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.
Most historians would agree that human civilisation began sometime in the 1850s. No exact date has ever been given – and frankly we don’t need one. What we do need is an answer to this – if that’s true how could there be a 286-million-year-old-block wall found deep in an Oklahoma mine?
One man claims he’s seen such a wall with his own eyes.
In 1928 Atlas Almon Mathis was a miner hammering away in Oklahoma’s deep underground. He was looking for coal – what he found was far more baffling. You see, although its commonly accepted that the earth was formed about 4.84 billion years ago, the modern intelligent human didn’t show its face until around 200,000 years ago, according to fossil finds. This is where things get confusing. We’ll let Mathis tell his own story:
“In the year 1928, I, Atlas Almon Mathis, was working in coal mine No. 5., located two miles north of Heavener, Oklahoma. This was a shaft mine, and they told us it was two miles deep. The mine was so deep that they let us down into it on an elevator. . . . They pumped air down to us, it was so deep…
“…the next morning there were several concrete blocks laying in the room. These blocks were 12-inch cubes and were so smooth and polished on the outside that all six sides could serve as mirrors. Yet they were full of gravel, because I chipped one of them open with my pick, and it was plain concrete inside. As I started to timber the room up, it caved in; and I barely escaped. When I came back after the cave-in, a solid wall of these polished blocks was left exposed. About 100 to 150 yards farther down our air core, another miner struck this same wall, or one very similar.”
A weird mirror-wall is a strange enough find by itself – but it gets weirder when you think of how old it’s speculated to be. A website called bibliotecapleyades.net explains the oddity:
“The coal in the mine was probably Carboniferous, which would mean the wall was at least 286 million years old.”
And what does such a supposedly old wall mean? Some say it rewrites history – that there’s no way modern humans are only 200,000 years old. Some say humans have technologically developed and then destroyed themselves several times in the world’s history – and that right now we’re just at the tail-end of another cycle. Others believe the commonly accepted fossil record is true as we understand it – that we do have the correct age or our ancestors – but that time travel may come into play.
A webpage called Skybooksusa adds a bit more to the puzzle – and they follow it with some questions of their own:
“According to Mathis, the mining company officers immediately pulled the men out of the mine and forbade them to speak about what they had seen. Mathis said the Wilburton miners also told of finding “a solid block of silver in the shape of a barrel… with the prints of the staves on it,” in an area of coal dating between 280 and 320 million years ago. What advance civilization built this wall?… Why was the truth, as is so many of these cases protected and hidden?… What is the real truth about time travelers, modern humans, and modern technology in our past?”
So what is the truth? We don’t know. But the first thing we’d like to do is go to Oklahoma’s Coal Mine #5 and check things out. If the wall has actually lasted for all these millions of years, it probably hasn’t withered away since 1928.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
So, the blocks were found in a coal rich area and coal is 286 million years old so obviously the blocks are 286 million years old as well! I certainly can’t see anything wrong with that argument…
There are books and books on the subject of vanished civilizations, but most are either merely speculative or just plain silly. On the other hand there are some serious books, written by people who make sober claims to have genuine information, and in fact they spill out vast amounts of information about civilizations in India and Egypt going back hundreds of thousands of years, or give detailed accounts of advanced Inca life and government more than ten thousand years before the accepted archeological dates, or if you really want to go off the deep end, quite literally, there are many maps and accounts of life on both the Atlantic and Pacific continents, now vanished, going back a million years and more. If you absolutely insist, you can find accounts of the pre-prehistory of the human race before it was transferred from its failed planet to this planet, though admittedly, that’s for those who have already followed the trail back as far as it will go but still demand even more audaciously alternative history. What about the history of this solar system, and of the previous solar system of which this one is a regeneration? It’s all there in print, in venerable books that have survived through many years and printings, but it’s strange that these books are very little consulted nowadays since they are easily available and have been well known for more than a century, and above all, since this is certainly the age of unorthodox and unapproved-of thinking.
I am submitting this because some have accused me of lying about my Grandfather’s statement about the mine, and all have misquoted my name. My name was never W.W. I have my Grandfather’s signed statement about the mine, and I can prove the signature for any of the slanderers who have the guts to stand up. I was at Abilene Christian College (now University) in 1968-1969 when I shared the statement with a professor there. I thought he ignored it. Only recently did I become aware that it had gotten any attention, and then I learned that some were calling it a fabrication. I’m here to take you slanderers on. I live in Lindale, TX. My real name is W.A. McCormick. If any of you had looked for Atlas Almon Mathis in any genealogical records, he was there!!!!!! I was there with him!!!!!
(Written by W.A. McCormick as stated by Atlas A. Mathis. W.A. McCormick{signature} 3-22-68)
In the year 1928 I, Atlas Almon Mathis, was working in coal mine No. 5 located two miles north of Heavener Oklahoma. This was a shaft mine and they told us it was two miles deep. [I have since learned that this mine had two levels: One level at 1800 feet and the really deep one at 2 miles] The mine was so deep that they let us down into it on an elevator. The elevator was released at the top and fell so fast that I was weightless and my dinner bucket would turn upside down and the bail would hold it to my arm, however, the gallon of water in the bottom of it would not spill spill out. This elevator would fall at least several seconds [he told me "several minutes" and I thought that would be enough time to travel several miles, not 2 miles, so I reasoned with him and got the change to "at least several seconds"] at that rate, and then they gradually slowed the elevator till it stopped at the bottom. They pumped air down to us, it was so deep. [He told me many times about the huge steam engine that pumped the air. He told me that mules were also let down at the same speed, and that they panicked hysterically every time.]
Tom Davidson was in charge of the mine. Lee Elders, Mont Claiborn, Bill Gusky, Oat Dawes, John Raiborn, and a young fellow by the name of Mattox were working there also.
One night I shot 4 shots in room 24 of this mine and the next morning there were several concrete blocks laying in the [Page end] signature – Atlas. A. Mathis
2 3-22-68
room. These blocks were about 12″ cubes and were so smooth and polished on the outside that they would serve as a mirror on all 6 sides yet they were full of gravel because I chipped one of them open with my pick and it was plain concrete inside. As I started to timber the room up, it caved in and I barely escaped. When I came back after the cave-in, a solid wall of these polished blocks was left exposed. [On another occasion Atlas told me that he looked through the hole he had blasted in the wall, and there was open space beyond. He did not have time to explore it.] About 100 to 150 yards further down our air core another miner struck this same wall or one very similar. Immediately they pulled us out of this wing of the mine and forbade us to tell anything we had seen.
This mine was closed in the fall of 1928 and the crew went to Kentucky and I think they were in No. 11 there. In the summer and fall of 1929 they won a prize for being such good miners and their pictures came out in the paper. I don’t remember what town it was near or the name of the paper.
Also before I started working on this crew they had a similar experience in mine 24 at Wilberton, Oklahoma in about the
[Page end] signature – Atlas A. Mathis
3 3-22-68
year 1926. They said they dug up two odd things: One was a solid block of silver in the shape of a barrel and the other was a bone that was about the size of an elephant. I don’t know if they meant only in diameter or if in diameter and in length, but they did say it had nuckles on each end. This silver block had the prints of the staves one it and the saw that first struck it cut off a chip on the edge at one end. The miners saw the silver dust the saw was pulling out and went about to dig out the block. What was done with these things I do not know. In the case of the blocks in my room in No. 5, I don’t think any were kept.
W.A. McCormick
Box 195 F-HC
Henderson, Tenn
A.A. Mathis
Rt. 1
Water Valley, Miss. 38965
signature – Atlas. A. Mathis
_________________
Grandson of Atlas Almon Mathis.
I Think there’s a lot that we don’t know.
The strange thing is that modern day science doesn’nt pay attention to it.
They’re probably more worried for their own reputation.
If rhings like this are truly geniun, they can rewrite all of the
history as we know it.
J.Smeltink (Holland)
Yea, OK I’m not a troll, but this personal account, without any actual proof seems like bullshit. Nothing personal, but if you find really seen strange finds that will change the face of everything from paleontology to the fossil record to archeology you have to have something better than a personal account of something someone found a long time ago. Think about this, if you have irrefutable proof of something so earth shattering you’re going to become famous for a very long time. If you have real proof. And I’m not talking about a “story” I’m talking about that silver barrel and those magic bricks. “If” they exist you’re going to be in the history books. Not on a sarcastic webpage.
MaxB, I suspect you grew up in a time much different than that of the 1920′s. People in those days didn’t enjoy the same level of “freedom” we enjoy today. Authority wasn’t questioned; men desperately needed their jobs. It was a different world then–unlike today where an employee files suit because his boss looked at him sideways or spoke to him not so nicely. It was a much different culture then–and I’m sure you can understand coal miners weren’t exactly at the top of the food chain and didn’t enjoy many protections. Why would Mr. Mathis go to the extreme he did of documenting his story. There was ‘nothing in it’ for him–no fame, no fortune. He merely wanted his story told so others would know. Do you really find it so hard to conceive that sometimes people in positions of power withhold information for their own benefit? What financial costs would the mine owner have beared if these ‘finds’ were made public–shutting down further mining operations, instituting and funding archeological studies, etc.
dont you think 286 million years ago is a little rediculous to find remains of civilization, what these people found are remnants of the antedeluvian people before GOD destroyed civilization with great flood. this has documented many other places, but there are secret organizations out there that take great strides to supress the truth. With modern technology coal can be made with a few ingrediants and lot of pressure, just as modern day diamonds are made. the remains these people found are merely around 4000 years old. the approximate time of the ocurrance of the flood. All this can be and is documented, but people have been so brainwashed with the theory of evolution, they refuse to believe the real truth.
no wall…no pictures….always someone trying to discredit any thing related to any thing about human ceation…..I am not saying it happended as some think..the 7 day thing is a misinterpritation…but the people who believe, who relish in any thing that they so call”proves” the bible is completly wrong are just as misguided as those who want to represent the bible as the literal exact representation of where man came from. Both groups are wrong….both have some truth….proves one thing humans are a crazy bunch of beings…..
Civilization began in the 1850s? Is that a typo? LOL
The discrepancies in carbon dating coal and other materials has already proven to be unreliable and that the creation of coal is now thought to take place in a much smaller amount of time in some types of coal. However it should not be unbelievable to anyone that knows how to read that orthodox history has a lot of gaps and unexplainable events and sites. The book Forbidden Archeology sheds some light on this very subject. That man is much older than we have been lead to believe is a given, the amount of censored data on the subject is simple staggering. The Smithsonian Institute in DC has confiscated many of these ancients sites and kept them hidden from the public for over two hundred years, the truth is out there you just have to be willing to look for it with an open mind.