BLYTHE, Calif. — The Big Maria Mountains Wilderness, a sun-beaten stretch of desert near the California-Arizona border is the birthplace of man, according to the Chemehuevi people.
“This is the most sacred site there is,” said tribe member Alfredo Figueroa.
Etched in the rock laden soil are massive ancient drawings, a story which is best seen from the sky or the peak of the Big Maria Mountains.
“They are all pointing in one direction for a reason. This is Ōmeteōtl the Creator,” said Alfredo’s son, Jessie.
These are the Blythe Intaglios, or petroglyphs. For most of their lives, Alfredo and Jessie have studied and protected them.
“There are 300 petroglyphs according to the BLM archeologists from Needles, California in the north down to Yuma, Arizona in the south,” said Alfredo.
Of all the petroglyphs in this area, the Blythe Intaglios are the largest. In total, six can be seen from the sky. Some are 170 feet long, or a little more than half the size of a football field.
“When was this rock turned around [like this]? Over 10,000 years [ago],” said Alfredo.
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Alfredo says it was ancient Aztecs who scraped away the darker colored rocks on the surface to reveal the lighter colored rocks on the bottom, and those ancient Aztecs traced the images on the ground from what they saw in the night sky.
“The origin of these images are all in the cosmos,” Alfredo said.
According to Alfredo, constellations in the sky reflect the petroglyphs on the ground and many of the images have links to cosmology and Greek mythology.
“This guy is Orion but here, he’s called Ōmeteōtl,” Alfredo said while pointing at a chart of the night sky.
Archeologists and historians disagree about who made the petroglyphs, but Alfredo spent years researching and writing books on the Blythe Intaglios’ origins and he’s used his research in a court of law to keep solar panel companies from developing on sacred land.
“We have defeated three solar panel [projects] already,” said Alfredo.
The six petroglyphs at the Blythe Intaglios are protected by the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] so everyone can experience the feeling of this sacred place.
ANOTHER DESERT WONDER ON THE BACKROADS: One man's desert dream to preserve the history of the world in granite is in Felicity, at the Center of the World.
