The Golden Apple Tale mystery and hunt

[Jenny]

What is the Golden Apple Tale's Story?

Read more here:

mysteriouswritings.com/the-golden-apple-tale-armchair-treasure-hunt/

PDF here:

kspot.org/trove/tgat.pdf

[goldhunter]

This is cool. Thx for posting it.

[martins]

Here's my attempt at a solution for The Golden Apple Tale:

www.readandseek.com/2017/12/the-golden-apple-tale.html

[goldhunter]

I liked the 1196 possibility.

I hope to see more interest in this hunt.

[morpheus221]

I spent several years on this hunt. For those trying to solve, my recommendation would be to start with the elements the author ‘added’ to each drawing. A group of us believed them to be the individual letters, the star constellations and maybe a few others (clock hands etc). I don’t believe the artist had any first hand knowledge of the puzzle and therefore did not contribute to the solution.

There is an implied reordering of the verses as well as ‘construction project’ that will likely be needed to obtain the answer. Remember the original book was three ring bound so it is likely that pages were meant to be reordered, placed on top of each other, etc.

The solution seems to rest on finding the starting City and other clues should confirm that one is correct. Keep in mind that a simple road atlas could help confirm the answer, especially when trying to locate the starting City.

Good luck!

One other thing, by process of elimination, I think the Casseiopia constellation drawing is the key to finding the starting City, with one star in particular being important.

[theo]

Apr 18, 2022 8:54:46 GMT -5 morpheus221 said:

Remember the original book was three ring bound so it is likely that pages were meant to be reordered, placed on top of each other, etc.

I haven't even thought about this puzzle in years, and I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but the 3-ring binder part doesn't ring any bells.  How do you know?  Do you have a physical copy?  I thought the PDF on the web was the only source we were using.

The "construction project" approach sounds fun, and I'd love to see photos of the original binder if anyone has them.  Did the pages have writing on both sides?  Maybe the holes in the pages are meant to line up with something when they are arranged properly.

[goldhunter]

I had a theory that the handle of the Little Dipper on one of the pages would point out important letters contained in the state names. For example, if you overlaid the Little Dipper page over each state page (with them perfectly aligned) it would point out specific letters. It got really close to spelling sensible words but since I didn't have the original book, I didn't have faith in it. I was able to make it spell "S ULEN INDIANA." Just having "Indiana" as a result should be encouraging.

I invite you to try it

[morpheus221]

Yes. I don’t know why I remember that. I don’t have an original copy but the PDF version has three holes in the margins. The PDF version appears to be photocopied without any creases or shadows that one might expect to find in a bounded book. I must have assumed it was three ring bound since I do remember reading that the PDF version was unaltered from the one that posted it.

I believe Goldhunter’s idea to be correct. Those star constellations were meant to be placed over another page to reveal a major clue. The importance of that constellation page emphasized by “A is for Apple”. The puzzle author likely drew the stars in after receiving the sketches from the artist.

Also, one other really cool finding courtesy of Brosk. The letters have an interesting position when you overlay them on the US MAP page (eastern half). I truly believe this book was meant to be taken apart and rearranged

[theo]

Apr 19, 2022 21:59:46 GMT -5 morpheus221 said:

I must have assumed it was three ring bound since I do remember reading that the PDF version was unaltered from the one that posted it.

I'm only surprised by the 3-ring binder idea because I've never heard of a book being sold that way.  An alternative idea is that the book was sold with the pages loose in an envelope or with the pages stapled together, and the buyer was the one who put them in a binder.  But it doesn't matter either way.  I'm sure you're right that we are meant to take the pages out of whatever binding they had and move them around.

I think we're on the right track here, so let's organize what we've got:

• The book has 32 pages and was printed double-sided on 16 sheets of paper (size unknown).
  
• Each odd-numbered page starts a new sheet of paper and has the three holes on the left (at least in the scanned copy).  Each even-numbered page is the backside of the preceding page.
  
• The map of the U.S. forms the middle of the book (pages 16-17).
  
• Page numbers are missing on pages 1, 2, and 15 (and all the image pages).
• The 12 illustrations are printed in pairs, with each pair back-to-back on a single sheet of paper. The page numbers for the pairs are 5-6, 9-10, 13-14, 19-20, 23-24, and 27-28.  In terms of the sheets of paper that make up the book, we're talking about sheets 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, and 14.
  
• Because the illustration pages are double-sided, there's no way to put those six sheets in order to form "PLACE IN ORDER."
• The positioning of the letters is obviously important, so the starting point is to position all those letters (with or without the map) onto a few sheets of paper.
  

[goldhunter]

Hold on, you guys ain't getting me into this!

But...I hope you figure it out. I said on another forum that when I meet God I'm going to ask about ufos and bigfoot and The Golden Apple Tale

[theo]

Okay, our mission here is clear: we need to make our findings so promising and compelling that we draw people like goldhunter back down the rabbit hole.

I'll do my part.  If you take the 12 illustrations and trace the letters (in position) onto a single page, you get E C A L P (or "PLACE" written from right to left) across the bottom.  And I N is written in a diagonal going upwards from left to right.  And then O R D E R makes a nice curve (in order, from left to right at the top).  If I had an easy way to upload images, I'd show you the result.

So there's no question about the "PLACE IN ORDER" message and this should also resolve any ambiguity about the two Es and the two Rs.

Getting interested again, goldhunter?

[goldhunter]

I'm interested...in watching you guys.

FWIW, I'll be glad to add some findings and speculations I have.

[morpheus221]

Apr 20, 2022 6:43:05 GMT -5 goldhunter said:

Hold on, you guys ain't getting me into this!

But...I hope you figure it out. I said on another forum that when I meet God I'm going to ask about ufos and bigfoot and The Golden Apple Tale

Haha !…no way I am getting pulled back into this one (for now) but do enjoy the discussion.

Theo, overlap the PLACE IN ORDER with the US MAP page (eastern half). The ORDER wraps nicely around the northern border, seems on purpose not coincidental. Also, look at the juxtaposition of the letter “A” in PLACE. It appears to have been intentionally put lower on the page for some reason. The farm/sky picture has plenty of space where that “A” could have gone to match the relative position of the other letters in PLACE.

Side note. Never really could figure out the purpose of the 8 or STATES on that map page

[theo]

Apr 20, 2022 11:16:20 GMT -5 morpheus221 said:

Theo, overlap the PLACE IN ORDER with the US MAP page (eastern half). The ORDER wraps nicely around the northern border, seems on purpose not coincidental.

Side note. Never really could figure out the purpose of the 8 or STATES on that map page

Do you mean the way "ORDER" arches over Lake Superior and then flattens out for Lake Huron?  Yes, I noticed that too.

Fun fact: 8 states touch the Great Lakes.

[morpheus221]

Yes. ORDER around the border….on that note, the closest I ever got to a “finally!” moment in this hunt was when I placed the letter A over the letter A in STATES (A is for APPLE). (Try this if you like). The riddle seams to call out one star in Casseiopia so the thought was that this star overlaid on the US MAP would give you the starting city but it didn’t quite fall on a US state in the map. Given the Casseiopa clue on the map itself and emphasis in the riddle, I thought the connection was logical. Interestingly it was near upstate NY on the Great Lakes (hard to go West from there however).