An Outlaw Carving, Part 2

This is a continuation of the last article I posted about interpreting a carved symbol. If you remember, I spent months trying to figure out something that was right in front of my face. The carving in this photo is the next part of the map, after the tree. The tree carving was telling me to take a line through the tree to find another point. Additional information on the tree carving told me to look at the T S carving for my next information.

This part of the map had to be reversed or mirror imaged to work correctly. The first and easiest part of this portion of the carving was the three drill holes. These give you a picture of what you are looking for and how it is laid out. You can see how the mapmaker used two of the drill holes to make the T and S look like someone’s initials to camouflage the carving. If you look at the T you can see that one vertical line at the end of the top horizontal line is angled down and off to the side while the other goes straight down. This is giving you the angle for the triangle you are supposed to find and matches what the drill holes show. This T tells you that you are looking for a right triangle and not an equilateral triangle. It also gives you the directions to go to find the other two trees that form the triangle with the one you are standing at. I already knew the nails were in the tree giving me a direction to go and with the T shaped like it was I now had all of the information about the shape of the triangle that was needed. I should add that each tree had an upright stone at the base of it to help identify it as the correct tree. The TS carving, besides giving you information about the triangle, also told you that you were looking for three Trees and Stones.

Once I had all of this information to locate the three points of the triangle, it only took a few minutes to do so. In this case, all three points were visible from each other with the furthest distance between trees being about 55 feet. I should also point out that the nails that were in the first tree gave me a specific compass heading to follow. By doing some math and figuring out the right angle based on the compass heading I already had, I was able to get a compass heading to the third tree from the second tree. So the map gave me specific information to find all three trees without having to leave the first tree and walk around. This could be verified by going to the second tree and making a 90-degree turn that took me directly to the third tree. Having the stones at the base of each tree didn’t hurt either!

And there you have it, a simple carving giving you very specific information about finding three points that form a triangle. With this particular map you had to find the three points and you had to know which point was the one where the 90-degree corner of the triangle was made. As a side note, at this corner of the triangle was another clue, a METAL clue that was hidden inside the tree. Really, a REAL metal clue, not just a piece of old junk that got left behind, I promise! The mapmaker had bored a hole into this tree and left a hunting knife inside. The knife pointed in a direction that gave you a specific compass heading that you needed for the next portion of the map. The knife predated 1890.

These kinds of carved maps are what keeps me hunting treasure. They are always a challenge and they help to keep my mind sharp. Well, as sharp as it can be anyway.