THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

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Jim Hatt

THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Jim Hatt »

THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

For those of you who have never heard the story of the Stone crosses. They were found by a man by the name of Michael Bilbrey. He found them laying on the surface of the ground, (or just slightly below it) in the late 1970's. Michael was a computer Technician in San Diego, California when his interest in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona began. He was on vacation in Arizona walking around in a souvenir shop when a book about the Lost Dutchman Mine caught his attention. This book had a chapter in it dedicated to the Peralta Stone Maps. Michael was neither a Prospector or a Treasure Hunter, but like many of us, had always dreamed about someday becoming both.

Little did Michael know that the chapter on the Peralta Stone Maps in the book he had just purchased would capture him so strongly, that it would, little by little, turn his whole life completely upside down, and consume every minute of his free time. Michael began making trips from San Diego to the Superstitions every weekend. Leaving San Diego on a Friday evening after work, and driving to the Superstitions where he would park at one of the trailheads in the middle of the night, so he could be ready to hit the trail at first light in the morning. He would hike in the mountains ALL weekend and then make the drive back to San Diego Sunday night, often arriving for work Monday morning with having been to bed. Michael learned where all the trailheads were, and at one time or another made excursions into the Superstitions from each one of them, as well as from many places where he could find a spot along the Apache Trail (which completely circles the Superstition Mountains) that allowed him to pull his car off the road far enough to park and enter the mountains on foot.

He carried a movie camera with him on many of his trips. Not lightweight video cameras, like we carry today, but large and bulky film cameras, that required him to have his film developed, and then watched on a home movie projector. I have no record or reference to him ever being married, so he had nothing in his life to keep him from dedicating all of his free time at home to watching his movies over and over every evening. Michael had made up his mind that the Stone Maps were authentic maps, that lead to a hidden Jesuit treasure dating back to the time of the Jesuit expulsion from the “New World” in 1767.

Over and over, night after night, he sat alone watching his movies, looking for landmarks that would match up with the markings on the Stone Maps. Slowly but surely he began to form a theory about where the Stone Map trail entered the mountains, and where it ended in the area where the Jesuits had cached away their treasure. Eventually his patience paid off in the way of a finalized theory that he was satisfied with. Confident that he had figured out where the Stone Map trail began and ended, he began to focus his search for the treasure in one specific area of the mountains. He made many weekend trips to this area, and found many things there that reinforced his belief in his theory.

Eventually the physical and mental stress of his weekend hobby, which was rapidly becoming an obsession, began to wear him down and create a montage of problems in his professional life and career. So much so, that he finally decided to pull up his roots and relocate to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he would be no more than an hours drive from the Superstitions.

Personal friends of Michael’s who knew him well, believed in him and his theory became financial backers with no strings attached. At one point in time Burt Reynolds’ (of Smokey and the Bandit fame) sister, who was a personal friend of Michael's, wrote him a check for $5,000.00 with the attitude that; “Hey, if you find it in my lifetime, you can pay me back, if not, at least it will have bought you some more time in the mountains and maybe put you a little closer to it”

Michael studied Prospecting and became proficient in the art of identifying mineralized areas, and extracting gold from them. This resulted in his finding gold, and filing several mining claims in the area where he believed the Jesuit cache to be. That wasn’t all Michael found in that area. The newspaper clippings below tell the rest of that story far better than I could.

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To get higher resolution copies of these documents, you can email me and I will send them to you.

Link to my e-mail address: http://www.desertusa.com/mb3/viewtopic. ... 169#p12169

I first heard the story about Michael Bilbrey & his Stone Crosses from Al Reser, who had been searching for the Lost Dutchman Mine and several others in the Superstition Mountains since 1931. It was in ’91 or ’92 (if I recall correctly) when Al gave me the newspaper clippings, told me the story of the Latin Heart, and started me on the trail of “Busca El Coazon” (Search for the heart).

More information on this subject can be found on this website at: http://www.desertusa.com/ldm-1/peralta.html
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Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Desert Cruiser »

More interesting info on the subject. Now after reading the newspapers that you can read above, my question would have to be --- who is Ed Farr? And what does he have to say about Mike? Apparently the paper thought he was his partner?

Don....

Oh I would like full resolution copies of the articles above -- ukiexplorers@yahoo.com at your convenience.

Don....
Jim Hatt

Re: MICHAEL BILBREY'S STONE CROSSES

Post by Jim Hatt »

Don, Ed Farr, as far as I was able to learn, was a Partner but only for a short time. I was told they had some kind of dark shadow pass over the Partnership, they parted ways, and Mike pressed on alone. I have never been able to find out who ended up with the Crosses or where they are today.

I tried to locate Ed Farr several times. I found several in Arizona and Calif. and managed to get phone numbers for them all. I called all of them and only got answering machines. I left messages explaining who I was and that I was interested in the Stone Crosses and was trying to get in contact with Micheal Bilbrey. None of my calls were ever returned. It must have either been a really dark shadow, or I just never hit upon the right Ed Farr?

Maybe someone else can try a different approach and get through to him.



Jim
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Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Wright 1 »

I have turned my full attention on Mike and where he could be, and it boils down too an even 50/50 shot, either his final resting place is in the mountains or he doesn't want to be found for some strange reason. I have 1 question Jim , did Bilbrey ever sell or donate the stones to someone or some place , or were they in his possession at all times?
Jim Hatt

Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Jim Hatt »

As far as I know Write 1, the Crosses were in Bilbrey's possession with the only exception being a short period that he loaned them Estee (Shirley) Conatser (Author of THE STERLING LEGEND), Shirley told me that she took them to someone she knew at UCLA and had them examined by "Experts" who basically said all the same things about them that other "Experts" have said about the Peralta Stone Maps. All just personal opinions, no scientific conclusions of any kind.

I have heard rumors that the dark shadow that passed over Bilbrey and Ed Farr, had something to do with who should have the Crosses. That is one of the things I wanted to ask Ed about if I ever found him. Where are the Crosses now?

This thread is the first one that has ever brought up his name on the Internet in connection with the Stone Crosses and Michael Bilbrey, as far as I know. Maybe he or someone that knows him will show up here someday and provide us with some useful information.


Jim Hatt
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Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Wright 1 »

Can we get any photos of Ed Farr, or some not so personal information like D.O.B. last known city he llived in, I mean anything................ I looked for family members of Bilbrey's, partners, and even friends, I will say this , I have contact information on Bilbrey's last known employer.... If anyone knows more about ED Farr, please post a message.............
Jim Hatt

Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Jim Hatt »

Write 1,

I am going to spend the day at the BLM office in Phoenix today. I want to review every record in the file for Bilbrey's mining claims, to see if there is any information about Ed Farr, or any other partners Mike might have had in them.

According to the newspaper article, Those claims of his were validated by the Forest Service as being Gold bearing claims. That means that when the Wilderness Act took effect his claims would have still been valid and Grand-fathered in.

That means that if he ever lost interest in them he, could still SELL them!

Jim Hatt
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Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Wright 1 »

I looked for an Ed Farr who would probably be in his 50's or 60's by now as well, I didn't find anything in that age range but I did find an Ed Farr Jr. in L.A. , a young guy in his 20's but he is a Jr................................I know it doesn't seem like much but I ran across a pretty interesting search engine and the way I found this kid, leads me to believe we could be on to something
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Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Yehonadav »

Hi Wright,

Nice to meet you :) . I'm an amateur in all this, but nonetheless intrigued and have been trying my best to read up and learn from you experts on the subject. It's interesting that you bring up the equation at the bottom of the map as I was wondering about that too. I can't remember where, maybe it was on one of Jim's posts/articles, but someone made a hypothesis that during the Peralta massacre, the stones may have been dropped along the way as they were being chased. Not that it would make it any easier to find since it would still be like looking for a needle in a very big haystack, but if we knew precisely where the stone crosses were found, the latin heart was found, and the other maps were found, we could see if we could establish a route the Peraltas took for their escape and then maybe backtrack to possibly find another map? Just a thought. Man you guys got me hooked, I love a good mystery!
Jim Hatt

Re: THE STORY OF THE STONE CROSSES

Post by Jim Hatt »

Wright 1 & Yehonadav,

I have the candle burning on both ends here, and it's a little hard to concentrate right now. I believe there is every possibility that there are more pieces to the stone map set laying around out there, but like Yeho... implied, they could be strung out all through the mtns.

It is something worth keeping in mind when we are in the area looking around! The Crosses were found right on one of his claims.

Jim Hatt
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