A year before my good friend Forrest Fenn hid his treasure in Wyoming, he called me and asked me to come by his house to look at an old plate that was found on his property that was home to the San Lazaro Tano Indian Pueblo in the Galisteo Basin near Santa Fe. Forrest had been excavating that abandoned pueblo for several years, and sometimes I went out to spend the day with him and help. Other times, he was kind enough to let my wife and I go out there and poke around by ourselves. While I never found anything as nice as that plate, I did find a large amount of artifacts that ended up in the San Lazaro permanent collection.
After looking the plate over, I decided to investigate its possible origins. It was a fun experience, leading through a maze of historic documents and museum collections and eventually leading to a deal that Forrest and I made with the Worshipful Company of the Salters in London, who wanted it for their museum.
This eBook is the story of the plate, its maker, and its two transatlantic voyages, some 350 years apart.