A squat white stone pillar stands overlooking a cemetery in Carson National Forest. Its twin stands in the lobby of the St. James Hotel in Cimarron. These carved stone pillars are estimated to be about 500 years old. They were discovered in the Valle Vidal area in Northern NM, but the symbols carved upon them refer to the Knights Templar. It is a total mystery how they came to exist in New Mexico 500 years ago and why they were placed in the Valle Vidal area.
No one knows what the symbols carved on them mean, though a few of the symbols are common to European Christianity – namely a cross of the Knights Templar and an Egyptian sun. There is also a star with eight arms known as the Maltese cross, which the Knights Templar commonly wore pinned to their uniforms. The Knights were a French Catholic military order that fought in the crusades. They aren’t known to have been a presence in New Mexico, even 500 years ago. However, they did have a powerful presence in Europe in the Middle Ages and may have influenced someone to carve their symbology onto these stones.
Historian Louis Serna first noticed the stone in the lobby of the St. James Hotel in Cimarron. He thought it was Middle Eastern in origin, though I’m not sure how he came to that conclusion. He learned the stone had been found by a local Cimarron rancher named Milton McDaniel, who kept it for many years. When the family chose to leave Cimarron, Mrs. McDaniel brought it to the hotel to serve as a conversation piece. Serna says it was found near Valle Vidal; a family member of McDaniel’s says it was found on McDaniel ranchland and not in the Valle Vidal area.
Ever since noticing the pillar in the hotel, Serna has been obsessed with getting answers. He has buried himself in research around the meaning and origins of the stone, though he has made little headway. He is frustrated by the reticence of others to help him. I suspect people don’t want to help because these pillars might be hoaxes, much like the The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. If the stones don’t fit history, either history is wrong or the stones are fake.
While seeking answers, Serna heard from an archaeologist with the Forest Service, who stated a similar stone pillar stood at a cemetery in the Valle Vidal area.
Serna is so excited about this theory that he has written a book about Knights Templar in New Mexico centuries before the first Spanish conquistadores. He thinks these early explorers were searching for treasure and they found it where they left the pillars. He seems to have little evidence to support this theory beyond the carvings on the pillars.
These stones have not been dated, so the age of 500 years is simply a guess by Serna. The symbols on them may be a tribute to European history and the Knights Templar, or just something somebody thought looked cool. They may not serve any purpose beyond being trail or cemetery markers in the Carson National Forest. The answer behind the pillars may also be tied to the cemetery where they were found. It is a pity that McDaniel moved one of them because it would be interesting to see if they were both in the same place or very different places.
A forensic geologist and a historian came to New Mexico to try to investigate the origins of the stones. Named Scott Wolter, he is behind the show America Unearthed. He looked at the thirty-inch pyramids and offered to do testing. I hope that sheds some light on this mystery. He felt that the stones had two different carvers and were created at different times. The eight-armed star represents Venus, which has been an important symbol for centuries for many cultures. The “M” distinctly seen on one pillar represents a woman in childbirth position, a common symbol in various religions.
They don’t explain the backwards “D” that is below the M. Could they be initials? Dates in Roman numerals? That could possibly mean “1500.” Which would jibe with our current understanding of when Europeans first came to New Mexico. It could be a Spanish explorer was inspired by the Knights Templar and chose to use their symbols for some reason. Though the Knights Templar were extinguished in 1312 by French aristocracy and many of its knights were tortured and burned at the stake, the secrecy and mystery surrounding their order has endured over the centuries, and many have been fascinated by them.
Louis Serna has not updated his blog on the pillars since 2018, when he announced the publication of his book on the subject. These pillars are certainly a mystery. I hope radio carbon testing and other examinations from experts can shed light on where they came from and what purpose they served. It would be cool if Serna is correct and these prove that there were European explorers in the Southwest long before the Spanish of the 1500s. Even if the pillars are a hoax, there is so much about our past that we don’t know.
Sources:
https://sernabook.blogspot.com/2014/01/louis-f.html
https://www.krqe.com/news/mysterious-stone-pillars-emerge-from-northern-new-mexico-forest