SAN ANTONIO -- Millions of visitors a year at the Alamo means millions of eyes examining the early Spanish mission. But how many people can truly say they’ve seen everything the Alamo has to offer?
More than 300 years of service to San Antonio has left the Alamo with visible signs of its occupants.
There were the Spanish priests who used the mission in their efforts to Christianize the local population, the Texans who fought boldly and shed blood within its walls, and the U.S. Army that occupied and retrofitted the building as a garrison and storehouse. Many left their names carved within the walls.
But there are also a few mysteries, Alamo employees say, in graffiti of a different sort.
Tucked within the vines that cover an interior wall, there’s a carving high up within the stonework: a face, hollowed-out and scarred by time.
“That was carved probably sometime in the 1800s, when the army was here," said Tony Caridi, the Alamo’s spokesperson. "That’s one of those things where there’s no documentation, and they (historians) are not sure. It’s really interesting."
Maintenance crews say pollutants and wear have taken their toll on the tiny visage, but still, they ask: Where did it come from? And they aren’t the only ones.
“Every now and then, you’ll get a visitor who will catch a glimpse of it,” Caridi said. “It looks like a face to me, actually. But I’m not sure. It’s just another one of those pieces of art that the Alamo has."-
Take a walk under the wooden posts that crisscross the walkway extending south from the shrine and you may see a tiny, off-white stone in the shape of the state of Texas.
“I don’t think there’s anything written down anywhere about when it was first noticed or who put it in," Cardi said.
Like the face, it is located several feet high on the wall and blends in well with the rest of the stones that make up the southern facade.
Experts say it is something no ordinary visitor could’ve placed there, and curators have no idea how or when it was cemented into the wall.
As Caridi tells it: “When I came on board, it was one of those things pointed out to me: one of the unknown things of the Alamo. One of the thoughts is that it was a time capsule put in some time ago.”
That would make it the Alamo’s second time capsule. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas already have one, installed and dated 1982.
Finding these “other” Alamo treasures, one has to walk around some construction currently underway on the Alamo’s 4.2-acre grounds.
Crews are installing audio booths. Caridi says audio tours are on the horizon, but there’s no word whether these hidden treasures will be something visitors will hear on the sound tour.
