THE PERALTA (TREASURE) MAP

If you ever happen to find yourself on HWY 88 just outside Apache Junction, Arizona, I recommend the burgers and fries at the Blue Bird Mine Gift Shop (and Grill).  They also have ice cold soft drinks and beer; either is a perfect remedy for the dust and oppressive afternoon heat of the Superstition Mountains.  And I recommend spending an hour or more at this place.  This is because many locals come here to water and hang out during idle times, and you will likely meet colorful characters here - many of which look like gold prospectors from some past era.  And that's because... many of them ARE gold prospectors.  And each of them has their own pet theory about an infamous local artifact: the Peralta Map.  Upon inquiry, half will confide that they know how to read the map (and they will someday soon find the treasure) and the other half will insist that it is a fake (yet they will secretly soon find the treasure anyway). 

A few years ago, I made something of a pilgrimage to the Superstition Mountain Museum (which is just down the street from the Blue Bird Mine Gift Shop), for the sake of seeing the Peralta Map in person.  For me (as an archaeology professor and an iconographer/ epigrapher), the Peralta Map has been a pet obsession for years.  It is perhaps because it is one of the few real "Treasure Maps" - one of those tropes from adventure films and stories that we never actually see in real life.  Yet this one is real.  And it is unsolved. 

The true history of the discovery of this map is clouded with variations, conflicting stories, and the chaos that can be expected from an oral history about a now legendary find.  The best approximation of the story is something like this: in the Summer of 1949, a man named "Jack" or Travis Tumlinson was taking a photograph of a local natural monument known as the "Weaver's Needle," as he stood atop a hill (a walkable distance from the highway; some say it was Highway 60).  On this hill, he found a rectangular stone tile (approx 10" x 19") which had images and text carved on both sides.  We now refer to this tile as the "Horse/Witch Stone" – one side features the image of a horse, and the other side features the image of a witch (erroneously called a "priest" by some: I will explain why below).  

The following year, our discoverer returned to the site to uncover three more stones: two of which can be referred to as the "Map Stones" and the third as the "Heart Stone." The two Map Stones are roughly the same size as the Horse/Witch Stone and the two Map Stones fit together to produce a single cohesive map image.  One of the two has a heart-shaped socket in it: the smaller, reddish, heart-shaped Heart Stone fits precisely in this socket.  This is because the Heart Stone has the the treasure location on it: designed to be small and portable and removable (and thus rendering the rest of the map useless when it is removed).  Brilliant design.  In 1956, Jack/Travis died and his widow gave the stones to a man named Travis Marlowe.  In 1964, Life Magazine even ran an article about the Peralta Map, called "Mysterious Maps to Lost Gold Mines."  Fast forward several decades (and likely several owners) later: the map now resides in the Superstition Mountain Museum, just outside Apache Junction, Arizona.  

If you are now inspired enough to attempt to decrypt this map, there are some things you should know (coming from an academically trained [PhD] professional, with years of experience in archaeological materials, iconography [graphic communication], and epigraphy [writing systems]).  And no, I will not reveal everything I've figured out about the Peralta Map, because I (like so many other lunatics out there) will someday find the treasure and I'm not going to give away all of my best stuff.  But I will give you some great insights that no one has yet discovered nor published.  And I will not provide you with any misleading materials either.  I'd love it if you found it (and maybe give me some of the treasure as a thank you gift).  But one of the major reasons I'm providing this information is because I would like to separate fact from the large volume of bats%#t insanity that surrounds the "researcher interpretations" of this map.  Here are some things to know:      

1). The name "The Peralta Map" is likely incorrect -- this name has come from the fact that there are two names pecked onto the surface of the map: "Pedro" and "Miguel."  Two members of a local historical family, the Peraltas, happen to have been named Pedro and Miguel; this is how the map came to be named "The Peralta Map."  However, the probability of someone being named Pedro or Miguel in this neighborhood around 150 years ago is pretty high.  Other than this assumption (based upon a hopeful guess), there is no substantial evidence to support that the Peralta Family had anything to do with this map. Additionally, these names pecked onto the Horse/Witch Stone appear to have been done at a later time and by a hand other than the person who authored the map.  These names, in effect, might be later graffiti additions.

2). There is no substantial evidence to associate the Peralta Map with the legendary "Lost Dutchman's Mine" – although this lost mine of local legend was supposed to be a gold mine of great volume, it is/was also not the only source of gold in the area.  And of all of the materials carved on the Peralta Map stones, nothing directly or indirectly indicates any association with this particular (yet to be (re-)located) mine.  In fact, the mark on the Heart Stone that indicates the treasure (or whatever) at the end of the trail is a standard map sign for a cave or tunnel entrance (this mark looks similar to the Greek "omega"), and not a mine (the mark of an X or a pickaxe, or crossed pickaxes/shovels).  This cave/tunnel sign has also been pecked onto the face of the Witch Stone, below the command (in Spanish) BUSCA EL MAPA, BUSCA EL COAZON "find the map, find the heart."  We're looking for a cave or tunnel entrance, and not necessarily a mine.

3). This map is likely NOT a fake – having seen a number of fake and forged artifacts in my career, they tend to have one thing in common: they are made to look like what people expect.  A forger wants to create something that is believable (and thus sellable), and so they tend not to create something wholly unique in style or content unless absolutely necessary.  The Peralta Map is unique in both regards; it looks like nothing else, and is not what most expect a treasure map to look like (until its own discovery and publication).  And furthermore, the amount of clever thought and skill that went into making this map is in "uncharted territory": if it is a fake, someone went to brave lengths to create perhaps the most unique fake known.  And for a treasure map, it has some brilliant and never-before-seen design features.  However, since the discovery and publication of the Peralta Map, a number of forgeries have appeared: all attempting to be items similar to, or related to, the Peralta Map.  Yet they all lack the same style and clever iconography of the Peralta Map.    

4). The Witch Stone (does not portray a "priest") – the casual or uninformed observer may find themselves confused by the image of a witch with a cross on the shoulder of her robe and holding a cross in her hands.  If one combs through the entire history of clothing among Christian monks, priests, bishops, etc. you will never find attire like this among them (I also ran this past a Jesuit scholar who is versed in the subject, who confirmed this).  The costume worn by our Witch has been the attire associated with witches since as early as the late 16^th Century; that distinctive hat and cloak have been around since at least the late 1500s/early 1600s.  

And another significant detail about our Witch: she has no legs. Instead, beneath her cloak, she looks like a building.  So... the question is: why the hell is a legless Witch holding a cross in this riddle?  This riddle makes sense when one bothers to learn Spanish... the Spanish of the 19^th Century.  The modern Spanish word for witch is bruja.  And another closely related word to this is brujula... in English, it would be the equivalent of saying "witch thing" and it is a term that is used in modern times as slang for "compass"; historically, it also applied to the sight of a rifle, a road marker, and a "pointer" in general.  And our first treasure trail marker (brujula) is not a priest nor a witch, but likely a building.  The text on the Witch Stone states ESTA BEREDA ES PELIGROZA, YOU BOY 18 LUGARES, BUSCA EL MAPA, BUSCA EL COAZON.  Setting aside spelling errors (and these predictable errors suggest a native Spanish speaker who does not have complete literacy skills, which was not uncommon at the time), we would translate this in English as "this path is dangerous, I go to 18 places/points, search for the map, search for the heart."  The Witch is the first of these 18 markers that reveal the secret trail to the treasure (you can find these 18 trail markers labeled on the Map Stones as circles along the winding path).  And note that it appears that later someone had tapped into the stone the image of the heart atop the image of a map sign for "cave/tunnel entrance," below the text.  Whoever did this was trying to work out the riddle; they also attempted to label the "steps" to the treasure starting from the Witch's cross: marking the Witch with "1," a rectangle with a cross in it (the back of one of the Map Stones) with "2," a map sign for "hill" as "3," and the Heart (the treasure) with "4."

5). The Horse Stone – the reverse side of the Witch Stone is the Horse Stone. Something to note: it features a simplified version of the map that appears on the two Map Stones, in its upper left quadrant, in front of the horse. And this simplified map shows us at least three significant things: a road running east-west, a river above it (labeled RIO), and two hills or small mountains in between the road and the river.  The text on this stone has confused many people, but when looking at older Spanish terminology we may be able to make sense of it: EL COBOLLO DE SANTA FE literally translates to "the Horse of (Saint) Faith" but it can also mean "the Servant of Faith."  And the other text YO PASTO AL NORTE DEL RIO means "I graze to the north of the river."  Both of these combined provide a clever play on words, they say two things at the same time: "The Horse of Faith, I graze north of the river" and "(I am) the Servant of the Faith (a priest), I shepherd (preach) north of the river." And this is officially my speculation: "to graze/shepherd" could also be the map author's metaphor for gold prospecting (north of the river); though fe often means "Faith," it can also mean "hope, dedication, creed"... "(I am) the Servant of Dedication/Hope (gold prospecting), I graze (prospect) north of the river."

6). The Map Stones – the one item I will leave with you: if you note the river near the top of the map, you may notice a knife along the left side of the top Map Stone.  The word cuchillo "knife" can also be used to mean "a cut, gorge, cleft, or crevasse"; the knife point is stuck into the river: that river flows into a crevasse or gorge along the west side of the map.

7). Further Research – most views about the Peralta Map and its author have been heavily skewed by the assumptions that it is associated with the Peralta family and that it is connected to the Lost Dutchman's Mine.  Both of these views have little to no supporting evidence (or what some would call "evidence for... " suffer from a low standard of proof).  Meanwhile, some very significant points about the map and its author have gone relatively unnoticed.  Consider the stones themselves and the quality of art and carving on them.  Though they could not be considered the work of a master stonemason, I could certainly say that I (and most) would not be capable of generating stone carving of this level of quality, and art with this level of skill.  And the stones themselves warrant a question worth considering: why are they this particular size and shape?  To me, the above considerations lead to a suspicion: perhaps somewhere, in the general vicinity of the Superstition Mountains, was (and hopefully still survives) some old church or building (that is over 150 years old), with perhaps a nearby cemetery.  And at one time around 150+ years ago, there was a person who had a previous or regular job nearby, who would often prospect for gold (north of "the river") and eventually struck it rich.  And the map stones were once originally stone walkway tiles, cap stones from the top of a stone fence, or perhaps uncarved tombstones.  And this person had more than a casual familiarity with stonecarving; perhaps he once had a job carving modestly-priced tombstones for a small, local church.  I hope that out there, somewhere, may still be a few tombstones with names carved into them that are of the same hand and style as the Peralta Map. Or that we could someday encounter old paving stones or stones dressed for a fence that are the exact-same size, kind, and shape as the Peralta Map.  This discovery would provide a whole new source of information about who made this map, when it was made, and how.

P.S. - If any of the materials above help lead you to finding the treasure, please save a few pieces for me. Thanks.          

(©2008, 2017 T.King – republication, duplication, or distribution of the above materials, in part or in whole, is prohibited without formal prior consent from the author).