ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Nearly six years after KRQE introduced you to a mystery in northern New Mexico surrounding carved stone pillars, we may finally have some idea where they came from and who put them there. Two researchers, including one known for his investigations on the History and Travel channels, came to Albuquerque this week to look into it.
“I will say this. It is truly a mystery,” said Scott Wolter, forensic geologist.
It’s a mystery New Mexico native, Louis Serna, has been trying to get to the bottom of since even before KRQE talked to him back in 2017.
“Why is this there? Why would they come here hundreds of years ago,” said Serna. “Why would they do that with all this messagery on here?”
Two stone pillars were found in northern New Mexico, in the Valle Vidal area, with symbols carved in them. One now sits in the historic St. James Hotel in Cimarron. The other sits in a cemetery in the Carson National Forest. Serna came across the stones in 2017 and has been researching them ever since.
The monuments caught the eye of researcher and author Hayley Ramsey and Wolter, a forensic geologist who is also known as the host of the former History and Travel Channel show ‘America Unearthed.’ After years of trying to make it to New Mexico to chat with Serna, this week they did.
“It would appear to me that they were likely two different carvers, and the stones were carved at two different times,” said Ramsey.
“At first appearance, it looks like a monument, maybe a gravestone, but what’s unique about is it’s got strange symbols,” said Wolter. “My gut feeling is it isn’t more than 500 years old. I’m just spitballing here, but it’s definitely an enlightened tradition that understood the language of symbolism.”
One of the symbols that stood out to the pair was the eight-pointed star at the top of the pillar which is in the Carson National Forest.
“That is the star of Venus. It’s up high. It has importance, reverence,” said Wolter.
“The Morning Star is an important symbol because it does represent Venus for thousands of years. If you go back to ancient Egypt, Samaria, Mesopotamia, you find that as associated with the Mother Goddess. Venus is always associated with that star. The Templars used it to navigate as did a lot of ancient cultures,” said Ramsey. The duo also noted the ‘M’ carving on this stone.
“That symbol was a very ancient symbol of the goddess of a birth giver because the letter ‘m’ is the symbol of a women with her knees up in a birth-giving position,” she said.
Wolter and Ramsey think the symbols could’ve communicated something like a meeting point or directions. Today, they could reveal who the first foreign settlers in New Mexico really were, long before the Spanish.
“It’s taken a while for this paradigm to change, but I think what things like this do is open up possibilities that there were a lot of people that came here long before you know, 1492,” said Wolter.
“Why were all these ancient people coming here? That is what makes this stone important and that is why this is still relevant today,” said Ramsey. Ultimately, who put the stones there and why, and how the two stones are connected, are still unknown.
“There’s a reason that that thing is there. It’s trying to get to the bottom of it that’s the difficult part, but, we’ll do the best we can. I’m intrigued by this thing, so once I get my hooks into something, I don’t let go fast,” said Wolter.
Wolter and Ramsey have seen the stone in the St. James Hotel. They said they’d like to come back when the weather is nice to see the other stone in the cemetery, saying context can help lead to answers. They said they’d also like to take a small sample to see whether the stones are local or brought here from somewhere else.
