Richard Gonsalves was born in Red Bluff, CA. He moved to northern Arizona at age 5. He grew up in the little town of Snowflake, AZ where he still lives today. Living in a small town, he learned to love the outdoors and the archaeology of the area. There is an abundance of ancient Indian petroglyphs and Indian ruins in the area to be explored. The Petrified Forest is also nearby. Richard has been lifelong friends with Mike Rogers and Travis Walton, who had a UFO experience in 1975 that was made into the major Hollywood movie "Fire in the Sky".
Richard also became great friends with Clifford Mahooty, a Zuni Elder and TV personality. Richard was never an archaeologist, but with his interest in archaeology and knowledge of the area, he became the president of the Arizona Archaeological Society Agave House Chapter for 10 years. He met John Ruskamp Jr. in 2015, who wrote the book "Asiatic Echoes" about 3,000-year-old ancient Chinese script in the petroglyphs. They have become great friends and have been collaborating on finding more evidence.