St. Augustine’s Secret

Hey everyone! I know it’s been a while, but I think things are finally settling down so I can swing back into the habit of writing every day. 

This past weekend, we visited St Augustine to recon and possibly retrieve the treasure hidden by Byron Preiss in the 1980’s. 

Yes, I know the treasure itself isn’t worth much, but it is a lot of fun trying to match the clues to the paintings, and since I live close-ish to St. Augustine, it’s double the fun. 

So we packed up the car with our tiny shovel and probing rod and hit the road, stopping by Aidan’s new place in New Smyrna Beach. It was really nice. Aidan was walking Kodins and he started barking happily when he saw us pull up. When I got out of the car, he was wagging his tail so hard his whole rear end was swinging like a chaotic pendulum. 

I love that dog! 

After our visit, we continued on to the Olde City. 

We arrived right around 4:30 pm, later than we planned, but still in time to walk to the spot we solidly believe the casque to be hidden (not on FOY property), and were really dismayed to see the area we attempted to get to was closed for renovation. It reminded me of the recent Boston discovery of the casque, but at this time of the day, there were no construction workers present to ask to keep a lookout for plexiglass or ceramic, and I wasn’t sure they’d be digging in the right spot anyway, so we decided it was best to wait. A guy I talked to there said it would be open again in about three months. 

We checked into our hotel room, then found out the St. Augustine Lighthouse was conducting a limited time “paranormal investigation” every Saturday and Sunday this month. We signed up and arrived around 9:00 pm. 

The Lighthouse is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in FL, and the TAPS ghost hunters claim to have found the most compelling proof of the supernatural when they caught a figure on film running up the lighthouse steps, just as the old keepers would have to run up the stairs with hot lard so that the lard would still be the required temperature when they reached the top. 

The first part of the experience was the tour, and although the tour guide was over dramatic and a little cheesy, the stories she told were interesting. She took us to the spots where the most activity occurred. 

At one point, she asked for a male and female volunteer. I immediately raised my hand, and some other guy across the room raised his hand, so we were chosen to sit in two chairs alone in the dark in one of the most active locations on the property. 

We sat in the chairs and I set my phone to record and placed it in the ground between the two chairs. We then pretended to be real ghost hunters and asked the “spirit” questions. 

Suddenly, the other guys phone turned off by itself. I looked at the EMF meter in my hand—nothing. 

I really didn’t know what to say to a ghost, so I fumbled for the right words. Then the guy asked the ghost, “Did you just make my phone turn off?” 

Then the guide in the other room told the rest of the group they were going to come in and check on us. 

We didn’t want them to come in, because nothing had happened yet. Or so we thought! 

After the tour, we were set loose to conduct our own investigations anywhere we wanted on the property...in complete darkness under a full moon. 

Some places were definitely weird feeling, where the hairs of your arm would stand on end, but I didn’t experience that unsettling feeling in any of the rooms that were reputed to have the most activity. The main room I felt creeped out in was a room in the Keeper’s home that had a ticking clock on a fireplace mantel. 

We toured the grounds on our own, and the EMF meter was calm. 

Even as we walked up seemingly a forever amount of winding stairs, there were no ominous feelings or EMF readings. The experience at the top, with the twinkling lights  of the nighttime city, a strong, cool breeze, and the underlying roar of the nearby ocean was amazing! 

Then we  explored the front lawn of the keeper’s house that boasted huge oaks with delightfully climb-able branches, and I thought it must have been a favorite place for the keeper’s children to play. Three of these children, who drowned tragically, are reported to haunt the property. 

But I didn’t feel anything but an unusual peace while walking the near pitch black yard. 

When we got back to the hotel late that night, I listened to the videos I took, not really expecting anything out of the ordinary. But, to my surprise, SOMETHING answered that guy’s question about turning off his phone when we were sitting in the chairs! 

After a long pause, you can clearly hear someone say “Yessss,” in whispered response to his question. 

Then whatever it is continues to whisper as the group comes into the room to join us. At one point, I think it whispers, “Watch me,” and at another point, as of trying to get our attention, it whispers a louder “Hey!”

We hadn’t heard anything at the time, so it was really spooky to hear the voice on my phone. I’ll post the video, and if anyone can clean up the audio to isolate the voice, feel free to do so! 

Just make sure to turn the audio up and place your phone to your ear, because it is a whisper. 

The next morning, we got up early, ate a hotel waffle, then headed to the Fountain of Youth Park with the hopes of further ruling it out as the place where the casque was buried. 

We did a quick tour, and I dug a little in their “archeology box,” which are a few wooden boxes filled with sand you can sift through for gold and silver coins, Timicuan arrowheads, and shark teeth. 

I found an insane amount of shark teeth and a “Timucuan” arrowhead. As we ate lunch, we examined the “finds” and determined the arrowhead to be too pristine to be Timucuan, and the shark teeth too plentiful to have naturally occurred in the wheelbarrow amount of sand in the boxes, especially since we knew people had been sifting through the boxes all morning. So, most likely, they were planted there. I confirmed this when I went into the gift shop and found similar arrowheads for sale for ninety-four cents. 

But that doesn’t surprise me, because the whole park is basically a hoax. The Fountain of Youth is not a spring at all, but a well dug by an early property owner in the 1800’s. It has never been proven that Ponce de Leon ever visited that area at all!

Here’s a letter from when the owners were striving to get it listed on the Historic Register:

I think Byron Preiss knew this when he wrote “The Secret,” and I believe the story about the “Pre-Revolutionary Warlock,” is the story that matches the St. Augustine treasure location, as it mentions grade-school field trips, antique stores, and scouring the shallow sea for rusty relics to resell. 

It also adds, “The fact that almost every artifact surviving from early America is now under armed guard does not deter the Pre-Revolutionary Warlock from inspiring us to collect historically significant stuff. After all, says he, "History is happening all around us, right now!" as well as, "This could be worth a lot of money some day!"

Was he referring to the Fountain of Youth Park? Could it actually be hidden on park grounds, in a spot not easily seen by park employees? I don’t know, but may warrant further research. It hasn’t detracted from my current solve, though, which remains pretty solid. 

Even though the park was founded on a hoax, it was still pretty fun, and the artifacts they do have are pretty impressive, and served to rekindle my interest in archeology. It made me realize there IS history all around us, and that the professional archeologists shouldn’t be the only ones who get to study the history that came before us. 

Anyone with the curiosity, reverence, and interest should be able to explore and discover the past. It’s a personal thing, and I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s my history as much as anyone else’s, and I wish America would adopt the ways of Scotland, who promote a “freedom to roam” attitude toward archeology and the discovery of the tools, toys, and knickknacks of the past.