THE SECRETS OF THE MOJAVE

(Or, The Conspiracy Against Reality)

Page # 11

“Sirs… I have enjoyed your stories for many years as I have read AMAZING since the first issue back in 1928 if I remember right.

“…I think I can show you an entrance to this subterranean city that he (Shaver) has written about several issues back. Here is what happened to me and you may judge for yourself. In 1931 my mother and I took up a section of land as a cattle-raising homestead from the U.S. Government and naturally it was not a choice piece… a person who turned out to be our nearest neighbor gave us some hints and as the place was only six miles from his we stayed at his ranch until we built our house.

Then we moved into our own and all in all, we stayed there about two years before we quite; and now I will relate the things that caused us to quit, which at the time I did not know much about, but since Mr. Shaver wrote, now I know and marvel that we managed to stand two years without getting killed by these things from below.

“As a note of interest I have had to use 30,000 rounds of ammunition in the period and perhaps that is why we are still here. At night I would sit up fully dressed all night with a rifle in my hands, ready, and an extra one by my side. In about five hours after dark I would hear things moving outside the house and after a while, something would try to open the door quietly and I would wait until I saw the knob turn, then let go a clip right through the door and then pull it open and look around outside and there was nothing to be seen. After a couple of nights like that, that performance would stop and something new would be tried.

“There are too many incidents to be told in one letter, the best one was the two disappearing automobiles, which happened at about ten at night over at the neighbor’s place. It was as follows:

the neighbor and we were sitting on the porch after supper when he saw headlights come over the hill to the fence then along the fence for about half a mile, then go out and that was all that night. So next morning we went to the trail along the fence and there were tire tracks of seven-inch width tires and they went along the fence into the box canyon and right up against a smooth boulder about 20 feet in diameter and ended there.

Now the car could not turn around anywhere in that place because the road is a trail five feet wide and one side is against our neighbor’s fence, which was not damaged and the other was a steep hill that no car could even make in compound low. You know, we have a few mountains here, and as far as backing out I tried that myself in the daytime with help and I could not steer a straight enough path without crossing my other marks so they did not back out or we would have trailed them as my neighbor has lived around there since 1848 and he sure knew his tracking. We never did get an answer to the question of where did the cars go.

“The cars were very large and black and very heavy and now that I compare them they were about twenty years ahead of anything I have ever seen anywhere and I had worked in the auto business for about five years before we took up the land. They were silent, smooth, no wavering of the lights and the trail is extremely rough; in places, it has hollows a yard deep, but these cars went through at about 25 mph, and it would even wreck a jeep to do that, so you figure it out and let me know the answer if you can. By wavering of lights, I mean that the beams were steady and not flashing up and down as an ordinary car would do when a rough road is traveled.

“I have been away from there since 1933, but just about three months ago, I drove through with a friend for safety and my place is razed to the ground and everything that was made by human hands has been carried off — even the old tin cans, and the place would not be noticed unless you knew where it was. The Coast and Geodetic survey had a marker near my house in the front yard and even that is gone; who would want to take a concrete marker and carry it away?

“…after two weeks, you can hear insects running on the ground, (also) forest fires will not burn there. They burnt 250,000 acres, then burnt all around this area; and that stopped the forest rangers. They never could understand because most of it is on the slope of a mountain and it should have gone, but they saw that the wind came down and blew from the top down and blew North, South, East, and West at once and that was the only time that the wind ever blew there.

“Also you can detect an ATMOSPHERE of FEAR within 30 miles of the area and you will not get a statement from anyone who lives around there and the people in the valleys are afraid of the people in the hills. One farmer erected 20-foot barbed wire fences and a heavy gate across the road that leads to my old place. The gate would take a tank to knock down, so maybe there is something there, after all.

(Note: Richard Toronto reprinted a news article in his SHAVERTRON newsletter concerning a Krishna Sect temple that had been built on a mountain BETWEEN Hopland and Lakeport, California — the same area that Edward John refers to. This sect had come under Federal scrutiny when it was discovered that they had been stockpiling weapons for some unknown purpose. Interesting… – Branton)

“It is located 110 miles north of San Francisco in Mendocino County and is directly on the old Pieta toll road that ran between Hopland and Lakeport in Lake county of which Clear Lake is quite a summer resort. If you care to look it up on a map get a good auto road map and look due south off the road midway between towns and you will note an area with no roads bounded by Sonoma Lake and lower Mendocino counties and there is it. If you wish to go there, be sure that enough people know where you went. Maybe they will be able to find you. There have been several disappearances along that stretch of road, even trucks have vanished. All U.S. Governments.

“The U.S. Government has noted the area as rough, unsurveyable and UNEXPLORED…

“Personally I do not care to go near the place, but if there is some way of driving the things out I would help if I can so that someone else could live there safely.

“…Also, I forgot to mention there is a cave on the property that has steps leading down and there is no sound when a rock is thrown in. I have never seen it, but I understand that it is there… Also, several people (in the area) have died of heart failure and some have gone insane, I found out later.

“I think the thing that saved us was the fact that I am not surprised at anything and that I am quick to shoot and I can shoot without sighting and by ear and not having the THOUGHT of shooting fixed SO THAT the things would be warned. After that place, I was able to outshoot U.S. Marine sharpshooters. I tried competing in a match and I just never missed any target at any range. If I could see it, I could hit it, 5 out of 5. I have tried to practice machine guns at plane models and I hit 3 out of 5 at speeds up to 700 mph scale without using the sights. So the old ranch gave me something worthwhile after all.

“Due to my physical condition, I cannot get into any armed forces, so that talent is wasted, for you see I have a bad leg and cannot walk more than a mile at a time. Since I left the ranch I have been in the radio business and have not owned a gun since ’34, because as long as I stay away from there I don’t need one…”

An interesting post-script to this story. Several years following this incident, some people who had befriended Edward John stated that he claimed to know of a man who was not from this planet. He was a radio expert in the Navy and, according to Mr. John, he was born on a world with no temperate zone but where the tropics and the arctic regions were almost adjacent to each other. Still, later, others made references to Mr. John as having actually met up with the ‘space brothers‘, essentially becoming another ‘contactee‘ like those who frequented California during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Aside from the area referred to by Edward John, there are apparently other “danger zones” in different parts of the world that have been associated with underground phenomena. The ‘I.N.F.O. JOURNAL’ (box 367., Arlington, VA, 22210), a publication devoted to ‘Fortean’ research, in it’s Vol. IV, No. 2 issue related one of the most frightening and disturbing accounts of subterranean abduction that we have come across yet. The article, titled ‘MOUNTAIN OF DEATH’, was written by David D. Browne, and originally appeared in the June 1972 issue of WALKABOUT, published in Sydney, Australia:

“Black Mountain comes almost as a shock when you see it first. “Traveling by bus just south of Cooktown, North Queensland (Australia), a bend in the road suddenly discloses it and the visual impact can bring an involuntary exclamation, as you see it — black, bare and sinister, a 1,000 ft. a high pile of enormous boulders two miles long, rearing out of the rain-forest.

“This is ‘the Mountain of Death.’ Aborigines will not go near it. An ancient legend warns them of danger. White men fear it too, because of the numbers of men who have gone there and disappeared without a trace as if the earth — or the mountain — had swallowed them. Birds and animals shun the area.

“The rocks give off a curious metallic ring when struck, and the only sound is the croaking of countless frogs sheltered in the depths where the great granite boulders lie against each other.

“In Brisbane’s Public Library, a yellowing newspaper cutting tells some of the stories:

“‘Grim tragedy has been associated with the mountain ever since it has been known to the white man.

“‘Three men with horses completely disappeared at the mountain. They vanished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up, for absolutely no trace of them has ever been discovered, although police and backtrackers and hundreds of local residents scoured the mountain and surrounding country.’

“Then following (were) the names and occupations of several others who disappeared and the dates of their disappearance. The cutting continues:

“‘This constitutes one of the most amazing stories in the police history of the far north, for not one of the mysteries has been solved and probably never will be.’

“Another newspaper cutting, signed Nancy Francis, reads:

“‘The formation of these mountains is unique; their appearance grotesque. They are mountains of huge boulders full of chasms that go down to unsounded depths. Only a few rock wallabies and a few turkeys live near these grim, forbidding hills. The Aborigines regard the Black Mountains with dread.’

“In the files of the Cooktown police, dating back 25 years, there is a report made by a Sergeant of Police who discussed the mountain with a man whom he refers to as Mac. Mac began:

“‘ Know anything about Black Mountain, or so-called ‘Mountain of Death’? Its aboriginal name is Kalcajagga.’

“‘ What does it look like at close quarters?’ I asked.

“‘ Just a mass of tumbled granite blocks; hardly any vegetation. The only living things there are black rock wallabies and enormous pythons 16 feet or longer and able to swallow a wallaby whole. The ridge is honeycombed with caves, nearly all unexplored. They dip down below ground level but nobody knows their extent or what they contain.’

“The latest fatalities, he reported, had occurred only a few years earlier when two young men set out to solve the riddle of earlier disappearances in the caves. They were never heard of again. Two black trackers who tried to trace them disappeared too.

“Then Mac went back to the beginning of the mountain’s grim story.

“The first-known fatality was that of a carrier named Grayner, in 1977. He had been searching on horseback for strayed bullocks when he, with his horse and bullocks, vanished without a trace. Thirteen years later, Constable Ryan, stationed at Cooktown, tracked a ‘wanted’ man to the scrub at the foot of the mountain. Other trackers followed his trail to the entrance of one of the caves, but he was never seen again. Nor was the ‘wanted‘ man.

“More recently a gold prospector named Renn was added to the list of mysterious disappearances.

“Well-organized police teams with trackers combed the whole area for weeks without finding him.

“Then there was the case of Harry Owens, a station owner from Oakley Creek. One Sunday morning he rode over towards Black Mountain looking for strayed cattle. When he didn’t return on time his partner, George Hawkins, alerted the police then went out to look for him himself. But by the time the police joined in the search, Hawkins had also disappeared. Two of the native police trackers entered one of the caves. ONLY ONE OF THEM CAME OUT. He was so unnerved by what seemed to have been an experience of terror that he could give no clear account of what happened to them both.

“Mac even knew a white man who had penetrated the caves and lived to tell the tale and produced a newspaper cutting of his story. It read:

“‘Armed with a revolver and a strong electric torch I stepped into the opening. Like other Black Mountain caverns, it dipped steeply downwards, narrowing as it went.

“‘ Suddenly I found myself facing a solid wall of rock, but to the right, there was a passageway just large enough for me to enter in a stooping position. I moved along it carefully for several yards. The floor was fairly level, the walls of very smooth granite. The passage twisted this way and that, always sloping deeper into the earth.

“‘ Presently I began to feel uneasy. A huge bat beat its wings against me as it passed, but I forced myself to push on. Soon my nostrils were filled WITH A SICKLY, MUSTY STENCH. THEN MY TORCH WENT OUT.

“‘ I was in total darkness. It was inky black. From somewhere that seemed like the bowels of the earth, I could hear the faint moaning of bats.

“‘ I began to get panicky and I groped and floundered back the way I thought I had come. My arms and legs bleeding from bumps with unseen rocks. My outstretched hands clawed at space where I expected a solid wall and floor. At one stage where I wandered into a side passage, I came to what was undoubtedly the brink of a precipice, judging by the echoes.

“‘ The air was FOUL and I felt increasing DIZZINESS.

“‘Terrifying thoughts were racing through my mind about giant rock pythons I have often seen around Black Mountain.

“‘ As I crawled along, getting weaker and losing all hope of ever getting out alive, I saw a tiny streak of light. It gave me super strength to worm my way towards a small cave mouth half a mile from the one I had entered.

“‘ Reaching the open air, I gulped in lung fulls of it and fell down exhausted.

“‘I found I had been underground for five hours, most of the time on my hands and knees. A king’s ransom would not induce me to enter those caves again…’

“Such are some of the weird stories told of the mountain.

“These and the extraordinary structure of the mountain itself give rise to many questions, scientific and otherwise.

“On the scientific aspect, the following comments come from a member of the staff of the James Cook University of North Queensland, Dept. of Geology, Associate Professor P.J. Stephenson.

“He says, ‘I have visited and climbed the mountain concerned. It is composed of huge granite boulders covered with black lichen. The complete black surface coating may be uncommon but the boulder pile is less so. Near Chillagoe and at several other localities in north Queensland similar phenomena exist.

“‘ The occurrences are somewhat puzzling because of their relative rarity. However, they must have been produced by the rapid erosion of the ‘skeletal‘ soil profile. Many soil profiles contain fresh rock ‘kernels‘ in them and removal of the soil component would produce a boulder pile. But such removal takes place so slowly the ‘kernels‘ also weather completely…’

“There are still some practical questions to ask, however.

“What really did happen to those people who at various times in the last hundred years, have been said to disappear, vanish without a trace?

“…Any party that decides to unravel the mystery of the mountain will need to be very carefully organized and equipped to meet any hazard, likely or unlikely — not forgetting the possibility of meeting a very real python. CR: Simpson.”

At this point, we will diverge from the subject of underground disappearances and re-enter the realm of conspiracy… In apparent relation to William Copper’s allegations concerning the connections between the Kennedy assassination, MJ-12, UFO’s and so on, we have the following very interesting yet very disturbing ‘connection‘ which was related by John Keel in his book ‘OUR HAUNTED PLANET’ (1968., Fawcett Crest., Greenwich, Conn.):

“In his detailed report on the Maury Island UFO (incident) of 1947, Kenneth Arnold also describes meeting a small, dark foreign-looking man who was tinkering with the motor on a beat-up boat in TACOMA HARBOR. Ray Palmer, editor of ‘AMAZING STORIES’ in Chicago, had commissioned Arnold to investigate the puzzling Maury Island affair, which began when a ‘donut-shaped object‘ (according to other sources, one of six such craft seen at the time – Branton) had rained ‘slag‘ onto a boat near Maury Island. Pieces of that slag had killed a dog aboard the boat and slightly injured a boy, the son of Harold Dahl, who was piloting it.

Early the next morning, according to Dahl’s story, a 1947 Buick drove up to his home and a black-suited man of medium height visited him. This man, Dahl said, recited in detail everything that had happened the day before AS IF HE HAD BEEN THERE. Then he warned Dahl not to discuss his sighting to anyone, hinting that if he did there might be unpleasant repercussions that would affect him and his family. Since Dahl and the others had not yet told anyone of their sighting, and since UFOs were still publicly unknown (Arnold’s sighting over Mount Rainier and the attendant publicity did not occur until three days later), Dahl was naturally nonplused by his strange visitor. This was the first modern MIB report (although Edward John might disagree… – Branton).

THE SECRETS OF THE MOJAVE Page #12