Peralta Stones

The stones consist of "two red sandstone tablets and a heart-shaped rock made of red quartzite. Each block is approximately 8.25” (~ 21 cm) by 14” (~35.6 cm) and 2” thick, weighing about 25 lbs. Each red stone block is carved with lines and one long line. When the two blocks are placed side by side and the stone heart is inserted the long line has 18 dots pecked into it. This style of map is known as a Post Road Map and it is a style used in Mexico and Spain during the Mexican–American War. Inscribed on the stones is the date 1847, and one stone contains a Sunken relief or intaglio of a heart, into which the heart-shaped stone fits perfectly. The back of the stone that the heart-shaped stone fits into has the outline of a cross carved into it. There is confusion about the discovery of the Peralta Stones. Some sources say they were found by a man named "Jack" in 1956 (one source says 1952, another 1949 ==Treasure map==

According to local lore, the stones contain a map indicating the location of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. Various claims have been made about the location of the gold mine based on an interpretation of the stones, and such claims appear at regular intervals—though no one has yet recovered a flake of Jacob Waltz's gold. Danny Adams, in 2005, read the map as a coded message and claims the stones were made by Ted DeGrazia, a painter and art collector rumored to have burned (or buried) a collection of art worth $5 million rather than pay taxes on his property; Adams claims one of the stones reads "Be ready boy, are on a map on Arizona county scale, scale map" and aided by numerological analysis locates the mine in Upper Labarge Canyon. The treasure of paintings, supposedly hidden in the mine, is also connected, somehow, to a conspiracy of 50 businessmen from the Phoenix area to hide DeGrazia's work. In 2007, William and Michael Johnson (originally from Massachusetts) said that they had identified a privately owned cave as the mine, based on the clues left in the Peralta Stones. ==Location==

The Peralta Stones were held at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, 53 N. Macdonald, in Mesa, Arizona, previously known as the Mesa Southwest Museum. In June 2009, they were to go on extended display at the Superstition Mountain Museum, 4087 N. Apache Trail, in Apache Junction, Arizona. As of September, 2012, the stones are once again displayed at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. ==See also==