(View of part of the Superstitions.)How the Stones Got Their Name
I've been a bit remiss in my accounting of the validity of the Peralta Stones and their connection to the legend of Arizona's Lost Dutchman Mine. Here I am on the 4th post of this series and I've failed to inform you how the Peralta Stones received their name.
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The Stones were named after a family from Mexico with true Spanish roots, some of whom figure prominently in accounts of the Lost Dutchman. Thus, the Peralta family name is inexorably linked with this tale of greed, gold, madness, and yes, even murder.
Well-Executed Fakes?
But I digress somewhat. What I'm really after here is to present the possibility that the Peralta Stones are not what they seem and perhaps, just perhaps, are well-executed fakes. What brings me to this conclusion?
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Far too many inconsistencies in the telling of how they were found, for one. Secondly, a number of well-known experts in different fields have examined the Stones thoroughly in past years and without exception have proclaimed them to be fakes.
Father Polzer's Analysis
Father Charles Polzer is a respected Jesuit priest and ethno-historian with the Southwestern Mission Research Center who has been honored by luminaries like King Juan Carlos of Spain for his work on Spanish exploration and development in the New World. Like his Jesuit colleagues, Father Polzer is a highly educated person with a sharp intellect and strong analytical skills.
When Father Polzer was first presented with the Peralta Stones for study he is supposed to have burst out laughing when told that the etchings in the stones were supposed to be over a century in age. After further examination in a laboratory setting, Father Polzer stated that the surface of the stones had been milled with modern machinery before the incised drawings were made.
Father Polzer stated the following: "The drawings were cut into the stones with modern tools. The language and lettering is modern, if somewhat illiterate Spanish, clearly not colonial Spanish. The heart shape drawn on stone #3 is strictly of Northern European or Anglo character; Spaniards never depicted the idea of a heart with this kind of geometry."
His final conclusion? The Peralta Stones were modern fakes, nothing more and nothing less.
Father Polzer's analysis has been backed up by other experts, including stone cutters with decades of experience shaping, forming, and incising stone for memorials and grave markers. One such stone cutter proclaimed that the Stones were bogus and the result of an amateur using electric tools such as a drill and/or grinder to form and incise the Stones, and then trying to "rough them up" to appear older and cruder.
So there you have it. Of course, no amount of proof or negative analysis will sway "Dutch hunters" (as modern searchers for the Lost Dutchman call themselves) one bit. To them, the Peralta Stones are key links to a treasure trove of gold that still lies undisturbed somewhere in the Superstitions.
Thus the legend goes on and on......
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Good hunting to you.
If you liked this post, you may want to read: "The Peralta Stones: Real or Fakes (Part 3)"
(c) J.R. 2009
Questions? E-mail me at jr872vt90@yahoo.com
