In February 2019 there was a dig in Golden Gate Park that unearthed an object.  After a brief period of excitement, the "casque" was revealed to be a (pretty obvious) fake.  Here is one announcement that circulated on the web:

This photo appears to show the moment the fake casque was unearthed.  The digger is reportedly a Frenchman named Gerald Gay.  The spot appears to be somewhere at Huntington Falls.

Here's the official response from the San Francisco Parks Department in response to an inquiry from one of the wiki members:

"Our Permit Office has confirmed that Mr. Gay’s permit was approved for the Verdi Statue, however he dug below the Huntington Falls sign on Strawberry Hill. Please note that this is not in keeping with our permit rules, and we are not allowing permittees to dig at sites that were not approved on the permit application. If a treasure hunter chooses another site after the permit is approved, they will need to apply again for a new dig permit. This is to ensure that our staff can properly evaluate dig locations to preserve irrigation and landscaping."

And here's a March 4, 2019 news report from a San Francisco television station that talks about the fake casque but doesn't really shed much light on what happened: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/04/treasure-hunters-san-francisco-golden-gate-park/

The fake casque doesn't affect the actual hunt set up by Byron Preiss, but it's an interesting story and it's now part of the lore and legend surrounding The Secret.  It should therefore be documented here on the wiki.  Several questions come to mind immediately:

• Who did this?  Was it a solo project or a group effort?
• Was the fake casque constructed and buried by the same person who dug it up?  Or was the person doing the digging a victim of the hoax?
• When and where was the fake casque buried?  How long was it in the ground?
• Where is the fake casque now?  (Who took the photos shown above?)
• WHY??? Why on earth would anyone invest the time and effort to do this?  What would they possibly stand to gain?

  If anyone can fill in bits and pieces of this "puzzle within a puzzle," please do so!  You can modify this page directly or just put your information in the comments below.

Other San Francisco News:

• May 2019 Dig near former location of Dudley Carter's Goddess of the Forest

     Someone dug a hole in May 2019 near the foundation that is left from the Goddess of the Forest in Linley Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Looks like another potential unauthorized dig.  This type of thing will be a problem for legitimate diggers who follow the park rules.  The hole is about 1-foot by 1-foot and about 3-feet deep.

  

   

• 2021 & 2022 News Coverage in the SFGATE

     In January of 2021, during the Covid pandemic, Dan Gentile published an article about the San Francisco hunt on the media site SFGATE.  Gentile said he had been contacted about the hunt by someone who had come up with a proposed solution.  Gentile was interested in pursuing a dig, but the pandemic restrictions at that time made it impossible to do so.  In May of 2022, Gentile followed up with a second article about the hunt, this time detailing his attempted dig.  The spot was at the Powell Street railway station, on the north edge of the park.  (No casque turned up in the hole, but they did find an old Home Depot credit card issued to "Fuad A. Daya.")