Record of Religious & Cultural Artifacts

[Sean]

Contribute pictures and stories of religious and cultural artifacts that you've found in the mountains. Try to give an approximate date and location of the find, and describe whatever you know about the object. Let's focus on unusual or temporary items, as we already have threads for popular and permanent things. I'll start off with this:

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We found this artifact on Station Ridge, above the Arroyo Seco, on March 9, 2018. It was close to the highway, and only a little off the trail. So I doubt that the creator was much of a hiker. The display sits on a slope of the ridge with a nice view of the surrounding watershed. The higher piece on the left is a large shell lamp with the electrical cord wrapped around the top. Corn kernels are scattered in a circle around the base. Directly below this is an animal hoof candle holder. It contains orange slices and Monopoly money. A paper napkin is tucked under the hoof--because even gods dribble fruit juice onto their chins.

This was probably a Buddhist offering, possibly for Chinese New Year, which was on February 16, 2018. My Google-fu tells me that these are all common items that Buddhists leave for Buddha, in the hopes of receiving good fortune and enlightenment. Also, take note of the orange colors, which are particularly important to monks of Theravada Buddhism. In addition to the orange slices, the Monopoly money is also orange, which might have matched a meditating monk's robe.

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[Anthony]

What if they're not religious? I would imagine that some of the items we come across are not affiliated with any group. Maybe we should change the criteria to "unknown artifacts" or "mysterious artifacts"?

[HikeUp]

Stone House Crossing Campground 2010-06-12.

Unknown structure.

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[Sean]

I updated the topic title and intro to include more broadly cultural items. Let's stick to atypical, man-made things, though. No bigfoot dens.

[Sean]

Unknown structure.

Looks like a teepee frame.

[HikeUp]

Unknown structure.

Looks like a teepee frame.

Or an alien squirrel howitzer.

[tekewin]

It contains orange slices and Monopoly money.

That's what I've lived on for 4 years now.

[Sean]

On December 20, 2013, I explored Dry Lake Canyon off Mt. Baldy Road. This narrow canyon has no trail. A few class 3 waterfalls must be negotiated to reach the upper portion. Along the way, I had found substantial evidence of an abandoned farming operation, including related trash and black tubing. Then, above one of the larger falls, I noticed that two trees had been defaced.

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Someone had carved a bunch of Spanish words and a cross into the trees. Also, a prayer card had been nailed to one of them. The card depicted a wooden cross with a crown of thorns floating by itself above the cross. In the background were some mountains. I failed to look on the reverse side of the card.

The words were deeply cut into the trees. They read: "Oh Jesús sacra-mentado! enemigos veo venir la sangre de tu costad[o] de ellos me ha de cubri[r]." I immediately recognized this as some kind of prayer to Jesus. Since then I have researched the entire phrase, which is attributed to Pope Leo XIII. (The two missing letters in brackets probably fell off with a strip of bark.) I wasn't happy with online auto-translators, so I made my own translation: "O, sacramental Jesus! I can see enemies coming. The blood from your side must conceal me from them."

This type of prayer in Spanish is known as "Justo Juez" (Fair Judge). And these particular lines of the prayer are meant to protect one from a present danger. It's a near certainty that this religious artifact was created by some fearful pot grower with a lot of free time for spoiling the beauty of his Lord's creation.