One month down and still in the ground! About this time last month, on February 14, 2019, Tribute: Hunt for the 13th Casque was released. This armchair treasure hunt, created by John Michaels and Kit Palencar, continues to challenge searchers. When might the buried key to claim the over $2,000 prize be unearthed?
For those not familiar, this treasure hunt is free and available to all. It consists of clues hidden in Verse and Image, which once solved, will lead someone to an exact location to dig up a buried treasure. More details can be found here: Tribute: Hunt for the 13th Casque.
It’s been amazing to see all the incredible connections being made in the 13th’s Verse and Image to locations around the country. As mentioned in the previous post: The First Week of the Tribute, things like the outline of states, parks, cities, etc are being matched to lines seen in the Illustration. These are considered possible clues towards finding the buried treasure. There are also many different interpretations for the Verse being pondered too.
After one month into the hunt, these kinds of thoughts haven’t slowed down at all. Each day more and more possibilities are being shared by the numerous searchers looking for the casque, either on the Facebook Group, the MW Forum, or other places. And even though each searcher would love to be the one to dig up the casque, these plethora of ideas are being tossed into the arena for all to contemplate.
It will be the searcher who can pick out the correct pieces, discover other clues – which may or may not be publicly shared or known yet, and follow them to the buried casque, who will be the one to claim the Treasure! Will it be you? A searcher never knows for absolute certainty, until all clues from both Image and Verse have been perfectly woven together for a solid solution, which clues are correct or not—and to where the casque rests.
John and Kit should feel very proud for not only creating a remarkable Tribute Hunt, but also for rallying up an awesome group of searchers. The challenge they presented to the community is one creating lots of enthusiasm.
Even after a mere month, Tribute is pleasantly occupying our daily thoughts. Will we ever be able to pass by another park bench without looking at it’s structure? Or will we ever be able to cross over a bridge and not wonder if there are three others close by- and could this be near the spot? Doesn’t matter whether these ideas are right or wrong. They are etched in our minds.
If the Casque is brought up out of the ground tomorrow it would have a drastic effect on our new habits. While we would be happy for the finder, the search for the treasure would be missed.
I decided it would be nice to ask a few of the searchers what they think is the most interesting find for this Treasure Hunt so far?
I thought I should ask John Michaels first (what might he say?). This was his comment:
“The most interesting find so far in the Tribute hunt is COMMUNITY. We finally see people working together again for a common goal with no in-fighting at all. People are even taking their kids on adventures to the parks to look for clues. A respectful community who appreciate the fun this brings in challenging their minds and spirits is the most interesting find, defiantly.”
Evan Hoovler – Moderator of Tribute’s Facebook Group, and George Ward- Host of Shhh The Secret Podcast, shared John’s thoughts.
Evan answered:
“As a moderator of the Facebook page, my most interesting find so far has been finding out how friendly and well-behaved all of the contributors to the hunt have been.
People have strong opinions on their theories, and other casks and boards have their share of abusive people. So when I started letting everyone into the 13th casque page with even less screening than the TSA does, I thought for sure I’d have to step in and squash squabbles when they spiraled into insults. I also expected to get my share of attention from the weirdos who get offensive about their solves. I can’t argue with crazy, all I can do is ban it.
Yet, here we are one month in, and there have been zero bans and zero personal attacks. At most I’ve had to ask a few people who have been too zealous about declaring which city it is “certainly” in, and all of them were super polite and friendly about the situation.
George Ward predicted this, he pointed out that the abusive people’s behavior stems from low self esteem. Without a PBworks wiki solve to co-opt as “their own,” these people would have to risk constructive criticism on theories that are 100% theirs. It’s easier for them to just say, “this isn’t an original hunt, it’s not pure,” or whatever excuse makes them feel better.
It’s too bad, because we’re all having a great time in here.”
And George answered:
“What impresses me most about the tribute is that whole groups of people are coming together to collaborate and each are on the same level. No one person knows more about it than the next. There doesn’t seem to be much pretentiousness or oneupmanship. Its all teamwork, and that is awesome.”
But moving away from the mushy peace and love talk, guys, even though, yes, it is Wonderful!….let’s get to some other impressive puzzle finds. George went on to mention the following:
“A guy named Bingo on q4t found a monument whose foot is strikingly similar to that of the painting.”
John Hartupee first clarified that his reply would include finds only ‘publicly shared’, which made me smile. Yes, it’s true we have no idea what is going on behind closed doors (other than our own closed doors)….
But he answered: “That is a tough one to answer because none of the finds seem to lead to the correct city. The most interesting find would have to be the bench because that seems to be part of the actual solution.”
The bench find was shared by Bsketchy of the MW Forum too:
“I think the most interesting find is the lack of any super compelling connections. With hundreds of us scouring Google, and even a few with actual boots on the ground, you’d think we’d have something more than a park bench by now. I guess that’s what makes it a great game. JM did not want this to be over quickly. I think the World’s Fair bench is a dead on, no doubt match. Props to Sarah Penrod on Facebook for discovering that on her trip to San Antonio. She posted a pic of her sitting in one. I’m convinced that we’ll see one of those benches very close to the dig site. For right now, one month in, I don’t think there’s even a general consensus on what region of North America to focus on. But we’re hunting! And it’s a maddening blast.”
SluggoZim, also from the MW Forum felt:
“The Chess Piece is most interesting for me as I am convinced the path to the casque is in there ending at the orb. Every subtle change in color or shade hints at shapes. Then look THROUGH the paint as if it is a filter and see whats there. Thats what i am trying to show y’all using photoshop, with very limited skills. Also, perspective changes are dramatic. For example, a large flat looking space might look like a field but actually is the closeup of a stone step. In the bottom part of the chess piece, I see a perspective standing close at the base of a tallish monument or building and looking up. In all that darkness is plenty of color too. Green palms trees with tan trunks, blue water, buildings of color with quite a bit of greenspace with intersecting walkways. I also just found a business logo sign in there.”
He said he would posting more on these thoughts on the forum later.
The Eyes linked to Caves caught Justin Heberle’s attention:
“There have been quite a few items that have been found and shared that I thought might be helpful to the winning location. For me, the most interesting item found and shared so far would be by Anthony Jaussaud on the Facebook group page of the dog/lamb’s eyes potentially matching the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul, MN. In fact, it convinced me so much that I have stopped searching anywhere but the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.”
Dustin and Deidra White provided a short and sweet answer, as they are (sweet that is, I have no idea if they are short or not), and said, ‘the idea that the axe is key is most interesting.’
hmmm…a key? Interesting….
And finally, Rich Blandford mentioned the Monarch Highway.
“The most interesting thing was when a searcher posted a photo of the Monarch Hwy map which runs from Laredo, TX to Duluth, MN. Not only is the red color indicating the trail a great match for the image but it is also the same weird, fluctuating widths from top to bottom. This clue helped me to focus my solve in Duluth, MN.”
Searchers of The Secret are awesome! What great ideas…… Please add your thoughts for the most interesting finds so far! What do you think?
Best to you all….. it is wonderful to be part of a great treasure hunting community….and thanks to those above who offered replies for this article….much appreciated!
anyone else notice the woman only has three fingers and a thumb on the hand holding the axe?