The "Lost Mission" Mystery Walls (Las Animas) drone flyover. Video added.
'Geoffff' (4WD van traveler) recently returned from another of his super expeditions to Baja and I anxiously await his trip report.
In the meantime, he sent me the photos and videos of his drone flyover of the mesa near Bahía las Animas with the mystery walls and cave. This was
the site of a discovery made in 1966 when the Erle Stanley Gardner expedition found these walls, a dam, a lone date palm, and Indian sleeping circles.
Desert Magazine's Choral Pepper was on this expedition and climbed to the top of the mesa for a close look at these walls. Her research following that
trip would conclude that this was likely the lost Jesuit mission project of Santa María Magdalena, shown as "started" on the Jesuit's 1757 map...
south of Bahía de los Angeles and north of Santa Gertrudis (first called 'Dolores del Norte').
Before Choral Pepper died, she told me she hoped I would find the site. It was one of the places in Baja she tried to return to but did not remember
the location other than it was south of L.A. Bay and (she thought) the sea was in view. I called other members of the Gardner party who were still
alive in 2000 to ask for help on the location. Bruce Barron (the man Choral photographed at the site in February 1966), J.W. Black (the creator of the
off road vehicles used by Gardner to explore Baja in the 60s), and Ricardo Castillo in Mulegé, all were helpful but none at that point in life
remembered where the walls were.
In 2001, with several Internet Baja amigos along, I was connected with Jesus Flores thanks to Doc at Camp Gecko, as a guide. At the time, I didn't
realize this was the famous 'Lost Mine Jesus' that Erle Stanley Gardner wrote a chapter about in is 1962 book, The Hidden Heart of Baja!! The next
year, I got Jesus to autograph his photo in my copy of Gardner's book.
In 2001, however, we had Jesus in the 4WD Viva Baja Van to show us to the mystery wall location (Mission Santa María Magdalena?). He guided us to a
historic place, but not the walls. He took us to the Tinaja de Santa María, an important water source on the Golfo Camino Real (eastern branch of El
Camino Real connecting Santa Gertrudis with San Borja).
I made additional searched south of L.A. Bay retracing the Gardner expedition route and other potential sites, since Choral said they took the
Grasshoppers (dune buggies) out on explorations from their camp locations.
I even drove to Bahía las Animas... and did not see the wall up on the mesa that you can see from the road going to the bay. It blends in well and I
obviously didn't stare long enough as I was driving! LOL
All these searches are documented on my website and posts on Amigos de Baja and Baja Nomad.
In late 2008, Sharksbaja was using Google Earth and spotted lines on a hill. He asked me if these might be the walls of Choral Pepper's lost mission.
My reply was that they look promising, but I would have to go there myself to confirm! My wife was fully supportive and New Years Weekend was a
three-day holiday for 2009.
This area is by far the most facinating to me.
A friend and I flew several east cape trips in the 80-90s.
Everytime we flew over here he would have a new intriguing rumor about the place.
I nearly broke my neck trying to see "something" there.
We were cruising at altitude so it was only a glimpse.
This is also a secret fishing spot Dave!
So again you with the pictures and maps and giving away "secret" spot!
[Edited on 4-16-2019 by fishbuck]
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
This area is by far the most facinating to me.
A friend and I flew several east cape trips in the 80-90s.
Everytime we flew over here he would have a new intriguing rumor about the place.
I nearly broke my neck trying to see "something" there.
We were cruising at altitude so it was only a glimpse.
This is also a secret fishing spot Dave!
So again you with the pictures and maps and giving away "secret" spot!
I still haven't made it there by dirt.
But BOLA fidhing is about to turn on and I am planning to go native there for a while.
Maybe this is a job for the giant white truck.
I will need to lower the 10 plys down a bit to for my new teeth to survive it.
I really need a helicopter! For my teeth. And my spin.
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
I still haven't made it there by dirt.
But BOLA fidhing is about to turn on and I am planning to go native there for a while.
Maybe this is a job for the giant white truck.
I will need to lower the 10 plys down a bit to for my new teeth to survive it.
I really need a helicopter! For my teeth. And my spin.
Yes, flying makes you weak... lol
Here are my Las Animas photos from New Years 2017:
There's the wall as seen from the road about 2 miles south of the bayshore.
So is that a 'cave' on the back side? Almost looks like there was an old trail to it coming in from the left.
I recall that side being pretty steep and it seems you can not see it from above or below very well.
Along with the walls and 'sleeping circles' at the top, and the 'dam' and 'foundations' on the valley floor there is also a old hunting blind at the
bottom on the west side below the longer of the two rock walls.
Another odd thing is if you head east around the bay and climb the sand dunes to look down the valley towards this hill with the rock walls it appears
as if there is a rock pattern built in to the lower face of the hill. It appears as a outline in the shape of a diamond with a dark spot in the
center.
It could very well be natural, but it seems as if it fits perfectly as a marker or a sign to indicate that here is the spot.
One final thing is back in 2011 or 2012 while walking around the near the top I came across a rock the size of basketball that looked like someone had
scratched a + or a cross into it about 5" or 6" tall. I lost the pictures I had of it when a hard drive failed on my computer.
That hill seems to have some interesting history to it.
Here are my Las Animas photos from New Years 2017:
Hey David, how did you get this shot? I've tried to sneak up on vultures for a photo 100 times and they seem to be a shy lot; not comfortable with
people around (kinda like me).
My guess is that Dave got the photo from the drivers seat of his Tacoma. A guy behind the steering wheel of a vehicle is not near as menacing to
critters s someone on two legs, with something in their hands!
I have "snuck up" on deer with a bulldozer clearing brush before that I never would have seen if I was on foot carrying tools (or a rifle). They are
also curious by nature when the normal alarms are not going off.
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
I've been out to see the rock "walls" several times now. Because of the slope on either side, these stacked rocks always gave me the impression of
something to used divert/contain livestock than the remnants of something more structurally significant. The dead palm tree at the bottom of the slope
that David K mentions in an earlier report was also intriguing - so atypical and out of place for that region. Who planted it, and why? Never came
across the "sleeping circles" that Choral pepper references, either on foot or with Google Earth. I was searching for these on the flat mesa like
clearing south west of the walls on the same outcrop. But perhaps, I've bee looking in the wrong places.
But the cave on the south side of the outcrop is something new to me. I don't recall anyone on this board posting about it, and these drone shots are
the first time I've seen it.
I would be interested to know if Geoff took the time explore the area around the cave on foot. If so, what were his impressions on the area -
coincidental geology? Potentially habitable? It looks to be quite large, but the boulders hanging off it's roof perhaps make an entrance into the cave
appear precarious.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
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