Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.
On April 5th, 1909 The Phoenix Gazette ran a front page story that was pretty different from the one it printed the day before. It was also very different from any printed ever since it. It's about an explorer named G.E. Kinkaid, who happened upon an enormous cavern while boating solo down the Colorado River. In it lay the remains of an underground civilisation long since dead.
The article goes on to state that the Smithsonian – the museum-iest museum in all the world – was funding further exploration of it. And what did it find? Well, let us tell you…
G.E. Kinkaid is said to have been the first white man ever born in Idaho. He didn't waste his time working-away in a dusty potato field though – he became a big-time explorer. On one particular day he was floating down the Colorado River looking for minerals when he saw a cliff-side cave gaping there before him. He explains things far better than we could:
"I was journeying down the Colorado River in a boat, alone, looking for minerals. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally reached it with great difficulty. Above a shelf, which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave. There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river. When I saw the chisel marks on the wall inside the entrance, I became interested, securing my gun and went in."
Now one might think upon entering the cave, Kinkaid might have found the city of crystal skulls – and you'd be almost right. He pretty much did find an old city – but the crystal skulls (which we told you about long before ol' G. Lucas) were being saved for Indiana Jones.
Instead, Kinkaid's city had mummies…:
"…I went back several hundred feet along the main passage till I came to the crypt, in which I discovered the mummies. One of these I stood up and photographed by flashlight."
…hieroglyphs…:
"On all the urns, walls over doorways, and tablets of stone which were found by the image are the mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the Smithsonian Institute hopes yet to discover. The engraving on the tables probably has something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two animals are found. One is of prehistoric type."
…weaponry not typical of ancient America…:
"Several hundred rooms have been discovered, reached by passageways running from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another 634 feet. The recent finds include articles which have never been known as native to this country, and doubtless they had their origin in the orient. War weapons, copper instruments, sharp-edged and hard as steel, indicate the high state of civilisation reached by these strange people."
…and a religious shrine:
"Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people's god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet."
Finding mummies and hieroglyphs may seem pretty strange – but it's far from the first time anything hinting of eastern origins has come to light in the States. Why, our first Awesome or Off-Putting ever talked about the Los Lunas stone – a multi-ton rock with the Ten Commandments etched in it. In Hebrew. Did we mention it was in Hebrew?
As far as the authenticity of Mr. Kinkaid's adventures – all that's really known is it was printed in the Phoenix Gazette. What appears to be an almost identical story ran on March 12, 1909. This story is said to be from the Arizona Gazette. There are actual photos of this article floating around the net today.
It may also be of interest to note that the Smithsonian denies any claims of their having funded a study of this nature. They have no documentation of it whatsoever. And the archaeologists' names which are associated with the search in the original articles – the museum also claims to have no record of their employ.
So it could all be a hoax. The exact location is unknown. Although Kinkaid gives an adequate location to one of the papers – "Some forty-two miles up [Colorado] river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon," no one seems able to find it today.
Though they may want to try using Google Earth. It's a fantastic tool, you know.
Read More:
Sick Mind Fraud says
An Analysis on the Probable Location of an “Underground Citadel”
Alleged to be in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Arizona,
according to a “Phoenix (Arizona) Gazette” front page news story dated “April 5, 1909”
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_orionzone_9.htm
Hugh says
I’d say he’s late, as of 4-5-08, 4-1-08 was 4 days ago.
Rick Moss says
What is Normal Earth Temperature?
There is definite evidence that our planet once presented a warm subtropical climate from pole to pole. Corals, which grow only in warm waters (of at least 20 degrees Centigrade) once grew near the poles. Canada, Alaska, Newfoundland, Greenland contain fossil coral.
Coal seams are also found near the poles. The vast coal beds are simply fossilized remains of trees and plants. Redwood forests are found buried under massive ice deposits. These towering giants (now typically found in the north-west of the U.S.A.) once flourished in many diverse parts of the world, as evidenced by many coal and fossil finds.
The remains of animals now confined to warm regions are also found all over the earth.
UNIFORM CLIMATE WORLDWIDE
There is but one climate known to the ancient world as revealed by the plants, fossils and ancient legends. The climate was a mantle of spring like loveliness that seems to have prevailed continuously over the whole globe in the recent geologic past.
When nearly the same plants are found in Greenland and Guinea; when the same species now extinct, are met with of equal development at the equator as at the pole and the people of the Earth have drawings and legends about diverse animal populations, we cannot but admit that the temperature of the globe was nearly alike everywhere.
“There seems to have been then only one climate over the whole globe.” said William Dawson, geologist.
George Marshall says
G.E. Kinkaid, you need to come out of your racist denial and just accept the fact that Olmac Civilization has “African” orgins. Read “They Came Before Columbus” by Ivan Van Sertima.
wizzard says
Yes, the temp could be interpreted as being the same everywhere at once, but we KNOW that this was NOT so, not at the same time. Due to earth pole shifts, the weather appears to be the same all over the world not not simultaneously. Capiche???
ron says
1.Someone is going to the trouble of travelling 43 miles up the grand canyon river and climb a sheer cliff and deposit statues and difficult to make artfacts for a hoax? d’ya think?
2. Velikovsky theorized that at some time in the relatively recent past a large body skimmed past earth and changed the polar axis by way of electronic discharge from perpendicular to 23 degrees+ -.Evidence.a]fresh seashells at the top of the Himalayas and the Andes.b]erratic boulders in Europe and N.America.c]Whale bones in Michigan and other oopa’s.3] legend and folk memory ….”the mountains skipped like lambs….eparu text.4]The use of a 360 day calendar in Egypt and other cultures. and many more.
Carol says
The Ten Commandments written in Hebrew may be a red herring. When Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, the Jewish did not have a written language. The early Jewish tradition is an oral history. If the original Ten Commandments were written, they’d have to be in Sumerian, the only around then, and the Jewish people would have had to have them translated.
Thank You.
tara says
God wrote the ten commandments in a fiery script. He must have known Hebrew. Kryon, gregg Braden and others attest to the fact that our DNA is inscribed in Hebrew. Perhaps our perspective as to when the jewish people aquired from God some form of written language as the ten commandments were written in the same old Hebrew as was the torah, without the use of vowels, leaving much open to interpretation and not condusive as a conversational written language and possibly not regarded as such until the advent of hebrew written as language with vowels which happenned much later and was in use when the old testament was written.
Rik Riley says
The time has come for the world to know the truth about the greatest
discovery ever in the history of mankind. I am not talking about the
Egyptian find Kinkaid supposedly found in 1909 along with the
artifacts and mummies.
joe says
I have discovered a cave in washington state, it is about 4ft in height and 3 feet wide at the entrance, the cave is in solid bassalt, it is located along the snake river, I crawled into the cave at least a hundred feet, the shaft is sloped slightly upwards and it took me about five minutes of duck walking until i reached an old solid sheet of metal blocking the cave, the cave is unmarked and I have not been able to find out any information on it. The only explanation i can come up with is that the cave was blocked when the dam was put in, or when the railroad tracks were built, but the tracks are a good 100 ft up the bassalt wall and the river is a good ten to fifteen feet below when the water is high. Why is the door so far in the cavern? why not at the entrance, i cant imagine two men hauling material and supplies into the cave and securing the door from the entrance, this cave is located about 40 miles from the infamous kennewick man, and less than 20 miles from the marmes caves near lyons ferry wa, do you know where i could find information, I have been in lava tubes before and this is definately not man made…
joe says
anyone want to explore my cave? i was thinking about taking a crowbar and other tools to move the metal and keep going…
rob says
I would love to explore this cave do you have gps corridnates of this cave i would love to do ore research on it and find out why there is a metal door 100 ft inside this cave could be worth opening but it could be very hard to open also