spookysouthwest: The Grand Canyon, old as it is, is not without its ghost stories. Many sightings of
spookysouthwest: The Grand Canyon, old as it is, is not without its ghost stories. Many sightings of eerie lights and ghostly wanderers occur in the area around the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, a place sacred to both the Navajo and Hopi people who have called this canyon home for centuries. These unexplained phenomena could be due to the unique geology of the location. Most of the exposed rock there is part of the Vishnu formation. The metamorphic rock, bearing the weight of a billion years of formation, emits an intense electromagnetic field. But the strangest legend has got to be that of Kincaid’s Cave. According the account of explorer G.E. Kincaid, in 1909 he was traveling down the Colorado river when he spotted a ledge and some mineral stains on the canyon wall, about 2000 feet/610 meters above the river. He parked his boat and climbed to investigate, where he claims he found a hand-chiseled cave entrance. Inside, he says, there were chambers that branched off into innumerable tunnels. Within these tunnels, there were at least several hundred large rooms, including one filled with a darkness so thick, the light couldn’t penetrate it. It reeked of snakes, Kincaid said. Eventually he came upon a crypt, in which he found carefully wrapped and preserved Egyptian mummies. In fact, many of the rooms appeared to hold of ancient Egyptian artifacts–suggesting an ancient African presence in the Americas. He gathered up as many items as he could, and after he reached Yuma, Arizona, he shipped these artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution. Or so he says. The Smithsonian has no record of ever receiving these relics, and contradicts Kincaid’s claim that they sent a team of explorers to confirm the findings. As to the artifacts themselves, either Kincaid was mistaken as to their origin, or is lying. The idea that Native Americans were descended from migrating Egyptians or Hebrews is an antiquated and racist notion that became popular in the late 18th century, when white Americans had difficulty believing that the remains of cities and structures could have been built by non-white people. It was still widely believed in 1909. Variations of this racism continues today, one of its permutations being the idea that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens and not by Africans. Kincaid’s Cave has never been found in more than 100 years since its alleged discovery. Although there have been many explorers who claim to have located it, nothing has ever been confirmed. Curiously, though, the area in which the cave should be is now forbidden to all entry, both the public as well as park rangers. -- source link