The Ol’ Pioneer The Triannual Magazine of the Historical Society

Volume 20 : Number 2 www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Summer 2009

In This Issue

“Looks Like a Mulhatton Story” 3 President’s Letter The Ol’ Pioneer The Biannual Magazine of the In March, I and several other members of the Grand Canyon Historical Society Grand Canyon Historical Society attended the Grand Canyon River Guide’s annual Guide Training Seminar near Volume 20 : Number 2 Lees Ferry. We manned a GCHS information booth with membership forms Summer 2009 and extra copies of the newsletter and Ol’Pioneer and thus picked up a few new members. We also got to listen to a wide range of interesting presentations u covering everything from the latest geologic theories to beach erosion to the The Historical Society was established lives of canyon beetles. Like the Grand History Symposiums supported by the in July 1984 as a non-profit corporation GCHS, it was a great opportunity to meet with other canyon enthusiasts to to develop and promote appreciation, share knowledge, discoveries and stories. under-standing and education of the It was also a reminder that no matter how many times you visit the canyon and earlier history of the inhabitants and no matter how much you learn about it, there is always more to discover. The important events of the Grand Canyon. canyon’s history and prehistory are as deep as the Vishnu Schist, as winding as The Ol’ Pioneer is published bi- the river and as rich as a dessert at the El Tovar dining hall. And like the canyon, annually by the GRAND CANYON the region’s history still contains many rarely-explored areas, hidden corners HISTORICAL SOCIETY in conjunction and lingering mysteries. While most of us can’t hike the canyon every day, we with The Bulletin, an informational can still continue to explore its vast history any time we want through books, paper. Both publications are a benefit of membership. Membership in the Society websites and the articles of the GCHS newsletter and Ol’Pioneer. Regardless is open to any person interested in the of if you live five minutes from the rim or five time zones away, the canyon is historical, educational, and charitable always at your finger tips. purposes of the Society. Membership is No better example can be found than in this issue of the Ol’Pioneer where Don on an annual basis using the standard Lago takes us on a trip into one of the most fantastic—and till now unexplained calendar; and dues of $20 are payable on the 1st of January each year, and —corners of the canyon’s history. So, stop what ever you are doing… turn off mailed to the GCHS Treasurer, PO Box the TV, put the chores off until tomorrow, sit down on the sofa and pull on your 345 Flagstaff, AZ 86002. The Ol’ Pioneer mental hiking boots. It is time to take a quick trip to the canyon and be among magazine is copyrighted by the Grand the first to explore the true story behind a mystery that has spawned conspiracy Canyon Historical Society, Inc. All rights theories and wild speculation for over a hundred years. Stories like this—and reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form the true history behind the stories—are one of the many reasons we love the without permission of the publisher. canyon’s history and why we are members of the Grand Canyon Historical Society. Editor: Mary Williams Submit photos and stories to the The Ol’ Pioneer Erik Berg, GCHS President editor of at: mary@ marywilliamsdesign.com or 4880 N Weatherford Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. (928) 779-3377. Please submit written articles and photos electronically on CD or via email if possible. You may mail photos or slides for scanning if needed.

Submissions to The Bulletin should be sent to Karen Greig, [email protected]

GCHS Officers Erik Berg, President John Azar, Vice President Keith Green, Treasurer Amy Horn, Secretary Kirsten Heins, Pioneer Award Al Richmond, Awards Chair John Azar, Outings Coordinator

Board of Directors Cover: Atlantis Rising cover May/June 2009, Joe Mulhattan, Gazette Lee Albertson Amy Horn article from April 5, 1909. John Azar Henry Karpinski Erik Berg Adair Peterson Jackie Brown Paul Schnur Keith Green Gaylord Staveley The Ol’ Pioneer submission deadlines are February 1, 2009 for Volume 20:1. Kristin Heins Amanda Zeman June 1, 2009 for Volume 20:2 and October 1, 2009 for Volume 20:3.

2 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org “Looks Like a Mulhatton Story” The Origins of the Grand Canyon Egyptian Cave Myth by Don Lago One thing about this story is Childress contacted the Smithsonian absolutely true: it was published on and Grand Canyon National Park, he n the years since 1992 some dra- the front page of Phoenix’s Arizona discovered that they were conspiring matic new Grand Canyon lore Gazette on April 5, 1909, under the in a diabolical cover-up of the truth. has emerged, mutated rapidly, headlines: EXPLORATIONS IN The Smithsonian tried to deny the takenI on elaborate forms, and won GRAND CANYON/ Mysteries of existence of Kinkaid and Jordan, a large, loyal following. This story Immense Rich Cavern Being Brought and at Grand Canyon National Park: appears on thousands of websites. It to Light./ JORDAN IS ENTHUSED/ “This entire area with the Egyptian has been presented several times on a Remarkable Finds Indicate Ancient and Hindu place names is a forbidden national radio show. It is now show- People Migrated From Orient.” The zone, no one is allowed into this large ing up in many books. It is well on article explained that Professor S. A. area.”1 its way to becoming a standard part Jordan of the Smithsonian Institution Childress’s presentation of the of the Grand Canyon landscape—at had now arrived to begin scientific Egyptian cave story struck a chord—a least the paranormal landscape. This examination of the cavern. He was mystic chord—with seekers into the story has the momentum to take a stringing up electric lights through esoteric. The ancient Egyptians were firmly-rooted place alongside Ro- the passageways. Jordan seemed the masters of spiritual knowledge, swell, the Sedona vortexes, the Loch pretty sure that the cavern was the their pyramids loaded with cosmic Ness Monster, and Atlantis. work of Egyptians. The article said: secrets. The Grand Canyon was It seems that in 1909 a Smithsonian “If their theories are born out by the nature’s deepest revelation of explorer named G. E. Kinkaid, translation of the tablets engraved primordial power and time. The who was making a solo boat trip with hieroglyphics, the mystery of the combination of ancient Egypt and the down the length of the prehistoric peoples of North America, Grand Canyon was too rich to resist. River (supposedly only the second their ancient arts, who they were and The internet now holds highly expedition since whence they came, will be solved. elaborate theories about the Grand Powell), discovered a giant cave in a Egypt and the Nile, and Arizona Canyon Egyptian cave. There are cliff of the Grand Canyon. This cave and the Colorado will be linked by a contending schools of thought about was located forty-two miles upstream historical chain running back to ages the location of the cave. Some say from El Tovar Crystal Canyon. The which will stagger the wildest fancy that it must be in the Egyptian names cave was perched 2,000 feet above the of the fictionist.” section, and others say that it has to level of today’s river, but a set of steps The Gazette story was soon be forty-two miles upstream from El reaching thirty yards down from the forgotten, but in 1962 it was rescued Tovar Crystal Canyon—wherever that cave entrance proved that the river from obscurity by being included in is. Websites show photos of various had been 2,000 feet higher—or the the book Arizona Cavalcade, one of cave entrances, such as Stanton’s canyon 2,000 feet shallower—at the a series of five books of newspaper Cave, well known for its ancient time the cave was inhabited. The articles from early Arizona history. artifacts, a cave now locked behind cave held an elaborate system of From there it eventually came to the jail-like bars, which the National Park tunnels and chambers, hundreds of attention of David Hatcher Childress, Service pretends is to protect bats. rooms with straight walls, obviously who included it in his 1992 book Lost Several groups have traveled to the cut by humans. The chambers were Cities of North and Central America, a canyon and hiked into it to locate full of artifacts and hieroglyphs and personal exploration of the occult the Egyptian cave. Theories try to mummies, evidently Egyptian in secrets and Old-World influences relate the Egyptian cave to split-twig origin. There was also a statue that in American archaeological sites. figurines, Hopi legends, Atlantis, looked like Buddha. The artifacts Childress related how, upon Area 51, even to “The Thing,” the included inscribed tablets; gold discovering the Egyptian cave story, Arizona tourist-trap mummy (The urns and cups; pottery; weapons; he got out a map of the Grand Thing came from the Grand Canyon and sophisticated copper tools and Canyon and was “shocked” to see cave!). People spin new geological instruments. There were granaries that a whole section of formations theories to explain why the Colorado made out of cement. A 700-foot-long in the canyon had Egyptian names, River was recently 2,000 feet dining hall still held cooking utensils. such as and the Tower deeper—or maybe the canyon was It was estimated that these chambers of Ra. Surely this had to be the 2,000 feet shallower. In a cover-story were home to some 50,000 people. location of the Egyptian cave. When article in the May, 2009 issue of the www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 3 paranormal magazine Atlantis Rising, in early 2008, listeners to “Coast to publishing articles that legitimized David Hatcher Childress proposed Coast,” the national paranormal radio swindles. The Republican denied it, that the prehistoric settlement on show, heard David Hatcher Childress but added that, anyway, all that east- the Unkar delta was actually built say that the Hopis had thrown acid coast money was great for the Arizona by the Egyptians, and that its name into the eyes of Grand Canyon miner economy. was a corruption of the Egyptian Seth Tanner to blind him and prevent The Egyptian cave story should name “Ankh-Ra,” a reference of the him from finding the Egyptian cave; have been big news for Arizona, Egyptian sun god Ra. and heard giant-expert Steve Quayle eagerly repeated by other newspapers: To take one example of Egyptian say that the occupants of the cave A second Colorado River expedition! cave research, websites offer long were giants 12-14 feet tall, and that A major Smithsonian expedition to calculations of how sacred geometry Quayle had met someone who swore Arizona! Egyptians in Arizona! connects the cave with the rest of he participated in removing the Yet the Gazette story was almost the esoteric world. The Egyptian giants’ mummies from the cave and totally ignored by other Arizona pyramids, of course, are the ultimate taking them to Area 51. newspapers. Of over a dozen masterpieces of sacred geometry, Does it ever occur to Egyptian-cave newspapers checked for this their locations and proportions believers that the Arizona Gazette story article, only one, the Jerome Mining and alignments embodying all the could have been a hoax? In fact, it News, reprinted the story, without secrets of the cosmos. It thus stands does. Even David Hatcher Childress, comment. Only one newspaper, to reason that there should be a in Lost Cities of North and Central Flagstaff’s Coconino Sun, thought sacred-geometry connection between America, admitted that when he first it was necessary to comment. In a the Great Pyramid at Giza and the saw the story in Arizona Cavalcade he brief front-page article on April 16, Grand Canyon, and it turns out that “bet it was fabricated by the author the Coconino Sun ran the headline: the canyon’s Isis Temple fits perfectly of that book. It sounds phony.”2 Then “Looks Like a Mulhatton Story.” For into the Egyptian cosmic matrix Childress looked up the original American newspaper readers in 1909, code. The location, dimensions, and Gazette article, and “There it was in this said all that needed to be said. angles of Isis Temple correlate with black and white.” This verdict is often By 1909 Joe Mulhatton (his last the Great Pyramid of Giza with stated on Egyptian-cave websites: if a name gets spelled in various ways, fantastic mathematical accuracy, story appears on the front page of a often Mulhattan) had been famous to seven or eight decimal places. newspaper, it must be true. for thirty years, famous for his Isis Temple also shows amazing This verdict would have come as hobby of tricking newspapers into mathematical correlations with the a surprise to American newspaper publishing hoax stories. According to Sphinx, Stonehenge, the star Sirius, readers in 1909—and even more so the Museum of Hoaxes: “During the and the Face on Mars. This implies to newspaper editors. Journalism 1870s and 1880s Joseph Mulhattan that Isis Temple must be the location was not yet an honest and honorable was perhaps the most famous hoaxer of the Egyptian cave. This may prove profession. Only that year had an in America.”3 Joe was especially that Isis Temple was actually human- American college opened the world’s fond of—and famous for—inventing made. But when one expedition to first school of journalism. There outlandish stories about discoveries Isis Temple climbed 800 feet up to the were no Pulitzer Prizes to reward of caves full of amazing artifacts from most promising cave entrance, they professionalism. This was the era of ancient civilizations. discovered that the entrance, which yellow journalism, which recently had In 1883, when Joe was just getting clearly was human-made, had been sparked the Spanish-American war. started, the American Antiquarian and dynamited shut. Newspapers were often the shameless Oriental Journal thought it prudent As theories have become more tools of political parties, town to issue a warning to archaeologists: elaborate, so have claims of a boosters, or businessmen—including “Joe Mulhattan is a character of cover-up by the Smithsonian and swindlers. Arizona was in the midst some interest to archaeologists—his the National Park Service. David of a golden age of mining, and nearly residence is in Kentucky, and his Hatcher Childress now claims that every day the newspapers shouted business is to invent marvelous stories the Smithsonian has been destroying about new mining discoveries, many or lies. He has invented seven stories evidence of the Egyptians in America, of which were merely swindles about finding big caves, Masonic even towing a barge full of artifacts designed to attract stock money emblems, and other ridiculous into the Atlantic and dumping from investors back east. On March things…Another just sent to us from them overboard. Others say that the 29, only a week before the Egyptian Eureka Springs, Arkansas, about an National Park Service has closed the cave article appeared, the Gazette’s iron box and a skeleton chained, in a airspace in the canyon, hiking entry Phoenix rival, the Arizona Republican, cave, shows that he is still at work.”4 to the Egyptian zone, and entry into ran an editorial titled “A Little Essay In 1888 Joe Mulhatton was included all caves, in order to hide Egyptian About Mines and Faking,” defending in the book Prominent Men and Women artifacts. In a period of five weeks itself from complaints that it was of the Day, alongside Mark Twain, Walt

4 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Whitman, and Oscar Wilde. The book planning to offer steamboat rides Yet another Joe Mulhatton cave warned: “When the readers meet with inside the cave. hoax was still remembered decades a circumstantial account of hidden A year later Mulhatton placed later, as shown by this 1908 story rivers being found here or there, of vast his most embellished version of in an Arizona newspaper, the Globe bodies of water deep under ground… the Grand Crystal Cave story in the Silver Belt: he is exhorted to think of Mulhattan; national Frank Leslie’s Illustrated and the ethnologist and geologist Newspaper: Joe Mulhatton’s story of a are warned against believing all wonderful cave in Pike County, they see in newspapers about newly …they discovered an immense Kentucky, was a highly decorated discovered works by prehistoric man. room, in dimensions about one piece of art. It appeared in a How many persuasively written and hundred yards in width by about Louisville paper, and set people circumstantial fabrics of lies Mr. one hundred feet in height… on two continents talking of Mulhattan has written probably only The beauties of this chamber are the rooms full of magnificent their author knows.”5 simply indescribable. It is called jewels, of long halls lined with In 1891 the New York Times declared: the Crystal Chamber, and is well great blocks of virgin gold and of “Joe Mulhattan is known in every city named…At a distance of about subterranean rivers rippling over in the and has probably three miles, in a very picturesque beds of … Even P. T. caused more trouble in newspaper spot, six mummies were found Barnum, the wily old showman, offices than any other man in the on a ledge of rocks. They were was caught in the trap and country. His wild stories, written reposing in stone coffins rudely hastened to Pike County to see in the most plausible style, have constructed, and presented every if he might be able to pick up a more than once caused the special appearance of the Egyptian few rare skeletons of strange correspondents of the progressive mummies. Three of the mummies cave-dwellers that the excited journals of the United States to hurry were male and three female. [The discoverer had overlooked.8 from coast to coast to investigate female mummies had] a fine, some wonderful occurrence which intelligent, refined cast, beautiful In 1883 Mulhatton got wide only existed in the imagination of the even thousands of years after the circulation for a story about how great liar.”6 visit of the destroying angel.7 Birmingham, Alabama, had been built Mulhatton’s first cave discovery atop a thin crust of stone over a cave hoax was Grand Crystal Cave On December 12, 1881, the Chicago with a huge river flowing through it. beneath Glasgow Junction, Kentucky, Inter-Ocean published a report of a The construction of a new building a cave which was “wonderful beyond new cave discovery at Litchfield, had punctured the crust, and several description, and far surpasses in Kentucky, which included an buildings had fallen into the cave. grandeur” Mammoth Cave nearby. Egyptian pyramid and hieroglyphs: According to the Museum of On June 22, 1878 the Cincinnati “There are evidences on all sides Hoaxes: “Mulhattan apparently Commercial published Mulhatton’s that the cave was the abode of a pre- concocted his hoaxes purely for the article about the cave’s discovery, historic race, and that that race was thrill of deceiving the media. He and even though the next day’s identified with the ancient Egyptian would send his stories to newspaper Louisville Courier-Journal exposed races…Joseph Mulhattan, geologist offices, and editors would usually the article as a hoax, the article was and scientist, from Louisville, Ky., has accept them without question. Many soon reprinted all over the country. visited the cave, and secured several editors probably realized the stories Grand Crystal Cave was at least mummies and other specimens—but were false, but printed them anyway, twenty-three miles long: “A span of the pyramid and remaining wonders knowing that they were amusing and horses can easily be driven through will remain untouched to be gazed would boost circulation.”9 for a distance of eleven miles.” There upon by a wondering world.” Mulhatton did lots of non-cave were “three rivers, wide and very In truth, Joe Mulhatton was a hoaxes too. His first big-hit hoax was deep,” one of which “is navigable traveling salesman, usually for his 1877 story about how George for fourteen miles, until the passages hardware companies. A salesman Washington’s body had become become too narrow to admit a boat… needs to tell whoppers with a petrified. For April Fool’s Day in 1880 Several mummified remains have straight face, and Joe’s wide travels Mulhatton placed a story about a little been discovered in one of the large provided him with plenty of raw girl who was given a batch of helium- rooms. They were reposing in stone materials for stories, and access to filled balloons at a party. When she coffins, rudely constructed, and from many newspapers. In 1884 a national tied the balloons around her waist appearances, they may have been in convention of traveling salesmen was they lifted her into the air, but luckily this cave for centuries. They present so proud of Joe’s storytelling talents an expert hunter was present and every appearance of the Egyptian that they nominated him for president shot the balloons one by one to bring mummies.” An entrepreneur was of the United States. the girl to a gentle landing. In 1883 www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 5 Mulhatton passed off a story about that it draws birds and animals tales were common currency in a giant meteor hitting a Texas ranch to it and impales them on its Arizona. In 1910, the year after and killing lots of cattle. In 1887 his thorny spikes. Mr. Mulhatton the Arizona Gazette published the story about a Kentucky farmer who approached no nearer than Egyptian cave story, the Gazette was training monkeys to pick hemp one hundred feet to the cactus, published a fond tribute to Mulhatton brought a strong rebuke from the which is of the saguaro variety, and his talents. In 1952 this story, New York Times, which feared that the yet at that distance it was all he and the other Arizona newspaper “scab monkeys” would take the jobs could do to resist its influence to stories cited above, were reprinted of former slaves. Mulhatton may have draw him to it. While in town he in The Arizona Story, another in the had a hand in the story of David Lang, purchased a long rope, which he series of five books of early Arizona a Tennessee farmer who was walking will tie around his body, and four newspaper articles, the series that across his field and simply vanished, of his friends will take hold of it also included Arizona Cavalcade, from in sight of many witnesses, a story and allow him to approach near where the Egyptian cave story came that was given wide circulation by enough to minutely examine to the attention of David Hatcher paranormal journalist Frank Edwards the wonder without danger… Childress. in the 1950s, a story still alive today. After and just before a great Among the miners who wandered Yet Mulhatton enjoyed his cave storm the…power of the cactus into Kelvin the past week from hoaxes the most. In 1883 he told an is indescribable. Calves, birds, the surrounding camps was one interviewer: “I am prouder of my and young colts are attracted, with a knapsack strapped on his Glasgow Cave story than any of the impaled, drawn in and quickly shoulders. The sack was stuffed others. It showed more invention and converted by the digestive juices with food, blank location notices, 10 more imagination.” Mulhatton’s of the cactus…11 mail and miscellany until it would cave hoaxes made such an imprint hold no more. The bearer was short that when the Louisville Courier- Mulhatton’s magnetic cactus of stature, quick of speech and wore Journal announced a legitimate cave became a staple of Arizona folklore, a short, black beard and genial discovery in 1887, it felt obligated to repeated today in books such as smile. His name, Joe Mulhatton… use the headline: “Not a Mulhattan Marshall Trimble’s In OId Arizona. Story.” Also in 1899 the Tombstone Prospector Joe Mulhatton was once a In 1893 Mulhatton gave up his reported: widely known man. He is now salesman’s life for the life of a known of throughout the United prospector—in Arizona. The details Joe Mulhatton, the truthful, has States, especially in the east and of Mulhatton’s life in Arizona are made another great discovery. He south, but in his seclusion in the sketchy, and he did leave the state writes of his latest in the Florence Dagger Wells country, is actually periodically, partly to sell Arizona Tribune and describes experiments known by few. mining stocks. We do know that on Compressed Heat, saying Joe Mulhatton formerly gained he spent a few months in the he has invented a very simple his livelihood as a traveling Arizona mental asylum in Phoenix apparatus whereby the surplus salesman. He was a hardware in 1900. Mulhatton was plagued heat of an Arizona summer may drummer. That vocation gave by alcoholism, which reduced him be stored away for use in winter Joe the opportunity to capitalize to the look of a tramp and to petty or utilized for generating power affability, suavity and rapidity of crimes. But this didn’t stop him from for machinery, electric plants, and speech, all of which he possesses inventing new newspaper hoaxes, other uses by compressing 382 to a marked degree. He was a and now he was using Arizona as degrees above zero into a cake successful salesman, and it was raw material. Arizona newspapers of heat that has dwindled down while traveling over the country were proud to cite him as the source to 281 degrees Fahrenheit below selling his wares, that Mulhatton of his tall tales. It was an honor that zero. The expansive power of this acquired fame as a literary Joe Mulhatton in person walked into compressed heat is enormous, prodigy in the art of prevarication. your small-town newspaper office also slightly dangerous…A stock He is a burlesquer of facts. His and gave you a scoop. company with a capitalization friends, for convenience sake, In 1899 the Florence Tribune of $500,000,000 is proposed use the adjective “liar.” Joe never reported: to perfect the new discovery protested then, nor does he object and place it within reach of the now to reading in cold type that Joe Mulhatton was in Florence masses, so it might become of he was the most artistic, beautiful this week from the Ripsey practical benefit in the uplifting and consistent liar ever turned country, where he has recently of mankind.12 loose on a nation… discovered a magnetic cactus… The rules of logic nor Its attractive powers are so great Already by 1899 Joe Mulhatton’s laws of consistency were never

6 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org violated by Mulhatton, and his to all. Greed, gain and graft have himself, but by someone inspired writings were always embellished left no marks on him. If only one by him. If so, the imitator was an with a literary touch that made meal in his cabin, that would be excellent student, for the story bore all them readable, entertaining and given to the hungry beggar before the subtle fingerprints of Mulhatton’s almost believable. He never he would eat it himself. He has “classic” cave discovery stories. For touched on a scientific matter, entertained with his stories and starters, Mulhatton’s cave mummies but his published story was spread good cheer and sunshine and artifacts were usually Egyptian, followed by a flood of letters of by his presence, from one coast of but he also loved to maintain an air of inquiry from college professors the United States to the other.13 mystery, stopping short of declaring and other scientific men…There for sure that they were Egyptian. In is nothing disproportionate This 1910 Gazette article made no the Grand Crystal Cave story the or contradictory, one part to mention of the Egyptian cave story of mummies “give every appearance another, in any of Mulhatton’s the previous year. of the Egyptian mummies,” and in stories. Every sentence bears In the weeks after running the story the 1909 Gazette story the builders of a consistent relation to every in 1909, the Gazette made no further the Grand Canyon cave are “possibly other sentence…As a narrator comment on it. There was really no from Egypt.” In both Kentucky and of events that never happened, reason for newspapers to comment on the Grand Canyon, the Egyptians Baron Münchhausen was much it. Everyone understood where this left mysterious hieroglyphs. The farther away from the people type of story was coming from. These mummies are found in large, special than Mulhatton. Mulhatton’s were the years when John Hance, with chambers deep inside the caves. In writings catch the interest of the his tall tales, was a tourist attraction Grand Crystal Cave the mummies are average reader much quicker at the Grand Canyon. Tall tales were arranged “on a ledge of rocks,” and than Münchhausen’s… a long American tradition, especially in the Grand Canyon cave there “are Joe Mulhatton, the miner, is on the frontier. Newspaper hoaxes tiers of mummies, each one occupying the Joe Mulhatton of other days were also a long tradition; early in a separate hewn shelf.” The list of in disguise. Garbed as a miner, the 19th Century a Boston newspaper artifacts found with the mummies living as a miner, and with miners, ran a hoax story about a treasure- is similar, such as copper vessels. At with attention directed to leads, filled cave discovered under Boston Grand Crystal Cave “ladders and lodes and ledges, dips and spurs, Common. Readers didn’t even bother bridges are being constructed,” and to the earth’s formations and to call such stories a hoax, for their in the Grand Canyon cave, this now ascertainment of mineral values, truthfulness was beside the point. being the age of electricity, “wires are suits Joe better than the routine of One was supposed to admire their being strung from the entrance to all the drummer’s life. He has seen talent of imagination. passageways.” Mulhatton named his the world, had his experience, The Coconino Sun did express favorite cave ‘Grand Crystal Cave’, and of his own volition chosen the its admiration in its April 16 story, and at Grand Canyon we find ‘El Dagger Wells country, Arizona, “Looks Like a Mulhatton Story”: Tovar Crystal Canyon’. as his abode. “It’s a place of rest, Looks like a genuine Mulhatton a kind of retreat, for us who have The reported discovery of a story, perhaps the last hurrah of had our troubles,” remarked Mr. mammoth underground city an aging, alcoholic man who had Mulhatton. His line of thought of an ancient race in the Grand failed as a prospector and who sadly is now directed along psychic Canyon, seems to be a splendid remembered his glory days as a lines. “I am a spiritualist,” he piece of imagination sent out by celebrated writer. added. “Say that you saw me some Mulhattonized individual… The Arizona Gazette was a good well and not ‘broke’. I believe in it would be just possible that fit for the Egyptian cave story. The spiritualism. I lay in my cabin and some one at the Grand Canyon Gazette had a flair for humor and commune with the higher powers. would have been informed of it sensationalism. On most days its Omnipotence directs me, and if an actual discovery had been editorial page included jokes and directs you. All believe in it who made. The man who wrote up the brief tall tales. On April 8 the Gazette understand it.” Joe Mulhatton find certainly had to dig for the announced: “Astronomers on Mars has fifty claims and they are details and was wise in locating reported at a recent meeting of the reported as having excellent the entrance at a point on a sheer society that observations of the earth showing. The vicissitudes of life wall where no one but a person showed large patches of the lake have not dried up the fountain with a great imagination could region of the United States in the of milk of human kindness in Joe reach it. hemisphere as going dry.” Mulhatton. Nothing but kindness The Gazette may have been having gleams from his eyes, and the It is possible that the Egyptian cave some extra fun with the Egyptian friendly handshake is extended story was hatched not by Mulhatton cave story by placing it right next to www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 7 an advertisement from a local candy could send in printed ballots to vote scientific papers, a large portion of store. The advertisement ran for for their favorite young lady. The them in the Smithsonian’s journals. one week, offering a Phoenix-style candidates could earn extra points by He made collecting trips all over Easter gift that could be shipped to selling subscriptions. the country, including Hawaii friends back east. The gift was orange Where did Mulhatton come up and Alaska. Jordan’s expeditions blossoms, waxed to preserve them. with the details of the Egyptian cave automatically made him an explorer In large letters the ad was headlined: story, such as the names Kinkaid and of rivers. His adventures often made “ORANGE BLOSSOMS.” According Jordan? it into newspapers. to the Museum of Hoaxes entry on In the case of “Professor S. A. Jordan, In 1898 David Star Jordan visited Joe Mulhattan: “He was also widely the Smithsonian Institute,” there’s a the Grand Canyon in the company known by his pseudonym, ‘Orange source that would have been obvious of Charles Lummis, and he wrote Blossom’.”14 in 1909. One of the most famous an article about it for Lummis’s Since the Egyptian cave story naturalists of the era was David Starr magazine, Out West. In 1906 this appeared on April 5th, close to April Jordan, who had been affiliated with article was reprinted in the Santa Fe Fool’s Day, was it supposed to be the Smithsonian for thirty years, the Railway’s promotional book, Grand an April Fool’s joke, and if so, why length of time that the Arizona Gazette Canyon of Arizona. Naturally Jordan didn’t it actually appear on April 1st? listed for Kinkaid’s affiliation with was interested in the Colorado River, The Gazette does not seem to have had the Smithsonian. In 1909 David Star and his article emphasized how the an annual tradition of an April Fool’s Jordan was the president of Stanford river, not earthquakes or any other Day story. In 1909, the April 1st paper University. He was a leading figure force (unspoken, including God) had was packed with news of the closing in the worlds of education and carved the Grand Canyon: “…the and dedication of Laguna Dam, a science, and even better known for river had done all this alone.”16 major event for Arizona, and there his political activities as an anti-war Another connection between David were leftover Laguna Dam stories for advocate. Jordan made front-page Starr Jordan and the Grand Canyon the next few days. The Gazette didn’t headlines in the Prescott Weekly Journal was that in 1903-4 David Rust studied publish on Sundays, so there was no Miner on May 5, 1909: “Dr. Jordan at Stanford. Rust was the developer April 4th edition. We do know that Addresses the Peace Avocation in of Rust’s Camp (soon to be Phantom the Egyptian cave story was planned Chicago.” His views often made him Ranch), the trail from the North Rim, well in advance, for on March 12th the controversial. In a national magazine and the cable tramway over the Gazette published a short teaser story in 1909 Jordan denounced Christian Colorado River. While Rust was at about Kinkaid’s arrival in Yuma. fundamentalist fervor as “simply a Stanford his wife Ruth had a baby, The Gazette also practiced tabloid- form of drunkenness no more worthy whom they named David Jordan Rust style sensationalism, in contrast with of respect than the drunkenness that in honor of David Starr Jordan. the Arizona Republican, whose front- lies in the gutter.”15 In 1925 Jordan The name of “Professor Jordan” page headlines were serious news was one of the star witnesses in the had another connotation. In 1896 stories. In the weeks around the Scopes trial, defending the teaching of David Starr Jordan had perpetrated publication of the Egyptian cave story, evolution. In 1906 Jordan was offered a famous scientific hoax, though in Gazette readers saw headlines about the directorship of the Smithsonian, the end the joke was on him. Jordan murders, suicides, crazy people, and he was ready to accept, but then was contemptuous of the flourishing and freak accidents from around the the earthquake wrecked belief in psychic powers, and with world: VILLIAN STABS WOMAN the Stanford campus, and Jordan felt the complicity of the editor of Popular TO DEATH. DAUGHTER IS KILLED obligated to remain at Stanford. A Science Monthly Jordan published BY FATHER. WOMAN DIES BY decade before, Jordan was offered an article in which he claimed he ELECTRIC CHAIR. DENVER the directorship of the Smithsonian’s had invented a device that could SUICIDE BELIEVED INSANE. National Museum of Natural History, photograph telepathic images. “The NEFARIOUS WORK OF A DOG but Jordan was only five years into his satirical nature of my story I had POISONER. NITROGLYCERINE presidency at Stanford and felt that supposed sufficiently clear,” wrote PLANT BLOWS UP, TWO KILLED. too many of his initiatives remained Jordan in his autobiography, “But INSANE NAVAJO ON RAMPAGE. unfinished. the scientific minuteness of detail WHITE GIRL TO MARRY JAP. David Starr Jordan began his proved to be fatally complete, and The Gazette was the smaller Phoenix affiliation with the Smithsonian in a surprising number of people took newspaper, in both circulation and the mid-1870s, when Jordan began the thing seriously.”17 Joe Mulhatton number of pages, and was trying collecting fish for the Smithsonian. could have told David Starr Jordan hard to boost circulation. The Jordan was the founder of American that one of the keys to a successful Egyptian cave story was published ichthyology. He named 2,500 species, hoax was lots of details. In the words in the middle of the “Young Ladies and over 25 species were named of Professor Keven McQueen of Popular Contest,” in which readers for him. He published hundreds of Eastern Kentucky University, who

8 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org is writing a biography of Mulhatton methodology. The Kincaid Mounds When King contracted tuberculosis and who helped with some of the were named for James Kincaid, who he moved to Phoenix. Though King details of this article: “Mulhattan’s settled there in 1835, and for his son died in 1901, he remained a legend. attention to detail is so convincing Thomas Kincaid, who built his house The Gazette article listed few details and diabolically deadpan that it is atop the highest mound in 1875. about Kinkaid’s life, but one of them easy to understand how his hoaxes The problem with this Kincaid seemed meant to invoke another fooled jaded newspaper editors and connection is that the Kincaid Mounds famous river explorer. Kinkaid was their readers.”18 One reason why didn’t become well-known until the said to have been born in Lewiston, David Hatcher Childress accepted 1930s excavations. In 1909 they seem Idaho, a river town named for the Gazette story as true was because to have been quite obscure, even Meriwether Lewis. it “gave a highly descriptive and within the world of archaeology. Only Kinkaid was also said to be a detailed story that went on for several in 1916 did an archaeologist, C. B. longtime hunter and explorer. A few pages.”19 Moore, take an interest in excavating newspaper articles in early March of The name “Kinkaid” doesn’t have there, and he was refused by the 1909 might have set people thinking such an obvious source. There were Kincaid family. It’s not clear that the about Colorado River expeditions, no famous American explorers or Kincaid Mounds were even known by big-game hunters, and Smithsonian Egyptologists named Kinkaid or that name in 1909. The only plausible expeditions. On March 3rd the U.S. Kincaid. The only possibility is way to connect the Kincaid Mounds Congress appropriated money to University of Washington zoologist with the Gazette story is to suppose build a memorial to John Wesley Trevor Kincaid—who accompanied that the story’s author happened to Powell on the South Rim of the Grand David Starr Jordan on one of his be from southern Illinois. But then, Canyon (it would take the form of expeditions to Alaska. Joe Mulhatton lived in Louisville, a Central American pyramid). The There is a promising archaeological Kentucky, about 150 miles up the next day, Teddy Roosevelt retired connection with the name Kincaid. Ohio River from the Kincaid Mounds, from the presidency and headed One of the largest and most significant and Joe did get around; a farmhouse off on an African safari; when the sites of the Mississippian culture is the perched atop a mysterious mound public protested his killing beautiful Kincaid Mounds, near the Ohio River was the sort of thing that would have animals, Teddy claimed that he was in southern Illinois. Like the most caught his fancy. just gathering specimens for the famous Mississippian site, Cahokia, In the same year that Joe Mulhatton Smithsonian. the Kincaid site is a large cluster of was a guest of the state asylum in The Egyptian cave article seems mounds, as tall as thirty feet, arranged Phoenix, the most prominent resident to bear the imprint of some of the around a plaza, and once enclosed of Phoenix would have made a perfect cultural trends of the time, especially by a wooden palisade. Kincaid model for G. E. Kinkaid, and his a widespread enthusiasm for ancient served as a trade center between name even had the right ring to it— Egypt. Europe and America had Cahokia and large settlements up the Clarence King. King-kaid. Clarence been smitten by ancient Egypt ever Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. King was the epitome of the romantic since Napoleon landed in Egypt in The Kincaid Mounds are located in naturalist-adventurer. King roamed 1798. Egyptian-style architecture the tip of southern Illinois that white the West, especially the Sierras, flourished in America, most notably settlers named “Little Egypt” for its climbing mountains, crossing deserts, with the Washington Monument. main city of Cairo and for the Nile- descending rivers, discovering the Ancient Egypt inspired “Aida” in like grandeur and fertility of the first known glacier in the United 1871 and plenty of lower culture, Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Little States, and writing popular books such as the mummy’s curse story, a Egypt also includes towns named and articles about his adventures. genre invented by Louisa May Alcott Thebes and Karnak, and it includes Jealous of John Wesley Powell, King in 1869. The years between 1880 and Southern Illinois University, whose wanted to do his own expedition World War One have been called the mascot is the saluki, an Egyptian down the Green and Colorado rivers, golden age of Egyptian archaeology, hunting dog, sometimes called the but never did. King did explore a which was finally well organized royal dog of Egypt, for salukis have few caves, and many mines. King’s and had plenty of easy discoveries been found mummified in the tombs adventures were all for the sake of to make. American newspapers were of the Pharaohs. Today Southern science—he was a geologist, and the full of stories of exotic Egyptian Illinois University is excavating first director of the U.S. Geological discoveries—tombs, secret tunnels, the Kincaid Mounds. The Kincaid Survey. Like David Starr Jordan, King buried statues, mysterious papyri, Mounds were first excavated by the was associated with a famous hoax, golden coffins. Americans flocked University of Chicago in 1934, an the Great Hoax, in which to museums and world’s fairs to see excavation that served as the proving swindlers were salting Colorado Egyptian artifacts. ground for many new techniques that ground with bogus diamonds; King Three days before the Egyptian soon became standard archaeological was the one who exposed the hoax. cave article appeared, the people of www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 9 Phoenix—another town named for Nevada, just outside of Death Valley, formations; Carlsbad Caverns was Egyptian mythology—flocked to the reported that Charles Glastonbury, being explored and publicized in the auditorium at the Normal College in supposedly a former Egyptologist decade before 1909. On March 17, Tempe to see the opera “The Egyptian from Cambridge, England, and a two weeks before the Egyptian cave Princess,” which seems to have been fellow of the Royal Society, had story, the Arizona Republican reprinted inspired by “Aida”—which was conducted an archaeological study an article from the New York Times: playing at the Met in New York that of Death Valley and concluded that “Great Cave in Adirondacks: Explorer same weekend, starring Caruso. Every it once held an ancient, sophisticated Penetrates it 1,000 Feet and Thinks it year the Normal College presented civilization. His main evidence was a Rivals Mammoth Caves.” (It didn’t). a musical entertainment, sung by huge masonry dam, originally twenty Anthropologists were popularizing students, and this year Irma Schmidt feet high, that must have been built, the idea of the caveman, for whom starred as the Queen of Egypt, and quoting Glastonbury, “for furnishing caves were home. Popular novels Vera Buck as Princess Aida. It was “a water power for some mining or depicted caves as places of adventure, fine success,” according to theArizona manufacturing enterprise…In other as in Tom Sawyer; of lost treasure, Republican. On the same April 5th parts of the valley I found hieroglyphic as in The Count of Monte Cristo; and that the Gazette was publishing the inscriptions on the rocks, very closely of fantastic hidden worlds, as in A Egyptian cave story, the Republican resembling the inscriptions found in Journey to the Center of the Earth. This reported that: “Through clever the Valley of the Nile. I am led to the Jules Verne novel launched a thriving arrangements of lights and paintings, belief that the ancient inhabitants of genre of novels about journeys the rear of the stage showed…a Death Valley were closely related to into the underworld, sometimes characteristic Egyptian scene with the the builders of the pyramids.” huge cave systems, sometimes a pyramids in the back ground and the Ancient Egypt was especially hollow Earth inhabited by strange river Nile. The pillar and lintel were attractive for seekers into the esoteric, civilizations. In his book The Hollow also attractively painted with typical who projected onto Egypt all sorts Earth author David Standish counted Egyptian figures.” of spiritual needs and schemes. thirty-four novels published between Americans of that era also indulged They were enthralled by the idea of 1880 and 1908 that involved journeys in the idea that the ancient Egyptians tombs and tunnels and chambers into a hollow Earth. Many were had visited America. It was natural inside and under the Sphinx and utopian novels, encountering inner- enough to wonder if the pyramids pyramids, secret chambers that Earth societies that had lessons to in Central America might have been readily symbolized their belief that teach foolish humans. This genre was inspired by the Egyptian pyramids. the world held a hidden spiritual mainstream enough that one novel But Americans were also too eager to design. American psychic Edgar was serialized in Harper’s Weekly. attribute ancient American structures Cayce, who believed that ancient Let’s take a quick look at the three to anyone but the Indians; Manifest Egypt was built by refugees from hollow-Earth novels published in Destiny was easier on the conscience if Atlantis, declared that the Atlanteans 1908. Indians were only sub-human savages. had stored their spiritual wisdom in The Smoky God was written by Mississippian mounds—such as the a hidden Hall of Records beneath the Willis George Emerson at the same Kincaid Mounds—were among the Sphinx. H. Spencer Lewis, who drew time he was digging a gold mine in structures attributed to the Egyptians, upon Egyptian lore in founding the Death Valley, a place that seemed to the lost tribes of Israel, the Celts, the Rosicrucian order in 1909, declared legitimize fantastic ideas about the Vikings. Rock art was regularly taken that he had secret knowledge about earth. Or perhaps Emerson’s novel for Egyptian hieroglyphs. Even in the chambers and tunnels beneath the was the fantasy of a man suffering Southwest, where Puebloans were Sphinx and pyramids. Today New from too much Death Valley, for his living in plainer versions of Chaco Age literature claims that pyramid underworld is full of water, trees or Mesa Verde, whites preferred to tunnels are aligned with the stars a thousand feet tall, wildlife, and believe that the Anasazi had simply and reveal the spiritual secrets a civilization with choirs of 25,000 vanished. The Gazette Egyptian cave of the universe. Today it is often voices. It’s also full of gold, which article supposed that “the present extraterrestrials who built the Sphinx Emerson’s mine wasn’t; he was Indian tribes found in Arizona are and pyramids, and who also operate mainly mining the pockets of his descendants of the serfs or slaves of secret portals and underground bases investors. the people which inhabited the cave,” at Mt. Shasta, Sedona, Area 51, and Eight years after L. Frank Baum a people who, like white Americans, the moon. published The Wizard of Oz, he knew the proper place of Indians. The golden age of Egyptology followed it with Dorothy and the Wizard Only eight months before the coincided with the golden age in Oz in 1908, in which Dorothy and Gazette story, Egyptians were being of enthusiasm for the world her kitten Eureka (where’s Toto?) are reported nearby. On August 1, underground. Americans were caught in a California earthquake 1908, the Bullfrog Miner in Rhyolite, discovering caves full of fantastic and fall into the earth. Dorothy lands

10 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org in the Land of the Mangaboos, with From a harmless beginning in the Atlanteans built with technology its evil sorcerer, but fortunately the world of tall tales, the Egyptian cave from the star Sirius B, for the Wizard of Oz, in his hot air balloon, story has been abducted into a realm Atlanteans are really extraterrestrials. has also been sucked into the earth where it serves as an urgent spiritual The Atlanteans recognized that the and slays the sorcerer. The Mangaboos revelation. Grand Canyon holds many of Earth’s drive Dorothy and the Wizard into a It hasn’t helped that true believers strongest vortexes of spiritual energy, cave and seal it up. Dorothy and the are usually unfamiliar with the and so they built temples there to Wizard follow the cave to the Valley Grand Canyon and make all sorts of focus this energy for healing and of Voe, where invisible people eat a misconnections, and fail to recognize rejuvenation. These facilities could magic fruit that keeps them invisible apparent jokes such as “El Tovar also transport people through time. from bears. Dorothy and the Wizard Crystal Canyon,” which was likely Tragically, G. E. Kinkaid and five go on to Pyramid Mountain, the inspired by the Santa Fe Railway’s other Smithsonian researchers, on a Land of Gargoyles, and a cave full of super-hyped advertising for its new later entry into the cave, encountered dragons; then they escape to Oz. El Tovar Hotel on the rim. this highly magnetic technology and After writing the first thirty-five Yet the vehemence of true believers were zapped by it and died. (Joe Tom Swift novels, Howard Garis tells us that there is more than Mulhatton died a bit less dramatically wrote 5,000 Miles Underground, in simple misunderstanding going on in 1913, trying to cross a flooded which an eccentric inventor, a big- here. Especially remarkable is their Gila River near Kelvin). This is why game hunter, and two orphan boys hostility against the Smithsonian and the government has sealed off the ride a flying ship into the hole at the National Park Service, agencies cave and covered up its existence. the South Pole, find a world of giant that seldom make anyone’s list of Canyon formations have Egyptian plants and animals and of people governmental bad guys, not even and Buddhist names because canyon made of mud; escape many close on The X-Files. On the surface this vortexes are connected to energy calls; find a temple full of diamonds; hostility is said to be because the nodes at Giza and Tibet. The vortex in and ride a waterspout back to the “archaeological establishment” is Blacktail Canyon is a stargate to the surface, where their diamonds make blindly committed to an “isolationist Pleiades. The Redwall Cavern vortex them rich. dogma” in which Native American is especially conducive to astral There were those—including cultures developed on their own, travel. Havasu is home to the Faerie those who knew better—who were without any contact from the Old Kingdom. portraying the Grand Canyon as an World; the establishment will even Looks like a Mulhatton story. exotic underworld. On March 26th destroy all evidence to the contrary. But the Arizona Republican reprinted a below the surface, true believers are (Endnotes) 1, 2 ibid, p 320-21. highly overwrought article from the hungry for the world to be a spiritual 3 Hoaxipedia, the website of the Museum of Providence Journal, headlined: “Death realm. The ancient Egyptians have Hoaxes. Toll of Grand Canyon: Venturesome become icons of a universe loaded 4 American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, 1883, p 342. Ones Swept Away by River or with hidden spiritual connections. 5 Thomas W. Herringshaw, Biographical Starve on Precipices.” The article True believers in the esoteric have Review of Prominent Men and Women of consisted mainly of quotes from always been hostile to the secular the Day (Chicago: A. B. Gehman and Co., 1888). Frederick Dellenbaugh, a member worldview. When the Smithsonian 6 The New York Times, November 12, 1891. of the second Powell expedition. and the National Park Service deny 7 Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, June Dellenbaugh supposedly said that the reality of the Egyptian cave, 7, 1879. 8 Joseph Miller, editor, The Arizona Story in the Grand Canyon, “It is never they are denying the existence of the (New York: Hastings House, 1952), p 320. fully daylight, except for a few brief spiritual world; they become symbols No specific date given for articles. minutes at midday…No one knows of the secular worldview, and targets 9 Hoaxipedia. 10 Quoted in an unpublished biography by what immeasurable mineral wealth for longstanding hostility against it. Keven McQueen. is hidden in the canyon’s walls and The Egyptian cave story has taken 11 Miller, op cit, p 321-22. every year venturesome prospectors on such momentum that it seems 12 Miller, op cit, p 323. 13 Miller, op cit, p 316-319. go into those gloomy depths seeking likely to become a permanent part 14 Hoaxapedia. the treasures that they guard. These of the esoteric universe. It is rapidly 15 quoted in the article “Avatars of the men, through some sudden rise mutating into more exotic forms. Almighty” by Harold Bulle, Cosmopolitan, Volume 47, 1909, page 201. of water, or for some other reason, For example, one website chronicles 16 David Starr Jordan, The Grand Canyon of infrequently lose their lives in trying the channeled wisdom of Archangel Arizona, (Chicago: Passenger Department to escape from the canyon. Most of Metatron, Lord of Light. Metatron of the Santa Fe, 1906), p 88. 17 quoted, without further reference, in Curtis them, I fancy, go mad with hunger or tells us that the Grand Canyon cave MacDougall, Hoaxes (New York: Dover die in trying to scale the precipices.” is not Egyptian, but was built by the Publications, 1958), p 44-45. This, then, is the milieu that inspired people of Atlantis, and is part of a 18 Keven McQueen, unpublished biography. 19 Childress, op cit, p 322. the Egyptian cave story. planet-wide network of tunnels the www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 11 Spread the Word — Join the Grand Canyon Historical Society!

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