Tales of the Underground

During the summer of 1998, cave explorers using scientific equipment were able to confirm that a linked cave system some 15 miles in length exists underground in North Wales. Several years ago a researcher by the name of Frank D. Adams wrote on the results of his personal scientific experiments which may prove that giant cavities exist in granite at depths of more than 11 miles, conclusions which have also been supported by Louis V. King, a mathematician who calculated that, at normal temperatures, a cavity would exist at a depth of between 17.2 and 20.9 miles. The authors’ findings are also supported by the discovery of "16 Rouse Belts" which give planes of fracture penetrating the globe.
Something of an extreme claim to some, perhaps, was that of Dr. Ron Anjard in an article in the Summer, 1978 issue of Pursuit Magazine, in which he claimed personal knowledge of 44 underground cities beneath the surface of North America, six of which are supposedly located on the West Coast. His information allegedly comes from anonymous American Indian sources. When we relate this to the large number of migration legends (to and from cavern realms) which exist among the native Amerindians, then we may conclude that certain tribes possibly still retain intimate knowledge of underground civilizations related to them via distant ancestral links. Some of the elders of these different tribes, others have suggested, may in fact maintain present contact with several of these cavern civilizations. There are a few indications that some such ’tribes’ literally moved underground as a result of the encroaching Anglosaxon civilization upon the America’s. Similar allegations are made in relation to South and Central America as well.
Interviews with survivors of a mine explosion in Dec. 26, 1945, known as the "Belva Mine Disaster", appeared in the December 1981 - January 1982 issues of newspapers in Pineville, Kentucky and elsewhere. The interviews revealed that some of the trapped men saw a "door" in one of the walls open, and a man dressed like a "lumberjack" emerged from a well-lighted room. After assuring the men that they would be rescued, the strange visitor returned to the room and closed the door. These "lumberjack-like" entities have been described by miners in other parts of the country and in other nations as well. There seems to be some confusion as to whether they are physical or paraphysical entities.
A somewhat similar incident allegedly took place several years ago near Shipton, Pennsylvania. Of the three victims of this particular mine disaster, only two were rescued. However both described a similar para-physical encounter with strange ’men’ who entered the caverns and gave light to the two trapped miners and told them that they would be rescued. They were uncertain whether the entities were humans or supernatural beings however, as much of their collective "hallucination" contained both physical as well as supernatural elements. The bluish "light" which illuminated the room, they said, was real, but other holographic-like visuals that appeared on the walls, when touched by their hands, either disappeared or revealed solid rock behind.
R. L. Blain-Sanders, in an article titled ’Tunnels and Caverns Beneath New York City,’ which appeared in the Fall, 1981 issue of Shavertron, described the author’s knowledge of a large triangular system of tunnels utilized by a ’Masonic lodge’, deep below the surface of New York City. Could this have any connection to the other ’rumors’ to the effect that cavernous regions exist below Manhattan? For instance, in 1962 Con Edison, while drilling a test hole in the north of East River Park, New York City, broke through to open space about 200 feet below. Also, there are the allegations of Morris Doreal that the Church of St. John the Divine in New York was built over ancient tunnels leading to a dome-shaped city abandoned by antediluvian ’Atlanteans’ and later, apparently, re-established by post-deluvians. Then we have the accounts of thousands of people who have literally and mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth in and around New York City.
Raymond Bond, in an article titled ’Subterranean Saucers -- Global Network of UFO Bases’, which appeared in Saga’s UFO Annual 1980 (Brooklyn, N.Y.), described caves within Mt. Sombrero in the Tampica area of Mexico, from which sounds resembling those made by ’hydroelectric generating equipment’ can be heard. Also, inhabitants of the interior of Mt. Kilimanjaro were also described. Kilimanjaro is one of the highest peaks in Africa.
Bob Borino, in his article, ’UFO Bases Found in Antarctica’ (Globe, Jan. 18, 1983) quotes from certain scientists who believe that a subterranean UFO Base is located beneath the strange ’Polynya Sea’ in the Antarctica’s Weddell Sea region.
Malcolm W. Browne, in his article ’Underground Tunnels Threaten Town in Hungary’s Wine Country’ (NY Times Nov. 8, 1967, p.2) tells of over 60 miles of ancient tunnel systems of unknown origin and purpose which have been discovered beneath the town of Eger, Hungary, some of which have collapsed. The civilization which built the tunnels must have been fairly advanced in engineering and science in order to create such a subterranean system.
Karl Brugger, in his book The Chronicle of Akakor (Boohi Tree Books., Delacorte Press., N.Y., 230 pp), gives the history -- as given to the author by one of their chiefs -- of the Ugha Mongulala tribesman, whose ancestors were allegedly part of a vast empire which covered South America in ancient times. Some of these ancient people, the chief claimed, left the planet in aerial vessels to explore other parts of the solar system and beyond, leaving behind vast subterranean cities beneath the Andes mountains and western Brazil. In 1971, due to the constant encroachment of white settlers or invaders into their territory, 30,000 survivors of the Ugha Mongulala allegedly escaped to this ancient system of underground cities, consisting of 13 separate subterranean complexes all connected by tunnels, one of which is said to extend to Lima, and others of which are located throughout the Andes Mountain range of Peru.
Michael Burke, in his article ’Green Thing Sparks Rumours’ (The Valley News Dispatch, New Kensington, Tarentum and Vandergrift, PA., Mar. 5, 1981 issue) described a small creature, allegedly ’half humanoid - half dinosaur’ which was seen emerging from a sewer tunnel in New Kensington. A group of children chased the infant or young dinosauroid creature, one of them momentarily grabbing it at which point it let out a squealing or screeching sound, and then slipped from his hands and escaped back into the sewer tunnel. This incident took place some miles west of Dixonville, PA., where in 1944 several miners were killed or turned up missing as a result of encounters with ’alien’ creatures in one particular mineshaft there. Any connection?
Saga Magazine’s UFO Annual [980, p4], under the heading ’Cave Martians’, described a bizarre encounter with subterranean creatures which seemed to have consisted of some type of automaton-like forms, perhaps on a reconnaissance mission from an underground civilization. The story involved a tunnel near Xucurus, Argentina(?), some 90 miles from Buenos Aires. The tunnel was discovered by agriculturalist Gerardo Cordeire, and found to contain nine connecting passages and strange inscriptions on the walls. From it’s entrance "men nine feet tall, green, with antennas on their heads, and square legs" were seen to emerge, and which, according to hundreds of witnesses from the town and nearby locals, resembled enormous "portable radios."
Dr. Earlyne Chaney, in an article titled ’Odyssey Into Egypt, in her occult-oriented magazine Voice of Astara (May, 1982) tells of a discovery she and researcher Bill Cox was shown in Egypt. These were two tunnels, neither of which had been fully explored. One was in the temple of Edfu between Luxor and Cairo in the ruins of El Tuna Gabel; and the other near Zozer’s Step Pyramid at Cairo near Memphis-Saqqarah, within the tomb of the Bull, called "Serapium". The Egyptian government sealed both tunnels because of fears of certain archaeologists who alleged that they "lead too deeply down into the depths of the earth," and because they found the earth to be "honeycombed with passages leading off into other depths," and the possibility of explorers becoming lost.

If such labyrinths do exist, then it may explain one story which alleged that men dressed like "ancient Egyptians" have been seen deep in unexplored tunnels near Cairo, as well as possible confirmation of the story which appeared in Nevada Aerial Research’s Leading Edge publication to the effect that the U.S.(?) Government secretly maintains a huge base within a cavern of tremendous size (several miles in diameter) beneath the desert sands of Egypt. Could this tie in with the vague references to a subterranean society(s) referred to by certain people ’in the know’ which is/are known as the ’Phoenix Empire’ and/or the ’Gizeh People’?
Articles in the Washington Star-News, July 25, 1973 and Aug. 15, 1973, tell of the discovery of an unexplored network of ancient, artificial tunnels during construction of a parking lot in Crofton, Maryland. Subsequent construction covered the tunnel entrances before the system could be completely investigated.
Leon Davidson, in an early issue of Flying Saucers Magazine, spoke of a large network of "underground tunnels in the California desert, at Camp Irwin, near Barstow." This may tie-in with an item related by a Los Angeles municipal water director, as related in an early issue of Richard Toronto’s Shavertron letter-zine, stating that this water director knew of 5 large underground rivers which ran beneath the Mojave desert, and that die-traces showed that at least one of these emptied into the Pacific ocean through openings in the continental slopes (One source stated that such a river exited in the Gulf of California).
Other sources speak of a "Kokoweef" river-system which is alleged to lie below Kokoweef peak just east of Fort Irwin, which looked- -according to it’s alleged discoverer, a Mr. Earl Dorr, and a few "Indians" who also claimed to have been in it--like a "Grand Canyon" underground. It allegedly consists of a river chasm generally 500 ft. wide and over a thousand feet high-deep, sided by steep tiered-shelved underground cliffs, huge stalactites and cataracts. Also, the alluvial sands on the ’beaches’ along the river, which allegedly hold a large percentage of gold dust, are said to be several feet deep. The entrance to this cavern was allegedly dynamited shut by Mr. Dorr to protect anyone else from getting to "his" gold. There is in fact evidence that Dorr did dynamite shut the lower level of ’Kin Sabe’ cave in Kokoweef Peak, and there are present-day attempts to break through into this underground system. The water of the river allegedly rose and fell with the tides, suggesting that a very large body of water might exist upstream, that is if Dorr’s account as well as the accounts of the Indians were not fabricated.

The municipal water director, according to the Shavertron article, spoke with a man who claimed that he was hired several years ago by the government to look for water sources for Ft. Irwin. He alleged to have explored an old mine in the area and found that deep down, the shaft intersected with an ancient earth fault or chasm-like cave which continued horizontally for a considerable distance. This government employee followed the chasm and allegedly emerged onto the bank of a huge underground river-cave over a quarter of a mile wide! The tremendous water flow-- possibly originating from the waters that apparently disappear beneath the Great Basin, the Nevada and Mojave deserts?--could have ’fed’ the water needs of all of Southern California.
Paul Doerr (not to be confused with Mr. Dorr referred to above), in issue number 6 of his Newsletter Unknown, related the tradition concerning a race of human giants which, according to stories in the Carolinas islands and especially Papua, allegedly went underground in ancient times. Once inhabitants of a lost island-continent called "Chamat," they will, according to legend, one day emerge. This legend is wide-spread throughout Malaysia, which incidentally contains the largest "officially recognized" cavern chamber, the "Sarowak Chamber" on the island of Borneo in the Malaysian islands. It is said to be 230 ft. wide by 980 ft. long and nowhere less than 270 ft. high, large enough to easily hold within itself the two previous contenders for the world’s largest official chamber - Carlsbad’s "Big Room" in New Mexico and the "Salle de la Verna" in the Pierre Saint- Martin caverns in France. Yankee stadium could fit in one end of the Sarowak chamber with room to spare! The same issue of Unknown also reports on the discovery of massive caverns in Toulumne Co., California, by three Oakland miners. The caverns were so extensive that a man would have to "take grub for a week, and plan to explore for a month."
The Book of Dyzan, which has been translated from ancient manuscripts, tells of intellectually sophisticated humans from an ancient earth-born society who abandoned the surface of the earth, "depriving the impure human race of their knowledge," and leaving in flying craft to rejoin their land "of iron and metal."
Far Out Magazine’s April, 1982 issue carried an article titled, ’Bottomless Pit Found on the Ocean’s Floor. The article tells of a huge man-made opening in the ocean floor between Panama and the Galapagos Islands, which scientists say receives a constant flow of ocean water which is being sucked through the hole and into the crust beneath the ocean floor.
During the 1940s Amazing Stories Magazine [science fiction/science fact] published many accounts of journeys and discoveries by explorers who claimed to have ventured deep into the inner earth. Many readers were prompted to write in with details of their own experiences, and here are two letters -- the first taken from the October, 1947 issue:

"Sirs:

"Norman Finley, a neighbor of a good friend of mine, told me about an experience he had which was rather unusual. He and a couple of other fellows were hunting down in the Big Bend country. I don’t know whether you are familiar with the Big Bend or not, but there is no more wild or desolate area in the country. Rugged, mountainous, cut by canyons, there are innumerable parts of it which have never known the foot of man.

"It was in one of the most desirable areas that Finley and his companions found themselves. They had driven about ninety miles southwest of Marathon, Texas, a little town of about 700 people, at the foot of the Del Norte Mountains, 4000 feet high, and had then gone on afoot. The dirt road just petered out and they couldn’t get their car further. They were hunting deer but had no luck. Just as they were about to call it a day, Finley spotted a mountain lion. He snapped a shot at it and knocked it over. But the lion just rolled over on his feet and started to leave those parts.

"Finley and the other fellows took after him, since it was obvious that he was wounded and not making very good time. They managed to keep him in sight for about a mile and were sure they had him when he ran into a box canyon. The lion, however, started up a faint trail up one side of the canyon to a small cave they could see about a hundred feet from the floor of the canyon. They followed him up this trail, but when they got to the cave--there was no lion!

"The cave was one of those dished-out affairs that are so common in the southwest. Eroded out of the face of a cliff and cup-shaped. The only access to it was by that trail. But this cave was a bit queer. It had a sand floor and was just about big enough to park twenty cars in it. On the cliff edge was a low stone wall. This in itself was not too unusual, because such caves have sheltered Indians for thousands of years.

"The thing that did make it unusual was that in the rear of it was a perfectly round hole. It was obvious that the lion had ducked into this.

"They approached it rather cautiously and tossed some stones in it to see if they could stir him up. But there was no response. They could hear the stones rolling and bouncing down an incline and the sound just got fainter and fainter until it died away altogether.

"They then approached the hole and peered down into it. It was perfectly round--also it was about four or five feet in diameter. They couldn’t see very far down it, but it appeared to descend rather sharply and at a steady gradient. The fellows gathered some dry grass from the canyon floor and made some torches. The incline of the bore was too steep for them to climb down so they tossed the torches down it. They just slid down further and further and disappeared into the gloom. They never did see or hear of the lion again.

"At first they thought they had stumbled onto some old Spanish mine workings. But there was no sign anywhere of a dump that always goes with a mine. By all rights there should have been some sign of the earth and rock that had come out of that hole--but there wasn’t.

"When they inspected the hole itself more closely, they were amazed at it’s symmetry and at the consistency of the section of the bore as far as they could see down it. The fact that the bore was perfectly round puzzled them, too. If it was a mine shaft, it most certainly wouldn’t have been round, but instead would have been flat on the bottom. The fact that the shaft extended straight and unwavering as a rigid pipe was cause for further amazement. Since the fellows had no rope with them, which would have been needed to descend the shaft, as well as lights, they scratched their heads awhile and then left.

"Finley wanted to go back with equipment and see how far down the shaft went and what was at the bottom of it. But ranchers are busy people and he never went back. In the meantime he got pretty well broken up when a horse threw him and he now lives in Fort Worth while he has someone else to run the ranch. We talked rather idly about having a look at his cave someday. He says he knows exactly where it is and could find that box canyon with his eyes shut. So far we haven’t done anything about it. But we may either this summer or next when we get time to go down to Big Bend.

"Finley told me this story about a year before even you heard of Shaver so you can be sure he wasn’t influenced by the ’Shaver Mystery.’ In fact, I don’t believe he has ever heard of the ’Shaver Mystery,’ even to this day.

"E. Stanton Brown.,
Fort Worth, Texas."

Another letter, dated January 1948, appeared in Amazing Stories magazine also confirming that strange ’para-speleon’ phenomena exists in the western part of Texas. However the artifacts described in the following letter seem to involve areas north of Big Bend, not far from the Guadellupe Mts. and the New Mexico border. Perhaps this account is a partial confirmation of a subterranean connection between areas below the Big Bend of Texas and the Guadellupe range of southern New Mexico - northwestern Texas.

Quoting from the letter:

"Sirs:

"Since I have been an interested reader of Amazing Stories since my high school days (1929) when A-S was a bigger magazine, I feel like one of the family when I read the letters in the discussion pages. The temptation has arisen many times to write a letter to you concerning some hotly discussed matter, but something has always prevented me from getting at it. However, the October Issue pushed me too far, and here goes.

"The mysterious cave Mr. E. Stanton Brown spoke of in his letter is not exactly news to me. In 1938 a party of six of my friends and myself spent seven months in that area of Texas, and upper Mexico. We were testing an electronic instrument that we had developed, and needed lots of space and some mineral deposits for the various tests. So, we got rather well acquainted with the Big Bend country, and the Figure 2 Ranch north of there. We arrived there in January and camped in the Sierra Blancas, storing a lot of our equipment at the town of Van Horn.

"By March we had gotten deep into the rugged country and as I recall, it was about the middle of March we stumbled onto this cave (or a twin) that Mr. Brown speaks of in his letter. Everyone was so dumbfounded by it that we spent the better part of the rest of the month in making a thorough investigation. We penetrated the shaft to a distance of 870 feet and at about 650 feet found some very finely executed writing on the right wall at eye level, in what resembles a cuneiform.

At 800 feet one of the party fell over a cloth lying in the dust, and upon closer examination, it was found to be part of a blue shirt, of fairly recent manufacture; indicating that someone else had been this far in recent times. This and an empty pint whisky bottle dated 1897 was all we located to indicate recent occupation. Of course in a country where desperadoes such as Black Jack, Billy the Kid, etc., hid out where they could and the more solitary the better, such a find was not too surprising.

"At about 780 feet the floor dips more sharply downward and at near 900 feet progress is very hazardous due to moisture and increased slant downward. We carried rocks from the opening, and rolled them from the point where we could no longer walk, but they simply faded out with a rumble after a few seconds. We tried rolling flaming yucca stumps to see if, perhaps, we might determine more about the bore further on, but this proved to be futile, since the stumps burned poorly at best, probably due to bad air. It was very stuffy and hot after the first 300 feet from the opening. We held a powwow to try and figure out how we could go further down, but the only thing would have been lots of lariat ropes, or a long steel cable, and neither was available nearer than some 50 miles.

"If Mr. Finley had taken the time to go hunting up in the Figure 2 Ranch territory he might have run across another, and to me more interesting, cave than the Big Bend one. About 62 miles (north - Branton) from the town of Van Horn you go through the salt-flat country, where the Salt Wars of the old west occurred. Westward, some 8 or 9 miles from the road is the Apache Canyon country, and as rugged as anywhere on the face of the globe. In an offshoot of Apache Canyon to the south, is an almost impassable gash called Hell Canyon.

The walls of this canyon rise precipitously for at least 1000 feet and top out on Apache Peak on one side and an old Indian ceremonial ground on the other side. More desolate country would be hard to imagine. Coyotes and mountain lions are plentiful, and panthers no novelty. I have seen as many as 34 deer in a herd down below on the grassy ledge sloping down toward the canyon floor. Of course, further up toward the box end of the canyon it was much too rugged for deer, but a few mountain sheep are seen, (it was) in the wildest part of the canyon that the other cave was found, in fact we almost fell into it. The high grass about the opening hid the dished out entrance.

"We were at an elevation of approximately 7000 feet and going was tough, especially with a pack, and we had stopped to rest when one of the party remarked that it ’sounded hollow’ when any of us talked. Of course, we all yapped away at the same time trying to figure if this was so, and sure enough it was. Further investigation located the hole some six feet to the left of where we had stopped. It was roughly oval in shape, some 30 by 18 feet; and bridged in the center the short way by a natural rock arch heavy enough to support an elephant.

In the center of the arch were 3 deep grooves caused we hazarded, by rope passing over the arch. We spent several hours in investigating the surrounding terrain to see if there might be any other entrances to the cave, but found none. It sloped sharply from the opening down about 200 feet, and then the bore disappeared, curving upward. We succeeded in getting down to the first level, by tying all our ropes together, and subsequently investigated a lot of it.

"Threading through the soil were long stringers of quartz, but oddly enough at the same time there were chunks of rock as big as a piano that were solid masses of seashells. Quite a lot of pottery both broken and whole, was found. The most interesting thing was, however, that the farther we went the colder it got. Also there was a sound of either rushing wind or water, which got louder the lower we went. We came upon two human skeletons not over 500 feet from the entrance, but they must have been very old, as the bones crumbled at the touch.

Everything was covered with a deep dust after passing the bend and no indication of any living thing having passed there was ever noted. It was very dark and depressing, and the chill was very penetrating. When you consider that the outside temperature was near 100 degrees, you can imagine how we were dressed. We had three flashlights, one a five cell, and after a while it was all that was left that would give a decent light. Down at what we estimated as 1200 feet from the opening we came smack up against a smooth stone wall. That was it. The end. None of us would admit it was natural, it was too smooth and perfect, and look as we would we could not find a single flaw or crack in it. It was of a marble-like texture and some eight or nine feet high in the center and around eleven wide. By placing our ears to the rock surface the roaring on the other side became much louder, and the rock was quite cold to the touch.

There was natural marble near there, in Marble Canyon, where marble was once taken out in large quantities, and so the rock was native rock, I’m sure. Since the remaining light was all we had except matches, we voted to get back to the opening as soon as possible, and after a hard struggle upgrade we got back to daylight and held a conference. We decided to bed down and talk it over further the next day, as it was getting late.

"However, the next day we were inclined to look foolishly at each other and claim it was all our imagination thinking there was anything strange on the other side of the barrier, and it was just another one of those many caves in the country. Carlsbad is just 65 miles north of there, and the whole country is no doubt honeycombed underneath.

"We finished our experiments and left, late in July but I have never been able to forget the caves, and the odd sounds on the other side of that barrier. Or for that matter, the barrier itself, for it was too perfect to be natural, I believe. Or, maybe I’ve just read too many ’Amazing Stories,’ and am inclined to wild ideas. As the Mexicans say, ’Quien sabe?’

"Some day I’m going to write you a ding-how Scientifiction on something-or-other, and then place it and my rejection notice among my souvenirs. Maybe then I can go on reading Amazing Stories in peace, without wanting to dash off a dinger.

K. A. Gookin
Carmel,
California."

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