Normally, I would chuckle, but the repeated theme of underground reptilian people (seen in caves around the world supposedly) and a legend of Lenni Lenape that 5000 years ago in the west there was a giant volcano eruption that drove them east, made this story of reptilians digging under ground 5000 years ago to escape the fiery apocalypse rather coincidental.
These correlations in separate accounts intrigue me. There are repeated stories of tunneling under the California area and with an ancient giant civilization in that region and the islands off of California, it seems these sorts of stories need to be looked at more closely. The Hopi have a legend of people going underground to avoid a cataclysm. Supposed giant mummies were found with all their belongings archived in Death Valley caves and Grand Canyon by reported stories in the news in the early 1900s.
Stories of Lizard people underground are not rare. Phantoms and Monsters (my favorite archive site - see more about them on this afternoon's posting) has stories of people running into such beings in caves in Missouri and Austria. So, is it feasible that these tunnels could be under LA? Well, sometimes when legends line up with other legends, there might be something going on - like waterways under LA (see bottom of post), and a fiery event 5000 years ago driving giants underground (and lizard people?) I plan to pursue this more and perhaps even check out Springerville (below). I'm too curious.
From 1934, G. Warren Shufelt reported to the Los Angeles Times that he had discovered a series of caverns under LA that houses Reptoid people in ancient times. Reportedly, 5000 years ago a huge "tongue of fire" obliterated the Southwest and these people were forced to go underground. Reportedly, they had made tunnels in an upper and lower grid. The lower grid allowed sea water to rush through and force clean air into the upper level. There were rooms that were like "high rises" underground where they stored herbage for food.
Supposedly, according to Shufelt, some tunnels ran 20 miles under Santa Monica Bay and were used for ventilation.
For a comprehensive writing about this intriguing story, go here. Here's a short clip from the info there;
"The "Lizard People" of Los Angeles survived the meteor shower, but were killed by natural gas leaking into their bunkers. Shufelt believed that they had built 13 such underground facilities in different areas for such a purpose. One was located in the eastern section of Arizona in a small town called Springerville and was only discovered recently.
Another was located under a hill which was surrounded by a curving ridge of mountains like the middle of a horse's hoof. This is exactly the type of terrain seen in downtown L.A. in the area that is now the Board of Education, which is built over the ruins of the old Willis Estate on top of Fort Moore hill. Shufelt and his partner Chief Little Green Leaf were both convinced that the ancient legends and the readings from Shufelt's mystery machine were true.
They decided to obtain a permit to sink a shaft down into the ruins of the subterranean city. They located a vacant lot at 518 North Hill Street, directly above one of the largest rooms. On 21st February 1933, the County Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Rex McCreary, Warren Shufelt and Ray Martin to search for buried treasure there.
They decided to obtain a permit to sink a shaft down into the ruins of the subterranean city. They located a vacant lot at 518 North Hill Street, directly above one of the largest rooms. On 21st February 1933, the County Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Rex McCreary, Warren Shufelt and Ray Martin to search for buried treasure there.
The permittees were to bear all expenses, to leave the property in its original condition, and to share 50% of all discoveries and treasure with the city of L.A.
The county originally only allowed them to dig up to depths of 50 feet for fear of cave-ins. On 27th March 1933 they requested additional time and depths on their permit, believing that the labyrinth of tunnels was at least 1,900 feet in length, with rooms containing 9,000 square feet which contained valuable gold treasure in at least 16 places.
On 10th April 1933 the contract was renewed. By the end of November in 1933, the main shaft was at a depth of 200 feet. Shufelt was determined to drill to a depth of 1,000 feet if necessary. On 29th January 1934, the first stories regarding the legend of the "Lost Land of the Lizard People" made the L.A. newspapers. By this time, one of the five shafts was already 250 feet deep.
According to the legend and the radio surveys, the underground city was laid out in the shape of a lizard, with its tail under the Main Library at Fifth and Hope, and the body extending Northeast, with the head being at Lookout and Marda near North Broadway. The key room to the city was located under Second and South Broadway.
The county originally only allowed them to dig up to depths of 50 feet for fear of cave-ins. On 27th March 1933 they requested additional time and depths on their permit, believing that the labyrinth of tunnels was at least 1,900 feet in length, with rooms containing 9,000 square feet which contained valuable gold treasure in at least 16 places.
On 10th April 1933 the contract was renewed. By the end of November in 1933, the main shaft was at a depth of 200 feet. Shufelt was determined to drill to a depth of 1,000 feet if necessary. On 29th January 1934, the first stories regarding the legend of the "Lost Land of the Lizard People" made the L.A. newspapers. By this time, one of the five shafts was already 250 feet deep.
According to the legend and the radio surveys, the underground city was laid out in the shape of a lizard, with its tail under the Main Library at Fifth and Hope, and the body extending Northeast, with the head being at Lookout and Marda near North Broadway. The key room to the city was located under Second and South Broadway.
The legends state that the key room is the directory to the rest of the city, and to the historical gold record tablets. These gold tablets were slabs of gold, 4 feet long and 14 inches wide.
The tablets were believed to contain the records of the origins of the human race, and the history of modern man in the Americas, including details regarding the history of the mysterious Mayan people. Shufelt's radio-wave machine mapped the rooms and tunnels as subsurface voids, with the gold slabs as dark areas, showing perfect geometric angles.
The rooms, seven of which occurred within an area of six square city blocks, varied in size from 23' x 23' to 34' x 42'. The room below the first shaft was 31' x 42', and the key room was the smallest. Water had seeped into some of the tunnels, and several of the rooms including the largest were flooded. Shufelt was prepared to use divers to explore the submerged areas when they finally broke into the subterranean city."
The tablets were believed to contain the records of the origins of the human race, and the history of modern man in the Americas, including details regarding the history of the mysterious Mayan people. Shufelt's radio-wave machine mapped the rooms and tunnels as subsurface voids, with the gold slabs as dark areas, showing perfect geometric angles.
The rooms, seven of which occurred within an area of six square city blocks, varied in size from 23' x 23' to 34' x 42'. The room below the first shaft was 31' x 42', and the key room was the smallest. Water had seeped into some of the tunnels, and several of the rooms including the largest were flooded. Shufelt was prepared to use divers to explore the submerged areas when they finally broke into the subterranean city."
NOTE: If you're enjoying this legend - there is another one that there are waterways under California that lead our military to secret bases under the desert floor by submarine. Enjoy the story here.
