Egyptian Artifacts in the Grand Canyon

The Phoenix Gazette - April 5, 1909

Remarkable Finds Indicate Ancient People Migrated From Orient:

The latest news of the progress of the explorations of what is now regarded by scientists as not only the oldest archaeological discovery in the United States, but one of the most valuable in the world, which was mentioned some time ago in the Gazette, was brought to the city yesterday by G. E. Kinkaid, the explorer who found the great underground citadel of the Grand Canyon during a trip from Green river, Wyoming, down the Colorado, in a wooden boat, to Yuma , several months ago. According to the story related yesterday to the Gazette by Mr. Kinkaid, the archaeologists of the Smithsonian institute, which is financing the explorations, have made discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited the mysterious cavern , hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses. If their theories are borne out by the translation of the tablets engraved with hieroglyphics, the mystery of the prehistoric peoples of North America, their ancient arts, who they were and whence they came, will be solved. Egypt and the Nile, and Arizona and the Colorado, will be linked by a historical chain running back to ages which staggers the wildest fancy of the fictionist.

A Thorough Investigation.

Under the direction of Prof. S. A. Jordan, the Smithsonian institute is now prosecuting the most thorough explorations, which will be continued until the last link in the chain is forged. Nearly a mile underground, almost 1480 feet below the surface, the long main passage has been delved into, to find another mammoth chamber from which radiates scores of passageways, like the spokes of a wheel. Several hundred rooms have been discovered, reached by passageways running from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another 634 feet. the recent finds include articles which have never been known as native to this country, and doubtless they had their origin in the orient. War weapons, copper instruments, sharp-edged and hard as steel, indicate the high state of civilization reached by these strange people. So interested have the scientists become that preparations are being made to equip the camp for extensive studies, and the force will be increased to thirty or forty persons.

Before going further into the cavern, better facilities for lighting will have to be installed, for the darkness is dense and quite impenetrable for the average flashlight. In order to avoid being lost, wires are being strung from the entrance to all passageways leading directly to large chambers. How far this cavern extends no one can guess, but it is now the belief of many that what has already been explored is merely the "barracks" to use an American term, for the soldiers, and that far into the underworld will be found the main communal dwellings of the families. The perfect ventilation of the cavern, the steady draught that blows through, indicates that it has another outlet to the surface.

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Mr. Kinkaid's Report.

Mr. Kinkaid was the first white man born in Idaho and has been an explorer and hunter all his life, thirty years having been in the service of the Smithsonian. Even briefly recounted, his history sounds fabulous, almost grotesque:

"First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists wish to work unmolested, without fear of hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor would be sent on his way. The story of how I found the cavern has been related, but in a paragraph: I was journeying down the Colorado river in a boat, alone, looking for mineral. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about 2000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally reached it with great difficulty. Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave. There are steps leading from the entrance some thirty yards to what was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river. When I saw the chisel marks on the wall inside the entrance, I became interested, securing my gun and went in. During that trip I went back several hundred feet along the main passage, till I came to the crypt in which I discovered the mummies. One of these I stood up and photographed by flashlight. I gathered a number of relics, which I carried down the Colorado to Yuma, from whence I shipped them to Washington with details of the discovery. Following this the explorations were undertaken.

The Passages.

The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet feet toward the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are 30 by 40 feet square. These are entered by oval shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness. The passages are chiselled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer. The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a center. The side- passages near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the rear they gradually reach a right angle in direction.

The Shrine.

Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people's god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving shows a skillful hand, and the entire is remarkably well preserved, as is everything in this cavern. The idol most resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet. Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form; others crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil. There are two large cactus with protruding arms, one on each side of the dais on which the god squats. All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble. In the opposite corner ot this cross-hall were found tools of all descriptions, made of copper. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this metal, which has been sought by chemists for centuries without result. On a bench running around the workroom was some charcoal and other material probably used in the process. There is also slag and stuff similar to matte, showing that these ancients smelted ores, but so far no trace of where or how this was done has been discovered, nor the origin or the ore.

Among the other finds are vases or urns and cups of copper and gold, made very artistic in design. The pottery work includes enameled ware and glazed vessels. Another passageway leads to granaries such as found in oriental temples. They contain seeds of various kinds. One very large storehouse has not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates that some sort of ladder was attached. These granaries are rounded, as the materials of which they are constructed, I think, is a very hard cement. A gray metal is also found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for it's identity has not been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor everywhere are what people call "cat's eyes", a yellow stone of no great value. each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type.

The Hieroglyphics

On all of the urns, or walls over doorways, and tablets of stone which were found by the image, are the mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the Smithsonain Institute hopes yet to discover. The engraving on the tablets probably has something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two animals are found. One is a prehistoric type.

The Crypt

The tomb or crypt in which the mummies were found is one of the largest chambers, the walls slanting back at an angle of 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 cups and pieces of broken swords. Some of the mummies are covered in clay, and all are wrapped in a bark fabric. The urns or cups on the lower tiers are crude, while as the higher shelves are reached the urns are finer in design, showing a later stage of civilization. It is worthy of note that all the mummies examined so far have proved to be male, no children or females being buried here. This leads to the belief that this exterior section was the warrior's barracks.

Among the discoveries no bones of animals have been found, no skins, no clothing, no bedding. Many of the rooms are bare but for water vessels. One room, about 40 by 700 feet, was probably the main dining hall, for cooking utensils are found here. What these people lived on is a problem, though it is presumed that they came south in the winter and farmed in the valleys, going back north in the summer. Upwards of 50,000 people could have lived in the caverns comfortably. One theory is that the present Indian tribes found in Arizona are descendants of the serfs or slaves of the people which inhabited the cave. Undoubtedly a good many thousands of years before the Christian era a people lived here which reached a high stage of civilization. The chronology of human history is full of gaps. Professor Jordan is much enthused over the discoveries and believes that the find will prove of incalculable value in archaeological work.

One thing I have not spoken of , may be of interest. There is one chamber of the passageway to which is not ventilated, and when we approached it a deadly, snaky smell struck us. Our lights would not penetrate the gloom, and until stronger ones are available we will not know what the chamber contains. Some say snakes, but others boo-hoo this idea and think it may contain a deadly gas or chemicals used by the ancients. No sounds are heard, but it smells snaky just the same. The whole underground installation gives one of shaky nerves the creeps. The gloom is like a weight on one's shoulders, and our flashlights and candles only make the darkness blacker. Imagination can revel in conjectures and ungodly daydreams back through the ages that have elapsed till the mind reels dizzily in space.

An Indian Legend

In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld and then the people of one heart climbed out. They tarried by Paisisvai (Red River), which is the Colorado, and grew grain and corn. They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking the blessings of peace, and good will and rain for the people of one heart. That messenger never returned, but today at the Hopi villages at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe out on the housetops gazing towards the sun, looking for the messenger. When he returns, their lands and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them. That is the tradition. Among the engravings in the cave is seen the image of a heart over the spot where it is located. The legend was learned by W. E. Rollins, the artist, during a year spent with the Hopi Indians. There are two theories of the origin of the Egyptians. One is that they came from Asia; another that the racial cradle was in the upper Nile region. Heeren, an Egyptologist, believed in the Indian origin of the Egyptians. The discoveries in the Grand Canyon may throw further light on human evolution and prehistoric ages.

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Issue #28 - Ancient American
Secret Chambers in the Rockies © 2002 
by Jared G. Barton    
   
Sometime after the turn of the last century, young George Keller and a lad named Lone Eagle were playing among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains above the farm owned by George's father near Manti, Utah. The Kellers were the descendants of freed black slaves, who migrated to the American southwest following the Civil War. 

Coming to a massive overhang, the Indian boy pointed to a hole in the mountain side and explained, "This is a special place, the Cave of the Great Spirit. My father says it is the holy place of a people who are dead, and that a great chief protects those who are buried there. My father was shown this place by his father when he was a kid. You are the only person other than our people who knows about this place. You must promise not to tell anyone of our secret! Follow me and I will show you inside." 

The friends explored the site together, and from the cave floor George picked up a few flint heads to play with in his room back home. Over the years, he kept his promise and never told anyone about the chamber guarded by the spirit of a great Indian chief. Lone Eagle eventually moved away, and George worked on the Keller farm. He lived in a hillside shed above the farm, not far from the cave of his boyhood experience, to the east. But he rarely visited the site again and took no further interest in it, until he met John Brewer, many years later.

Brewer lived with his wife in the small town of Moroni, Utah, where he did odd jobs for farmers in the area. For recreation, he collected Indian arrow-heads, and eventually assembled an impressive collection. In early spring, 1955, his numerous artifacts were displayed at the Sanpete County fair, held annually at Manti. While discussing his finds with friends at a local cafe, he was approached by a now elderly negro, George Keller, who told Brewer about a secret cave where many more arrowheads were to be found.

As Brewer recorded in his personal journal for May 10, "I went and looked for the place but I couldn't find it so I went and asked him (Keller) again where it was but all that I could get was a laugh from him. I thought that he was pulling a fast one on me so I let it go at that." Nine days later, "I went out to the Keller place and offered him some wine with the promise that he would show me the place he had told me about a while back. He said that he would not only show me the place but that we would go in!        "No wonder I couldn't find it; I was on the wrong hill. I went into the cave and found 30 arrowheads right off. I went back to the truck and thanked the man. I then asked how he came to know of the cave and he said that he and an Indian boy played there as an old hideaway."

Nearly twenty years later, I was personally introduced to John Brewer, and he told me about his discovery of the Manti cave in an area behind Temple Hill. We met at Provo, Utah, in the company of Dr. Paul R. Cheesman, head of Book of Mormon Studies in the Department of Religion at Brigham Young University. Brewer impressed me as a soft spoken, kindly man, but without much worldly experience. He told us about his encounter with old George Keller and the difficulties he experienced while locating the secluded cave.

In his search for more arrowheads at the site, he was surprised to find a set of stone steps carved into the cave floor. Clearing away some debris, he claimed the steps led to an entrance of a "tomb." Entering this chamber, he saw ten stone boxes. He opened five of them; they all contained small, metal plates inscribed with an unknown script. Nearby lay two large stone coffins.

Opening them both, he found they contained mummified human remains. One body allegedly had red hair with skin still attached to its bones, while the other was blond. The mummies were excessively large, he guessed some nine feet (!) in length.

Brewer made a sketch of the tomb, in which he claimed to have carefully catalogued the position of each plate and box. In removing the coffin lids, he noticed that the mummies were covered with a straw "like cloth." He removed the straw only from the the heads of the mummies to reveal their crown and breastplates. Shields and a sword were among other artifacts scattered about the tomb.

As proof, he showed us about sixty metal plates of various sizes and shapes. They all featured characters of a written language unknown to anyone present. At least a few of the plates, preserved by Brewer under a glass picture frame, appeared to be made of gold. Another set, possibly bronze, was encircled by a metal band some five inches square. They were bound by a small metal ring opposite the band.

The next month our meeting with Brewer took place in early March, so he agreed to take Dr. Cheesman and a team from Brigham Young University to the tomb in the near future, as soon as the snow melted. Later, Mr. Peterson said he thought Brewer "was telling the truth and most likely did not have the capacity to perpetuate such an elaborate hoax." Indeed, that was our general impression of the man, but we still wondered if Brewer would actually make good his offer to take Dr. Cheesman to the tomb. Spring and summer came and went in the Sanpete Valley, and Brewer made no effort to contact Dr. Cheesman.

But word of the inscribed tablets had already become controversial, as gossip about his mysterious discovery spread throughout Manti. Respected BYU professors Dr. Hugh Nibley and Dr. Ray Matheny met Elder Peterson, Dr. Cheesman and Brewer, who was unaware of the two scholars' high academic credentials. They were not favorably impressed with Brewer and condemned his "find" as a hoax.

Following their unsupportive reaction, an article entitled "John Brewer has a cave but he's not giving tours," appeared in the November 26, 1975 issue of Salt Lake City's Deseret News, in which Dr. Jesse Jennings of the University of Utah's Archaeology Department was quoted as saying that the sandstone tablet obtained from Brewer was a "ridiculous hoax." Jennings referred to Dr. Ray Matheny, who said he "wasted his time exposing the man's works..

.It is a clumsy attempt to perpetrate a fraudulent claim of antiquity. Only Dr. Cheesman had mixed feelings: "They could be real." But Dr. Robert Heinerman, a Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Indonesia, recalled that he had formerly lived in Manti around 1975, when he learned of the alleged artifacts. He visited Brewer at his home, in Moroni, and heard the story of finding the cave with its bizarre contents.

Unlike the BYU professors, Heinerman was more favorably impressed, and the two became close friends.Late one night, two years later, Brewer unexpectedly appeared at Heinerman's home, and suggested they go off on a midnight hike. They drove to a quarry behind Temple Hill, in Manti, then walked south from the quarry, up the hill to its top, finally across to the mountain in the east.

Suddenly Brewer stopped and told John to take off his shirt and pants, so he could squeeze into a tunnel and see the chamber they had so often discussed. Dr. Heinerman did as suggested and followed John into a tunnel that had been dug on a downward track, barely squeezing and squirming like a worm through the narrow passage. After what seemed an eternity, struggling through some thirty feet of utter darkness, they came to an opening. Reaching down with his hands, Heinerman felt the edge of stairs. These led into a chamber about twenty feet long and fourteen feet wide. The air was stifling and breathing difficult.

Several inches of fine dust covered the floor and puffed up with each step. Perhaps three dozen stone boxes were stacked against one wall and another twenty or so on the other. All of them were "wrapped with a cover of Juniper bark with pine pitch smeared all around, so as to make them literally water proof." In a smaller anti-chamber were two entombed mummies. They seemed an incredible eight or nine feet in length. Each had been placed in a cement sepulcher with removable lid. They were a male-female pair. The texture of their skin was almost moist, like tanned leather. Littering the cave was an abundance of weapons, swords, tools, copper and metal tablets of various sizes. Some of the plates lay shattered like glass into fibrous pieces, not unlike the broken windshield of a car.

Brewer said the steps led into the chamber when he first discovered them. But the overhanging rock had since collapsed over the entrance, so he had to spend some two years digging a tunnel parallel to the stairs, in order to regain entrance into the chamber. This work was accomplished at night to conceal his activity. Heinerman visited the cave several times thereafter with Brewer, always under cover of darkness, save only on one daylight occasion.

The chamber, he says, was very warm during this daytime entry. Its interior is cool in winter, suggesting that the cave is not deep under ground, with temperatures regulated by outside weather conditions. Heinerman says that a wall inside the chamber features an illustration showing the location of several other caves in the Manti valley. It was from this map that Brewer discovered another cache on the west side of the valley.

Brewer eventually showed Heinerman his discoveries in another related site on the western side of the Manti Valley. After an extremely arduous journey west of Wales, Heinerman stood before the entrance to a natural cave. It lies under an overhanging ledge with a small crawl space underneath. The cave comprised several tunnels and chambers. Here too they found stone boxes containing plates covered with strange writing, together with metal weapons and tools, but no mummies. A wall mural depicted a hunting scene. Some of the boxes featured Mayan-type glyphs or illustrations, and weighed from sixty to ninety pounds each. In Heinerman's words, "the cemented stone boxes were highly decorated with ingenious art work." With great effort, a few of these containers were brought off the mountain. Heinerman still has several in his possession. He also owns a large number of the metal plates.

So far, Brewer and Heinerman are the only persons who claim to have visited the cave sites. No photographs of their interiors, with their giant, fair-haired mummies and metal weapons or tools, have been released. Nor are the precise whereabouts of these sites known to any but the two visitors. Until such time as professional investigators are allowed inside his alleged chambers, the authenticity of Brewer's finds cannot be established.

But mitigating against allegations of his involvement in a hoax are the items he presents on behalf of the cave's legitimacy. Their sheer number and level of craftsmanship (beyond the abilities of Mr. Brewer to duplicate) should at least give critics pause for reconsideration. The really troubling aspect of his claims is less his personal account and description than the supposed artifacts themselves. They appear to be exceptionally well made and very old, but belonging to no known culture, ancient or modern. If authentic, they were the possessions of a thoroughly enigmatic people of which modern archaeologists are absolutely unaware.

Perhaps most unsettling, some of the "script" more resembles modern computer schematics than any form of writing. Other red-haired mummies were said to have been found in the West, most notably at Nevada's Lovelock Cave.

Some may see in these questionable finds and unaccountable material evidence for Lemurians in ancient America. They were supposed to have been natives of a long-vanished civilization that dominated the Pacific with an advanced technology, until their islands were eventually engulfed by the sea, and a few of their wealth-laden leaders fled to the American West.

Whatever the real identity of the Manti items, condemning them out of hand risks losing what may be our continent's most valuable cultural heritage. If ever validated and deciphered, they could release a prehistoric legacy far more valuable than the gold plates on which it was written.