Hal Croves wrote
Well it would be premature to make conclusions before you have finished presenting the case wouldn't it? You have done a super job of researching the Tumlinson roots BTW, have to admit that I never thought to dig into the family history beyond Travis and the immediate relatives.
Not sure what the other family you might be referring to may be, does the name start with a "P" and sound somewhat similar to Peralta? (And also involves a real court case concerning treasure in the Superstition mountains?) Otherwise I would have guessed Holmes.
I started writing this reply at lunch, and now see a new post:
<Hal Croves also wrote>
Well I would not have guessed Arnold, and should have picked up on the other name from the article posted. I was pretty far off the track.
Also not sure how much weight or emphasis to put on a family history, especially involving Southern culture/roots, it is not uncommon among Southern families after all to cherish their heritage (as with many groups). Likewise, not sure how much importance to attach to a common family interest in hunting for treasures. As our mutual friend Loke might put it, it may have something to do with the "potty training". A simile might be in how some families have a large number of members that served in the military, or were in politics.
I don't know if all this exonerates Travis as being the creator of the stone maps either. Belief can be a
very strong motivator.
A parallel might be seen in the case of Barry Storm, whom was seen carving fake Spanish treasure signs in the Superstitions. Storm certainly believed there were treasures and mines to be found in those mountains, and spent a fair amount of his own time and money looking for them. Why then did he go and make fake treasure signs? We do not know - perhaps it was done to mislead other treasure hunters, or perhaps he was creating what he felt SHOULD exist, similar to the "pious frauds" of history, in which gospel books were written and signed with prominent biblical characters names, although they had been dead for centuries. These "pious frauds" were not written with the intent to fool anyone or for financial gain, nor to mislead people, they were done in an attempt to fill a perceived gap . In saying this, before I get a half dozen PMs from people misinterpreting that I am somehow saying the stone maps are any kind of religious thing, it is only as an EXAMPLE of a somewhat
similar case. In other words, it is possible the creator of the stone maps was not trying to fool people so much as making something he felt should exist.
Regardless of who or whom really carved the stone maps, IMHO the true test is in using them to search. Some members here have done so, Cactusjumper's solution has a rather good "fit" of terrain and monuments for instance. They are real maps, no doubt about that. I would like to see the map that was used as the pattern for those stone maps, or at least the cloth duplicates. If we could see the cloth duplicates, we should be able to tell if they were like a "rubbing" taken from the stones, or might be the original pattern.
I look forward to reading the rest of your evidence or I should say the remainder of what you are willing to share, I hope all is well with you and that you are keeping your hand in (for our readers, there are lost mines in many places including even the eastern states) and keeping cool! We had some record breaking heat here recently, which made outdoor work not as pleasant as they say in the brochures! (haha) Thank you in advance;
Roy ~ Oroblanco
Very interesting about the southern family connections,Please do continue. Great Job. Its time a lot of this should be out. NP
