Status Grid
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High Resolution versions of the scanned images are available from:
The verses and associtated text are available here:
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Welcome to The Secret Wiki
This is a wiki for solving The Secret by B. Preiss. This page summarizes the current status of the solutions. More in-depth discussion and analysis (and more imporantly credit for these discoveries) is available at:
Synopsis
Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
The Secret is long out of print, but copies can be obtained easily online (try abebooks.com or bookfinder.com; the book was jointly authored by Sean Kelly, John Pierard, Byron Preiss, Ben Asen, John Jude Palencar, Ted Mann, JoEllen Trilling, and Overton Loyd). Most of the book has no connection whatsoever to the treasure hunt. Of primary importance are the 12 paintings and the 12 verses, as well as some front-end material that provides a back story.
High Resolution versions of the scanned images are available from:
Status
Although no generic formula exists to solve all 12 puzzles, it is possible to identify elements that are common to several images. The current status of those generic solutions appears to be:
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Image - twelve paintings numbered in order found in book.
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Verse - each verse matches to one image.
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Lat - latitudes. One or two numbers hidden in each image represent general latitude coordinates of 12 locations. If there is only one coordinate it should be used as a general center latitude. If there are two coordinates they should bracket the location.
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Long - longitudes. One or two numbers hidden in each image represent general longitude coordinates of 12 locations. If there is only one coordinate it should be used as a general center longitude. If there are two coordinates they should bracket the location.
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City - the city that was found by longitude and latitude coordinates.
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Landmarks - a prominent structure or landmark found in the image that identifies a city.
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Park - monuments, statues, or other large architectural features that identify a single park within the city are hidden or incorporated in the image.
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Map - the outline of a map may be hidden in the image.
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Status - status of the casques
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Walk-through - a summary of the clues that lead to the solutions.
Summary
According to treasure hunters at Tweleve.org and Quest4Treasure, each image contains some indication of a month, that month's birthflower, and that month's birthstone (also the "wonderstone" prize for that month). These themes apparently have little to do with the solutions. In addition, each of the 12 images is characterized by a month symbolized by a number 1-12 (usually, but not always, in the form of a clock face), the birth flower for that month, and the birthstone for that month (the jewel prize for finding the casque corresponding to that image). The following appear to be themes and trends in the images.
| Image | Verse | City | Birth
Month |
Month
Count |
Birth
Stone |
Birth
Flower |
Immigration
Country |
Observations |
| 1 | 7 | San Francisco | June | Clock (6) | Pearl | Rose | China | Image 1 |
| 2 | 3,5,6 | Charleston | April | Clock (4) | Diamond | Daisy | Africa | Image 2 |
| 3 | 11 | Roanoke Island, Boston | January | Clock (1) | Garnet | White Carnation | England | Image 3 |
| 4 | 4 | Cleveland | March | Triangle (3) | Aquamarine | Daffodil | Greece | Image 4 |
| 5 | 12 | Chicago | May | Warts (5) | Emerald | Lily of the Valley | Ireland | Image 5 |
| 6 | 9 | St. Augustine | September | Aters (9) | Sapphire | Aster | Spain | Image 6 |
| 7 | 2 | New Orleans | December | Clock (12) | Turquoise | Narcissus | France | Image 7 |
| 8 | 1 | Houston | July | Columns (7) | Ruby | Larkspur | Arabia | Image 8 |
| 9 | 3,5,6 | St. Louis, Montreal | October | Roman Numeral X (10) | Opal | Calendula | Dutch | Image 9 |
| 10 | 8 | Milwaukee | February | Red Balls (2) | Amethyst | Primrose | Germany | Image 10 |
| 11 | 3,5,6 | Boston, Salt Lake City | August | Globe Gold Sqares (8) | Peridot | Gladiolus | Italy | Image 11 |
| 12 | 10 | New York City, Vancouver | November | Clock (11) | Topaz | Chrysanthemum | Russia | Image 12 |
Progress Map
To Do List
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