Sorry to paste un-wiki-fied notes, I will clean up later
Hermann Park Maps
http://www.hermannpark.org/maps.htm
On the houston zoo site you can also pull a map. This is the one I was using for the animals.
http://www.houstonzoo.org/Index.asp?Page_ID=13
"The Ruby out of Araby:
Scarlet of the desert sky at dawn."
Poem
Here's a link to train 982 in houston
http://www.rypn.org/TRPA/http://www.ci.houston.tx.us/departme/parks/abouthistory3.html
They definitely arent exact matches (which may be what we need) but the columns in the P may refer to the Mecom-Rockwell fountain & Colonnade which is at the entrance to Hermann Park.
www.houstontx.gov
In the mean time, check out this picture.
http://share-dell.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeEMmbdmzaNnuA
This is a picture of a lamp that used to be in the zoo. They changed out the globes as they broke because they couldn't get replacements. These things were all over the children's zoo. I'm trying to find out if they were all over the zoo.
http://quest4treasure.co.uk/public_html/www/TheSecret/images/stitched%20cz.jpg
and
http://quest4treasure.co.uk/public_html/www/TheSecret/images/stitchedczwith8.jpg
Mark
The first pic is a stitched together view from the CZ at it's most southern tip, next to the auditorium, looking north, but panoramic from west (left) to east (right). Notice on the west (left) the building which was the Party Building (they held parties there). Notice the globe light. Notice the pole. They are NOT connected, but when you stand in ONE specific spot it LOOKS like there is a globe on top of the pole.
Thinking about it, the camel is not really on the pole, the rhino is not really on the pole, and apparently the globe is not really on the pole.
The next thing is hard to see, but if you look carefully in the background to the right of the party building behind the rock wall you can barely see the totem type pole that is at the entrance to the North America area. It is the pole that looks like the pole in image 8 with the camel that I have previously posted (see link below).
Continuing left to right, directly ahead, is nothing now but a tree (NOT the big tree directly in front of the camera but the tree in the bushes). BUT, it turns out that there WAS a totem type pole there just like the one in Image 8 (the rhino pole) and like the one in the North America area. We found it in one of the old pictures I had posted (check the link below, image DSC00078. It's hard to see, but it is sticking up just a little bit behind the small hut to the right of center in the background behind the bridge - it looks like it's in front of the auditorium. We checked out the angle, it is NOT the one in the North America area entrance). So straight ahead would be where the next pole is. To the right, next to the auditorium you see the area where the elf fountain was (raised planter area with small tree-like plants). Finally, look at the steps around the auditorium. They have metal rails on them. From where you are standing, they look like curving train tracks, especially when you step back a bit.
I took image 8 and cut the pieces from the Image and pasted them into the stitched photo. You can see this as the second photo Mark posted.
In my humble opinion, this is the spot Preiss stood when he got the idea for Image 8. The pieces fit. Note that the camels, rhinos and berms are all north of the CZ.
We dug a 1 1/2 foot trench from the pole to the end of the dirt area (basically looking at the pole towards you). Unfortunately, with Houston weather, the trench filled with groundwater.
I really believe it's somewhere close. Look at this slideshow, Picture DSC00087:
http://share-dell.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeEMmbdmzaNnzw
