It's long been argued that the museum stones, those on permanent loan from the AMMM, were actually altered copies of the " bumper stones ", photographed by TT in 1949....and printed in Mar/1950.
My own opinion was that, while the Heart and HP stones were likely original, the Trail Stones were somewhat altered copies. Possibly of a different stone as well.
Since then, Ryan has published prints of the original photo and negative, that shows no certain difference between the two sets of Trail Stones.....on their face side at least.
Back before all this project ( Ryan's ) started, I posted an opinion that, if a large "treasure" were to be found by someone using the stones and the find(s) were publicized, that those stones would prove to be themselves, very valuable. Could be that some note was taken of that post. If so, I would recommend no offer to purchase them should be entertained at this time, should such an offer be made. After all, there appears to be an ongoing "walking back" of previous claims that Travis carved the "originals".
So ARE they the originals ?
Can't say for sure, but they did get me interested in an area within the mountains where I found several links to the other stones, which in turn appear to coincide with a penultimate "drawing/map" and a place where the letters " AMDG " are apparent.
