An article titled “PRYING INTO THE UNKNOWN”, which appeared in the April, 1963 issue of SEARCH magazine, contains an interesting account of a couple from California. The article was a monthly one written by Will Carson and Jeannie Joy. The following appears on page 22 of that issue:

   “It has always been a mystery to us in the first place how Mr. and Mrs. P.E. can find and afford the time to do the sort of things most of us only dream of doing. After knowing them for more than fifteen years, it is inconceivable to suspect their integrity or sanity – and yet they impose the following excise upon our credulity…

   “While exploring for petroglyphs in the Casa Diablo vicinity, north of Bishop, California, Mr. & Mrs. P.E. came upon a circular hole in the ground, about nine feet in diameter, which exuded a sulphurous steam and seemed recently to have been filled with hot water. A few feet from the surface 

the shaft took a tangent course which looked easily accessible and, upon an impulse with which we cannot sympathize, the dauntless E.’s, armed only with a flashlight, forth-with crawled down into that hole.

   “At a depth we’ve failed to record, the oblique tunnel opened into a horizontal corridor whose dripping walls, though now encrusted with minerals, could only have been carved by human hands, countless ages ago – of this the E.’s felt certain. The end of the short passage was blocked by what seemed to be a huge doorway of solid rock which, however, wouldn’t yield. The light of their flash was turned to a corner where water dripped from a protuberance – which proved to be a delicately carved face, distorted now by the crystallized minerals, and from whose gaping mouth the water issued.

   “As Mr. and Mrs. E. stood there in silent awe – wondering what lay behind that immovable door – the strangest thing of all happened… but our chronology will not be incorrect if we wait till they return to the surface before revealing this, for now the water began gushing from the carved mouth and from other unseen ducts else-where in that cave, and rising at an alarming rate!

Related:  1952: Strange Desert Ice Cave

   “They hurried to the surface, and in less than half an hour there was only a quiet ordinary appearing pool of warm mineral water on the desert floor.

   “’Do you know,’ Mrs. E. said to her husband, ‘while I stood down there I heard music – the strangest, most weird music I’d ever heard. But it seemed to come from everywhere at once, or inside my own head. I guess it was just my imagination.’

   “Mr. E. turned pale. ‘My God,’ he said, ‘I thought it was MY imagination, but I heard it, too – like music from some other world.’  

   “Why do they call that rock formation near where the E.’s had their strange experience Casa Diablo – the Devil’s house?  And why did the Indians name that area Inyo – dwelling place of the great spirit?”

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