A few posts ago I blogged the post Emperor Norton, Undead about someone putting a flyer about Emperor Norton up in the financial district, taped to a light pole. I noted that the Emperor has a blog, and soon got a comment on the post from someone, or a group, claiming to be The Council for American Liberties and warning me to not even talk about this person or situation. Shortly after, I got an email (via my personal site’s server) stating the same thing.

All of this led to the above photo, which I took when and hints on both blogs led to clues found taped inside the inside top of SF Weelky boxes — I shot the photo sunday night at Stow Lake, after following cypher clues to the observatory ruins on top of Strawberry Hill. The whole strange story, as I’ve been following it up to now, is after the jump.

* * * * * * *

So there was the first flyer, then came the discovery of the blog. And the warnings and then the scavenger hunt clues. Next, “The Council for American Liberties” left comments in different blogs (like on Scott’s post) stating that they were concerned for Norton, claiming him to be some kind of comrade who had gone rogue and insane, leaving the URL of *their* new blog. And posts on the Norton blog grew more insane-sounding.

Initially on the Norton blog when we first discovered it, a public gathering was announced (for friday), but the it seemed the gathering was scrapped for a scavenger hunt of sorts, with three locations given — at the three different SF Weekly boxes. I had been discussing and emailng about all this throughout the days since I first posted the flyer with two freinds who wish to remain anonymous agents in all of this. But when we read the locations of the “gifts” at the Weekly boxes I was stuck at home working, so my agent-friends went to find the “gifts”. Overall, it was becoming clear to each of us that whoever was doing this was quite aware of how the web works. The agents only recovered two “gifts”, and quickly realized that we needed all three to put together the next clue. When agent m went to the location he previously missed, he found a note from the opposition (The Council for American Liberties) in its place, scolding him for persuing Norton’s follies and stating that the clues had been removed for “safety”.

According to them, taped inside the Weekly boxes was:

> a bunch of envelopes were taped inside- each had many Norton pins and a
> sheet of paper with a clue
> one reads:
> climb
> highest
> the
> golden
> holds
> the

> other reads:
> to
> point
> dry
> gate
> secrets
> rocky

Did all this really happen? Yes, and there’s more.

Again, all three were needed to make sense of it. Luckily for us (or as a plant for information), the American Council nicely photographed and blogged the missing piece of the puzzle. And a new clue was understood.

When the post was detected, I got an email from agent m, on his way to Stow Lake. The clue was,

> it’s
> above
> pond.
> park
> in
> crown

So, putting it all together, he surmised it had to be Strawberry Hill in the middle of Stow Lake, which is the highest point in the park (besides the DeYoung’s observatory tower). And it has a “rocky crown” at the top: I think the ruins up there are the result of the 1906 earthquake — according to a .gov .pdf I found today, “A number of park structures sustained heavy damage during the temblor: the Sweeney Observatory atop Strawberry Hill twisted grotesquely and was completely destroyed”.

I told m, “meet you at the boat house” and I sped through the park at dusk to the lake. We hiked to the top and found the ruins, then spent a while looking into all the fallen and decayed crevices, little caves and rocks. I saw a bunch of odd looking pottery shards in the grass near a small cavern in the base, and peered inside to spot something shiny, blue and new looking. I reached inside and pulled out a mint tin, with something metal inside.

It had to be the next clue!

We popped it open on the spot. Inside, three strange pictures — a rice paddy field, a Chinese child working in a field and a steam train. Also, a note from Norton saying to share our information and a silver key with “China” stamped on it. m blogged it here.

Of course, I felt it was about the legacy of the Chinese in San Francisco — a rich, painful, fascinating, oft-violent and essential piece of our history. Many Chinese were brought here as slave labor to work the railroads and were treated horribly — and treated each other horribly — and so in a way, I thought this could mean anything. Today I researched Stow Lake and uncovered that the Chinese Pagoda at the foot of Strawberry Hill was a gift from the Chinese government — notably from the Mayor of Taipei, our sister city in China — as an act of goodwill regarding Chinese history in SF. Interestingly (and as a side note) I discovered that the pagoda was shipped in 6000 pieces and assembled on site. But the date for that was 1981, way too late for a Norton correlation.

Then, I hit pay dirt with a few good Google search strings. It’s not mentioned often in Norton history, but it’s plain as day on this Rotten.com web page: Emperor Norton’s obsession with the Chinese is what drove him to destitution and madness, snip:

“He hit upon a bold scheme after studying San Francisco’s large immigrant and Chinese population: he’d order massive shipments of chopsticks and rice, virtually cornering an emerging market. Unfortunately, when the shipment arrived from Europe, there existed twice as much rice as Norton could actually pay for. He went bankrupt on the spot, and spent the next three years in court.

Then he vanished.

Nine months later, he emerged a complete madman on the streets of San Francisco.”

So, lots of questions, but also lots of adventure. Does the key fit in a lock, or is this an overly-obvious clue — in a puzzle that has now been somewhat solved? And what’s the deal with Norton as an insane defective of some organization? Of course, even though no one knows the details on all this intrigue over the past weekend (until this post we’ve kept it quiet), just based on my original post here and Scott’s post on Laughing Squid I’ve gotten several emails asking me if the person who sent me the original post’s tip — David — is behind it. He is certainly a suspect, and in my mind so is Darren Mckeeman, as he alluded to knowledge about a Norton movie in the works (in comments on the original post).

But I’m much more interested in where this is going, rather than where it’s coming from. More, please!