Here is some more great circle mapping from my posts on TurtleisGold's thread " Old Tree Carvings Markers Codes KGC".
This is a complicated site and what you have found at Cedar Lake, if related, is probably a diversion. The information that I give you is a real conversation killer because I never hear back from anybody but one Tnet poster and he's the guy who gave me the heads up about the group that sets these sites up. The group isn't KGC although some KGC might have been members. They use great circle mapping to connect geographical points that are similar in name. I'll explain how they did it in your area, but you have to be able to plot points on Google Earth.
They use code names and the code name in your area is Wildcat. You might notice that there is a place named Wildcat Bluff about 23 miles SE of Makanda. This Wildcat Bluff has a connection to two other Wildcat Bluffs, one in Iowa and one in Arkansas. The great circle distance between the Illinois Wildcat Bluff and the one in Iowa is 367 miles, Illinois to Arkansas is 355 miles. You can see there is only a difference of 12 miles, too close to be coincidental. The great circle distance between the Iowa Wildcat Bluff and the one in Arkansas is 565 miles. These distances form a triangle with two short sides of 367 miles and 355 miles and a long side of 565 miles. This is a total distance of 1287 miles. I remember you said that you had 13 carved on some of the trees. I believe this number identifies the people who set up the site, kind of like a signature. You will notice that the total miles of the triangle, 1287 miles, is 13 miles short of 1300 miles. Could just be a coincidence, or not. Now for the angles of the triangle, they are 37 degrees in Iowa, 39 degrees in Arkansas and 103 degrees in Illinois, totaling 179 degrees, a little off but you can check it on Google Earth.
Ok, you have three geographical locations connected by name and math and none of them are even close to each other. I don't believe this is coincidence. Are these sites set up to hide treasure? I don't know. I know there is a treasure legend associated with the Arkansas site but I don't know if anything has been found. I came across an article that said the Masons would set up fake "treasure sites", complete with clues and legend, just to get a good laugh as their neighbors tore up the countryside looking for valuables. Who knows. I consider these sites an historical curiosity.
I'm always surprised that this mapping information doesn't generate any interest. Sdcfia wrote about this type of mapping in his book New Mexico Confidential: 30 Years of Snooping in Obscure Places. Some of these mapping points are close to areas associated with treasure legends. In fact, treasure legend terrain features are sometime a part of the mapping.
Anyway, here is more information about the Wildcat Bluff triangle. A few miles from Wildcat Bluff, Iowa is a town named Center Point. About nine miles from Wildcat Bluff, Ark., is a town named Center Point. I couldn't find any evidence of a town named Center Point near Wildcat Bluff, Ill., but here is where Google Earth comes in real handy. If you map a line from Wildcat Bluff, Ill. to the midpoint of the line that connects Wildcat Bluff, Iowa to Wildcat Bluff, Ark., that line passes by two peaks in eastern Missouri named Wildcat Mountain. These two mountains are about 35 miles apart on a NE to SW line. If you run a line from the NE Wildcat Mt. to the SW Wildcat Mt. and extend that line across Texas, you will pass right through a town named Center Point. So, we have three Wildcat Buffs, with two close to towns named Center Point and one associated with a town named Center Point, by code. Here are a couple of interesting facts about Center Point, Texas. Turtleisgold, you mentioned a pyramid/eye carving at Giant City. The latitude of Center Point, Texas is 29 dgrees 57' 08". The latitude of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt is 29 degrees 58' 34". Also, just north of St. Augustine, Florida, is the same latitude as Center Point, Texas, 29 degrees 57' 08". The distance from Center Point, Texas to St. Augustine, Florida is 1062 miles. The distance from Center Point, Texas to the southwestern most point in the United States is 1083 miles. So Center Point is pretty much the center point of the southern United States.
In the area about 25 miles NW of Wildcat Bluff, Arkansas, the treasure hunter, Bob Brewer, recovered two or three treasure caches that he documented in his book Rebel Gold. His treasure trails also included carvings on trees.
I've been sitting on all these old photos for far too long. Pictures taken at least 12 years ago on an old crappy Motorola Razor flip phone. Trees at the cache site have long been destroyed from a tornado that came through. I might have the only photographic evidence that these markers ever...
www.treasurenet.com