It's Listener Request Time! This episode was requested by Jeremy as we do an investigation into a photo showing a 9 foot tall giant mummy. Who is this mummy? What does it have to do with a mysterious cave system in Death Valley? What about all the mysterious disappearances tied to the efforts to find the underground cities full of gold there? Join us today as we curl through catacombs and abandoned mine shafts in search of something under this world!
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Music Credit:
"Overheat" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Main Theme:
"Dream Catcher" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Episode 21: Mystery or Mirage?: The Hidden Cities of Death Valley
- Hello and Welcome to The Odder podcast. I’m your host Madison Paige and it’s time for another round of listener requests! Today we were sent a picture and asked to investigate and it will take us to deep caverns, mysterious disappearances, and mummies that could try out for the Lakers. Today on the Odder we are talking about The Hidden Cities of Death Valley and the Mummies that may lay within! I hope no one's claustrophobic as we go deep into the tight twists of the tunnel. So grab your head lamp and take a deep breath and lets go!
- Good Evening, Good Morning, or Good Midnight, my Otters. How is everyone doing today?For the returning listeners, welcome back, for the new listeners, welcome welcome to The Odder podcast where we are a trail mix bag of all things unknown, unsolved, and just plain odd. And just like all trail mixes, there is just never enough M&Ms. I hope we all had a wonderful thanksgiving and a great turkey nap after dinner. So what did you think of last week's episode? Joel Guy Jr was a real…something. I hope you all enjoyed the episode and if you really enjoyed it or if you didn't, please leave a rating and review, they really do help! Today is a special special special day as it is time for another listener request! My Favorite Episode to do! Today is especially special as the listener who requested is my own sweet baby brother. One of the biggest supporters of my show who got to skip to the head of the line! Jeremy, this is for you buddy! He actually sent me a picture and asked me to do a breakdown on it and I am more than happy to do so! Those that saw my sneak peek will have seen the picture. If you haven't seen the sneak peek or don't follow us on social media, hit us up and I’ll also repost the pic as well. And I do take requests for episodes so if you want your own personalized episode, you can send me an email at theodderpod@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you and know what you want to hear from me! Now, as I said in the opener, we are heading out to Death Valley to do some spelunking in hopes of finding mummies and what one newspaper called The Lost City Of Atlantis.
- On July 10th, 1913, the US Weather Bureau recorded a record high temp of 134 degrees Fahrenheit. To date, this remains the highest Ambient air temperature ever recorded. And where was this scalding pan of a temperature taken? Right in California’s own Death Valley. The setting for many an action movie, Death Valley is technically a graben meaning it is a downdropped block of land between two mountain ranges. This Valley is host to several different ecosystems and according to legend, may be hiding a secret city underground filled with riches and gold that once found is never located again. That many a man has mysteriously disappeared in search of and may be laying undisturbed to this day.
- In August 1947, The Los Angeles Transportation Club was sitting comfortably listening to a lecture from a man named Howard E Hill when things took quite a turn. Hill began to regale his captive audience with the reported discovery of a secret underground city by a man named Dr. F. Bruce Russel. Dr. Russel was a retired Physician from Ohio and he, along with his colleague Dr. Daniel S. Bovee accidentally made the discovery of their lifetime. Russel had moved to california for his health and in his new occupation as a retired man, decided to check out local mining opportunities. While Russel was sinking a shaft for a mining claim, he accidentally tumbled into a cave after the soil came loose. Dusting himself off, Russel realized that the cave was actually part of a catacomb of tunnels that snaked in all different directions.
- Russel soon summoned Bovee who joined him in exploring the caverns and the men were shocked to find mummified remains in one of the tunnels. These mummies were said to be giants. Preserved bodies measuring in at a whopping 8-9 feet tall. These mummies were clothed in medium length jackets and trousers that ended above the knee. The clothes were made of an unidentifiable material that the men compared to gray dyed sheepskin. They surmised the animal that was used to make the clothes was likely extinct.
- In the room with these mummies, the men also discovered artifacts that ranged from Egyptian to Native American in design and noticed strange Hieroglyphics chiseled into the granite walls. They believed they had found the tomb of a king.
- Exploring further, the men came across what they would describe as a ritual hall. In this space, they found more artifacts and markings as well as well-preserved remains of animals including Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Saber-tooth Tigers.
- As Hill described this fantastical tale, he revealed that Russel personally told him that he and Bovee had only touched the very surface of the cave network. They believed there were at least 32 tunnels that ran for 180 square miles across Death Valley and into Nevada. That is Roughly the size of the entire city of Albuquerque.
- Members of the club were enthralled and soon spread the story to the newspaper who ran titles like “Lost Land of Atlantis located in Southland” and “Prehistoric Giants Found in Western Desert by Former Cincinnatian”. It was the gab of dinner tables and barber chairs to those who devoured the story straight from the press. Professional Archaeologists, however, were a little more skeptical.
- Los Angeles County Museum came sliding in on their fun-ruining scooter to point out that Dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers appeared on earth 10-13 million years apart and although Dr. Russell tried to get an expedition together to validate his claims, but no professional was interested enough to engage with him.
- Facing down impossible odds but determined to prove his story, Dr. Russel instead rounded up a group of investors and created a corporation called “Amazing Explorations, Inc” which was a very American thing for him to do. “You don't wanna look for my dino bones, fine, i’ll start a whole damn company to do it” Blows raspberry. He intended to go back down into the caves, retrieve the artifacts and bring his discovery to the world. Not to mention making a tidy profit. However, Mother Desert was not on Russels side and he was unable to ever locate the location of the cave again. Following the disheartening loss of the location of the underground city, Russel Disappeared. No trace was found of him for months before his car appeared abandoned in a remote area of Death Valley with a busted radiator and his suitcase still in the back. Dr. F. Bruce Russel was never found. Dr. Bovee also vanished without a trace. These two men would only be the beginning of the tales of the underground city.
- Many years later in the 1920’s a prospector identified only by the name of White began to spread his own story of falling through the floor of an abandoned mine in the southwest corner of death valley. After bugs bunnying it through the floor he found himself in an underground tunnel. Curious, he decided it was a good idea to explore deeper and came upon a labyrinth. In this maze, he found a group of rooms housing hundreds of leather-clad human mummies surrounded by gold bars and other treasure. The rooms and tunnels were lit with a pale greenish-yellow light of unknown origin. However, this was apparently when White realized the absolute horror show he was walking in and opted not to go deeper. He claimed he returned to the tunnels and explored them two more times where he brought his wife on one visit and his prospecting partner Fred Thomason on the other.
- Honestly, it sounds like a heck of a date.
- As White’s story traveled far and wide, it reached a Paitue Indian named Tom Wilson. Wilson was a trapper and guide and after hearing of White’s find, began to tell his own tale. He claimed that his grandfather had discovered those caverns many years before. According to Wilson, his grandfather had wandered into a cave that connected to numerous tunnels and large rooms beneath the valley floor. His grandfather explored for miles and came upon an underground city where he met a group of fair-skinned people that spoke in an unrecognizable language and wore leather like clothing. This subterranean city had horses, ate strange food the likes of which his grandfather had never seen before, and their entire city was illuminated by a pale greenish-yellow light. The grandfather rushed home to tell his people of his discovery but was met with disbelief. All except for his grandson, Tom, who wholeheartedly believed him. White and Wilson met and the prospector agreed to lead him and a group of archeologists to the entrance of his tunnel. Unfortunately, despite having returned there multiple times, on this trip White was unable to locate the mouth of the cave; instead they found a dead-end tunnel carved out of solid rock. Tom Wilson, however, remained a believer and would spend the rest of his life searching for the underground city until his death in 1968.
- The area that was rumored to house White’s mysterious cave has now become part of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center and is closed to the public.
- In 1932, another similar story was published in the book Death Valley Men. Author Bourke Lee tells of an underground city located in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley. He speaks of two men named Jack and Bill who were exploring near Wingate Pass when one of them, say it with me, fell through the bottom of an old mine shaft.
- Ok quick PSA. I know all these stories originate from the time before television, tik tok, or even decent conversation but why was everyone and their brother like you know what sounds fun? Prancing around in old abandoned mine shafts! Oh No, I’ve fallen through the floor because this shaft is not OSHA certified, oh well, better make like a mole in these tunnels and give it a good looks see. I mean, come on. Next time, you mammy or pappy is like “Kids, today are always on their phones” you have my complete and total permission to be like “Yeah, well at least we weren't clopping around in abandoned mine shafts”
- Anyway, so Jack and Bill fell through the mine shaft. They, like all their predecessors, thought it was a grand idea to explore and ended up in a tunnel that stretched 20 miles northward into the heart of the panamint mountains. Eventually, the two men came upon a large, underground room where ancient mummies lay perfectly preserved. These remains wore thick armbands and held gold spears. The room itself was illuminated by a system of lights fed by subterranean gasses. Along with mummies, these rooms were filled with treasures. The men described large statues of solid gold, stone vaults, drawers filled with gold bars and gemstones and a perfectly polished round table. The men also noted perfectly balanced heavy stone wheelbarrows and huge stone doors that opened with the use of counterweights.
- Quickly pillaging a few of these artifacts and treasure, the men continued on through the tunnel before it opened into a cave in the eastern slope of the Panamint Mountains. These men rushed back home, eager to show their finds to archeologists and validate their claim. Unfortunately, the men would later claim and a quote unquote friend made off with the artifacts before they could display them. They then tried to lead a team of experts to the mine opening but, as with all the other stories, could not locate it again. They would later claim that recent rain storms had altered the terrain.
- Jack and Bill were allegedly last seen preparing to climb the east face of the Panamint Mountains but were never seen or heard from again.
- So that is four disappearances and a death contributed to the search for this underground city and its gargantuan mummies. Now you might be saying, Madison, with all due respect, you’ve given me a lot of stories that all follow the same plot line, guy falls down mine shaft, guy finds underground caverns full of bodies and treasure, guy rushes to tell everybody about discovery, guy is never able to find tunnels again. How truthful are these tales?
- Well, we don’t know. But these men were not the only ones to tell of something lurking beneath the sands of the Death Valley. The Paiute also have a legend that stretched back much farther than Dr. Russel and Dr. Bovee. For centuries, they have whispered tales of the Kingdom of Shin-Au-Av. The name means God’s land or Ghost Land is sacred to the Paitue.
- According to the legend, thousands of years ago, the Paiute Chief lost his wife. Deeply grieved at her loss, he became so overcome that he was convinced that life without her just was not worth living. He became so depressed that he opted to walk his mortal body straight down to the land of the dead. Following the trail of brave native american spirits through endless underground passages, the chief undertook the long and difficult journey. Throughout this, he was plagued by evil spirits, fierce beasts, and supernatural demons. Finally, his journey was rewarded by glorious sunlight at the end of the trail. He was met by a final ordeal of crossing an extremely narrow rock bridge that arched over a bottomless canyon. However, he could see the beautiful, green meadows of the Spirit Land across the bridge and this inspired him to complete the final hurdle and enter the ghost land. He was welcomed by a beautiful maiden. She was the daughter of Shin-Au-Av and took his hand to lead him to a large natural amphitheater. There he was met with the sight of thousands of dead and happy Paiute dancing in a huge circle. Pleased at such a comforting sight, the chief could not help but bemoan his inability to spot his wife in the crowd. The Princess promised him that he would and instructed him to sit at the edge of the circle and keep watch for his wife would eventually pass by. She gave him food and drink and left him with a parting warning. “When you see your beloved wife, carry her off quickly without either of you making a backwards glance. Then travel back the way you came”
- The Chief happily agreed and waited patiently for his wife to dance by. After several days, he began to see people he had known in his life including friends and enemies. Just as he was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing his wife again, he saw her approaching. Running quickly, he spread his arms and grabbed her and the two fled the valley hand in hand, crossing the bridge over the bottomless chasm. However, at the last section, the chief turned back to get one more glimpse of the valley and suddenly found himself standing alone. His wife and the happy valley were gone. Crawling back out of the caves, he returned to his people and spent the rest of his days spreading the tales of the beauty of the Ghost Land. His legend was then passed down generation to generation for years to come.
- Now, if you are scratching your head and saying hang on this story sounds a little familiar, you’d be right. The story of a person being warned not to look back and leave with their loved one but ultimately failing and paying the price is available in pretty much every culture. Take for instance Greek mythology and the tale of Orpheus who went to the underworld to recover his wife Eurydice. Instructed to walk in front of her and not turn back, he risked a look back and lost her forever back into the Underworld. Or the Christian story of Lot and His wife, told to run from a city by an angel, they were instructed to flee and not look back. However Lot’s wife glanced back, at which point she immediately turned into a pillar of salt. This narrative is popular and present in most legends and serves as a warning not to give into temptation and to do as you're told. Is the story of the Piaute Chief true? Are any of them true? Did cavemen tell a similar fable? Who knows, it is not a question that will ever receive a definitive answer but it's a fun story nonetheless.
- So what about the giant in the picture? None of the stories tell of someone bringing one of the mummies back up. That picture actually depicts a discovery known as the San Diego Giant.
- In 1895, prospectors discovered the remains of a giant near San Diego, California. This was actually quite common and there are numerous reports of giant remains uncovered in the west. Reports put the giant at over 9 feet and believed them to be of native american origin. In 1896, a Deputy Marshal from Berkely, named Fred Rawson purchased the Mummy and put it on exhibit. He charged people to get a glimpse of the remains and this was actually a fairly common practice at the time. He showed it under the banner of the biggest human giant to have ever lived and it drew a lot of attention. So much attention that in 1908, the Smithsonian became interested. Scientists from the museum visited the mummy while it was on show in Atlanta and asked Rawson if they could take a sample of the skin. With nothing to hide, Rawson agreed. Tests were conducted and came back as Gelatin, revealing the mummy to be a fraud. Fred Rawson was spared the humiliation and considered all around to be a victim of the trick. The smithsonian ended up purchasing the mummy for 500 dollars and whisking it away, never to be seen again.
- The photo of The San Diego Giant appears on every listing about Giants in America but it has no bearing on The possibility of hidden cities under death valley. Most likely it spends its days collecting dust in a crate in a Smithsonian storage facility, never knowing how truly popular its picture has become.
- We may never know if there is truly an ancient buried city housing 9 foot tall mummies, dinosaur bones, solid gold statues, and a race of pale skinned people speaking alien language hiding under the heat of Death Valley but a legend is often worth its weight in gold. The tales of these tunnels keep us alive with hope that there is still wonder left in this world where everything is available twenty four seven and everything can be found on google. Maybe there are hidden cities in death valley or maybe it is just a figment of the imagination of men. Either way, I hope we all stay as curious as the men who saw an endless, dark tunnel into the earth and decided that was the place they wanted to explore. Stay curious, my friends, just stay out of the tunnels. You never know what you might find or what might find you.
Well, that's all for this episode. So what do you think? Do you think there's a hidden city under the valley? What do you think happened to all those men that disappeared? How are horses able to live underground? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and leave a review. The Odder Pod is now on TikTok. Come follow us there! Have a suggestion for a show? Send me an email at theodderpod@gmail.com with your request and whether you’d like me to mention your name, your alias, or nothing at all. Remember this is The Odder Side so give me something cool, creepy, or confusing to deep dive for you. If you liked the show, leave us a review! They really help! And don’t go exploring caves or tunnels or mine shafts without proper gear and safety. We are an on ground people not an underground people. It’s dangerous.The Odder Podcast posts every other Thursday. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time on The Odder side.