Zeitgeist_Xero
Jr. Member
- Jun 5, 2006
- 27
- 8
I'm a definite amateur when it comes to hunting, let alone finding items of value or intrest from the past, but I thought I'd pass this along for anyone interested. In the fall of 1994 I attended Eastern New Mexico University (one semester only) and took several classes on Archaeology and Native American Studies. I ran into a friend who lived out of a tiny little town called San Jon just east of Tucumcari on I-40 - where the highway follows the Caprock areo to the south. This was back when the 'Red X' (local truck stop) used to server larger than usual portions at the Taco Bell (express) if anyone has been through there...
Anyway, this friend of mine, 'J' as we'll call him... was temporarily living with a friend of his, but had grown up in the area, as his father owned one of the ranch land areas. Both of these guys were avid fossil, cache, and artifact hunters, and apparently went to a few trade show in Arizona each year to sell their wares. During my two day stay in San Jon, we spent one afternoon close to the caprock on a neighboring rancher's land and found several fossils, which I thought was interesting (ancient crocodile teeth - mostly crushed, and other crushed stuff). The second day we went just West of San Jon on the sothern access road about a mile or two, to a visible canyon-like area. There they showed me several symbols carved in the rocks which they said were spanish symbols (which they later verified with a book showing known markings). Well, we followed the trail of symbols into the canyon (no less than a mile for sure) and on the east canyon wall there was a stone formation that looked kind of like a lean-to slab of sorts, and on the back side of this slab (out of general site) was what looked like a crude map pointing to three objects. From the layout of the land, it appeared to be that some old trees were the markings (in the center floor of the canyon in eye's view from where the map on the rock was located), or that's what my friends surmised... however, the area on the map that seemed to be the 'x' marks the spot already had a hole there at what seemed the southern most of the three trees (i.e. the southern most tree appeared to be dug up). However, my friends where under the impression that map on the rock lead to tools, which they said were often buried easily nearby a true treasure cache. It was their guess that the treasure was further up on the West side of the canyon, just mid-way up from the bottom, within the same area - due to some unusual rock formations, etc. Anyway, they said it looked like too much work at the time to go messing with removing the rock formations, so I wonder if anything was ever found, or if something might be there. Its possible someone else had carved the original pointer markings and map, but my friends said they found a spanish coin, that they showed me later, underneath the stone lean-to with the map on it. Since we kept hiking into the canyon later that day and found a few arrowheads, and since they showed me other old Native American camp-site type areas around the mesas and caprock, I didn't feel they had any reason to tell tall tales on this issue. So, for what it is worth, there really are spanish symbols in that canyon carved into the whitish stone, though there may be no treasure.
Anyway, this friend of mine, 'J' as we'll call him... was temporarily living with a friend of his, but had grown up in the area, as his father owned one of the ranch land areas. Both of these guys were avid fossil, cache, and artifact hunters, and apparently went to a few trade show in Arizona each year to sell their wares. During my two day stay in San Jon, we spent one afternoon close to the caprock on a neighboring rancher's land and found several fossils, which I thought was interesting (ancient crocodile teeth - mostly crushed, and other crushed stuff). The second day we went just West of San Jon on the sothern access road about a mile or two, to a visible canyon-like area. There they showed me several symbols carved in the rocks which they said were spanish symbols (which they later verified with a book showing known markings). Well, we followed the trail of symbols into the canyon (no less than a mile for sure) and on the east canyon wall there was a stone formation that looked kind of like a lean-to slab of sorts, and on the back side of this slab (out of general site) was what looked like a crude map pointing to three objects. From the layout of the land, it appeared to be that some old trees were the markings (in the center floor of the canyon in eye's view from where the map on the rock was located), or that's what my friends surmised... however, the area on the map that seemed to be the 'x' marks the spot already had a hole there at what seemed the southern most of the three trees (i.e. the southern most tree appeared to be dug up). However, my friends where under the impression that map on the rock lead to tools, which they said were often buried easily nearby a true treasure cache. It was their guess that the treasure was further up on the West side of the canyon, just mid-way up from the bottom, within the same area - due to some unusual rock formations, etc. Anyway, they said it looked like too much work at the time to go messing with removing the rock formations, so I wonder if anything was ever found, or if something might be there. Its possible someone else had carved the original pointer markings and map, but my friends said they found a spanish coin, that they showed me later, underneath the stone lean-to with the map on it. Since we kept hiking into the canyon later that day and found a few arrowheads, and since they showed me other old Native American camp-site type areas around the mesas and caprock, I didn't feel they had any reason to tell tall tales on this issue. So, for what it is worth, there really are spanish symbols in that canyon carved into the whitish stone, though there may be no treasure.
