Arizona's Mysterious Painted Rocks

These mysterious petroglyphs are found on many rocks all over the state of Arizona. Most of the petroglyphs were created by Southern Sinagua inhabitants between about 1150 and 1400 AD. The V-bar-V petroglyph site is the largest known petroglyph site and is located in Sedona, Arizona. The rock site consists of 1,032 petroglyphs in 13 panels and is protected and kept open to the public. What an interesting way of communication before newspapers, books and computers.

DT: Swamp Ape

SECOND INVESTIGATION: "SWAMP APE"
In south Florida, throughout Everglades National Park and 10,000 Island's area, a stinky hair ape man is stalking the area. Also spotted in the Cypress National Preserve, this "Skunk Ape" as they call it because of the horrible smell it admits, blends in with its surroundings, is said to be 8 feet high with a large dome head and prominent brow, and massive chest. They flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Josh could miss the opportunity to harass Jael about reading the "Twilight" series of books. After getting their vehicle, they headed due west from Fort Lauderdale to the Cypress National Preserve. This area is over a million acres of swamp and uninhabitable by humans, with roads not existing in the interior. Along the way they stopped at the "official" Florida research center. This place had everything you ever wanted on the Skunk Ape and even a large python that seems to roam the place freely, yikes! They head off to meet with Dave Shealy, who founded the Skunk Ape research center and had a terrifying encounter with the beast. He took Josh to the remote area where the sighting occurred. While sitting at a tree stand he noticed that about 100 yards away, a large hairy man-like creature was looking right at him. He continues to tell Josh that there are 100's of sightings and there are some people that have come up missing in the everglades through the years. He uses raw meat, such a dear liver, to attract the animal to capture its existence. They grab a meal of frog legs and alligator and make one more stop before heading out to the everglades. Radio host Ed Craft swears he saw the Swamp Monster while camping. He tells Josh that you must be willing to go where no other humans will go in order to find the Swamp Ape. This is definitely a job up the DT team’s alley.

After getting to the Big Cypress Preserve, they trade their vehicle for a Swamp Buggy to navigate through the first part of the bog. Josh stops to talk to Billy, a Centennial Indian, whose tribe members have witnessed the Skunk Ape for years. He tells Josh that just two days ago some on his tribe members during a tribal ceremony spotted the Skunk ape. Josh then arranges with Tom Shirley, the game warden, to use swamp boats to get to the location of the sightings. After 3 hours, they finally arrived in the area of the recent sightings when Josh spots something big in the woods walking around. He said that it was large and walking upright. They looked for a half an hour to see if it would appear again but found nothing but alligators. After the boats dropped them off, they headed in to find an area for their base camp. They had investigated swampy areas before and were prepared for almost anything.

After finding a good area for base camp, the set up 4 infrared cameras around the perimeter and 4 trap cameras with bait sitting in front of them. Josh was told to watch for water moccasins and panthers that are in the area. Josh and Jael head off with the thermal camera and to do a sweep of the area. Before getting the last trap camera set up, they hear something big and close in the swamps near them. They also heard lots of splashing in the water. Bicha is out putting bait near the first infrared camera and hears something walking behind them. They start experiencing big time movement all around them. Josh and Jael head back to base camp and see alligators with one heading towards them. They continue on their sweep when Jael hears something moving around them and in the water. They both hear something walking around in the brush near them. In one of the cameras at base camp they spot something moving in front of it. It looks like a panther and they warn Josh about what they saw. Meanwhile, Josh and Jael are trudging through water and see a Cottonmouth snake which is poisonous and they slowly back away. Back at base camp, they see something streak by camera 3 and then it gets knocked down. They head out to investigate and find the camera lying on the ground and the bait was gone. They then see something big in the trees in front of them and hear it moving all around them. They kept hearing branches breaking. At the same time, Josh and Jael are still walking in the swamp and this time spot an alligator and back away from it. Josh and Mike head out to where camera 3 was tipped over to see if they can capture any audio. Josh got a hit on the thermal but can't distinguish what it was. They also experienced a very loud noise like something was crashing down. They take their evidence back to Los Angeles where Josh sits down with former Los Angeles zoo curator, Mike Dee, to go over the footage. The thing caught on the thermal camera appeared to be upright in a standing position. He said that it could be a black bear, but there wasn't enough on the thermal to say for sure. He did feel that the animal caught on the base camp's camera could be a Florida Panther. It is very rare to capture a picture of this animal especially at night. Could the eyewitnesses be seeing a bear? With all the reports of seeing this Skunk Ape, the investigations are far from being over.

~Julie~

DT: King Tut's Curse

FIRST INVESTIGATION: "KING TUT'S CURSE", Egypt
For 1000's of years the mummified Kings of ancient Egypt laid hidden beneath the desert until Josh's predecessors cracked open the tombs where curses written on the walls threatened anyone that disturbed the Pharos right to rest in peace. Howard Carter first opened King Tut's tomb in 1923. Several members of his team died by years end and were the first victims of the Pharos curse. Many people after that tragic event that were curious about King Tut's tomb, also met with a tragic end. Just recently a team conducting a CT scan on King Tut was met with a rare sandstorm and complete failure of their equipment. Since then guards have seen strange lights, apparitions and heard strange voices in the Valley of the Kings. Josh was surprised when the Egyptian government granted his partition to spend the entire night investigating King Tut's tomb alone, a world wide first.

They flew more than 7,000 miles through 10 time zones, landing in Cairo, Egypt. As soon as they touched down, Josh headed over to the Egyptian museum where there is a vast amount of priceless relics. Over 4,000 of Tut's personal items have been excavated from his tomb and brought there for display. Josh was required to meet with the director of antiquities, Mustafah, to give them the keys to the tomb. He asked him if there was any truth to the curse and Mustafah said that it was something he couldn't deny. There was some kind of power but he didn't know what it was. The next morning they flew south from Cairo to the city of Luxor. This ancient capital of Egypt sits across the banks of the Nile from the Valley of the Kings. Josh meets up with Ramy, an Egyptologist, who tells him that the Valley of the Kings is essentially a graveyard with many kings buried down there. It is a very spiritual place. Josh asked if anyone ever filmed there before and he said never, they would be the first. The idea for filming there at night is very scary and would be provoking the curse. After shopping, they ate some of the local cuisine which consisted of testicles, brains and a bull penis. The next day Ramy takes Josh to meet a local guard who has seen ghost like apparitions and strange lights across the valley along with other guards. He tells Josh that he shouldn't be alone while in the Valley of the Kings because it was too dangerous. They leave Luxor, go across the Nile, through the Valley of the Kings, and then the mountain pass that leads to Tut's tomb. They use camels to get there which doesn't make Josh very happy.

INVESTIGATION: They set up base camp right outside the entrance to King Tut's tomb. Josh and Jael set out to sweep the area surrounding the tomb using the thermal imaging camera. Jael kept hearing noises near a tomb so they went to investigate. Josh catches a shadow moving on the thermal camera. After exploring the perimeter they head down to the tomb. Two of his crew was not feeling very good. Before they could go down to where the tomb was, a sudden sandstorm stops them. After the sandstorm subsides, they head down. They finally reach the body of Tut and hear noises near it. Josh gets a high EMF reading over the area where Tut was found and there was no reason for the high reading. He hears another sound down the corridor which sounds like a person. Josh and Rex chase the noise down and find that one of his crew feel down sick. After taking him back to base camp, they do the isolation in the room with Tut. Josh gets locked in first and hears all kinds of weird noises. He keeps hearing something outside the door and with everyone at base camp, he sends Mike down to corroborate his story. Mike gets locked in and hears sounds from the other side of the tomb. Mike's experiences shortness of breath and has an asthma attack. Rex heads down and they bring him back up. With his team dropping like flies they take the evidence back to Los Angeles for analysis. Mike picked up on audio Josh talking and what sounded like a voice saying "out". Also while Josh was alone, they picked up the sounds of footsteps on audio. The trap camera mounted in the tomb caught in one picture a translucent white light on the corner of the photo.

The second investigation on the "Skunk Ape" will be posted later today.

~Julie~

The Quirky World of Tim Burton

When you think of a Tim Burton film, quirky and dark probably come to mind. Not only has he co-wrote and produced some blockbuster movies, he directed them as well. He has come a long way since 1985 when he directed his first feature film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. In many of his movies, Tim calls upon his closest friends, actor Johnny Depp, musician Danny Elfman and partner Helena Bonham Carter to be a part of his crazy but wonderful films.

Timothy William Burton was born on August 25, 1958. It was in 1982 that he made a black and white stop motion film he named “Vincent”. This film was based on a poem that Tim wrote about a young boy who fantasizes about being Vincent Price. Price was Tim’s screen idol and even narrated the film for him. Tim’s girlfriend was an executive at Disney where he took up an office during production on the film. After that the two of them co-wrote a screenplay called “True Love” which was shown at the Chicago Film Festival. When the relationship ended, Tim did a series of live-action short stories such as Hansel and Gretel and Frankenweenie. Even though Tim’s work was not seen by many, he was attracting the attention of the film industry.

Tim’s marriage to a German-born artist only lasted four year until he left her for a model named Lisa Marie. She appeared in a couple of his movies, Ed Wood and Mars Attacks. They were engaged from 1992 to 2001 until he left her for Helena Bonham Carter. He met Helena on the set of Planet of the Apes. They have a son, Billy and a daughter, Nell and have homes in Los Angeles and London. Johnny Depp is their son Billy’s godfather. Johnny once said on his friend Tim Burton: "What more can I say about him? He is a brother, a friend, my godson's father. He is a unique and brave soul, someone that I would go to the ends of the earth for, and I know, full and well, he would do the same for me."

After seeing Tim Burton’s short film Frankenweenie, Paul Reubens asked Tim to direct his feature film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”. So, in 1985 and on a budget of $7 million dollars and asking songwriter Danny Elfman to write the music for the film, Pee-wee’s movie was made. The movie ended up grossing over $40 million at the box office. In 1988, he directed Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in a horror/comedy called, “Beetlejuice”. Working on another low budget film, it went on to gross over $80 million. In 1989, Tim received his first big budget film, “Batman” but had butt heads with the producers over the leading man. Tim wanted Michael Keaton, who worked with him in Beetlejuice, to play the masked hero and they were against it. Causing discouragement in some fans by casting Keaton, he cast Jack Nicholson as the Joker hoping to assure them that this movie and its actors were going to be great. It was and ended up grossing over $400 million worldwide.

Tim went on to be very successful in the 1990’s as well. He started out the decade with a quirky movie called, “Edward Scissorhands” starring his friend Johnny Depp. This would be the first of many films Depp would appear in or voice for Burton. Tim also cast Vincent Price, his idol, to be a part of the movie and played the eccentric inventor. Sadly this was the last appearance on screen for Price before his death. Tim would go on to produce and direct many other blockbusters such as Batman Returns, Nightmare before Christmas, Cabin Boy, Ed Wood, Batman Forever, James and the Giant Peach, Mars Attacks, and Sleepy Hollow.

In the 2000’s, Tim Burton’s films continue to reign at the top of the box office. He started the decade and century with Planet of the Apes starring Mark Walburg and Helena Bonham Carter. This film is where he met Helena, who later became his partner. His other movies consisted of Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and a short film simply called 9.

His next film Alice in Wonderland is due for release March 10, 2010.

~Julie~

DT: Island of the Dolls; Lusca

"Island of the Dolls"1. Doll's Island (Isla de las Munecas), Mexico, are where these creepy little dolls are said to be possessed. The island caretaker put them up to rid off the spirit of a little girl that was visiting there and drowned. Those that have past by the dolls at night have seen them moving and whispering, enticing people to come on shore. Recently the island's caretaker, Don Julian, was found dead in the same canal that the visiting girl was found. Locals claim that his spirit now haunts the island as well. Josh Gates and his DT team flew 1500 miles south of the border to Mexico City, Mexico. After letting their hair down in the evening, they took off for the island in the morning to try and make it there before nightfall. At first Josh seeks out Hector Mendez, a local paranormal expert that has been tracking the story about the island and caretaker’s death. Some believe that voices enticed Don Julian to get out of the water, while others believe that the dolls killed him. He told them that they had to get permission to set foot on the island because it is private property. It is now owned by the caretaker's nephew Anastasio, who manages the property from the safety of a distant countryside. Like always, they have car problems, and while the others wait for the vehicle to get fixed, Josh and Jael continued on horseback. Josh and Jael meet up with Anastasio Velazquez on his farm at the edge of town. He tells them that he has seen the dolls heads move up and then move down. He told them to bring a doll to appease the spirits and put it near where the girl drowned. They ate, shopped and played then picked up the supplies they needed. They found a woman who knew exactly what they needed to bring to the island. The island is located 18 miles outside of Mexico City, so they used a boat to get to the Doll's Island. They were greeted by dolls hanging everywhere which was very creepy. They set up base camp and plotted where all the cameras will be placed, then set out to do their investigation. Josh and Jael placed the doll, candy and candles they bought near the area where the little girl drowned as an offering for her spirit. Right afterwards, they heard a splash in the water and seen it moving. They experience high EMF spikes around one of the dolls in the shed, whose eyes shut and then one eye opens after Josh got near it. They walked around where there are creepy dolls hanging everywhere. One at a time, they sat in the shed for 30 minutes at a time to see if anything would happen. While Josh was in there he heard a loud bang. Mike appeared to get most of the action. While he was sitting there he sees a dark shape outside the shed. On the base camp camera they see a white light at the same time he experiences many sounds all around the shed. He asked the spirits to speak, making themselves known, and right away he hears a noise like something was dragging across the roof. After Mike quickly leaves the shed, Josh makes a thorough sweep of the area. Behind Mike on the thermal, Josh sees what looks like a figure and then three orb type figures on the other side of the canal. They head home to LA where Mike, their audio guy, checks out the EVP's. On one he captured a voice that sounded like it said "leave". This was right before Mike heard that dragging across the roof of the shed. During Josh's EVP session in the shed, he caught a voice that also may have said "leave". He turns to Steve and Tango to look at the thermal and video evidence captured. They feel that some type of energy could be attached to the doll whose eye opened. The thermal images they caught, they felt that something with energy was there and felt that if the figure but it was free floating, then it could be considered paranormal. As for the three round heat signatures, Steve felt it could have been some sort of paranormal energy. Also, on the video camera, after Mike runs out, they captured a noise like something was trying to get in the shed like a door knob rattling. This creepy little island with massive amount of dolls all over it definitely has some paranormal and strange activity going on there.

2. Lusca is a giant octopus found in the Caribbean near the remote island of Andros and lives in caves under the island in the large watery tunnels. Boat captions have told of it attacking their vessels and pull swimmer to their death. It is described as a huge monster, bigger than any known octopus, with 85 foot tentacles with enormous suction cups and a large mouth with rows of razor sharp teeth. The DT crew flew into Andros Island, Bahamas, picked up they new shirts and drove to where they can charter a boat in the tiny town of Small Hope to find a boat captain that will take them out. They had troubles finding one that wanted to aide them in their expedition and ended up chartering their own boat. They headed out to the Blue Holes to find the tunnels where the Lusca is said to live. Josh and Jael suited up to get a lay of the land and encounter many sharks that surround them. After they get back to the boat Josh goes alone in the blue hole and can see that it is massive in there. They get something on the sonar about 120 feet down the blue hole and right afterwards Josh sees something huge go pass. He heads back to the boat and they form another plan to enter through another hole entrance. The dive would require Josh to go deeper than he has ever gone. They closely monitor Josh's status as he descends further in the cave. On the sonar they are seeing strange objects while Josh notices that something large pushed its way through the tunnel. Suddenly he sees something large pass in front of him and they lose contact with him. As the team panics from losing contact with Josh, they see something moving in the water. Finally Josh surfaces then has Jael dive while the rest keep vigil on the land. On camera and on thermal they caught something huge on the surface moving very fast. He said down with marine biologist, Dr. Scott Cooper to get his opinion. He says that something that large must have plenty of food and a sufficient habitat to live in and this area does provide that. He could not conclusively say what was captured by the evidence Josh provided.

Woody Mistakes Photographer for Zombie

Woody Harrelson defended his clash with a photographer at a New York airport Wednesday night as a case of mistaken identity -- he says he mistook the cameraman for a zombie. Click here to read the entire article.

His movie "Zombieland" comes out in theaters on October 2, 2009. This movie looks like it could be a good horror/comedy to watch.

It sounds like Woody can use a vacation.

Devil Worm, Worm Monsters and Graboids

Something slimy to start off the week, lol.

Is there such a thing as an underground, huge, man eating worm? Underneath our desert floors and in the most remote areas on Earth, there have been reports of such worms. Hollywood even made a movie focusing on these subterranean creatures terrorizing the folks of a small Nevada town. The movie “Tremors” is one of my favorites and gave the creature its name, Graboids, with them getting different names, Shriekers and Assblasters in the not as good sequels.

In the 1990 dark comedy, TREMORS, these subterranean worm-like creatures decided to make meals of the citizens of Perfection, Nevada. The town is made up of a few trailers, a couple of houses, and a general store owned by Walter Chang. It makes you wonder why anyone would want to live in this desolate dust bowl of a town, but 14 people called Perfection home. As I previously mentioned, there is Walter Chang, who spends half the movie naming the creatures and the other half in the belly of one of them. He should have fixed that noisy Coke machine instead of spending so much time coming up with the name, "Graboid". Then there is the potter Donna, her pogo jumping young daughter Mindy; the smart ass teenager, Melvin, whose parents are unknown; Nester, who you have no idea who he is and are pretty sure he is going to be dessert later in the movie; and Miguel, the farmer whose animals are mysteriously disappearing. Then we have Burt and Heather Gummer who state that the geographical isolation is why they chose this location. Their house is a fortress and their rec room has every weapon known to mankind. A Graboid found out the hard way not to mess with the Gummers and bust into their precious rec room. Then there are the heroes, Val and Earl, the resident handymen. After having a bad bout with a septic tank’s waste spraying all over them, they decide to finally leave Perfection. On their way out of town they come across Edgar Deems on a top of an electrical tower. Edgar died of dehydration and even though the worms didn't get Edgar, they did manage to make meals of Fred, his flock of sheep, the doctor, his wife, their station wagon, a couple of construction workers and telephone repairmen. They almost got Rhonda the college student who was conducting seismology test around the area but unbeknown to her, she escaped being a snack. After another failed attempt of leaving town, Val and Earl found one of the tentacles of the beasts attached to their truck. The next day they took Walter’s horse to get help and warn the doc, his wife and Rhonda. After coming across the doctor's car buried, they haul ass on the horses only to be chased by a Graboid. After jumping into a concrete ditch, the Graboid smashes into the side and ends up committing suicide. They run into Rhoda who after checking her paperwork realizes that there are three more of them out there. Back in town, they warn the people who are now huddled in the general store except for the Gummers who are out looking for Rhonda. After the town's folks did battle with the monsters, and the Gummers defeated one at their house, they came up with a plan and were able to get the survivors out of town. The Graboids had one more trick up their sleeves, they set a trap. Now we see the ragtag gang sitting on some boulders out in the middle of nowhere where they use Burt's homemade bombs to defeat the last two Graboids. They were able to trick one into eating the bomb and blowing it into many pieces but the other one wasn't falling for it. Val came up with a plan knowing that this gigantic worm was not smarter than them. The worm chased Val, Earl and Rhonda towards the end of the cliff. Using the bomb, Val throws it behind the Graboid causing it to pick up speed, crashing through the cliff-face and plummeting to its death. They all hugged and kissed and went back to their dreary little town and made a boat load of money off the Graboids.

The movie was science fiction but are subterranean worms real? The people in Mongolia's Gobi Desert will tell you that they are in deed real. They claim that they are terrorized by a bright red worm, with a wide body and measures about 5 feet long. They refer to this worm as the Mongolia Devil Worm or Death Worm. The stories are anywhere from the worm shooting sulfuric acid at its victims, or killing from a distance by means of an electric charge. This kind of story is exactly what Josh Gates and the Destination Truth crew like to check out for themselves. The fact that so many have reported seeing the devil worm, and hearing that an entire village was abandoned because of this worm, sparked Josh’s interest. The area surrounding the village is where they decided to do their investigation. To get to the destination, they had to go off-road, using only GPS coordinates, stopping in the town of Dalanzadgad to eat some of the local cuisine and talk to more eyewitnesses. They were told that the worm is attracted to the color yellow, something Josh took note of. After a long dreary drive in the Gobi Desert, they finally reach the abandoned village and Osman, the only inhabitant still living there. He tells them that he hasn't seen anything but hearing eerie sounds that caused the other villagers to leave.

Josh and his team head out to the outskirts of town and find many tunnels. Are these made by the devil worm or large creepy rodents? Hoping it was the devil worm itself that made the tunnels; they attach a yellow cloth to their camera and put it in one of the holes. The elements were hard to deal with like the ever dropping temperature. Using the thermal camera, Josh happens upon a fresh hole and some sort of residual heat signature. They take samples and hear a scratching sound but find nothing. Then one of the team spots an orange flash off in the distance but found nothing upon investigating it. They had to quit investigation because the frigid air was draining the batteries and making it hard to tolerate and finish the investigation. They took all the evidence and samples back to Los Angeles for testing but nothing identical or organic was found. Josh had to conclude that they didn't have enough evidence to support the existence of the Mongolian Devil Worm.

Even in one of the coldest places on Earth, Iceland have reports of a giant Worm Monster. Reports are that is it longer than a football field and has been seen near Lake Lagarfljot. This monster has been reported by witnesses since 1345 and is one of the oldest lake monsters ever recorded. It has been spotted either in the lake or on land in a coiled position. It is brown in color, slimy skin with huge set of sharp teeth that remind me of the gaping maw of the Sarlacc from the movie “Return of the Jedi”. Others have reported seeing it slither into the forest and have the locals frightened by its existence. Josh Gates and the Destination Truth team went to investigate this worm and had lots of mishaps because of the frigid weather and thick fog surrounding the lake. Josh and the two others with him in their boat were lost for over 6 hours on the lake trying to find base camp. The temperature got down to 10 degrees and they were afraid of hypothermia. While trying to get back to base camp, they did spot something enormous, about 20 or 30 feet, black shadow moving in the water. This thing created huge waves that rock their boat. After making it back home to Los Angeles, they had the video footage analyzed. They expert could not ID what they caught but ruled out a school of fish and large eels that are known to be in that area.

Whatever the truths behind these incredible enormous worms are, all the witnesses will tell you that they are real. Anyone want to go fishing?

Girl Who Cries Blood

From nationalgeographic.com:
"Twinkle spontaneously bleeds from her eyes as well as her head, hands and other body parts -- though there is no visible source or injury to explain it. Some say a bad omen has been cast, others think she is possessed, and yet others think it could be self-inflicted. Hoping for a breakthrough, Twinkle and her mother put their faith in a top American blood specialist who is flying to India to investigate her extraordinary case."
Is it a hoax or is it real? Watch and see.....

Destination Truth Recap: Haunted Forest; Alux

On this 3rd season, Josh Gates has a bigger role besides host and that is of producer. Having more control, he can run the show his way. Along with the first-hand duties, he has a new team going with him on all the new destinations. They are Bicha Gholam, case manager; Evan Stone, cameraman; Gabriel "Gabe" Copeland, cameraman; Jael DePardo, researcher; Mike Morrell, audio; Rex Williams, medic; and Sharra Jenkins, tech manager. With his new team they set out for their first investigation of the paranormal activity in the Hoia Baciu woods in Romania.

FIRST INVESTIGATION: "Haunted Forest", Hoia Baciu, Romania

The Hoia Baciu woods are also known by the locals as the haunted gateway to the other side. This dark forest is very disorientating and feed on our darkest fears. Deep in the back woods of Transylvania, stories of bright lights tower skyward from the forest at night are seen by many of the locals. A couple of research teams that went into the forest were spooked with some of their pictures that had ghost-like human figures in them. They saw nothing with the naked eye while walking around in there. Now the locals are afraid of traveling to the Hoia Baciu forest and call it the most haunted spot in Europe. With over 45 ghost sightings in the past 6 months, Josh and his team were hoping for an incredible investigation with great evidence. They flew 6,000 miles from Los Angeles to Cluj, Romania and Josh called ahead to rent an SUV using what little Russian he could muster up. What they ended up with was a tiny two-door, filthy 4X4 which Josh said, "must mean that it is only 4 feet by feet and can only fit 4 comfortably. The entire crew squeezes in and off they go having some car problems at the beginning. They head off to the center of Cluj to find a professor that is an expert in the study of strange phenomena. Adrian Patrut, professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Cluj University is who they met up with and is an expert on the forest. He has several pictures of the bright lights and human like apparitions on nine different trips in the past three years that he took. He tells Josh that most of the sightings are concentrated around a perfectly circular clearing in the woods. The circular area is a natural vegetated dead zone where nothing grows. All the strange pictures are what started all the interests and investigations. Since he could not give them an exact location of where the circle was located, he pointed them to a small village outside of town near the forest where many of the residents have seen strange lights hovering over the forest. Their Romanian road trip was adventurous needless to say. It was bumpy and they came across some oxen pulling carts and felt like they were back in the 1800's. It didn't take them long to find a local that was willing to talk about the haunted forest. This man tells them that there is definitely a strong energy there while another local tells Josh not to go to the forest. Josh asked “why not go” and he tells them that you will remain there and never come back. They decide to chart a plane to get the best visual location of the mysterious circle and chart it on his GPS so they can find the place on foot. They rent a plane that Josh said looked like it escaped from the Air and Space Museum and was quite the antique. He tells everyone to get in the coffin or rather plane and off they go. Right away the roof of the plane flew off and panic sets in. They had to go back and were glad when they landed safely and hugged the ground. Needing to find another mode of transportation, they rent some ATV's and follow the map that professor Patrut made for them. They wanted to find the circle before it got dark and had to stop somewhere near it to set up base camp. They set up four infrared camera around base camp about 300 yard radius and four wireless trap cameras about a mile beyond that. These cameras have GPS tracking on them so they can locate there whereabouts and will shot anything that comes in front of their lens.

They spend the first night looking for the clearing or mysterious circle. In this area is where most of the activity was reported. Josh, Rex and Evan set off to the south where Josh spots a small light through the trees. Josh has everyone turn their headlamps off to see if it is one of his crew. After realizing that it wasn’t any of the team, they run towards the light and Rex falls down and hurts himself. He is fine but goes back to base camp to rest. Jael and Gabe hear noises so Jael takes several pictures of the surrounding area. She captures weird lights and orbs in the photos. Mike joins Evan and Josh and not having to walk very long, they found the elusive circle which was close by base camp. Right away they get a high EMF reading and take soil samples to see if they could explain why vegetation won't grow. Through the trees they see a light moving and run towards it. They experience the thermal imaging camera all of the sudden shutting off. Then Josh decides that each will sit in isolation in the circle with him going first. Josh keeps hearing noises all around in the woods. In the base camera they see a light behind Josh near his left shoulder. It looked like someone was walking behind him. As he turns to glimpse at the lights, it disappears off the camera. Now it’s Evan's turn to be alone in the circle where he kept hearing female voices behind him. On the camera they see him all of a sudden disappear like an unseen hand grabbed him and pulled him back. This happened right after hearing a big wind sound. They quickly ran to see what happened and found Evan lying on the ground. He had a burning feeling on his arm, lifted the sleeve and noticed deep scratches that were bleeding. He said that it felt like a big wind blew him backwards which freaked him out. Back at base camp, Rex fell sick. Not wanting to endanger anymore of his team, they took the evidence they collected back to Los Angeles for analysis. He took the soil samples to Wallace Laboratories to see if there was something biological or natural in why nothing would grow in the circle. They checked samples taken inside and outside the circle for analysis and concluded that there was very little differences in both samples. There was no explanation for why nothing grew in the circle. He took the photos, video and audio evidence to Jason and Grant to get their opinion of what they captured. On one EVP they caught a voice that sounded female moaning or yelling and another sounded like a female laughing. Because of the elements of the area the female sounds could be an animal or bird native to the area. To me it sounded like females voices. In the pictures they concluded that the orbs could be dust, but could not explain the weird lights and shadows. Then he showed them footage of Evan being blown away like something grabbed his arm and showed them the scratches. They couldn't explain what happened because he had a heavy jacket on and he only scratched his arm. They felt like Evan had a paranormal experience and that something unexplainable is going on in those woods. How did a full grown man in a sitting position get picked up and thrown around like a rag doll? How indeed?

SECOND INVESTIGATION: "Alux Creature", Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

The Alux is a mythical pygmy like creature that has been seen deep in the jungles of Mexico in the Mayan ruins. These stories of a "Mini Me" called the Alux, which are child size beasts, have been reported for centuries. About 90% of the indigenous residence believes the creature to be real. There have been a spike in sightings in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in just the past month. It is described at a small human like creature with dark fur and an aggressive disposition. This creature, which is less than 4 foot tall, lives primarily in caves and the ruins that are deep in the jungle. After a 5 1/2 hour flight from LA to Cancun Mexico, they had to stay focused even though the margaritas were calling. They rented a jeep, headed due west, and noticed all the Alux houses along the highway built to appease the creature. They meet up with professor Carlos Cervantes and expert in Mayan history who has been tracking the recent run-ins with the Alux. He tells them than 95% of the people living there believe it is real and they are very afraid of the creature. He tells Josh that the creature lives in caves in the jungle. While in the jungle, he met up with a Shaman whose people came face to face with the creature. He directed Josh and his team to where the Shaman is located and they immediately headed off to seek him out. Along the way they ran into a bunch of male belly dancers that seem to take a shine to the team. Back on the road they ended up in the town of Merida by nightfall and decided to relax and let loose. They had some fun at the towns Carnival and ran into "Santa", the potato head float and did some dancing. The announcer told the crowd that Josh was in the Batman movie and he became an instant celebrity. He woke up in the morning with a female officer's phone number written on his hand and clearly it was time to leave. Just kidding of course, or was he, lol. On their way to see the Shaman, they stopped in a remote town where they heard that a young boy was taken by the Alux. Luis and Betty Kuilton, the boy's parents, felt that their son Jesus, is in the jungle with the Alux, alive and still there. They mapped out the jungle and figured that they needed to cover an area with the radius of 20-25km in diameter. They drove as far as they could but since the deep jungle terrain was so thick, they had to reach their destination on foot. They first set their sites on the remote caves that used to be dry and are now filled with water. Jael and Josh descend into one of the caves where they find human remains deep inside of the belly of the cave. He says he saw a part of a human skull and other bones that could have been there for thousands of years. They finally got to the Shaman village by nightfall and the locals did a ceremony to make contact with the Alux. They had to drink a special beverage that the Mayan used to protect them from the Alux and blessed them with leaves. Josh and Jael did a preliminary sweep of the area and saw lots of spiders, many of which are poisonous. They come across some ruins where the Alux is known to live. They use the parabolic dish to pick up any unusual sounds because they heard that the Alux makes a high pitch sound almost like a giggle. Mike picked up a sound and said it was like a kid screaming, a high pitched sound off in the distance. Was this the Alux letting them know it was there? Josh spots a huge snake and quickly moves everybody out of the way. They head out deeper in the forest and come across an enormous cave and step inside to investigate. They light their torches to investigate the cave which has long tunnels and experience their lights going out. They see a hive for some critters along with other poisonous creatures and find bones but can't describe the nature of origin of the bones. They gather some evidence and leave the cave. After the sun came up they took the evidence back to LA and the natural history museum. Some of bones could be from a goat and the others from chickens, but they still didn't know what may have killed them.

Great season premiere and from what I read, the shows highest ratings to date.

~Julie~

The Ghosts of Whiskey Row

Prescott poet Gail Gardner once wrote of "Whiskey Row":
"Oh they starts her in at the Kaintucky bar,
At the head of Whiskey Row,
And they winds up down by the Depot House,
Some forty drinks below."

Nestled in Yavapai County, Arizona, is the quaint little city of Prescott. The locals will tell you that it is pronounced Pres-kit and not Pres-cott. In 1864, Prescott became the capital of the Arizona Territory. In 1867 the capital was moved to Tucson, then back to Prescott in 1879, and finally to Phoenix in 1889.

Prescott is rich in history, housing one of the most famous red-light district areas known as “Whiskey Row”. This area on Montezuma Street had many saloons, with the most famous being the Palace Saloon. The Palace Saloon opened in September of 1877 and was filled with the highest standard of liqueur and decorated with the most impressive furniture from all over the world. The Palace wasn’t just a place to get a meal or have a drink, many men would check out the postings for work, bought and sold mineral claims, and it also served as a place for elections. It can boast having many notorious figures from history frequenting the place such as The Earps, Doc Holliday and “Big Nose Kate” Elder in the late 1870’s. Virgil and his wife Allie lived in the Thumb Buttes area of Prescott and owned a saw mill before joining his brothers in Tombstone. There are stories that Doc Holliday won 10,000 in poker at the Palace and afterwards joined the Earps in Tombstone eight months later.

In 1883, a fire destroyed most of Whiskey Row, taking out many buildings including the original Palace Saloon. Robert Brow, the Palace owner, rebuilt the place with a stone foundation and brick walls. Not only was it built sturdier, but he made it even grander than before. He added and elaborately carved 1880’s Brunswick bar measuring approximately 20 feet long. Unfortunately, Prescott suffered another huge fire destroying most of down town and again abolishing the Palace Saloon. Most of the patrons grabbed their drinks and much of the liquor stock and went across the street to watch the Palace burn. Some of the more faithful of customers actually lifted the Brunswick bar and carried it out to safety. That bar is still remains in use and is the only historical thing left and can be seen in the Palace today which was rebuilt in 1901.

Today, the Palace is a big part of Whiskey Row and has many faithful patrons that frequent it walls, with many visitors having a meal and drink. According to the owner, employees and visitors, many rowdy and playful spirits seemed to have made the Palace their eternal home. At the Palace, there is an 1890’s picture of the bar with what looks like a ghost in the background. There are other stories of glasses falling off the rack for no reason, a plant on the bar suddenly falling to the ground, and a mannequin in period clothing falling over the railing at the top of the stairs while no one with up there. In the 1972 movie, “Junior Bonner”, many of the bar fight scenes were filmed at the Palace. There have been numerous reports of chairs flying across the rooms as wells as bottles by unseen forces, and the sound of glass breaking everywhere. The employees chalk it up to a prankster ghost recreating the bar scenes from the movie. Some have witness the ghost of Nevins, who owned the mortuary and lost it to the sheriff along with all his other possessions. Many feel the he is there to repeat that ominous game hoping for a different outcome. There are other ghosts seen at the bar having a drink by the patrons and employees of the palace. Click here to see a photo of a female ghost taken outside the Palace by a visitor in 2004.

The next time you take a trip out West to Arizona, be sure to put Prescott on your list of places to visit. Check out its historical Whiskey Row and have a meal and a drink at the Palace. You might not be alone.

On September 26-28th, Haunted Con will be in Prescott. I would love to go but probably won’t be able to. I will do a blog on the other many haunted places in Prescott towards the end of this month.

~Julie~

Ghost Squad

Thanks Eileen for the video. What a funny spoof on Ghost Hunters, lol.

Ghost Bikes

I saw this story on our local news. A man's son was struck by a drunk driver while riding his bike. A friend of his erected a "Ghost Bike" memorial in the location where the young man was hit and killed. He painted an old bike white, cemented it in the ground, and added the victim's name and date of death on the side of the bike. I never heard of Ghost Bikes before today, so I looked them up.

This information on Ghost Bikes is from http://www.ghostbikes.org/ :

"Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.
The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in over 90 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed."

--Julie--