History Lecture Ideas

[Keeper Jon]

Dr. Gerard, what about the Healing Waters of Eureka Springs, AR?

Check out this link: http://www.eurekavacation.com/healing/history/

Kinda cool sounding.

[Koakai]

I'm presently diving into mining hoaxes in my province, so to my surprise and delight I came across a UFO tale. Not much of substance really, but still enough to make you think. Vancouver island is the setting for this tale. A place with three abandoned copper/silver/gold mines that were mined in a brief rush during the 1901-1907 period.

UFO mystery

Mount Sicker may contain the answer to a local UFO mystery. In late November 1980, Granger Taylor, an unconventional genius and UFO fanatic who had built a small saucer about 15 feet wide on his parent's junkyard property, left his family a note saying he was going to travel on an "alien ship" for "a 42 month interstellar voyage" and he and his pickup truck were never seen again. Many years later, local newspapers reported that a logger on Mount Sicker spotted a crater in the ground and metal debris embedded in a tree. It is believed that Granger was carrying explosives in his truck at the time of his disappearance. RCMP reported that the debris contained a VIN number matching Granger's truck and that it was an apparent suicide.

I wonder if perhaps he was picked up, and his brain now resides in a MIGO canister.

[Dr. Gerard]

I'm presently diving into mining hoaxes in my province, so to my surprise and delight I came across a UFO tale. Not much of substance really, but still enough to make you think. Vancouver island is the setting for this tale. A place with three abandoned copper/silver/gold mines that were mined in a brief rush during the 1901-1907 period.

UFO mystery

Mount Sicker may contain the answer to a local UFO mystery. In late November 1980, Granger Taylor, an unconventional genius and UFO fanatic who had built a small saucer about 15 feet wide on his parent's junkyard property, left his family a note saying he was going to travel on an "alien ship" for "a 42 month interstellar voyage" and he and his pickup truck were never seen again. Many years later, local newspapers reported that a logger on Mount Sicker spotted a crater in the ground and metal debris embedded in a tree. It is believed that Granger was carrying explosives in his truck at the time of his disappearance. RCMP reported that the debris contained a VIN number matching Granger's truck and that it was an apparent suicide.

I wonder if perhaps he was picked up, and his brain now resides in a MIGO canister.

A. Mount Sicker is such an awesome name for a horror-story setting that you must have made it up.
B. Have you checked the newspaper morgues for interesting incidents 42 months after the disappearance?
C. Clearly, the RCMP are involved in a massive conspiracy to cover up a far more interesting explanation.
D. Was there any Space Mead found at the scene?

[Koakai]

Alas in British Columbia it is not space mead, but space weed.

I have a couple of other interesting places to mention a bit further from home. I spent my undergraduate years in the archaeology department of a local university and had the chance to visit Ecuador during the summer of the year 2001. I spent two months digging under the floors of old colonial houses in the historic town of Cuenca. Cuenca is interesting as it has a well preserved historic center, still with the old cobbled streets of yore. There are also a number of buildings dating from the early colonial period of Ecuador, back when the entire area was known as Peru. I was fortunate enough to get to dig in the old bishop's residence (found a couple of fragments of carack porcelain) and a building dating from the 1500-1600's.

Cuenca is also notable as there was an older city there once. Well several actually. The inca's conquered the Canari people in the early 15th century and rebuilt a Canari city called Guapondeleg. The city that they built over this place was called Tumebamba. This city became known as the second Cuzco for it's opulence and importance. However by the time the spanish arrived in 1557, this city had mostly ceased to exist, with only ruins remaining.

These ruins can be seen in various sections of the older city, incorporated into several old churches and convents.
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From the Wiki:

They renamed the city Tomebamba. The city became known as the second Cusco, a regional capital.

After the defeat of the Cañari, the Inca commander, Tupac Yupanqui, ordered the construction of a grand city to be called Pumapungo, "the door of the Puma". Its magnificence was to challenge that of the Inca capital of Cuzco. Indians told stories to the Spanish chroniclers of golden temples and other such wonders, but by the time the Spaniards found the legendary city, all that remained were ruins. They wondered what happened to the fabled splendor and riches of the second Inca capital. After having been abandoned by the Cañari and then the Incas, Tomebamba was sparsely populated until the 1550s.

Tomebamba is considered a candidate for the mythical city of gold which the Spanish called El Dorado. The Spanish thought El Dorado was burned by the inhabitants after they heard of the Spanish conquests. Tomebamba's destruction by its inhabitants prior to the arrival of the Spanish suggests it may have been what the Spanish called El Dorado.

Tumebamba or Tomebamba, was a former city-state in the Inca federation, held by the ethnic Cañaris people; roughly translating to "plain of knives". Because of its high quality architecture, it was given to Atahualpa when the empire was divided in 1527. At that time, the city was the most important of the northern part of the empire, known as Chinchay Suyu.[1] The center of Tomebamba was Pumapungo, which means "Gate of the Puma" from where was performed the administration of the region.
Its fate was decided when Canari tribal leaders chose to follow Huáscar in 1531 (War of the two brothers) and betrayed Atahualpa. In late 1531 or early 1532, Atahualpa and his generals took revenge, forcing the city to surrender and destroying it.
Tumebamba is the Canari-Inca influenced city that preceded Cuenca, Ecuador, after Guapondelig.

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One of the convents has a history of the early sisters being less then catholic in their conduct. With tales of drunken parties, and men smuggled into the cloister. Another has a very interesting feature in that the steps of a side entrance are made of old tombstones of the past residents. I wonder if perhaps ghouls disturbed those remains and now use those very tombstones to seek prey that might be less then dead. I shall have to dig through my old photos and see if I can round up that image.

[Dr. Gerard]

I spent my undergraduate years in the archaeology department of a local university and had the chance to visit Ecuador during the summer of the year 2001. I spent two months digging under the floors of old colonial houses in the historic town of Cuenca. Cuenca is interesting as it has a well preserved historic center, still with the old cobbled streets of yore. There are also a number of buildings dating from the early colonial period of Ecuador, back when the entire area was known as Peru. I was fortunate enough to get to dig in the old bishop's residence (found a couple of fragments of carack porcelain) and a building dating from the 1500-1600's.

Cuenca is also notable as there was an older city there once. Well several actually. The inca's conquered the Canari people in the early 15th century and rebuilt a Canari city called Guapondeleg. The city that they built over this place was called Tumebamba. This city became known as the second Cuzco for it's opulence and importance. However by the time the spanish arrived in 1557, this city had mostly ceased to exist, with only ruins remaining.

These ruins can be seen in various sections of the older city, incorporated into several old churches and convents.

One of the convents has a history of the early sisters being less then catholic in their conduct. With tales of drunken parties, and men smuggled into the cloister. Another has a very interesting feature in that the steps of a side entrance are made of old tombstones of the past residents. I wonder if perhaps ghouls disturbed those remains and now use those very tombstones to seek prey that might be less then dead. I shall have to dig through my old photos and see if I can round up that image.

Excellent background in this post. This would make such an excellent scenario backdrop. I particularly like the idea of cities with layers of ancient civilizations. Quite Lovecraftian, no? Would love to see some photos of your travels there. Staircase of tombstones? Yes, please.

Is your "mining hoax" search related to archaeology work in some way?

[Koakai]

Alas no. I never did get that elusive master's document that meant I could hold a permit in my own right. Perhaps eventually I shall drop the other chunk of change needed to get that piece of paper. Until then the closest thing I get to archaeology is digging the old product from the back of the shelves in my night job as a grocery store worker.

That bit of research was me trying to remember the name a of certain city up here in BC. We have a lot of forgotten ghost towns and places that sprung up and went away in a hurry. Happens a lot when you have a gold rush in a not very well developed land. I was looking for the name of three towns that popped up and went away in a hurry. Steamboat, Steamboat mountain, and steamboat city. Two american prospectors had set up a hoax where they staked a claim, provided salted rock and then sold the claim before anyone noticed they went away.

I had picked up a slide scanner to do a bunch of slides and negatives with, but Kodak does not make then like they used to. After I ran two thousand slides and pictures through it last year, it broke. I shall endeavour to dig out my box of that summer from its dusty storage.

The other thing I wanted to mention in the past post was the strange relation of Ecuador and Peru with the Spondylus shell, or thorny oyster. The demand for these shells was so great that it rivaled silver and gold. Great trading rafts carried cargoes of them down from more northerly regions, and I remember reading/hearing something about even a spaniard briefly got into the trade, it was so lucrative. The red bits were the highly prized part, and everything from whole shells to powder could be found in graves and/or sacred sites. It was said that certain Huaca (or spirtual sites/places of power) ate the shells.

I was briefly tempted to go back to the university and work up a scenario about all this. With the Andean mountain mummies and the spondylus trade, I was certain I could come up with something involving deep ones brought far inland, to dream in deathless sleep, brought briefly awake by the offering of the gifts of the sea.

Anyways, will see about digging up those images.

[Koakai]

Aha! I was cursing my younger self, thinking that perhaps those photos were a part of those that were lost either due to mugging or bad processing of the film until I started pouring through my negatives. Then i remembered that I had made a mini-scrap book to go along with my journal of those months, and after a bit more searching I did find the two photos I was looking for. My memory had not failed me, the convent did indeed have a set of side stairs containing several old gravestones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13107129@N00/8319222345/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/13107129@N00/8320281072/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13107129@N00/8320280378/

In case anyone was interested, those top images are of bones inlaid floors, a very colonial art form. Animal bones were cemented into the floor much like you'd cement tiles. http://www.flickr.com/photos/13107129@N00/8319234607/

All this digging also reminded me of a few fun facts about the old cathedral in the centre of town. Like all structures in cities like this this fellow was renovated lots. The last time was the year or two before we got there for our dig. Our professor had seen the renovations being undertaken and has gone in. He told of a pit of skulls, extending deep into the floor. Very, very dark.

But on the lighter side, I forgot that this place has some... interesting artwork. Including a llama in the depiction of the manger scene of christ's birth, and a Cuy, or guinea pig being served at the last supper.

[Keeper Dan]

Wow Koakai, you know how to start your membership here with a bang. This is amazing stuff you're sharing. Thank you!

And it occurs to me that it's odd that we've not gotten any kind of Canada sourcebooks for Call of Cthulhu. It's bigger than the US, and only bested in size by China. There has to be some amazing stuff there to fill several books.
The only adventure I know of is Horror's Heart, which is set in Montreal.

[Koakai]

Thank you. I happen to enjoy odd things about history, so this history segment interests me intensely.

As for BC, dear me you could mine it for a long time. There is actually a facebook group called Haunted British Columbia if anyone is interested in cool pictures of abandoned areas of this fine province of mine.

Heck, any province that had as its leader a guy that changed his name to 'Amour de Cosmos' has to have a few skeletons in its closet.

(side trip down memory lane involving old coffins being stored in the universities storeroom. Turns out whenever a Bc chapter of the international order of the Oddfellows disbanded, we got the coffin and skeleton that they had kicking around. No way related to their rituals. Nope. )

[Dr. Gerard]

As for BC, dear me you could mine it for a long time.

Excellent choice of words.

Heck, any province that had as its leader a guy that changed his name to 'Amour de Cosmos' has to have a few skeletons in its closet.

That is a seriously cosmic beard, Mr. de Cosmos. Tabarnak!