#23 — Pages 46-49 of the Aug. 1958 issue of “SEARCH” magazine carried the following article by Jim Wentworth, titled – “THE MARGARET ROGERS STORY”:
“…Few students of the ‘Shaver Mystery’ would find the story of Margaret Rogers uninteresting. For it was she who wrote a booklet in 1947 called ‘BEGINNING’ – which told, in seventy-seven pages, of her personal experiences in the ancient underground caverns that Richard Shaver claims exist to this day, for the most part in secret.
“Margaret was also responsible for the true story ‘I Have Been In The Caves’ which appeared in the January 1947 issue of AMAZING STORIES.
“Her story began on January 8, 1930, when she was thirty-nine years old. As an American drug addict, unemployed, living in Mexico City in misery and despair, she prayed to be freed of her enslavement.
“On this day, a sympathetic and kindly friend, Doc Kelmer of the Electro Therapy Institute, took her in hand.
“As he had on other occasions, he gave her some money for food, clothing, hotel, etc. Later the following night, he met her, and in his car drove her past the city limits on the road leading to Cuernavaca.
“When Margaret became violently sick, he gave her a small vial to drink. She did so, falling asleep immediately.
“Still later, upon awakening in a motionless car, she found herself in mountainous country lit by a brightly shining moon. The car was close to a mass of greenery that grew at the foot of a tall cliff.
“Margaret thought the spot was near Ixtaccihuatl.
“Doc Kelmer stood quietly touching the foliage. Once more Margaret was overcome by nausea. After the (nausea) attack, Doc came to her side, talked briefly, and returned to the foliage. With upraised arms, he wailed (rather than spoke) a few words. Then a startling thing happened. The whole mass of greenery slid to one side, revealing a large opening. Margaret followed the middle-aged man inside, oddly unafraid.
“The opening closed, and a queer bluish light filled the cave. Events moved swiftly then. But to Margaret, it was all so vague. As though ordered, she made for a large block of black marble beside one of the cave’s walls and lay down upon it.
“She felt herself float above cool, green waters, watching strangely-colored denizens at play, unable to descend for quite some time. She finally submerged beneath the water. The sensation of drowning was never felt. Then — utter oblivion. Once or twice, as in a dream, she saw that she was in a vast room, lying on a table of some sort. Many giant figures surrounded her. Under a soft, lavender light, Margaret felt heavenly relief from the pains she had known for so long.
“Again came the feeling of floating. And, again, came the hazy realization that she lay unclothed on a table with one of the giants bending over her. When fully awake, Margaret thought for a moment that death had truly claimed her. In wonder, as she lay in a fur-covered bed fifteen feet long and nine feet wide, she looked about the room in which she was present, a spacious room with appropriately huge furniture where everything was seemingly made of silvery metal.
“Now free of pain, feeling clean (and weak), Margaret was given a jolt when she received a visitor in the person of a strangely attired female giant, strikingly beautiful.
“Given food, and told the date — January 15, 1930 — as well as the fact that she had for days been taking the ‘cure,’ Margaret learned that she had not dreamed of the giant figures about her when she had arrived in the caverns. For later she met those very same giants (or surgeons, to give them their proper name) who had cured her of the drug habit and its ruinous results on her system.
“Margaret Rogers saw many amazing things; learned much; met many of the cavern people who were all very kind to her. She noticed many articles of surface manufacture; examined wondrous machines of the underworld; saw evidence of how a badly hurt surface man, with one eye blinded for fifteen years, was made completely well again in two hours by the miraculous science of the wise people below (This man had accidentally fallen down a shaft while exploring the ‘Cave De Los Vientos’ [‘Cave of the Winds’], where he was found unconscious by the subterranean inhabitants).
“Reduced to our size scientifically, Margaret was told that many cavern people live on the surface in large numbers, being scientists, doctors, lawyers, judges, even higher in the government.
“Days passed…
“Babies were seen as big as ten-year-old surface children. Cavern children at that age were noted to be Margaret’s height of five-feet-five. The method of locomotion in the underworld was a vehicle that was wheel-less and without motors, torpedo-shaped and two-seated. In what manner were they propelled over the perfectly smooth roads? Simply by — thought!
About 2,000 miles was covered in less than two hours on one occasion.
“She learned further that the caverns are visited by Venusians in space ships, for the people below (who by the way call themselves the ‘Nephli’) have colonies all over the universe.
“All the stars and planets as large as Earth, or larger, have life in humanoid form. None of this four-legged, green-colored intelligence so popular in science fiction. Animals, on the other hand, are more varied.
“…More time passed for Margaret Rogers. For her, it was a happy period. Horror and fear never once marred the scene.
“I might mention here the fact that certain underworld territory was forbidden. Margaret never had the reason explained to her.
“Before leaving for her return to the surface, she was told she would come back to the caverns in twenty years.
“Now, let us check back to the September 1946 issue of AMAZING STORIES where a letter was printed by a Mrs. D.C. Rogers of 117 Devine Street, San Antonio 3., Texas -– evidently the same Margaret Rogers who wrote the booklet BEGINNING.
“Here, in the letter, she touches briefly on her experiences in the immense caves of the underworld. A few important facts are mentioned.
- Margaret Rogers ‘disappeared strangely and appeared just as strangely after three years.’ (Having entered the caves in January of 1930, she, therefore, departed sometime in 1933).
- ‘I was born here'(in the U.S.A.) ‘but had lived in Mexico City since I was ten years old.’
- ‘I shall go back (to the underworld) when I am sixty years of age, three years from now.’ (Figuring it out, by her own admission, Margaret was thirty-nine in the year 1930 when first she found herself in the caves.) With her published letter in AMAZING STORIES in 1946, she should have been fifty-five. 1951, then, would have been the year of her second disappearance below. For then she would be sixty.
“Since I have known the story of Margaret Rogers for more than ten years, I have often wondered about her. Did she vanish in 1951 as she had prophesied? I never did find the answer.”
*******