Fence and Fixture

 

Fence and fixture

Central too

At this point, the young men knew they were close. They took “Central” to refer again to the Illinois Central railroad, which runs just behind the fence and unique fixture pictured above. 

For finding jewel casque

Seek the sounds

Of rumble

Brush and music

Hush.

They took “rumble” to refer to the nearby railroad tracks. “Brush” they thought meant the sound of the wind in the trees of Grant Park. They surmised that “music hush” referred to the old band shell, Petrillo Music Shell, which at the time was no longer in use. Unfortunately, these clues were no help in narrowing down the exact location of the casque. 

They made a guess where they thought the rectangle of trees pointed, and began digging, and digging, and digging. After months of digging, they finally tried to contact Byron Preiss, and after a couple failed attempts, they were finally able to talk to him and explain their solution. It is important to note that Bob Wrobel actually spoke with Byron, not Eric who wrote this account, so the conversation is secondhand. Byron asked them what they thought “10 by 13” referred to.  Bob said rows and columns of trees, but the numbers didn’t quite add up. At this point Byron chuckled and suggested they count again taking into account any trees that might be missing. At this point Byron agreed to send them a polaroid photo of the exact dig site. With this and a very big hole, they were finally able to retrieve the relatively small casque, the Plexiglass container of which measured only 4⅞ by 5⅝ by 6⅞ inches.