Sullivan's Island Magazine April 2018

19 www.SullivansIslandMagazine.com | www.SullivansIslandHomes.com [ Feature ] peninsula, possibly even a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Gold-Bug.” That hanging pendant near the bottom? It’s drawn in the same dimensions as Fort Sumter. And that sweeping cypress branch, bending across the entire image? A 1980s road map confirmed it’s a near-perfect overlay of Ben Sawyer Boulevard! And since this puzzle is built around an African theme, all signs pointed directly toward Sullivan’s Island. After all, the majority of African slaves entering America passed through the port of Charleston and were quarantined along these shores. But while the painting provided a general location, the accompanying verse pinpointed an exact spot to dig. Preiss sketched out the island’s history in poetic verse, including how British cannonballs bounced off the soft palmetto walls of Fort Sullivan. Chief Osceola’s gravesite also earned a mention, as did a monument to an ironclad, the USS Patapsco. But the final location eluded searchers for decades – and for good reason. A single tree was the “X” which marked the spot, at least until Hurricane Hugo blew it down in 1989. It took several long weekends of scouring the National Park Service’s photo archives before I was finally able to spot the puzzle’s “missing link.” Since then, I’ve been working with the staff at Fort Sumter National Monument, with the goal of somehow recovering the casque. They’ve also (quite correctly) pointed out that “if ” Preiss had buried a casque anywhere on Fort Moultrie, he would have been violating at least a few federal laws. And since I have no intention of doing that myself, or disregarding the author’s explicit instructions to obtain permission, it looks like I’ll have to be patient for now.