What is a treasure mark, Part II

This is a follow up to the last article I wrote about treasure marks. This one includes several more photos of treasure marks for our readers to see. All of these symbols and markers are from outlaw treasure trails. Lots of other people beside outlaws left behind treasure marks and markers. Trying to cover them all would be impossible.

This first one is a "two for one" symbol. The first part of the symbol is simply a "you are here" marker telling you that you have arrived at a specific spot in the map. The second part of this marker is that it is a map in and of itself. The top and right side of this rock were shaped to resemble the sides of the hill you could see from the location of this rock. The drill hole indicated the location of another marker on the hill. You simply had to stand at this rock, which was standing upright with only one direction to look at it from and then you could see the hillside as depicted by the rock. By "eyeballing" the location on the hill that corresponds with the location of the drill hole in the rock you are taken to another stone marker that was flat on the ground. That marker gave you the next clue you needed to continue to follow the map.

This marker is a simple "you are here" marker. This rock only stuck up about 6 inches above others so you had to be following the map precisely to find this marker. Once at this marker you would refer back to the map to get additional instructions on what to do from this point.





The elusive buried metal clue. The really do exist, just not as much as what you think. Keep in mind that if there is a buried or hidden clue/marker there will be something on your map to tell you where to look for it at. This metal piece was a simple directional pointer. The map told you what to do at this spot but didn't tell you which way to do it. You had to find the hidden clue to get the direction to go in.

This is another one of the double meaning markers. This was carved on a bluff that the map took you to. By finding the H. you knew you were following the map correctly because it took you to this spot. The H. told you where to look for the next clue. In this case the H was an abbreviation for "hill" and the small drill hole or dot was telling you to look on the bottom right side of the hill that the H is carved on. This lead to another carving that gave additional information on how to proceed.


This symbol is part of a two part map. You had to work the first part of the map and then work the circle with the H in it to "see" the rest of the layout. In this case the circle was an actual circle and the H was telling you "hill" again. In this case it was telling you to look for a circle on top of the hill. The other part of the carved map gave a precise compass heading to the circle on the hill. If you went to the top of the hill and stood inside the circle, which was made of rocks and about 5 feet across, you could see several topographical features that were depicted as symbols in the map. This particular outlaw had given himself a high spot so that he could sit on the hill and work the majority of the map without having to do a lot of walking around.

Keep in mind that not every carving or wierd rock you come across is treasure related. The best way to determine if something is treasure related is to try and work what ever it is. If it's just an upright rock then you may never know, but carvings can be worked if they actually go to something. The more real treasure carvings you see the more obvious they will become.

If you have a carved treasure map then the first thing you will always want to look for is the hole or "the spot" symbol. It should be the last thing on the map unless of course the map needs to be reversed or mirror imaged. I know, it ain't simple but that's the point. They didn't want just anybody digging up their treasures!