Return to the Nunez Double Cache Site

Over the many years the projects that have come and gone are many…. Several of them seem to hit a dead end only to re-surface in the future due to new enlightenment or new information… Following is one of those projects that only took me 15 plus years to look at it with a different perspective… with this, I will draw your attention to the almost well known and published map of Perdro Nunez of 1771 in his expedition into the west end of the Uinta Mountains. Near 250 years ago and 5 years prior to Father Escalante. 

Several years before the map became public we ventured into the areas of the map searching for any sign of authenticity… some success was made in fact enough to know the map is indeed authentic however the real evidence came just a few years later when a friend whom I will refer to as “Wild Bill” sent me the following photo…

 

When I saw the photo I knew it was authentic with out doubt in fact he was sending it to me to get my take on it. This would now be the 3^rd authentic aspen tree carving I had seen. This tree using an increment borer, dated 15 years ago at 289 years old. I called Wild Bill immediately and asked if he could take me to the tree… “of course” he replied… Little did I know… 

I didn’t know from the picture but it also has a map carved below the expedition symbol. To give you a better perspective see the following image…

 

 

And closing the gap due to the age of the tree and expanding… see the next image…

 

The presumed drainage on the map matches near perfectly the drainage down the hill below the tree. Upon arriving at the tree any doubts remaining disappeared, but I still had to sample the tree to at least get its age. It is not possible to date the carving of an Aspen, a pine tree is a different story and as some of you know, the academics have put it out there that Aspens only live 150 years to which I say… you guessed it… Bull Shit.

 

At this exact moment, I can show you an Aspen that is miraculously still holding on and it is just over 500 years old dated by a professional in the field, twice yet, as he did not believe the first results so he did it again.

Not the EC, Look Under it... 

This tree is over 500 years old, wrapping my arms around it didn’t quite make half the circumference. Back to the story….

 

After seeing the tree first hand and core sampling it, we determined the direction of the now non existing trail and about 50 yards further found another tree about the same size as the first, which had a double box carved into it… (No Picture Available) But it looks just like the image in the following clip from the Nunez Map…

 

Now understand the author of the Nunez map was certainly no cartographer, however he was pretty good at details barring perspective. Because of my perspective at first seeing the map, In my mind, I was about 6 miles to far west, it wasn’t until I seen the second tree that the map came back into my head and I knew my mistake…

However this map alone is challenging, but tree carvings 20 years ago and what to do was another issue… after leaving the second tree traveling in the direction making most sense we entered another grove of trees and found a heart carved on one tree and a turtle on another, no tail, no legs…  see following images…

 

Not far away leaving the site, we also found a tree marked with one league. At the time or not long after this venture we were in the middle of trying to work out the details of the Rule of Marteloio… thinking it must be present at all sites but this is incorrect… but as of a few days ago, perspective has again come into play and this former brick wall no longer exists… I think I get it now and it was as simple as the carvings on the tree…. Above the turtles head is a nice carved fancy L… and for those who don’t know… this is a sure implication of “50”… but 50 what? What direction? You guessed it, in the direction of the turtles head… There is no rule of Marteloio at this site as I was previously so determined for there to be… Enough said about that… According to the map on the tree, and comparing to USGS map, the dot on the map presuming to represent a mine, and from the one league tree, would be… yup… one league away and in the direction of the top of the league symbol. I can’t wait to get back there… fortunately plans are in the works. Metal Detector, Deep seeker and Magnetometer.  

As far as I know, there are only 5 Aspens still living that I know are authentic Spanish carved...