Cheryl Colwell's Blog, page 6

5 Million People - Vanished!

How could an advanced, thriving civilization the size of Norway just disappear?

The Indus Valley Civilization, India’s oldest known people group, once occupied the Indus Valley that stretches from western India to Afghanistan. Their abrupt collapse in 1500 BC is baffling—the scale rivaling that of the great Mayan decline.

In 1922, archeologists started uncovering remnants of this people’s fascinating cities, lost for 4,000 years. By 1998, 1400 town sites were discovered, some occupied by 50,000 residents!

Adding even more mystery, the towns were laid out in perfect grids by experienced, organized engineers and workers. Each brick home had its own bathroom, connected by clay pipes that ran underground and dumped waste outside the city. Each had running water and windows that opened onto a central courtyard.

Residents were skilled in metallurgy, jewelry-making, and even dentistry. They developed their own precise measuring system and their hard, uniform bricks still survive. In the fertile valley, they grew a surplus of food and each town had a large central storage building for grain.

So what happened? Wouldn't you know if your great-grandfather lived in 50,000-person city? How could this information vanish from the records and memories? With no known natural disaster and no evidence of a military defeat, scientists continue to search for more clues.

Here’s my question: If massive, complex cultures can exist for 2000 years, then virtually vanish off the face of the earth, with no one knowing what happened, what makes us think it couldn’t happen to us?

Stunning Suspense Fall Newsletter

Hi Friends,
     I'm delighted to share these updates with you! If you've never read my first novel, this is the time to get the revised edtion and enjoy a wonderful story of courage and triumph. Be sure and watch the trailer and let me know what you think (it's my first attempt at trailer-making).
    Also, many of you have read the story and are waiting for the sequel. I've given you a sneak peek at the first chapter and plan to have it ready by Spring 2014.
Thanks for your friendship and enthusiasm,
Cheryl
The Secrets of the Montebellis, Second Edition Available Now!
Available in PRINT or EBOOK from Amazon
OR
Contact me HERE and get it FREE
as an ebook throughout September, 2013
What readers are saying:
"This novel has it all—mystery, romance, danger—artfully woven together in a picturesque setting with intriguing characters..." -Jeanne Curty, Teacher and Pastor's Wife

"The plot and action kept me turning the pages until I finished it at midnight."      -Christine Kerekffy Don't miss the Video Book Trailer!
"First glimpse of "Adrianna's Secret" - the second in the "Secrets Series" Click Here

Enchanted River, Philippines

Photo from Entravel.blogspot.com Though the natural beauty is what draws many to this tropical paradise, the legends surrounding it are sure to be part of the appeal.

For one thing, it is bottomless. No diver has reached the lower extent of its blue majesty, lending an eerie feeling to those diving into the abyss.

What lies beneath?

Swimmers can enjoy the enchanted waters at their leisure until noon, when all are asked to stay on shore. At that time, the caretakers throw a feast onto the surface, calling swarms of fish from out of nowhere.

Yet, no fish has ever been caught from this pool. One story purports that at dusk, fishwives of the area laid their fish traps, but returned to find them hanging on a branch the next day.

Two pale-skinned women with flowing hair were viewed bathing under a full moon. The witnesses, a father and son, said the apparition vanished in a swirl of fireflies.

Even Neptune has a part in the stories, and is said to have carved sets of furniture in a nearby cave for "King Neptune's Party."

The legends seem to flow with the gentle energy of the pool, which is fully accessible - even accommodations are provided for the fortunate traveler to this popular area.

Link to more photos at Entravel.blogspot.com.

Link to more mysterious trivia and travel info at Inquire News.

Spirits in the Cemetery

Besides unexplained rocks falling from the sky, traveling to Chico, California netted two more interesting blog stories.

While on a tour of the cemetery, my guide shared the history of the type of tombstone shown in the photo. Though it appears to be made of stone like its neighbors, when I tapped on the side, it resounded of metal. Apparently, there was a marketing strategy to encourage the use of metal instead of stone, but it never went over. Most people just didn’t believe it would last, but 140 years later, there it was.

The fun of all this, however, is something entirely different.

See that plate with the names and dates on it? It was made to unbolt to add new names. Behind these plates are empty compartments, some of which became useful in the 1920s.

During prohibition, many hid their alcohol in this secret recess.

Wives must have been perplexed at their husbands' rising interest in visiting cemeteries during that time. To keep them from tagging along, or perhaps to explain their altered state, husbands could rightly say they encountered spirits in the cemetery.
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For more photographs of the beautiful sculptures located in the Chico cemetery, click here.

The Mysterious Past of Chico, California -it's not the sky that's falling.

Photo by Funky Plum     Well, maybe this photo is a bit of an exaggeration.    

    This interesting story was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, and on March 12, 1922, the New York Times reported that smooth, warm rocks had been falling out of a cloudless sky over Chico, California since July 1921.   

    The first complaint was made on November 1921 to City Marshall, J.A. Peck, by J.W. Charge, who said someone was throwing stones at his warehouse every day. The stones fell with enough force to damage windows, wooden boards, and roof shingles. Investigators, Fire Chief C.E. Tovee and Traffic Officer J.J. Corbett, narrowly escaped personal injury when a large boulder struck a wall where they had been standing only moments earlier.   

    Police could not come up with an explanation for the long duration of the phenomenon or the limited geographic scope of the rock fall (only on or around the warehouse).

    In addition to rocks falling from Chico's skies, on Sept 2, 1878, the New York Times said the Chico Record had reported that a great number of small fishes fell from a cloudless sky, covering a store and several acres.

    Falling fish or frogs or reptiles seem easier to explain than rocks, as they can be picked up by waterspouts from pools of water. The curious thing here is how the waterspouts manage to only pick up one species at a time out of the body of water. A Moses-type plague? Heavenly provision for the hungry? Hmmm.

    Speaking of hungry (ugh), there have been several documented accounts of flesh and blood falling from the sky. These have been examined, but with no reasonable explanation. Well, reasonable to most of us. Some assert that Aliens are dumping their refuse to lighten their load before exiting our atmosphere. Hmmm, again.

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Dig Deeper:
Though I am focusing on Chico's mysteries, Troy Taylor recounts the fascinating history of falling objects here.

Be sure to watch the One Step Beyond video where this story is featured along with another fun mystery.

Travel to the Alamo for Latest Legend

The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas     There is a little-known (outside of Texas) legend about Jim Bowie's additional purpose for being at the Alamo at the time of the famous 1836 battle.

     This tale assures us he was defending the fabulous gold and silver treasure he found at the Lost San Saba Mines. It was intended to finance Texas independence from Mexico.

    Are there any facts to support this story? Possibly.

    In 1753, an expedition seeking a site for an Apache mission led to the discovery of Los Almagres Mine (later called San Saba) in what is now Llano County. It was famed to be rich in silver and gold. The mission, however, was destroyed a year later, and constant Comanche and Apache attacks made further hunts for the treasure a deadly risk.

    We know that around 1832, Bowie lead two separate expeditions into the hill country north of San Antonio. Did he find the mines? Rumors abounded that he led a pack train of seventeen burros laden with treasure. Some assumed that when all seemed lost at the Alamo, he ordered his men to hide the treasure.

    Too much to believe? More recently, after a radar scan over the Alamo revealed something odd buried underground, the Archaeology Department at St. Mary’s University agreed to oversee an excavation project. Permits were granted for a dig 15 X 15 feet. Historically valuable artifacts were found, but no treasure.

    So, was the treasure real? Two first-hand accounts add more weight.

    In 1838, a story appeared in the New York Mirror, about Ms. Webster, a white woman who escaped from the Apaches. She told of gold and silver mines and brilliant stones like diamonds (certainly quartz crystals).

    Later in the century, using the original chart from his great-grandfather that mapped the mines, Franciso Yorba led a band of Mexicans to the mine. It was at Bowie's old fort, Loma Grande. They camped for ten days and dug a great hole under the wall of the fort.

    One witness, Pedro Sanchez, asserted that a frenzy broke out after discovering a mound of gold and silver bars and coins.

    Sanchez was shot, but escaped with a gold bar and several gold coins in his shirt. When the cowboys that treated him found the gold, it set off a new round of searches.

  The hunt continues. One journalist reports he has heard these stories for more than three decades. On occasion, a secretive miner will show up with "bars of silver the size of the largest Hershey bars and five times as thick."

Dig deeper:
Panning for Texas Gold by Ira Kennedy
 
Alamo treasure?

San Saba Lost Silver Mine

This Mystery Orb Travels at Lightning Speed

For centuries, an unexplained atmospheric electrical phenomenon has mystified humans. Great balls of fire descend from the skies to the earth, or bounce across horizons the world over.

Sometimes referred to as angels, ghosts, or UFO’s, science still struggles to explain what causes these brilliant objects.

Laboratory experiments can produce effects that are visually similar to what science calls “ball lightning,” but it is still unknown if they are creating the same phenomenon.

In 2002, the Missile Defense Agency financed Dr. Paul Koloc’s research, hoping to harness the power associated with the light into an EMP bullet that could take out enemy missile systems. As far as we know, he was unsuccessful.

Though the true nature remains unknown, public sightings and photographs document these usually harmless spheres.

They have been known, however, to explode, sometimes with fatal consequences, leaving behind the odor of sulfur.

View dramatic photographs capturing this phenomenon:

Angels/ghosts?
Night Sightings
Dramatic Sighting
UFO?

Travel Reveals the Mystery of Loretto Chapel

Mysterious Staircase in Loretto Chapel     This glorious spiral staircase seems to hang without support - a work of sheer genius, if not a certifiable mystery. It has no nails, no pegs and no central post.

    Its maker? That is the fun part.

    The chapel's original architect died before revealing how the nuns were to climb to the choir loft of the lovely new chapel in a dignified manner. The ladies prayed fervently for nine days, after which a rough-looking man walked in and took the job.

    Using only primitive tools, warm water, and wood foreign to the area, (that no one saw delivered), he asked to be left alone for three months. At the end of that time, the man disappeared completely, leaving the nuns to believe that Saint Joseph had materialized to help them.

    Eager to solve the mystery, author Mary Jean Straw Cook, cited that a death notice in The New Mexican newspaper in 1895 proved the builder to be a French immigrant. However, after studying her findings, the dead man was deemed by many to be too young.

    The impossibility of the design spurred speculation from the beginning, and the wood, though thought to be spruce, has not been adequately tested to ascertain its origin.

    So, we have a genius of a builder with no name, who never stuck around to get paid, a complex design from 1872 that today's architects still study, and the mysterious appearance of the wood. The nuns believed it to be a miracle. What do you think?

    I like the miracle story.

Read the arguments against the mystery
 
Read the arguments against the arguments

Clues to Next Destination

This European community celebrates  their love of flower growing with an annual parade comprised of flower floats. Where in the world is it?

Be the first to comment with the correct answer and win a $5 Starbucks card.

Coldest Place, Cruelest Heart

Stalin's "Road of Bones" Note: I planned to write about travel to Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on earth, when I discovered the cruel history of the road one must take to reach the village. That horrific story is dramatized below, but feel free to move to my first idea of showing the beautiful slideshow of the determined people who eek out a living in Siberia.

The Story:
  I bend my fingers. At least I think it. They do not curl, or even feel. The truck hits another chunk of hard ice, throwing me and the rest of my comrades to the floor. An old man does not get up when the rest of us resettle ourselves.

  “He is dead,” says a young doctor, after examining him. The physician earned his imprisonment for helping those who Stalin left to die. He turns to me. "Do you know where they are taking us?"

   Poor man. Poor us. Should I tell him we will most likely die building this road linking the eighty or so gulags--the prisons for peasants and political dissenters like myself? That we have been rounded up to work the gold and platinum-rich mountains of Siberia for Stalin's economic plans?

    I keep quiet. Already this frozen Kolyma Highway is called the Road of Bones for the dead bodies bulldozed into the road's surface. I close my eyes and pray for my people.

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    The character riding in the truck represents those who became a statistic from the 1930's until 1946. One will die for every meter of the 1900 kilometer road. Hundreds of thousands of victims will be frozen to death, worked to death, or murdered. The prison camps closed in 1954, and in 1956 many of the prisoners received a general amnesty by Nikita Khruschev. Read the history here.

Today there is a brighter note, but no less frozen. This beautiful slide show portrays the enduring power of the human spirit and exemplifies the lives of this determined people who make their home in Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on earth.