Lost Cities & Ancient Mysteries of the Southwest

by David Hatcher Childress

Popular Lost Cities author David Hatcher Childress takes to the road again in search of lost cities and ancient mysteries. This time he is off to the American Southwest, traversing the region's deserts, mountains and forests investigating archeological mysteries and the unexplained. Join David as he starts in northern Mexico and searches for the lost mines of the Aztecs. He continues north to west Texas, delving into the mysteries of Big Bend, including mysterious Phoenician tablets discovered there and the strange lights of Marfa. He continues northward into New Mexico where he stumbles upon a hollow mountain with a billion dollars of gold bars hidden deep inside it! In Arizona he investigates tales of Egyptian catacombs in the Grand Canyon, cruises along the Devil's Highway, and tackles the century-old mystery of the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman mine. In Nevada and California Childress checks out the rumors of mummified giants and weird tunnels in Death Valley, plus he searches the Mohave Desert for the mysterious remains of ancient dwellers alongside lakes that dried up tens of thousands of years ago. It's a full-tilt blast down the back roads of the Southwest in search of the weird and wondrous mysteries of the past!

Genres: Nonfiction, History

578 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2009

About the author

David Hatcher Childress (born 1957) is an American author and publisher of books on topics in alternative history and historical revisionism. His works often cover such subjects as pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, the Knights Templar, lost cities and vimana aircraft. Despite his public involvement in the general field of study, Childress claims to have no academic credentials as a professional archaeologist.

Born in France, and raised in Colorado, Childress began his world travels at age nineteen in pursuit of his archaeological interests. In 1983 Childress relocated to Stelle, Illinois, a community founded by New Age writer Richard Kieninger, after Childress was given a book authored by Kieninger while touring Africa. Childress chronicled his explorations in his Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries series of books, whose core concepts were influenced by the ideas of Kieninger.

While residing in Stelle, Childress began self publishing his own works and later other authors, which focus on presenting fringe scientific theories regarding ancient civilizations and little-known technologies, as well as establishing a travel business in partnership with Kieninger. In 1991, in the nearby town of Kempton, Illinois, Childress, along with historian and linguist Carl W. Hart, founded the World Explorers Club, a group that often travels to the places he writes about, and an affiliated magazine, World Explorer.

David Hatcher Childress has appeared on several television programs on NBC ("The Mysterious Origins of Man"), Fox Network (Sightings and Encounters), Discovery Channel, A&E, The History Channel, as a commentator on subjects such as the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, and UFOs.

Childress has been involved in two lawsuits regarding his publishing activities, one of which failed due to the expiry of a statute of limitations and the other, involving his company's publication of a master's thesis without permission, which was settled out of court.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ha...

Reviews

[Chris]

This was fine, but not really for me. Much of the book is filled with anecdotal stories about lost treasure, mystery lights, UFOs, cryptids, strange people living in caves underground, you name it. It reads like a collection of Fate Magazine or something. None of this is a bad thing, and some of what I read was interesting to me, but I’d rather read a more in-depth book about a particular topic as opposed to a scattershot of all sorts of “mysteries”.

This book is part of a long series on “Lost Cities”, and I’m guessing they all follow the above pattern. I’m glad I tried this but I don’t know that I’ll come back to the series. Childress’s other books tend to focus more on specific topics.

[Jeannie and Louis Rigod]

This book took me an unordinary amount of time to read. The reason being that I simply savored the experience of this skilled author's journey to search for lost cities, ancient civilizations, and artifacts from the Southwest, including Mexico and Southwestern U.S.A.

Now, I should have read this book many years ago, however, I didn't and thus have missed out on many interesting road trips I could have made in Arizona and New Mexico and let us not forget, Southern California.

Viking ships in the Desert? Petroglyphs upon the mountains? Giants in Yuma? Were have I been?

This book is filled (even the Kindle version) with multiple pictures of maps, artifacts, and lakes now long dry. In fact, we are going to try and get a 'hard or paperback' version of this book as we want it in our physical 'library' as a reference book.

True, many theories are offered that one may question, however I'm more than happy to open my mind to their possibilities. One thing is for certain, this book reads as a journal. We follow the author and his companion through the miles, shots of Tequila, and meeting up with friends. Along the path we experience the unbelievable...lost gold mines, rounded stones, and Zuni's who might have spoken ancient Japanese!

This was one fantastic read if you are interested in the past and peoples that came before us.

[Denver Michaels]

This book is: part travel memoir; part treatise on lost mines, lost cities, and hidden treasure; and a lot of conversation about all things weird in the great American Southwest. It was a real page-turner and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Chandra]

Wonderful adventure. A lot of history and myth, as we know, there's a lot of truth in myths. I enjo

I believe I will read more of his books . Greatly enjoyed!! Well written, so interesting, especially because I now live in Tucson.

[Wil]

A great book on lost cities

[Dkobrehel]

A very fun read, not to be taken too seriously.

[Terri]

I've read all of the David Hatcher Childress Lost City series, but LOST CITIES & ANCIENT MYSTERIES OF THE SOUTHWEST is my favorite. All of the Lost City books have his affable journalistic style and are easy to read. I'm pretty well read on esoteric topics, especially in the US, but there were many tales in this book that I had never heard. If you have never read his Lost City series, start with this one. I'm sure you will want to read the rest.

[Tina Foster]

David Childress has done a lot of research on the topic, and gives accounts of what scientists think. Where did these ancient peoples come from? What happened to them? Why did they leave? He talks about ancient lakes that covered the desert floor maybe 12,000 years ago that drew people to the regions of the Southwest. And droughts that lasted over a 100 years, was probably why most of the people left. Ancient trade routes and many other topics. I found his book informative and interesting.

[Todd R]

A book I pick up once in awhile when road-tripping.