I am blessed to be in a women's hiking group. We meet once a week and go a lot of interesting places. Since we all live in the greater Albuquerque area, most of or hikes are in or around the Sandia Mountains, the mountains that are in the background of this blog's header. Right now, most of our favorite trails are under a foot or more of snow. While we do use snowshoes on occasion, often we use the snowy season to go other places.
One of the places we hiked this month was to see the Phoenician Stone, which is sometimes called the Decalogue Stone. Located at the base of a basalt- covered uplift about 35 miles southwest of Albuquerque and 15 miles west of Los Lunas, it is off the beaten track but well worth seeing if you are into curiosities and strange stories.
The Decalogue Stone was first mentioned by Frank Hibben (1910-2002), who was then an archaeology professor at the University of New Mexico. Hibben claimed that he was taken to the site in 1933, guided by a man who said he'd seen the stone as a boy back in the 1880s. Hibben was convinced that the inscription was ancient, and thus authentic. Some scholars have said that the writing is ancient Hebrew and is of the ten commandments, which is why it is sometimes called the Decalogue Stone. Others have announced that the writing is Phoenician and is an account of a shipwrecked sailor wandering in the desert. It's also been called Mystery Rock and the Los Lunas Inscription Stone. Some believe that it is a forgery created by members of the Mormon Battalion, who came through New Mexico during the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. Others believe that Hibben or a couple of his graduate assistants created the stone. And, like most strange things in New Mexico, others suppose it is a record of aliens from outer space.
Whatever its provenance, going to see it was a great thing to do on a cold, January day! We left our cars outside the Valencia County Landfill and hiked in over a dirt ranch road until we got to the base of Hidden Mountain, where we turned and walked up a ravine until we got to the stone. In the picture below, the stone is on the left, right in front of the woman on the far left.
The stone may be a hoax, but what's on the top of Hidden Mountain isn't. After a scramble up a ravine, we arrived on top, where we found a lot of petroglyphs and the ruins of an ancient settlement that might have been part of a string of look-out and way stations along an ancient trail from the Rio Grande to Acoma Pueblo. Also in the area is the Franklin Pottery Mound, where a large diversity of ancient pottery has been unearthed. Both the mound and the ruins are believed to be from between 1350 and 1500. It's pretty obvious why this site would be chosen as a look-out. The views were spectacular in all four directions. We even saw a small herd of deer (although some of us thought they were pronghorns) down below.
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There's something wonderful and a bit eerie about being in a place that was occupied hundreds of years ago. It makes me wonder what life might have been like back then. What did the people who lived there feel as they stood on the edge and looked out over the vastness?
After we'd walked the whole upper portion, we went back down the ravine and had a little celebration. Two of us (including yours truly) had birthdays to celebrate.
After we'd walked the whole upper portion, we went back down the ravine and had a little celebration. Two of us (including yours truly) had birthdays to celebrate.
 |  It's not often one gets to celebrate her birthday at a landfill! My friends take me to the best places! No kidding, I can truly say that it was a wonderful experience. Will this ever work itself into one of my books? Probably not. But it was a wonderful experience anyway. |
Jennifer Bohnhoff lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. She has written a number of novels for middle grade through adult readers and has two titles that will be published in 2023. Click here to join her email list and receive information about her books.
