That Tuesday I found a weird bunker map in an old library book

I was digging through a thrifted atlas from 1973 last week and found a hand-drawn map tucked in the back pages of the Wyoming section. It had coordinates and a weird symbol I couldn't figure out. I spent the whole evening cross-referencing it with Google Earth and found what looked like a hidden bunker near a dry lakebed. Has anyone else stumbled on something like this in old books or am I just losing it?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettys512mo ago

Oh you're not losing it at all lol. I found something similar a couple years ago in a 1960s hiking guide for the Sierra Nevada. There was a folded up piece of notebook paper with a crude drawing of a trail leading to an old mine shaft marked with an X. I actually drove up there the next weekend with my brother and we found the shaft, totally caved in but the entrance was still there with some rusted tools scattered around. I think people used to stash all kinds of stuff in library books back before the internet was a thing. Maybe check the library book for any other markings on the map, sometimes they have initials or dates that can give you clues about who drew it.

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holly_sanchez751mo agoTop Commenter

And yeah that's exactly what I found too, a folded up piece of paper in a book about wildflowers that had a hand drawn map to some hidden swimming hole nobody knows about anymore. I swear it took me three tries to find the spot because the landmarks had changed so much since whoever drew it, but the payoff was worth it. You gotta really look at the paper itself too, like is it yellowed or crinkled in certain spots, that can tell you how old it actually is. And check the margins of the book pages near where you found it, sometimes people write little notes or dates that give you more context. I never would have found that swimming hole if I hadn't sat down and really studied that map for a good twenty minutes.

murray.spencer2mo ago

Actually those Sierra Nevada hiking guides from the 60s are a goldmine for stuff like that. My dad had a whole collection and I remember finding a folded gas station receipt in one with directions to a hot spring that was totally off the grid. Only thing I'd correct you on is that 1960s guide you mentioned - most of those were published in the late 50s and early 60s, so yours might be a first edition. Check the copyright page, those earlier printings sometimes had hand-drawn maps by the authors themselves.