Smithsonian Cover-Up in The Grand Canyon? Ancient Egyptian City Found (Ep 118)

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
Strange mysteries, unexplained phenomena.
And the shadows in between.
This is The InBetween Official Podcastwith your host,
Carol Ann!
In 1909.
A shocking newspaper story claimsan explorer found

(00:37):
an ancient Egyptian city hiddendeep in the Grand Canyon.
Mummies, artifacts and mysteries.
Right in the heart of America.
Even the Smithsonian Institutiongot involved.
Then, just as quickly,the Smithsonian said never happened
and stonewalledanyone who asked questions.
And the explorer?

(00:57):
he was never heard from again.
Welcome to The InBetween.
I'm Carol Ann, and today we are exploringthe deep, dark recesses of the legend...
(cover-up?)
of Kincaid's Cave.
March 12th, 1909.

(01:18):
A small blurb is printed in the Fridayevening edition of the Arizona
Gazette newspaper.
It pretty much just says thatthis guy named Kincaid from Lewiston,
Idaho, took a boat down from GreenRiver, Wyoming,
where he started in October, to Yuma,Arizona.
That's almost 1500 miles of river.

(01:38):
Pretty impressive.
And it says he's only the second manto make the trip.
After brief mention of Mr.
Kincaid unearthing some interestingarcheological discoveries,
the article states that other than losingan oar along the way, he enjoyed the trip
so much he wants to do it againnext winter with friends.
But on April 5th, 1909,the Avid Gazette readers

(02:01):
would see a follow up articlethat's a little more in-depth.
Turns outthere's a little more to the story.
Now, just to note here
that since these articles are publishedonly about three weeks apart,
I am assuming that they are talkingabout the same trip,
since I think it's highly unlikelythat Mr.
Kincaid could have traveled
back up the Colorado Riverto the east end of the Grand Canyon

(02:23):
and floated his way backdown to Yuma again in that time frame.
It's not like going down the waterslide and running back to get in line
for another run.
The second, more detailed versionof the trip goes something like this.
G.E.'s trip is not just for the fun of it.
He's actuallyon a mineral prospecting tour.
So as he's floating along, he'scontinually scanning

(02:46):
the sides of the river canyonsfor signs of mineral deposits.
Floating his way through Marble Canyon,which is towards the east
end of the 270 mile long Grand Canyon,
he spies a change in the rock coloration
that could signalan area of mineral deposits.
So he stops his boat,climbs out, and starts making his way up

(03:09):
the 2000ftto where he saw the change in the rock.
As he gets higher, he discovers some stepsthat have been chiseled into the rock.
That's a bit unexpected.
He keeps climbing until he comes upto the entrance of a cave.
Chisel marks on the insidecave walls pique his curiosity.

(03:30):
He’s not sure what to expect,so he draws his gun and goes in.
During that trip, I went back severalhundred feet along the main passage
till I came to the cryptin which I discovered the mummies.
One of theseI stood up and photographed by flashlight.
The main passageway is about 12ft wide,

(03:51):
narrowing down to nine feettoward the far end.
About 57ft in from the entrance,he finds the first set
of these side passagesthat go off to the right and the left.
And off of those side passagesare a bunch of rooms about the size
of a living room,but some are as big as 30 by 40ft.

(04:12):
And these passages are as straightas any modern engineer could build.
But that's not all.
Over 100ft from the entrance is the CrossHall, several hundred feet long,
in which are found the idolor image of the people's god,
sitting cross-legged with a lotus floweror lily in each hand.

(04:35):
The cast of the face is oriental,and the carving this cavern,
the idol, almost resembles Buddha, though
the scientists are not certain as to whatreligious worship it represents.
Taking into considerationeverything found thus far, it is possible
that this worship most resemblesthe ancient people of Tibet.

(04:57):
He found enameled and glazed pottery
and vases and urns and cupsmade of copper and gold.
He found what looked to be grainery
12ft high,that you could only enter from above,
with copper hooks on the edges,so you could lower a ladder.
And they still had seeds in them.
He found some kind of gray metal, similarto platinum, and rooms

(05:22):
that had remnants of what looked to bethe metal smelting process.
Now keep in mind those cups and urnsmade of copper and gold
and the gray metal as well.
Those things would have had to have beensmelted for them to take those shapes.
Copper smelting started in the FertileCrescent civilizations around 5000 BC,

(05:42):
but wasn't a thing in the Americasuntil the European settlers
brought that technologywith them in the 17th century.
Yet Mr.
Kincaid also finds weaponssharp edged and hard as steel.
The tomb or cryptin which the mummies were found,
is one of the largest of the chambers.

(06:02):
The walls slanting back at an angleof about 35 degrees.
On these are tiers of mummies.
Each one occupying a separate hewn shelf.
At the head of each is a small bench,
on which is found copper cupsand pieces of broken swords.
Some of the mummies are covered with clay

(06:24):
and all are wrapped in a bark fabric.
And interestingly enough,
the cups and stuff that are sittingin front of the mummies toward
the bottom are simple and kind of crude,for lack of a better term.
But as the rows get higher,the items get more refined.
Like their skills at metalsmithingare getting better over time.

(06:46):
Also, all of the mummies are men.
No women or childrenin this particular section, leading G.E.
to speculate that these must have been
the warriors,the protectors of the other inhabitants.
Another room he finds measures 40ft wide
by 700ft long.
The only thing that's in itare tools that look like cooking utensils,

(07:09):
leading him to guessthat maybe it was a giant dining hall.
That's a big dining hall.
Then he finds another huge chamberthat turns out to be like the hub
of a wheel, a central pointfrom which radiate tons more passageways.
By the time he's done, G.E.

(07:29):
estimates that he has discoveredseveral hundred rooms.
Given the massive sizeof this network of caverns, Mr.
Kincaid estimates that upwards of 50,000people could have lived
comfortably in this cliffsidecondo complex.
But with all of these discoveries,he does not find any animal bones

(07:52):
or animal skinsor any other kind of clothing or bedding
that would give him any kind of clueas to who these people were.
If only they had written something down.
They did.
Too bad we can't read it.
On all the urns or walls over doorwaysand tablets of stone
which were found by the imageare the mysterious hieroglyphics.

(08:16):
The key to which the Smithsonian Institutehopes yet to discover.
The engraving on the tablesprobably has something to do
with the religion of the people.
Similar hieroglyphics have been foundin southern Arizona.
Interestingly enough,walking through hundreds of feet of dark
passageways and finding large roomsfilled with dead people,

(08:39):
none of that seemed to bother G.E.
except one dark unventilated room.
There is one chamber of the passagewayto which is not ventilated,
and when we approached it, a deadly snakysmell struck us.
Our light would not penetrate the gloom
and until stronger ones are available.

(08:59):
We will not know what the chambercontains.
Some say snakes,but others boo hoo this idea
and think it may contain a deadly gasor chemicals used by the ancients.
They don't hear anything.
For some odd reason, whatever light he had
didn't seem to want to penetratethe darkness of that particular room.

(09:21):
Having no canaryto send into the coal mine, as it were,
he decided to leave this one room alone,
noting that the entire placefelt very heavy and creepy.
So after wandering around and checkingthings out for Lord knows how long, Mr.
Kincaid takes a bunch of pictures,gathers up some of the more interesting

(09:42):
artifacts, loads them on his boat,and keeps on trucking down the river.
I gathered a number of relics,which I carried down the Colorado to Yuma,
from whence I shipped them to Washingtonwith details of the discovery.
And the people at the
Smithsonian in Washingtonmust be mighty impressed by what G.E.
sends them,

(10:02):
because they immediately make plans,under the direction of Professor S.A.
Jordan,to send down another 30 or 40 people
to explore the caverns even further.
And as you would expect
from any operation that includesany aspect of the government,
the article in the Gazette also includesa very firm statement from Mr.

(10:24):
Kincaid.
First, I would impress that the cavernis nearly inaccessible.
The entrance is 1486ft down the sheercanyon wall.
It is located on government landand no visitor will be allowed
there under penalty of trespass.
The scientists wish to work unmolested

(10:46):
without fear of archeological discoveries
being disturbed by curio or relic hunters.
A trip there would be fruitless
and the visitor would be sent on his way.
So we're having a partyand you're not invited.
And guess what?
That cave party is still goingon, and you're still not invited.

(11:07):
Fun fact.
Of the 270 miles of the Grand Canyon,only 120 of it
has been explored for possible caves.
And of that 120 miles,there are upwards of a thousand caves.
But of that thousand caves, only 30have been really explored and mapped.
One of those caves is 40 miles deep.

(11:30):
That tells mewe have a whole lot of exploring to do.
Who knows what we may find.
We already have found evidenceof another unknown group
of cave dwellers that are being calledthe Stick People, because they left behind
these little stick peopleof all different sizes
that have been carbondated to at least 3000 years old.

(11:52):
So who knows what else has beensitting there waiting to be discovered.
And many of these cavesthat have been mapped are now
fitted with bars at the entrance,so no one can get in.
Supposedly this is a measureto protect the habitat of different bats.
I don't know about you,
but I think bats are doing okayfor themselves in the world.

(12:15):
But lest maybe two dismissive,I looked it up.
There are only two bat speciesin the entire American
Southwestthat are on the endangered species list.
The Mexican Long Nosed Batand the Lesser Long Nose Bat.
Well,that name is kind of a self-esteem killer.
The Mexican long nose batlives in the southwest,

(12:36):
but not near the Grand Canyon.
And the Lesser Long Nose Bat,which does live around the Grand Canyon,
has made a comeback and is about to betaken off the endangered species list.
So I think the bats got this.
Why go to such great lengths to protectbat caves that are basically inaccessible
anyway, for batsthat don't need protecting?

(12:58):
Which brings me to my next question.
If the cave is there,why is no one else found it yet?
Answer?
Because it's basically inaccessible.
Seems like it shouldn't be hard.
If one person found it, then by nowsomeone else should have, too.
However, consider thatscaling down the walls of the canyon

(13:19):
at that point is almost impossible.
Water is very heavy to carry with youwhen you're climbing.
So you're not going to carrythat much of it.
So by the time you get downfar enough to get to the height
that the cave is supposed to be at,you're already out of water.
Now, I would have thoughtthat anyone looking for the cave
would go by boat, just like Kincaid did.

(13:42):
But now, to go down that sectionof the river requires winning the lottery.
Literally.
They have a lottery drawing each yearto hand out permits
for anyone wanting to make the trip.
And it could take yearsbefore your name comes up.
And it's not a short trip.
It takes daysjust to get to that section of the canyon

(14:05):
where the cave is supposed to be.
Then it can take weeksto traverse the rest of the river,
because there is no other placeto get out for hundreds of miles.
Not to mention that you must be certifiedfor class five rapids,
because the river gets a little crazyalong the way.
All that to say that getting thereby boat is not as easy as it sounds.

(14:29):
Now there are a couple of guysnamed Rex Bear from LeakProject.com
and Jared Murphy from NotAliens.com
who've been studying the arealooking for the cave for a while now.
And on one of their trips,they start out with two cars,
leaving one in a public parking lotand loading
all of their gear into their super duperfour wheel drive Jeep.

(14:52):
Because out in this area,there are no real roads,
so you can only get aroundwith a four wheel drive vehicle.
And they're out there just poking around,seeing what they can see in the area
right over the areathat the cave is supposed to be in.
One of the things that they haveis a camera with a super telephoto lens.

(15:13):
And what do they spy?
A black Apache helicopter with gun turretslooking their way.
Okay, interesting.
And duly noted.
at the end of the day,
they get back to the parking lotand pick up their other car,
and there are three frat boylooking dudes in khakis
all standing around a carpretending to be on their phones.

(15:37):
All three of themkeep throwing glances at Rex and Jared
while they're unloading their gear.
Then Rex and Jared look likethey're getting ready to go,
and the three frat boysstart getting ready to go.
But Rex and Jared don't go.
So the frat boys don't go.
These three guys hang out until Jaredand Rex finally leave the parking lot.

(15:59):
They said these guys were so obviousit was laughable.
But why?
Jared rolled out a theorythat maybe it has something to do
with the uranium in the area.
Did you know that there are over 500 open
uraniummining permits for the Grand Canyon area?
But whatexactly did they think is going to happen?

(16:20):
Two guys with backpacksfull of snacks and water and a really big
camera are going to go dig a hole
with their bare handsand find a big old nugget of uranium.
I don't think it works that way.
But between the helicopter surveillance
and the stooges, who drew the shortstraws in the parking lot,
it's pretty obvious that the governmentis still protecting something.

(16:44):
Now, I wish I could say that'sthe end of the story, but you know that
we here at the in between always have tolook at the flip side of the coin,
whether we like it or not.
I gotta say,I don't like the other side of this coin.
Mostly because of one man, Joe Mulhatton.
See, as I was looking for any otherfollow up newspaper articles on G.E.

(17:08):
Kincaid,I found this story from the Coconino
Sun on April 16th, 1909.
The reported discovery
of a mammoth underground cityof an ancient race in the Grand Canyon
seems to be a splendidpiece of imagination sent out
by some Manhattan ized individual.
Well,what does that mean to be Mulhattonized?

(17:30):
So, of course I had to look it up.
And I gotta tell you, I'm starting to fallmore and more in love with history
every day.
Fun tangent.
To be Mulhattonized
is to fall under the influenceof the aforementioned Joe Mulhatton.
Who is Joe Mulhatton?
One of the greatest hoaxersto have ever lived.
Joe was a hardware salesman.
The kind of guy that would give you

(17:51):
the shirt off his back,and that everybody loved.
But evidently,hardware sales aren't exciting enough
because his favorite pastime for over40 years was tricking newspapers
into printing his fantastical stories asreal news events, just for the fun of it.
Starting around 1870 and going all the waythrough the early 1900s,

(18:15):
Joe would send stories into newspaperswith tall tales,
including stories like George Washington'sbody is now petrified,
or a little girl who tied a bunchof helium balloons around her waist
and floated up into the sky,only to be saved by a sharpshooter
who popped the balloons one by oneuntil she came safely back to the ground.

(18:38):
Or my personal favorite,
the magnetic cactus that had enoughpull Come to try pulling us in.
to attract everything from lizardsto cowboys and impale them on its cactus
spikes, and quickly dissolve the bodieswith its digestive juices.
In 1883,when Joe was just getting started,

(19:00):
the American Antiquarian and OrientalJournal
thought it prudent to issue a warningto archeologists.
Joe Manhattan is a characterof some interest to archeologists.
His residence is in Kentucky,and his business
is to invent marvelous stories or lies.
He has invented seven storiesabout finding big caves,

(19:21):
Masonic emblems,and other ridiculous things.
In 1888, Joe Mulhatton was includedin the Book of Prominent Men
and Women of the day alongside Mark Twain,
Walt Whitman, and Oscar Wilde.
In 1891, The New York Times declared.
Joe Hatton is known in every cityin the United States, and it's probably

(19:44):
caused more trouble in newspaper officesthan any other man in the country.
His wild stories, writtenin the most plausible style,
have more than oncecaused the special correspondence
of the progressivejournals of the United States to hurry
from coast to coastto investigate some wonderful occurrence
which only existedin the imagination of the great Liar.

(20:07):
This guy was so prolificand well known that,

according to the Museum of Hoaxes: During the 1870s and 1880s, (20:10):
undefined
Joseph Manhattan wasperhaps the most famous hoaxer in America.
And what were his favoriteand most famous kind of stories to tell?
Ones about discoveries of cavesfull of amazing artifacts
of great archeological significancefrom ancient civilizations.

(20:34):
He has been describedas a burlesquer of facts,
or as his friends would call him, a liar.
The most artistic, beautifuland consistent liar
ever turned loose on a nation.
In 1910, the year after the ArizonaGazette published the egyptian cave story,
it also published a fond tributeto Mulhatton

(20:56):
and his talents,regaling many of his bigger whoppers.
However, it did not mention the Egyptiancave story of just the year before.
Now, with all that being said,I did not find anywhere that good old Joe
went so far as to set up the long con,so to speak.

(21:17):
And remember that the Gazetteactually ran two stories on Guy Kincaid.
So while it could very well be a Mulhatton
set up, one-twopunch wasn't exactly his M.O.
Over the years, the legend of the lostEgyptian city within the Grand
Canyon continued to grow, and moreand more people started to investigate.

(21:38):
Peter Hay of the website Sightings.comsent a letter to the Smithsonian
asking if they had any recordsrelating to the story.
The response it got back.
The Smithsonian's Departmentof Anthropology has searched its files
without finding any mention of a ProfessorJordan Kincaid
or a lost Egyptian civilizationin Arizona.

(21:59):
Big surprise, right?
Okay.
Except that's not true.
First of all, I find it extremely hardto believe that in over 100 years
of existence that they've never employedanyone named Kincaid.
Second of all,they did employ a Professor Jordan.
Just not an S.A. Jordan.

(22:20):
They actually had a 30 year
relationship with one David StarrJordan, known
not only as the father of ichthyology,The study of fish.
But also as a founderof Stanford University.
They knew this guyso well that they offered him
the jobs of National Museum Directorand Smithsonian Secretary, more than once.

(22:44):
Not to mentionthat he had been on expeditions down
the Colorado Riverbefore, in 1889, with one T Kincaid.
A trip about which Jordan himselfpublished many articles.
So why not mention this guy?
Well, they may not want to calltoo much attention to that relationship,

(23:04):
considering that David StarrJordan turned out to be a racist
eugenicistwho helped cover up a murder in Hawaii.
Ooh, didn't really see that one coming.
So we have a T. Kincaid versus a G.E.
Kincaid, and a D.S.
Jordan versus an S.A. Jordan.
Interesting coincidence.

(23:25):
Almost too coincidental.
Is it possible that maybe the newspaperjust got the initials wrong?
Maybe.
Or maybe good old Joe
Mulhatton remembered reading the articleswritten by D.S.
Jordan a few years earlier,
and just used those namesto give more credibility to his hoax.

(23:45):
Unfortunately,that's a possibility as well.
Another thing that the proponents
of the legend often pointto as corroborating evidence,
is that many of the landmarks in the areacarry Egyptian names,
such as the Isis Temple,the Osiris Temple, and the Tower of Ra.
I gotta admit, it kind of had meraising my eyebrow at first, too.

(24:07):
However, a lot of those monumentswere named by a guy named John Wesley
Powell who went through the canyon in 1869
and 1872, on geological expeditions.
And just for extra context,people in America
were in the middle of an Egyptology crazeright around that time.

(24:27):
And Powell didn't just use Egyptian names.
He also named things for other cultureslike the Venus,
Vishnu, and Zoroaster temples.
And this last point on the not trueside of the ledger,
just my own personal observation.
After looking at all of the mapsand the pictures and stuff,
the spot where the article saysthis cave is supposed to be, in Marble

(24:51):
Canyon, is at a spot where the distancefrom the top of the canyon
to the canyon flooris somewhere around 3,500ft.
So Kincaid would have had to climbfrom the canyon floor
up 2,000 feet.
Well,here are some pictures of that exact area
from Rex and Jared and their super dupertelephoto lens camera.

(25:14):
Looking at the walls of the canyon.
I just find it really hard to believethat a 2000ft climb
is even possiblewithout tons of climbing gear.
Now, maybe since Kincaidwas using this trip
as a prospecting trip,maybe he had that kind of gear on him.
But takes a whole lot of ropeto climb 2000ft.

(25:35):
I guess it's possible.
But even with all of this information,I still have one more question.
Given the massive sizeof the network of caverns, Mr.
Kincaid estimates that upwards of 50,000
people could have lived there comfortably.
So where did these people go?

(25:56):
Maybe they're still here.
It is a Hopi Indian legendthat their ancestors
once lived in an underworldin the Grand Canyon,
until fightingbroke out between the good and the bad -
the people of one heartand the peoples of two hearts.
Machetto,the chief of the good people of one heart,

(26:19):
told his people,we have to leave the underworld.
But there was no way out.
The chief then caused a tree to grow up
and pierced the roof of the underworld.
So the people of one heart climbed out.
They lived and worked on the ColoradoRiver and grew grain and corn.
They sent out a messengerto the temple of the sun,

(26:41):
asking the blessing of peace, goodwill,
and rain for the people of one heart.
That messenger never returned.
But when he does their lands, an ancientdwelling place will be restored to them.
So to this day, the old men of the Hopi
tribe can be seen at sundown,standing on top of their houses,

(27:02):
looking toward the sun, watching
and waiting for that messenger to return.
As usual, I'm on the fence on this one.
The hoaxer, Joe Mulhatton, just seems like
the logical sourcefor the story in the newspaper.
But then again,if there isn't anything there,

(27:24):
why send the goon squad to babysiteveryone who's
just there trying to solve the mystery?
The original Arizona Gazette articlethat started this whole legend does go
a little bit more in-depth, soif you'd like to read it in its entirety,
we have a link to a copy of itin the description below.
And if you found this topic fascinating,
I highly suggestyou watch this video next.

(27:47):
You'redefinitely not going to want to miss it.
Seriously, go check it out!
And as always, be careful out there
and I will see youhere again on The InBetween.
Thanks for tuning into The InBetween Podcast.
Enjoy the full visual experiencewith me over on YouTube.

(28:08):
Just search for @TheInBetweentales.
I'm Carol Ann,and until next time, be careful
out there.