Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries by Brian Haughton (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

the Grand Canyon: Hidden Egyptian Treasure?

Photograph by Scott Catron (GNU Free Documentation License).

View of Grand Canyon from Tiyo Point, North Rim.

On April 5th, 1909, an anonymous front-page story appeared in the Phoenix newspaper the Arizona Gazette, with the title "Explorations in the Grand Canyon." The article described a Smithsonian Institute-funded archaeological expedition "under the direction of Prof. S. A. Jordan" accompanied by an explorer in the service of the Smithsonian named G.E. Kinkaid. The Gazette claimed that the team had found a vast underground citadel within the Grand Canyon which was "not only the oldest archaeological discovery in the United

States, but one of the most valuable in the world."

Kinkaid's narration of the discovery in the Gazette described how he made the discovery while traveling alone in a wooden boat down the Colorado River from Green River, Wyoming, to Yuma, looking for minerals. According to the article, about 42 miles up from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, (probably around Marble Canyon, in the area of the present-day Navajo Indian reservation), Kinkaid noticed "stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed." He then, with great difficulty, made his way up the canyon wall to arrive at a small cave opening, which had steps leading down from it. Kinkaid then passed through the entrance, and at a cross chamber 100 feet from the entrance, he found a carved image of a cross-legged idol, which he thought resembled Buddha and was probably of Tibetan origin. Several hundred feet along the 12 foot wide passageway he discovered a crypt containing mummies, one of which he stood up and photographed by flashlight. There were numerous side passages, rooms, and various artifacts, including copper tools, urns, and cups of copper and gold, enamelled and glazed pottery vessels, engraved yellow stones strewn all over the floors, and an unknown grey metal resembling platinum. He also found hieroglyphics, which he believed were of an "Egyptian or Oriental type."

Kinkaid surmised that more than 50,000 people could have been comfortably accommodated within the caverns. The newspaper mentioned that some of the artifacts had been shipped off to Washington, D.C., and that the Smithsonian Institute, under the direction of Prof. S.A. Jordan, was carefully investigating the citadel. The discoveries, they claimed, "almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern.. .was of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses."

What is the truth behind this amazing story? Is there any other evidence apart from this isolated and anonymous newspaper article? If fact, there is a previous article in the same newspaper from March 12, 1909, also relat

ing to G.E. Kinkaid. The article gives a short description of Kinkaid's trip down the Colorado and mentions "some interesting archaeological discoveries" being made, but nothing is indicated of the staggering nature of these finds. For some reason, the Arizona Gazette never followed up the story. After May 1909 there is complete silence on the subject until the article was rediscovered by ancient mysteries writer David Hatcher Childress and published in the conspiracy magazine Nexus in 1993. It subsequently found its way onto the Internet, and the Egyptians in the Grand Canyon story has now been used by hundreds of Websites. Most of these are merely reprints of Childress' Nexus article, and all derive from the original newspaper story. In fact, since 1909, no further evidence at all for truth of the claims has been added to the original source.

In January 2000, researchers into the mystery contacted the Smithsonian Institution on the subject. They were told that over the years the Institution had received many inquiries about the 1909 newspaper article, but that its Department of Anthropology could find no mention in its files of a Professor Jordan, Kinkaid, or a lost Egyptian civilization in Arizona. Researchers did turn up mention of an archaeologist called Prof. S.A. Jordon, spelled with an o, not an a, but apparently he was European, not American. However, for some researchers this is proof that the entire discovery has been covered up. They point to the many unexplored caves, tunnels, and holes in the canyon and the fact that much of the area around where Kinkaid allegedly made his discovery is now government property and closed to the public. This is certainly true of the 400 foot deep Stanton's Cave, which, when excavated, was found to contain thousands of ancient Indian artifacts, and the remains of 10,000 year old giant California Condors. It is a significant archaeological and palaeontological site, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This cave, along with others in the area, is now sealed of from the public with a huge steel gate. The sinister reason behind this? To protect the colony of Townsend's big-eared bats living in the cave from being disturbed by visitors.

Another curious feature of the Grand Canyon-which appears to link it to the 1909 newspaper story-is the wide variety of oriental and Egyptian names given to many of its peaks and buttes, particularly in the area of Kinkaid's strange caverns. Around Ninety-four Mile Creek and Trinity Creek there are names such as Isis Temple, Tower of Set, Tower of Ra, Horus Temple, Osiris Temple, while in the Haunted Canyon area there are the Cheops Pyramid, the Buddha Cloister, Buddha Temple, Manu Temple, and Shiva Temple. Perhaps the mysterious origin of these names gives a clue to the location of Kinkaid's hidden treasure?

Unfortunately, the explanation for these names is far more prosaic. It comes in the form of Clarence E. Dutton, Captain of Ordnance in the U.S. Army, whose most important work, The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, appeared in 1882. It was Dutton who, noting the similarities between the Grand Canyon peaks and some of the great archi

tectural works of mankind, gave the Grand Canyon most of its exotic names. The remainder were named by Francois Matthes,