has a chance to be a common theme where the puzzles are linked with a local publication from the area that a casque is buried in and that you can potentially find a hint to the publication itself in one of the paintings or maybe even in a verse and in turn get a hint from the publication and Byron Preiss himself.
Look at what is thought to be the Boston image, painting eleven.
See the globe? Coincidence or not, The Boston Globe is the largest publication in the city. The gemstone featured in the painting is a peridot, the birthstone for the month of August. Might there be a clue in an August 1980 issue of The Boston Globe? Perhaps there is! Unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to view the archives of The Boston Globe. Does anyone reading this have an active subscription to The Boston Globe and would be willing to check? My wife, Deidra White, was bugging me to check The Boston Globe over a year ago and I either forgot or it went in one ear and out the other. This is typical for a husband and wife relationship and fortunately I didn’t get in too much trouble when I brought it back up, I just got “the look”…
Anyhow, diving deeper into speculation, after noting the presence of a potential clue in the December 1980 issue of “Preservation Press” I began looking at the Montreal Gazette for a similar hint.
The famous legeater lamp could be a clue to look at to the Gazette newspaper for a hint.
The legs being eaten on the lampposts at the Mount Stephen Club in Montreal, Quebec have hooves and could theoretically represent a specific animal with hooves, a gazelle. Gazette and gazelle might be a real leap to get from one to another but we must remember that Byron Preiss intended us to be playful with his book and I think this could be an instance of being playful.
I’ve been interested in the Montreal Cenotaph in Place du Canada as the “White stone closest” for the many months in relation to verse six. When we began looking to see if local publications held hints from Byron Preiss a couple weeks ago, I looked at the October 23rd, 1980 issue of the Gazette (the day Deidra and I believe Byron Preiss buried the casque in Montreal according to our shadow theory) and I saw this incredible photograph with a caption that states these military officers from The Netherlands were planting tulips bulbs at the Montreal Cenotaph to celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Netherlands liberation from Nazi occupation on the day before we suspected Byron Preiss to have buried his casque. Painting nine is the painting connected to Dutch immigration. It fit together so perfectly that I was shocked!
I realize that this could absolutely be a coincidence. However, it’s definitely worth exploring to see if other publications may have legitimate hints that could help the community recover one or more casques in the future. Is it possible that we have more to discover from the mind of Byron Preiss? Things he may have expected the locals near his treasures to have discovered in 1982-83? I think it’d be folly to not at least attempt to explore the possibility. I don’t know but the possibility that there could be more hints out there directly from Byron Preiss is really exciting!
If you’re someone that dislikes the shadow theory that my wife Deidra and I presented on Expedition Unknown, this might be a theory you can get behind that explains the use of birthstones and birth flowers in the paintings (they’re definitely there for a reason!).
Please look at these ideas and let me know what you think. Can you help track down any local newspapers or local magazine articles that may help put Byron Preiss at a specific place at a certain time? If you can assist us, we certainly thank you!
A great resource for such research is with Newspapers.com, the largest online newspaper archive. A fee is charged after 7 days, but if using for other research it might be worth looking into. Please let us know if you find anything.
A very special thanks to Ashley Haydel and Deidra White for the help in the development of this theory.
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If you love The Secret feel free to join the discussion on Facebook Group: The Secret: A Treasure Hunt managed by Deidra and Dustin White. All theories and collaboration is welcome.
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To validate this theory it must be reconciled with the two casques that have already been found.