1935 Newspaper Report Covers Missing Tribe Of Lizard People That Lived Under Present Day Los Angeles
A report from the January 29th, 1935 Los Angeles Times explains how a lost civilization once lived in tunnels under what is now modern day Los Angeles. Warren Shufelt claimed that he had discovered by use of a device he had invented a lost Lizard People city that contained many secrets and tablets of solid gold, with the secrets of our origins inscribed on them.
Here is the text of the article as faithfully recreated as I can from the original article, misspellings left intact.
LIZARD PEOPL’S CATCOMB CITY HUNTEDEngineer Sinks Shaft Under Fort Moore Hill to Find Maze of Tunnels and Priceless Treasures of Legendary Inhabitants By Jean Bosquet Busy Los Angeles, although little realizing it in the hustle and bustle of modern existence, stands above a lost city of catacombs filled with incalculable treasure and imperishable records of a race of humans further advanced intellectually and scientifically than even the highest type of present day peoples, in the belief of G. Warren Shufelt, geophysical mining engineer now engaged in an attempt to wrest from the lost city deep in the earth below Fort Moore Hill the secrets of the Lizard People of legendary fame in the medicine lodges of the American Indian. So firmly does Shufelt and a little staff of assistants believe that a maze of catacombs and priceless golden tablets are to be found beneath downtown Los Angeles that the engineer and his aides have already driven a shaft 250 feet into the ground, the mouth of the shaft being on the old Banning property on North Hill street overlooking Sunset Boulevard, Spring street and North Broadway. And so convinced is the engineer of the infallibility of a radio X-ray perfected by him for detecting the presence of minerals and tunnels below the surface of the ground, an apparatus with which he says he has traced a pattern of catacombs and vaults forming the lost city, that he plans to continue sending his shaft downward until he has reached a depth of 1000 feet before discontinuing operations. LEGEND SUPPLIES CLEW Shufelt learned of the legend of the Lizard People after his radio X-ray had led him hither and ton, over an area extending from the Public Library on West Fifth street to the Southwest Museum, on Museum Drive, at the foot of Mt. Washington. “I knew I was over a pattern of tunnels,” the engineer explained yesterday, “and I had mapped out the course of the tunnels, the position of large rooms scattered along the tunnel route, as well as the position of deposits of gold, but I couldn’t understand the meaning of it.” Then Shufelt was taken to Little Chief Greenleaf of the medicine lodge of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, whose English name is L. Macklin. The Indian provided the engineer with a legend which, according to both men, dovetails exactly with what Shufelt says he has found. FIRE DESTROYS ALL According to the legend as imparted to Shufelt by Macklin, the radio X-ray has revealed the location of one of three lost cities on the Pacific Coast, the local one having been dug by the Lizzard People after the “great catastrophe” which occurred about 5000 years ago. This legendary catastrophe was in the form of a huge tongue of fire which “came out of the South-west, destroying all life in its path,” the path being “several hundred miles wide.” The lost city, dug with powerful chemicals by the Lizard People instead of pick and shovel, was drained into the ocean, where its tunnels began according to the legend. The tide passing daily in and out fo the lower tunnel portals and forcing air into the upper tunnels, provided ventilation and “cleansed” and sanitized the the lower tunnels,” the legend states. Large rooms in the domes of the hills above the city of labyrinths housed 1000 families “in the manner of tall buildings” and imperishable food supplies of the herb variety were stored in the catacombs to provide sustenance for the lizard fold for the great lengths of time as the next fire swept over the earth. CITY LAID OUT LIKE LIZARD The Lizard People, the legend has it, regarded the lizard as the symbol of long life. Their city is laid out like a lizard, according to the legend, its tail to the southwest, far below Fifth and Hope streets, its head to the northeast at Lookout and Marda streets. The city’s key room is situated directly under South Broadway, near Second street, according to Schufelt and the legend. This key room is the directory to all parts of the city and to all record tablets the legend states. All records were kept on gold tablets four feet long and fourteen inches wide. On these tablets of gold, gold having been the symbol of life to the legendary Lizard People, will be found the recorded history of the Mayans and on one particular tablet, the southwest corner of which will be missing, is to be found the “record of the origins of the human race.”
TABLETS PHOTOGRAPHED Shufelt stated he has taken “X-ray pictures” of thirty-seven such tablets, three of which have their southwestern corners cut off. “My radio X-ray pictures of tunnels and rooms, which are subsurface voids, and of gold pictures with perfect corners, sides and ends, are scientific proof of their existence,” Shufelt said. “However the legendary story must remain speculative until unearthed by excavation.” The Lizard People, according to Macklin were of a much higher type intellectually than modern human beings. The intellectual accomplishments of their 9-year-old children were equal of those of present day college graduates, he said. So greatly advanced scientifically were these people that, in addition to perfecting a chemical solution by which they bored underground without removing earth and rock, they also developed a cement far stronger and better than any in use in modern times with which they lined their tunnels and rooms. HILLS INCLOSE CITY Macklin said legendary advice to American Indians was to seek the lost city in an area withing a chain of hill forming “the frog of a horse’s hoof.” The contour of hills surrounding this region forms such a design, substantiating Shufelt’s findings, he said. Shufelt’s radio device consists chiefly of a cylindrical glass case inside which a plummet attached to a copper wire held by the engineer sways continually, point he asserts toward minerals or tunnels below the surface of the ground, and then revolves when over the mineral or swings in prolongation of the tunnel when above the excavation. He has used the instruments extensively in mining fields he says. |
Tall Tale Or Proof Of A Legend?
The stories of Lizard People in the southwest or of the Ant People that saved the early humans in the area are nothing new. Those legends have been batted around for a long time. The question I have is what Schufelt was looking for? Did he really believe his instrument could be detecting something underground? It seems pretty far fetched that a device that fits the description of his would be able to detect anything.
G. Warren Shufelt was a mining engineer and claimed to have detected the tunnels by means of a device that he had created. The radio instrument consist of a large pendulum suspended in a cylindrical glass case which was housed in a black box with compasses on it. Purportedly, it worked on the electrical similarities of matter which had the same chemical, physical and vibrational characteristics. Interesting but not too plausible.
In theory, the pendulum would trace a line from a broken vein of ore to rest of the vein. He claimed that is would work on any material, including human hair and that it could track objects for miles. He never did reveal what was in the box but said that by tuning into the specific frequency of any matter, he could locate it.
It was in his surveying of the area that he had mysterious readings of underground passages and rooms, which he subsequently mapped.
Seems pretty fantastical to me.
The site ageoftruth.dk has a great breakdown on this story and points this fact out:
Shufelt’s dowsing results notwithstanding, parts of the story seem unlikely. Gold, and metallurgy in general, was unknown among the Hopi until the mid 1700’s. So was chemistry, but Macklin said that the Lizard People “perfected a chemical solution by which they bored underground without removing earth and rock.”
Digging Reveals No Lost City Under LA
Interestingly enough, Shufelt and Macklin went in as partners in a project to dig up the tunnels and find the treasure there. They cut a deal with the city to half and half on the finds in exchange for the permits to do the work.
Several shafts were dug going as deep as 250 feet down. He actually got beneath the water table for the area, making it highly unlikely that any tunnels existed below them.
Since then there has been lots of underground work with no evidence of the tunnels.
Shufelt A Hoaxter or True Believer?
With no lost catacombs found under Los Angeles, the question remains as to whether Shufelt was a hoaxer out to make a name for himself or if he had an angle to make a fast buck. If he was in it for the money, what was the play? Unless he scammed investors into paying for the digging and then skimmed the top, I don’t see where the money was to be made.
The fact is we will never know. Stories still pop up of people running into lizard people in the southwest and of their tunnels underground, so it is still possible the other cities exist under the crust of the earth.
Post your comments and let me know what you think Shufelt was up to.
One Response
So, basically, nobody has found jack.