Secret 40th Anniversary Hunt Summary and How to Get Started

[Jenny]

A treasure hunt created in tribute of the 40th anniversary of The Secret (published in 1982)




Released September 2022 by George Ward and Arthur Scheijde
Clues within an image and verse
BOTG required
Treasure is buried casque with gems and treasures (approx. value 1.7k)
No end date


Facebook group page

[Jenny]

Link to larger image with verse:

www.pinotennoir.nl/TheSecret/03AnniversaryHunt_Verse&Painting.jpg?

[choice]

The verse starts a bit whiny and negative.
At first glance the totem pole looks like the "Little Owl" by Bethany Beach Central Park.
The Indian in the image making a bird flying gesture with his hands. An owl looking ghostly fog coming out of his hands.

[jeepers]

The dark swirls in the water in front of the totem pole say St. Louis. The dark swirls in the water in front of the guy say MO. St Louis, MO.

The top of the totem pole has 4 rings around it. The top one spells out both Gateway and Arch. The bottom two rings, when combined, spell Bismark - a recently closed restaurant that was around for a century. I believe that's what they're referring to in the first part of the verse.

Looking into the city, not far away from the arch is the Tower Grove Park and Missouri Botanical Gardens. There seem to be a lot of similar shapes in the roads there to some markings on the totem pole and the guy's tattoos. The fairy is also holding a flower in the orb or balloon or whatever, and the fairy above it seems to be pouring gold and silver dust on it. I'd take this to mean the treasure is in the flower gardens somewhere.

Last observation so far, there's a small red jewel at the top of the totem pole's bands and "arch." Immediately above and to the right of that red jewel, there is an angel with wings shape in the branches. There's a "Fountain Angel" in the Botanical Gardens that looks pretty close to that.

[samantha73]

Y'all way better than me on the visuals. Going off the verse I found a YouTube video with "old friend" Charles Moore and Chicago casque finder Rob Wrobel. February 12 2017 I believe. They talked about and looked for the Milwaukee casque in the video. The letter "G" was found on a tree in that video.

Using the letter "G" on the "outer limits" (last letters) of the verse, there is only one "line" with the G and coincidentally contains the letters CLAY.

That line refers to the St. Augustine verse. I'm leaning toward Treaty Park. There is a Freedom Baptist Church directly north, and Opal Street (gems) south. Treaty Park would fit the visual of a Native American looking up as he loses something precious.

[jeepers]

I'm pretty sure I've found this one as well now. The "as the road curves" is a reference to the Cleveland casque in which the dig site was to be viewed between two pillars.

The moon, north star, fairy pouring the silver and gold, the bubble with the flower and the origin point of the string holding the watch as well as the watch line up absolutely perfectly on the map putting you in a certain place. At the clay line, you're at the bottom of 7 steps, each made of 4 slabs of stone looking between two pillars at the dig site which looks just like one of the images in the painting.

Also, just as a checkpoint for this being St Louis, in the upper left of the painting is the state of Missouri rotated 90 degrees and mirrored. The exact spot where St. Louis is located in the state is the location of the fire with the two Native Americans sending smoke signals.

When the verse says to look for a letter and let it be your clue... that's actually your visual clue for the dig site once you see it, it references something in the painting. And the brown hat present on the guy in the foreground is visible from the dig site.

Anyone in St Louis?

[choice]

So according to the 6Q post by Jenny the city location is not the 12 Secret cities nor St Louis since George says he was never there.
Just for giggles, look at the face of the Indian "Chief". Is that Joe Biden?! The commander in "Chief" is from DE.

[choice]

Similar to Chicago puzzle's windmill, the tree here has great deal of numbers and letters within.
There may be an alterntive to coordinates to pinpoint the city. Chicago puzzle had all the "windy" items in the image.
Here, the smoke signals clearly hide a morse code message. Placement of the jewel may be a word separator.
The best result I came up with so far is GEMINI MAD. This explains the twin indians.
Any message with GEM may be interesting. Possibilities are endless.

[choice]

Jan 2, 2023 15:39:46 GMT -5 jeepers said:

If you turn the branches image upside-down it will look like downtown Pittsburgh.   tinyurl.com/yn7whnd5

[choice]

Re Morse code translation, you may want to try decoding from top to bottom since since the top smoke plume is released 1st. There may be a last dot just being released.
Don't ignore the fellow lions on Fourth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.
goo.gl/maps/4eUi8PkTJzfAc4cM9

[ronk39]

The Morse code could be the names of the creators - GWE ASMANE, George Ward, Esq (@georgewardesq) Arthur Scheijde, Multi-media Artist, NEtherlands.

Also, the coordinates are in the tree - there is an 80 on the left side above the green. Half-way above it is an upside down 40.

Pittsburgh - 40 N 80 W

[choice]

The old Secret had a range of coordinates i.e. 40-41, 80-81.
41 over the fairy and 81 sideways at the right edge of the image.

Whose face is this?

[choice]

What is this OJ looking thing?
Simpson played in only one playoff game during his 11-season Hall of Fame career: a 1974 Divisional Round game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Steelers won 32–14.

[aykay]

Jan 21, 2023 18:20:05 GMT -5 choice said:

What is this OJ looking thing?
Simpson played in only one playoff game during his 11-season Hall of Fame career: a 1974 Divisional Round game between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Steelers won 32–14.

The bottom park looks like a canoe, no?