06-08-2025
Walker Goes on Hike of Capitol Peak, Unprepared for What Find at the Summit
The unusual find highlights a growing interest in outdoor exploration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in outdoor recreation surged by 26 percent as Americans sought safe, socially distant ways to connect with nature, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. By 2021, a record 164 million Americans aged 6 and older had participated in outdoor recreation at least once, the OIA said.
In 2023, day hiking emerged as the most-popular outdoor activity in the United States, accounting for 20 percent of all participants, according to data compiled by global research firm Statista. Fishing was the second-most-common activity.
Draper said that determining the significance of such carvings, like the ones in the Reddit post, requires assessing multiple factors, including the rock's surroundings and method of marking. Observing how the stones have been shaped, whether it was carved, chipped, tumbled, or worn by natural processes such as wind, water, or glaciation, is also important, Draper said, adding that "a truly ancient carving would exhibit a consistent degree of wear."
The Reddit images showed a relatively isolated stone or group of stones, with no broader decorative or ritualistic context, which Draper said is atypical for ancient symbols. "Early writing and symbolic systems often make use of available surfaces more fully. Ancient inscriptions and symbols are typically part of a broader communicative or decorative system used to track possessions, recount stories, mark time, perform rituals, or even display graffiti," he said.
He compared the Capitol Peak find with rare anomalies such as the Phaistos Disc, a clay artifact discovered on the island of Crete, which is marked with unknown symbols and dates to around 1700 BCE. But Draper was quick to point out that, in this case, "a small, isolated inscription with no supporting context or stylistic precedent is very unusual."
Draper added that the markings don't appear to match those used by indigenous cultures in the region. "We must ask if the symbols or forms present align with those known from local Indigenous groups, such as the Ancestral Puebloans, Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, or Apache. In the case you're referencing [in the Reddit post], there appear to be no known traditional symbols associated with these cultures that resemble the markings in question," he said.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via the Reddit messaging system.
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