Historic Aztec Tunnels in Kanab to be destroyed.

[Corey Shuman]

Historic tunnels in Kanab to be destroyed - Corey Shuman, GRE, Inc.
April 5th, 2008
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_8792457
There are a series of tunnels in Kanab that have long been associated
with the Aztec empire and hidden Spanish gold. The area has never been
mined, however it has been excavated. It's an Indiana Jones type of
adventure but its real, and it's in our own back yard. In 1914,
Freddie Crystal rolled into Kanab, Utah, with a map, a map he claimed
would lead directly to a piece of the horde that had been stashed by
Montezuma hundreds of years ago. He showed the map around, looking for
information on the surrounding country. Almost everyone who saw the
map recognized the area in question as "White Mountain" and pointed
him in that direction.
Once in the area, Freddie immediately found signs that he was in the
right place, Aztec writings littered the area, and the map directed
him right to an ancient set of stairs cut directly into the mountain.
He followed the steps up to a sealed entrance, and from that point,
the hunt was on. He went back into Kanab and announced that he had
found what he was looking for, but now needed help in excavating the
site. The townspeople rallied and nearly emptied the town of Kanab.
They broke through numerous blockades in the mountain, encountering
deadfall traps and other perils showing that these tunnels were not
meant to be accessed by anyone but a descendant of the Aztecs who knew
how to disable the pitfalls. The excavation went on for almost a year,
clearing deadfall after deadfall, finding relics and ancient items,
but never the gold. Finally, with the tunnels all reopened and no gold
found the townspeople went back to their day to day lives and forgot
about the tunnels up in Johnson canyon.
Brandt Childs remembers: " "It led into a big room," he says, "but all
they found was just bones of mules and a few artifacts. No gold. But
then they found another tunnel and it had a plug in it too. So they
dug it out."
At the end of the second tunnel, the gold seekers came upon still
another cavernous room in which they discovered a large human skeleton
propped in a sitting position. "They called him Smiley," recalls
Child, "because he looked like he was smiling."
No one else in the room was smiling, however, because there was no
gold whatsoever-only a handful of pre-Columbian artifacts plus a
sacrificial altar, "where they'd tear the hearts out of men and throw
their bodies over the cliff." Also, the ashes of ancient campfires,
"with human fingers all wrapped in bark, ready for roasting, and human
legs, and things like that."
Great story, right? Pack up and you're all ready to go check out this
area. However, this brings Gold Rush Expeditions in to the story, in
the beginning of April, almost like an April fools joke, the
Department of Oil Gas and Mining (OGM) announced that they were going
to begin operations shortly to "reclaim" this mine site. "What??" This
isn't a mine site, it's an obviously a site of historic and
archeological significance. Add to that the site isn't a mine, or
anything close to it, its origins date back to the times of Cortez,
Montezuma.
So then WTF is the OGM doing down there. Well, it's the latest of a
long line of intrusions from the OGM, destroying what little is left
of Utah's history, mining and otherwise. GRE has been advocating for
years that this organization either needs to be removed, or revamped
to help preserve the amazing historical sites that Utah has to offer.
The OGM was founded to reclaim coal mines, and is funded from coal
mine money. But, in the opinion of GRE, it's not that interesting to
close up coal mines, so why not move into hard rock mines, and
historic sites? Areas of historic significance are being destroyed,
while the open abandoned coal mines across the state, the ones that
OGM should be addressing, are being left open with no attention. And
in the case of the tunnels in Johnson canyon, these sites are not well
known, and so it's easy enough for OGM to step in and destroy the
sites forever.
So what now, will OGM be successful in their bid to destroy this site
next? There is a push from Doug Powell of the Grand Staircase
Escalante National monument to "reclaim" these tunnels. And if
uncontested, this historic area will be destroyed by these groups that
are supposed to protect our resources.
GRE will be spearheading an effort to stop this closure, but we need
your help. On April 11th, GRE will be heading down to Kanab to meet
with area historians to document and tour the site. We welcome anyone
who would like to join us for this excursion. In addition will be
writing letters to the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument management,
the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining and the Kane County BLM to voice
our opposition to this destructive initiative.
If you would like to help, please email in...@goldrushexpeditions.com
for more information on how you can help. If you have any contacts in
the media that can help to bring publicity to this issue, please let
me know.Your history is being eradicated now, and you need to make
your opinions heard now to stop the destruction.
Thanks for your time and efforts.

_________________
Corey Shuman
Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc.
Utah Ghost Town and Mine Preservation
csh...@goldrushexpeditions.com