Mysterious stone pillars emerge from northern New Mexico forest

KRQE ^ | 23 May 2017 | Chris McKee

[Theoria]

Could it be a message left by some of New Mexico’s first explorers?

A set of mysterious stone pillars found in the state’s remote northern forest has sparked that question. They’re carved stone pillars covered with symbols that clearly have a history — but a history, so far, no one seems to know anything about.

One man has now made it his quest to find the answer. He’s hoping someone will step forward to help solve the mystery that spans across decades near Cimarron.

“Who made it? How did it wind up in northern New Mexico? What does it mean?” asked Louis Serna.

A northern New Mexico native who was born and raised in Springer and Cimarron, Louis Serna has spent his retirement writing about the people and places that make-up northern New Mexico’s history.

“This has been my life you know, so to speak, history and exploration,” said Serna.

As he looks at images of the first stone pillar he found at a Cimarron business, Serna’s excitement is easy to notice. He calls the mystery behind the stone pillars one of New Mexico’s most intriguing, comparable to “Mystery Rock,” or what some know as the “Los Lunas Decalogue Stone” on Hidden Mountain in Valencia County.

[Theoria]

Louis Serna first saw this stone pillar in December 2013, sitting in the lobby of the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico. The hotel’s former owner claims the pillar was left in the hotel in 1987, by a rancher who found it on nearby forest land. Over the last three years, Serna has been researching the symbols carved into the stone and coming up with his best theories on its meaning. Serna is still seeking any professional help in interpreting the pillar’s symbols.

The pillar is three and a half feet tall with four sides. Each side prominently features a Templar cross.

Most notably on the third side of the pillar, Serna notes smaller lettering or symbols toward the bottom.

Today, the stone remains in the lobby of the St. James Hotel. Without an official name, Serna calls the pillar the “St. James Monument.”

In early 2016, a ranger with the Carson National Forest found a similar pillar still standing in forest. The pillar is said to be near several grave markers, however, Serna doesn’t believe the pillar is a grave stone.

Today, the stone remains in the lobby of the St. James Hotel. Without an official name, Serna calls the pillar the “St. James Monument.”

[Theoria]

ping,

[Theoria]

Ouch, last caption on pillar should read “While similar in shape, color and size, the pillar found standing in the Carson National Forest clearly has different symbols, including a backwards letter ‘D,’ and an eight-point star.”

[AlmaKing]

Spanish

[AlmaKing]

Looks like marble which means it can’t be that old.

[pepsionice]

I’m more likely to think it’s in the range of 500 years old. Probably a left-over from some Spanish expedition into the region.

[going hot]

Conquistador Burma shave pillars.

[skr]

Lol!

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Re “Looks like marble which means it can’t be that old”.

Sorry, it would exactly the opposite, esp. depending on whether it is very old marble or another form of limestone (softer, due to precipitation in an ocean, shallow sea, lake, etc). Much of the very ancient US, up to the end of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, was under water (i.e. the Great Salt Lake/Bonneville Flats, Dinosaur National Park, the Badlands, Green River formation (full of fish fossils), etc).

Marble is actually pressured limestone, often due to it being broken up and reformed under tremendous deeps of material and heat.

Limestone can come from the erosion of earlier limestone formations or marble, which is often precipitated by micro-fossils including foraminifera, globogerinua (sp. is off), life forms, etc.

Give it the old “acid tests” and find out what its chemical composition is. That will be a good clue as to how old the “rock” is and maybe where it came from.

Otherwise, I suspect a bored Spaniard with a couple of good chisels and time on his hands.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[AlmaKing]

Thanks for the info. I wouldn’t know any of that since I’m a trained geologist.

[Lee Enfield]

That reply is some deep schist. It rocks.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Cimmeria

[AlmaKing]

The Spanish weren’t in the area 500 years ago.

Maybe 1750s earliest.

[BlueDragon]

Long before 1750's, generally speaking.

http://www.newmexicohistory.org/people/early-spanish-explorers-of-the-southwest

[Flick Lives]

Mileage marker to Atlantis.

[LukeL]

Wouldn’t that depend on how much rain the area gets? Marble gravestones can wear smooth in 100-150 years in a climate that gets 40-50 inches of rain per year. I also wonder how dust and sand storms would factor into amount of wear. Either way these look modern to me, either forgeries or Spanish markers.

[GraceG]

Sometimes I wonder how much of our history has been deliberately buried.

[doorgunner69]

What? 20 posts and no it was Aliens dude?

FR is slipping.