Image 01


General notes on Image 1

 

 

Image 1

 

Specific Observations

  Please record your notes about this image in the list below.  Use the letter/number grid to identify the point on the image that you're describing.  To keep things organized, 1) please start each observation with a letter/number combo (in bold), and 2) add new observations in the right place on the list to keep everything alphabetized.

 

 

The Image 1 - Image 12 Connection:

 

 

 

Image Matches

  The face in the rocks is a strong match for the way editorial cartoonists portrayed Ronald Reagan, the former California governor who was elected president in 1980, shortly before The Secret was published.  There is the jutting, rounded chin, the exaggerated sharp-pointed nose, the smile, the wrinkles, the eyes squeezed almost closed, the broad forehead, and the hair dyed dark and combed into a pompadour.  It was a very common representation of Reagan in the early 1980's (back when people still read newspapers) and the profile is probably meant as a simple hint toward California.

 

 

 

  The facial features of the woman appear to be Asian.  In keeping with the immigration theme of The Secret, the city most closely connected with Asian immigration to the United States is San Francisco, California.

  The body of water to the left of the woman's face is presumably a (very stylized) representation of the entrance to San Francisco bay.

 

  It has the two narrow pennisulas of land that leave just a thin gap of water between them, providing access to a much larger bay inside.

 

  The outline of the table post is very similar to the profile of a cable car, one of the iconic symbols of San Francisco.

 
  Golden Gate Park is one of the major open spaces in San Francisco.  It is positioned just across the Great Highway from the Pacific Ocean and it forms a long rectangle that flares out slightly at the northeast corner.  The panel on the front of the woman's dress has a similar shape and a similar flare, suggesting that it is a map of the park.

  The "Gh" at the top of the dress panel may be a reference to the Great Highway, which forms the western boundary of the park.   The woman's crossed arms represent Crossover Drive, where Highway 1 crosses the park.  Stow Lake and Strawberry Hill would be united into the blue strawberry-shaped area directly below the woman's wrists.

 

  Evidence suggests that the upper portion of the panel (above the crossed arms) is reversed.  That would explain the backwards "Gh" and it would explain why the dragon's head touches the left edge rather than the right edge, to show where the Golden Gate Park Senior Center is located on Fulton Street.  But the lower part of the panel is not reversed, because it clearly shows the "flare" where the park expands outwards as Fulton bends at 7th Avenue.

 

  If the dress is intended to be interpreted this way, so that the crossed arms match Highway 1 and the bottom end of the panel matches the eastern end of the park, then the western area between Great Highway and Crossover Drive is essentially reduced to almost nothing. This might indicate that we are meant to focus our attention on the eastern end of the park.

 

If you're not on the ground in San Francisco, you can still explore the eastern end of the park using the official Interactive Golden Gate Park Map.


  Some features on the woman's face, particularly the eyes and nose, resemble features on the faces on the two concrete sphinxes that are located near the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. 

 

  The woman's thin, arching eyebrows that form a semicircle above each eye resemble the eyebrows on the Buddha sculpture in the Japanese tea garden at Golden Gate Park.

 

  All of those sculptures are in the eastern end of the park, in the area emphasized by the map on the woman's dress.

 

  For a closer look, see the full-sized image comparison.

  The design for the dragon appears to be based on a pair of ironwork griffins that adorn the doorway of the Golden Gate Park Senior Center, located at 6101 Fulton Street on the northern edge of the park.

  The dragon wing shape looks like a waterfall. Huntington Falls is on Strawberry Hill. It's fed by an artificial reservoir at the top of the hill, which could be symbolized by the circular shape beside the wing, the tips at the top of the wings showing the water's "entry point" feeding the fall. A 360-degree view of the site is available on Google Maps.

(Notice the hand rail for the fall stairway below the reservoir.)

 

 

  The shape below the crossed arms and beside the dragon's wing is similar to a strawberry (including the dotted texture). This could make it a hint toward Strawberry Hill, the island in the middle of Stow Lake.  The lake and the island would be just below Crossover Drive in our rotated map.

  The tall, rounded stones behind the woman are similar to the stones that make up Huntington Falls on Strawberry Hill in Golden Gate Park.  It isn't clear, however, when these (artificial) stones were added.

 


  Huntington Falls

  A 1901 photograph of the falls by the Detroit Photographic Company shows a more rough and jagged outline.  The fact that Image 1 shows the rounded stones suggests that Preiss visited the park sometime after construction was well underway.  We know, however, that the book was published well before the work was finished in 1984. 

 

  If construction was taking place on the island in 1981 when Preiss came through, it is highly unlikely that he would have buried a casque there where it could be destroyed.  It is far more likely that he found a spot with a view across the water to the falls and the new rocks.

  There is a Chinese Pavilion near Huntington Falls that was given to the city of San Francisco as a gift in 1976.  The pavilion was dedicated in 1981, which means it would have been a new thing getting some attention at the time Preiss was visiting the park.

 

  For more detailed information about what was done to the eastern end of Strawberry Hill around this time, see the Stow Lake, Chinese Pavilion and Huntington Falls, [draft] environmental impact report published by the San Francisco Planning Commission in 1979.  It has details about the plans for the installation of the pavilion and the renovation of the waterfalls.

 


Photo used under a Creative Commons License AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by jonathanwcheng on Flickr

 

  Notice the subtle circle formed by the dots in the "strawberry shape" of the image. (It is apparently the only circle of this kind in the whole dress texture.)  If the shape itself is Strawberry Hill, then the circle of dots might indicate an area of interest at the eastern tip of the island, where the Huntington Falls staircase is located. This blog post (and source for the picture) shows pictures of the stairways at the site.

 

  On the other hand, the circle of dots may be a representation of the Chinese pavilion, which is formed by eight cylindrical pillars around a central circular area.


  Each sleeve of the woman's dress is decorated with two columns of blue squares.  The woman's left index finger is upside-down and pointing up at the lower edge of the fourth row of blocks. The woman's right index finger is right-side-up and pointing down at the upper edge of the fourth row of blocks.

 

  Some people have suggested that we are meant to count all the blue squares on each cuff, but that wouldn't explain why the fingers seem to be pointing in such a deliberate way at certain rows.

 

  Also, the columns start very sharply and cleanly at the top with complete squares but fade away into shadows at the bottom, indicating perhaps that we are only supposed to be doing a precise count from the top.

 

 

  The dragon's winding body is presumably meant to represent the winding roads inside the park, but most of it doesn't match up at all.  The one exception is at the southern end of Crossover Drive, where Martin Luther King Jr Drive starts at the edge of the park, extends out to the middle of the park, and then makes a broad, sweeping turn to return to the edge of the park.

 

  The dragon's body captures this stretch of road very well, confirming both that A) the lower portion of the dress isn't flipped, and B) that we should focus on the area just east of Crossover Drive.

 

  The dragon's left talon appears to be making a circle to draw our attention to a small bit of land directly east of the tip of Strawberry Hill where MLK Drive has begun to curve back to the edge of the park.  The GGP feature in that spot is the Garden of Shakespeare's Flowers.

 

 

  The window at the top of the image is a reasonable match for the alcove that holds the bust of William Shakespeare in the Garden of Shakespeare's Flowers at Golden Gate Park.  At the time Preiss would have visited the park (around 1981), the alcove had sturdy metal doors that were closed each night to protect the bust from theft or vandalism. 

 

  The presence of a flower garden beside the arched doorway in the wall would be a good explanation for the first lines of Verse 7: "At stone wall's door / The air smells sweet."

 

Shakespeare bust photo used under a creative common license
Attribution Some rights reserved by joshleejosh on Flickr

  The alcove with the Shakespeare bust is still there, although the metal doors were removed recently.  Note that the brickwork on either side of the alcove has a pattern similar to columns of the Roman numerals I and II.  This might be the inspiration for the Roman numerals on either side of the dress panel in Image 1.

 

  Note also the gray spheres at the top of the wall.  This might be the inspiration for the moons above the arched doorway in the image.

 

(Photo with two of our intrepid San Francisco researchers, Chris and Isabella, in the Garden of Shakespeare's Flowers in February 2018.)

  Just below the barred window in the rock there's an odd formation that appears to be an older man with bushy eyebrows and a mustache.  This may be a visual reference to the statue of Giuseppe Verdi that stands at an intersection in Golden Gate Park, across the street from the Shakespeare Garden.
   

 

Verdi bust photo used under a creative common license
AttributionNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by torbakhopper on Flickr

  Just across Stow Lake from Huntington Falls and the Chinese pavilion, there is a handrail that ends in a spiral very similar to the spiral shown in the stem of the rose in Image 1.  The rail is where the road around the lake makes a hairpin curve, and the railing is for the steps down to the Japanese Tea Garden.

 

  It would be very useful to know if there has ever been a similar spiral railing on any of the handrails that go up Strawberry Hill beside Huntington Falls.

  Stow Lake

  The digits 8 and 3, or the number 83, may be visible in the rose stem.

 

  Somewhere near Huntington Falls there is a historical marker with a prominent date of 1893.  This may be a reference to that in some way, although it would be a stretch to find a "9" in the winding of the stem.

The other popular interpretation of this image is that it means we should be standing on or near Russian Hill behind the iconic sign at Ghirardelli Square.  Viewed from behind, the sign gives a glimpse of a backwards "Gh." This interpretation would explain why the two letters are backwards and why the "h" is shown in lower-case.  This explanation would also match up well with Verse 7 and a place where "the air smells sweet."  And this explanation also works with the references to cable cars, because the backwards sign is visible from the Powell-Hyde line.

 

Also, perhaps this is an indication that the image that we are viewing is in reverse; in other words, we are looking at the MIRROR image, and to "get" what's going on, we need to consider what we see in reverse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latitude / Longitude Hints

The Roman numerals stacked up to form "1 2 2" and "1 2 3" at the top of the woman's dress are thought to represent the range of possible longitudes for the casque.
 
The "37" and "38" in her hair are thought to be the range of possible latitudes for the casque.
  
The entire county and city of San Francisco is well within both of those ranges, stretching from approximately 37.7-37.8°N in latitude and 122.4-122.5°W in longitude.

 

 

 

Dress Symbols

 

The symbols at the upper left are a square and a circle, possibly with dots in the middle.  The meaning is unclear
    The symbols at the upper right are a square and a triangle, possibly with dots in the middle.  The meaning is unclear.

If the symbols at the top have the same meaning they would have on a standard topo map, the circle with a dot would be a landmark object, the triangle with a dot would be a horizontal control surveying point, and the square with a dot would be a boundary monument.

 

Alternatively, the symbols at the top could represent the circles, squares, and triangles used by golfers to indicate their score on each hole relative to par.  A square means one over par (bogey), a circle means one under par (birdie), and a triangle means a hole-in-one. This explanation works well with Interpretation #1 and the idea of the dress being a map, because there is a golf course in Golden Gate Park just east of the Great Highway.

It's possible that some of the symbols around the edge of the dress represent the logos of various businesses that once operated in those spots around Golden Gate Park.  The only way to know for sure would be to find photos of those streets from around 1981.
The spot where a symbol would appear directly under the crossed arms on the left is obscured by the dragon.
    This is a taijitu, or yin yang symbol. It could represent the Chinese Pavilion at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.  Alternatively, it might represent the San Francisco Chinatown (the oldest Chinatown in North America).
This could be the letter "A" or it could be an upside-down "V."  The meaning is unknown. (Compare it to the "A" one row below on the right and the possible "A" three rows below on the left.)
    This appears to be a Roman numeral in a strange position.  If rotated, it would be a six (VI).  If reflected upwards or downwards, it would be a four (IV).  The meaning is unknown.
This appears to be a capital "X" written in italics.  It could also be the Greek letter Chi or it could be the Roman numeral for 10.
    This appears to be a capital "A" written with a slanted line in the middle.  It may be part of a corporate logo.  If there's a baseball connection in this image, this might be a nod to the Oakland Athletics across the bay.
This appears to be three small circles compressed together.  It is roughly similar to the logo for the State Farm insurance company.  (It would be interesting to know if State Farm ever had an office in this area.)    

Unknown symbol.  It appears to be a triangle with a bar going across the top, possibly representing a scale or a see-saw.

Unknown symbol. It resembles the letter "A" with a reflection at the bottom. (Compare the "A" to the symbol two rows above on the right.)

 

   

Unknown symbol.

The symbol at the bottom of the dress is the one that has the clearest interpretation (and it may be that all the other symbols were just cover for this one meaningful bit).

 

In the row below, the left half of the image is a portion of the 1977 Rand McNally map of San Francisco, which would have been a very common map for visitors at the time Byron Preiss hid the casque.


  If the woman's dress is a map of Golden Gate Park, the bottom edge corresponds to Stanyan Street, which points directly at Mount Sutro, the Sutro Tower, and the Twin Peaks beside it.  And, between the Sutro Tower and the Twin Peaks is the Twin Peaks Reservoir that provides firefighting water to San Francisco.  The reservoir is divided into two tanks, to reduce the risk of a catastrophic loss of all water in an earthquake, so it has the distinctive shape of an oval with a line across it.  By the standards of The Secret, this is a VERY strong match and it confirms the significance of the Golden Gate Park map on the panel of the dress.

 

 

 

The Leonardo da Vinci Connection:

Image 1 appears to be a visual reference to Virgin of the Rocks, which was painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1483 and 1486.  The painting was originally commissioned as an altar piece for the chapel in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.  (That connection might explain the choice of this image for San Francisco, or it might just be a coincidence.)

 

Each of the two paintings is framed around a central woman wearing dark, flowing robes who stands before a small mountain of rocks.  Both paintings have similar structures, with rounded tops that echo the rounded rock structures of the background.

Both paintings feature gaps in the background rocks that allow the color of the sky to show through.  The left-hand gap in each painting has a large open space flanked by narrow crevices.  A hanging rock in the upper right of each gap creates a narrow crack that points upwards, while a standing pillar of rock in the lower left of each gap forms a tapering crack that points downwards.
   
The corresponding gap on the right side of each painting frames a single, standing column of rock.
   
Both woman have hair that is initially straight and flat (parted in the middle) but becomes curly below the ears.  Both wear jewels prominently featured at their necklines.
   

 


 

Questions, questions, questions...

 

 


 

Image sources:

 

 


 

Proposed solutions

Of all the cities that are believed to have casques, San Francisco has had (by far) the most proposed solutions, possibly because it's the first image in the book or possibly because it has such a large population living nearby.  This is far from a comprehensive list, but here are some of the more fleshed-out ideas that we've seen:

 

 


 

How to obtain permission for attempted recovery

 

Assumptions: Final location within Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

 

Process Status: Confirmed by Wiki user

Contact info Status: Confirmed by Wiki user

As of Date: 3/15/2022

 

Contact information:

 

Name: N/A

Title: N/A

 

San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department

McLaren Lodge-Golden Gate Park

501 Stanyan St.

San Francisco, CA 94117 

(415) 831-2700

rpdinfo@sfgov.org

 

Alternate Contact info: (415) 831-5500 Permits & Reservations 

 

Permissions Process:

 

Of all the search locations across the country, Golden Gate Park has had (by far) the most open, accommodating, and organized system for planning a dig.  The approach they are using is designed to allow some degree of digging while minimizing any disruption or damage to the park.  The permit system was closed down for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has reopened in the spring of 2022.

 

To get a permit, complete and submit the online 2022 Secret Treasure Hunt Dig Request form. Searchers are allowed a single, supervised, free, 1-hour dig (see full rules below).  After the initial dig, any subsequent digs require a prepayment of $140.

 

Secret Treasure Hunt Permit Rules:

 

In the event of failure, permittee may apply for a separate permit for follow-up attempt provided that for all attempts after one, permittee must pay the cost of staff time ($140).