YOU ARE NOW ENTERING GOLDENGATE’S

For June 3, 2012

FEELING LUCKY

T. 25. N. R. 2. W. W. M.

T. 25 N. R. 2 W., W.M. ? or T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M. ? And the solution to

WHAT’S SO SIGNIFICANT ABOUT PETER S. DUVAL’S LITHOGRAPH of the GENERAL LAND OFFICE’S

MAP of PUBLIC SURVEYS in CALIFORNIA (1854)?

But first …. !!!

From the desk of ABOUT LAST WEEK’S BONUS COVER !!

PLAYERS!! BOY DID WE STEP IN IT !! Big time!!! INDEED, realization of the complexity of editing a weekly electronic Puzzling thing -- much less the world’s premiere weekly one is coming home to us – as is well-demonstrated in this issue of S.Y.M.-Zonia!!! And, by the way, welcome to it!!!!

FEELING LUCKY??

Yes – I was anyway …. “Feeling Lucky” that is, at least, I was, when I began getting into the current issue of S.Y.M.-Zonia, on Tuesday (Monday being a sort of de facto holiday for us …). I was indeed FEELING LUCKY as the caption of this week’s issue still indicates – because, by breaking a silly old taboo … and Gargling my way towards a breakthrough to a long-standing ROADBLOCK issue in S.Y.M.-Zonia – an issue that is a holdover from the old P.Y.M. ™ Puzzler -- we had – it really appears !! -- actually come up with a sort of solution!!! WOW !!!

In other words, being new at this, and without the necessary reservoir of resources to draw on, Gargling this old bugaboo seemed like it might be worth a shot. So of course, with Dromgoole nowhere in sight … I screwed up my nerve… and DID SO !!! by entering the familiar cartographic term, “T. 25 N. R. 2 W., W. M.” –on the Gargle page -- as seen on this week’s COVER, like this:

The sense of INDEPENDENCE was of course exhilarating! I glanced over my shoulder – even here in Unit D-37, where the rolltop door was closed due to morning fog: no-one! Except that lady in the poster, watching me. Otherwise, at last, I was beginning to strike my own editorial course! I watched the letters and numerical characters appear on the screen, one by one, as I typed them in the search term/querry field,: “ T.25.N. R. 2. W. W.M.” which is of course, shorthand for Township 25 North Range 2 West Willamette Meridian – that is, in other words, the co-ordinates, and thus the title, for the G.L.O-Worm’s master-map !!! [See, e.g., last week’s issue! – Ed. ] and THEN, as I said, I was actually “Feeling Lucky” so I clicked there!!! Right? And in about .000004 seconds was rewarded by the response ….

DID YOU MEAN T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M.?

HUH? !!! Good grief!! Stupid thing. Well … OF COURSE I DIDN’T !!! Did I? Or did I? Heck, maybe I should have, right? I mean, maybe I did – maybe that’s what I meant, right?

T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M.?

A minor editorial alteration. It was at my discretion. This stands for “Township 25 North Range 2 West Mount Diablo Meridian” – which is a completely different article, but nonetheless a more promising place than the former – which is noplace to speak of, really: a little spot of nowhere, largely in the water of Hood Canal, in Jefferson County, Washington (State) …but MORE ON ALL OF THIS BELOW ! -- in this week’s S.Y.M.-Zonia – which, this week, begins with an extended section dealing with last week’s cover … A LETTER !! IN THE MAILBAG !!!

FROM THE MAILBAG A DEMAND LETTER !! .. FROM AN ATTORNEY !! When the mail came that morning – Wednesday, after the Memorial Day special -- my sense of “feeling lucky” was shattered , when the mailman delivered a certified, “RRR” DEMAND LETTER!! And from none other than our own Ass. Dr. Stephanie Beckon –apparently quite distressed that she does not have the answer to the Memorial Day “G.L.O.-Worm” S.Y.M.-Zonia!! and up to her old confrontational brinksmanship games, to try to turn our editorial discretion and force our untried hand … Here’s the letter …. And A PROVOCATIVE ONE it is indeed!! Read for yourself(ves)[?], Players !! You might have to enlarge the pages …

just a hair!!

PLAYERS!!! PROVOCATIVE INDEED!!! I was no longer “Feeling Lucky” !!-- as you can well imagine.

And I myself was almost thrown off balance by this letter, thinking .. WWDD? “What would Dromgoole do?” I was nearly provoked to respond in kind!!! Until I remembered, luckily, that my character is not like Dromgoole’s – that in fact, I am an entirely NEW editor, and I have entirely different motivations … I am my own man!! And so, instead, I penned the following letter in response:

RESPONDS:

STEPHANIE -

I think we can make this work – and we need to, for all of us. And I think, that I understand completely what is

bothering you. To use the common tongue, “I know what it is you saw…

because it is in my mind too…” please read my letter above, and hear me out: I know that what you really seek, above all else, is the INTEGRITY of S.Y.M.-Zonia -- and maybe some answers to a few of the recent issues. But fortune favors us, even in this: for in your distress, your recruitment of the B-grade Smith Hubbard firm of Port Orford, (Oregon) to deliver this melo-dramatic, sophomoric ultimatum (sheesh – is that guy for real?), has given me an idea, and in doing so, may have opened for us all the opportunity to learn an important LESSON FROM HISTORY and apply that lesson, to our own lives. YES !!! And in that regard, let’s turn back the clock just 2 months, and re-examine the critical CLOSED CIRCUIT S.Y.M.-Zonia, Incident on the Emily Farnham (April 1, 2012), which dealt with the strange relationahsip between San Francisco (California) and Port Orford, (Oregon) … BUT!! but also… with another special relationship … It’s a story about frieindship and getting along…

A LESSON FROM HISTORY: THE SECRETS OF T. BUTLER KING!

THE ILLUSTRATION above-left, shows Asaph .P. Dromgoole’s personal copy of T. Butler King’s REPORT ON CALIFORNIA, -- and this little book has some unique MS maps inside. Sample provided.

It is presented here to REMIND our dedicated S.Y.M. Leader, Ass. Dr. Beckon, of what she already well knows:

namely, of the importance of freindship, and getting along – and also of the importance of forebearance from execution of the actions threatened in the Smith Hubbard letter, printed above. Take a step back, Stephanie, and review the real lesson of that – and see also, and the associated sketch map, which must be Dromgoole’s… There’s also writing on the back… And imagine what’s on the other MS maps inside, that Dromgoole left here in his Self-Storage unit. I have them.

YES!!! That’s right: As Dromgoole indicated in Incident on the Emily Farnham (April 1, 2012), despite his criminal departure from Astoria (Oregon), on a night in late November, 1850, captaining the Emily Farnham -- a departure that was congenially described as “mysterious” by some of the wags in the Oregon press – and despite his armed and violent resistance agaisnt Astoria Customs Collector General John Adair, and his KIDNAPPING of two of Adair’s soldiers !! yet, Capt. Tichenor was NOT

ARRESTED, and the Emily Farnham was … NOT DETAINED upon its arrival in San Francisco … WHY?? And why did he make that issue available only “CLOSED CIRCUIT”?

FOREBEARANCE! “NOLI PROSEQUI!” That’s why. It is a virtue.

Not detained?!!! The decision was ostensibly within the discretion of the San Francisco Custom’s House official at the time -- none other than THOMAS BUTLER KING – but King did nothing!! Except to totally bury – as if forever -- the Incident on the Emily Farnham !!!! – Ask youself: had you ever even heard of it before?

And that’scalled FOREBEARANCE!!! FOREBEAR!!! Be like a King!! PLEASE. Stephanie: please see the next page !!! BECAUSE in return for King’s agreement NOT TO PROSECUTE Tichenor (hint, hint) and not to detain the Emily Farnham, (hint hint !!) Capt. Tichenor granted to KING …

YES: an interest as a silent partner in the founding of Port Orford (Oregon). It’s in Bancroft!!! And he got to copyright the town survey map too!!! (See INSET caption, at right) Pretty cool, right? Ramsey ™ would go green!!!

AND THIS IS PRECISELY MY POINT!! The rapacious, even piratical, Capt. Tichenor, who sailed from Astoria (Oregon) on the Emily Farnham, in direct defiance of a federal court order, and by fighting off, vi et armis, no less a figure than Gen’l John Adair and his official Custom House boarding party, and who, in doing so, may have committed a MUTINY on his own ship!! but at the very least literally kidnapped Lieut. Woods and the soldier Butler, (see, Incident on the Emily Farnham, April 1, 2012) – well, the same piratical Capt. Tichenor SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED immediately upon his arrival in San Francisco, and this through the good offices of none other than the San Fran Customs Housee officer, T. Butler King!!! BUT, Players: HE WAS NOT !!! King FOREBORE!!! Or Foreburded!! Yes!

T. BUTLER KING, in his secretive dealing with CAPT. TICHENOR, also holds A LESSON FROM HISTORY for all of us today: FOREBEAR !! Say.. “NOLI PROSEQUI!!! REALIZE that it is not always in your best interests to try and sue the pants off someone, OR impound their ship OR padlock their Self-Storage unit -- simply because you can! Or just because you are stressed out, and encounter a two-bit attorney, in a small, struggling, coastal fishing port! THERE ARE MUCH, MUCH BETTER WAYS !! Work with us Editors, to IMPROVE things in S.Y.M.-Zonia!! How soon can you get here on your Vespa? Dromgoole may have discovered where Tichenor’s GOLD MINE was. I have his notes here and this weird map………. I need you.. I’ll cut you in… Did you see any maps in your attorneys office? String him along if you can …

FOREBEARANCE sec rec y… IS OUR LESSON FROM HISTORY!

And now the solution !!! YOU ARE ENTERING

WHAT’S SO SIGNIFICANT ABOUT PETER S. DUVAL’S LITHOGRAPH of the GENERAL LAND OFFICE’S

MAP of PUBLIC SURVEYS in CALIFORNIA (1854)?

Is it on excerpt A., B. or C.? PLAYERS!! Really, really sorry for the looong delay in finally getting to the heart of this week’s issue of S.Y.M.-Zonia! But as you can see, the “From the Mailbag” correspondence section was pretty important this week, because, really, where would we be without Ass Dr. Beckon, who gives this place its name, and unique qualities, which she imparts to it? So we can finally get back to brass tacks, and revisit the ongoing matter of the mysterious works of that cartographic cryptographer, Charles S. Frailey, 33rd° Master Mason and Chief Clerk of the G.L.O – in which capacity he earned himself the nickname, among his colleagues, of ….

THE G.L.O.-WORM ™

(Not to be confused with the G.L.O.-WORM, Jr.1

LAST WEEK’S S.Y.M.-Zonia posed the question (above) as to what is so significant about the 1854 Peter S. Duval lithograph of the General Land Office’s Map Of Public Surveys In California (1854). Players will remember that this map was remarkable for the tentaive, almost ghostly impressions of Duval’s name on the map – as if he really wasn’t all that sure that the engraving was accurate, nor that he wanted his firm’s name to be associated with it: Remember?

)

[See last week’s issue – Ed.] And that is exactly how Duval had handled the crisis represented by “Mr. Pinkerton’s botch” in the execution of the plates for the Poe/Wyatt collaboration, Conchologist’s First Book : Duval just didn’t want to sign them – and yet he did. It was the same with Frailey’s map: Duval wanted the contracts that would flow to his office from executing a G.L.O.-map – but he didn’t quite trust Frailey. So, as you can see, you can barely make out his name, but not his address, etc.

NOW!! What’s significant about that map? Well, I wasn’t too sure myself, so as I always do when researching for S.Y.M.-Zonia, and as anyone might do in the same circumstance -- Dromgoole did too: he just never let on -- I went to Gargle up a laundry-list of unique search terms – and then I did something I almost never do: I clicked on I’m Feeling Lucky – because, as discussed above, I was in fact “Feeling lucky” that day – at least, I was until I received the demand letter from Ass Dr. Beckon’s attorneys!!! So I entered in the term T. 25 N. R. 2 W., W.M. – as I have done hundreds of times, and clicked on the I’m Feeling Lucky button … here, once again, is a screen capture of the actual “moment when” …. I emerged from Dromgoole’s shadow, and became “my own man”, editorially speaking:

And got back the response:

“DID YOU MEAN T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M.?” That’s what it said.

Which of course, as I said at the top, I didn’t mean, but heck, like I said, maybe .. who knows? Maybe I did? I mean, mean that… Right?

1 Another time!!

NO!! REMEMBER, PLAYERS!! The search term I entered was T 25 N. R. 2 W., W.M. -- that’s the one that I meant: the one you all know:

That’s the critical MS map!!

So much of this mystery, began over this one remarkable map, the unique manuscript map of Elmendorf’s – the famed T. 25 N. R. 2 W., W.M. – that’s surveyor’s shorthand for Township 25 North, Range 2 West, Willamette Meridian. This, after all, was the map introduced by Elmendorf, in his immortal P.Y.M. ™ Puzzler, Was Charles S. Frailey Working the G.L.O. Surveys? (April 26, 2011) – almost exactly a year ago!

This was the map that P. was kidnapped for!! and held for

ransom over!! This was the map Dromgoole had rolled up into my trousers, and tried to sneak past TSA at JFK!! last Christmas – and the map he found for sale on eBay, a few days later -- and only just barely recovered!! This is THE SAME MAP that Ramsey ™ coveted so dearly-- and which eventually … cost P. his life …

The original MS map to which all U.S. surveys in the OREGON TERRITORY were keyed … The G.L.O’s Manual of Instructions to Surveyor General was tied to it – for generations!!! And yet the map itself had so far proven to be only an imaginary landscape, yielding … almost nothing. The coordinates thereof… in fact, were literally underwater!! An address mostly in Hood Canal, on Puget Sound, in Washington State. Was it a dead end? Had Elmendorf been wrong? Dromgoole? Ramsey ™ too?

Or … was there perhaps another? Another map? Maybe not instead of, but in addition to …?

Elmendorf himself had said that Charles Frailey was almost “diabolically devious” and had set up stratagems of encryption that were of “dastardly difficulty” – and Dormgoole confirmed this recently ,l and I myself re-affirmed this – just last week!!!

So, Players, is it …

T. 25 N. R. 2 W., W. M. ? or T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M. ? T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M. !!! This stands for “Township 25 North Range 2 West Mount Diablo Meridian” – which is a somewhere entirely different … in CALIFORNIA, in fact. And in fact, wasn’t that coordinate actually shown on Frailey’s 1854 P.S. DUVAL LITHOGRAPH? The subject of this week’s S.Y.M.-Zonia? INDEED !!! There it was – I had been looking right at it… but, had I overlooked something? Somehow? AND THEN, I had an idea: YES!! I flicked on the U.V. light – the same one Editor Elmendorf had used to disclose the secret writing under Eddy’s Compass Paste-Down… [for more, see, Under The Compass Paste-Down: Can You Decrypt Eddy’s Secret Ciphers? (February 23, 2008) – discussed recently by Dromgoole, in How Did William M. Eddy’s Official 1849 Survey Map of … San Francisco get to Oregon City (Oregon)? (April 29, 2012) – Ed.] … And there it was :

The answer was …. B. !! Can you see it?

2

SECRET PRINTING ON THE MAP WAS INVISIBLE -- EXCEPT UNDER U.V. LIGHT!! No wonder “Mr. D,” -- Peter S. Duval – had hesitated to put his name on Frailey’s stone! It all made sense now. So I looked more closely. For some reason, completely inexplicable to me, on Duval’s lithographed map, there was a giant grid laid out at the northern extremity of the Mount Diablo Meridian, in the uppermost reaches of the Sacramento River valley – and the furthest of these was numbered T. 25 -- Township 25. A mere coincidence, of course.

Or … was it? And while the grid on the G.L.O’s Map of Public Land Surveys in California (1854) was shown surveyed for 6 Ranges to the west – or 36 miles west !! – at this latitude of the Mount Diablo Meridian, the actual arable land in the Sacramento river valley, is nowhere near that extensive. It’s more like 6 miles wide. With scarce resources, the first public land surveys had to be conducted where the land was actually being claimed, worked, enclosed, challenged, etc. And no-one wanted the stoney, barren foothills!! So, why were these arid hills so far west of the M.D.M. and the Sacramento river, being surveyed by the California G.L.O., so early? Why this huge grid – almost 1300 square miles of comparative wasteland -- laid out at the extremity of the survey? Was this the real T. 25 N.? (Township 25 North?) And if so, was THAT the real R. 2 W.? (Range 2 West?) On the Sacramento river?

Had the answer been in Ramsey™’s collection the whole time? !! Was Duval’s map Frailey’s KEY, after all? And had his efforts to secure the master MS Map -- T. 25 N. R. 2.W., W.M., -- been completely needless? And the kidnapping and ransom of P.? The murder of P? Also – all for nothing? The tragic irony was almost too much….

But those questions would have to be answered later. And now, there was a NEW mystery to solve, as well:

WHAT’S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT @ T. 25 N. R. 2 W., M. D. M.??? ?

But not today. There’s no more time …. because… YOU ARE LEAVING