Category: The Mystery Cave of Many Faces

Written By Fred Rydholm: Two men who have never faltered in their support for the cave’s authenticity and colossal historical importance are Dr. Joseph Mahan of Columbus, Georgia and Dr. Cyclone Covey, professor emeritus of history at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Both of these men have known the Yuchi Indians intimately and […]

Written by Fred Rydholm and Warren Dexter: Another person who has done a preliminary analysis of the Cave material is Warren W. Dexter. It will be difficult to summarize all of it but here are some of his observations. He visited the cave, and first observed the collections of things that had been removed from […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: The Elephant Stele is not the only tablet that resembles things from elsewhere. Virginia Hourigan discovered what resembles the cartouche of Merneptah on a stone from the cave; the similarity is very close, but there are obvious notable differences. It seems that a forger could have been more accurate had he […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: By 1990 I had became a good friend and supporter of Russ Burrows. I could see no way that a fraud could have been perpetrated. When I discussed the cave with doubters I realized they were all backing up thei doubts with the opinions of the experts. I had gone way […]

Written by Russell Burrows: On my next trip in, I took along a small two-and-a-half-ton hydrojack as well as a crank-type “come-along.” I was determined to find out what was on the other side of that stone wheel. After some experimental rigging of my tools I soon figured out how to roll the stone away […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: Russell continued to go to the cave in 1987-88 to probe a little further. He was convinced that there was much more there to be seen. Besides the doorway at the bottom of the trap (the first one he discovered), he thinks there may be several other such openings to that […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: Dr. Warren Cook was very enthusiastic about the cave. On his visit to Vincennes in 1987 he said he was willing to organize the entire study and he offered to set up the system, provide a plan for strategy, hire the personnel and see that everything from the cave would be […]

Written by Russell Burrows: On my first visit to Columbus, I met a man I really liked. He is a real down-to-earth guy for one who is respected as a scholar the world over. That man is Dr. George Carter. I had spoken to him by telephone previous to our meeting in 1988, and I […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: As stated, in 1987 I’d joined ISAC (the Institute for the Study of American Cultures). My good friend Warren Dexter encouraged me to attend the 1988 annual meeting in Columbus, Georgia. So June and I traveled down there. It was here on that hot day in June that I first met […]

Written by Russell Burrows: I will continue with the account of my contacts with Bart Jordan, the archaeologist: After Bart had left Vincennes and continued on his journey to New Mexico, accompanied by one of the sweetest young ladies I have ever had the pleasure to meet, I forgot about him. That was not easy […]

Written by Russell Burrows In 1987, an event occurred which convinced me that there were some people who would go to any lengths to control the cave. By this time, I had accepted the fact that there was something unusual about the cave and, because of that, many people wanted to get in on the […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: About a century ago there was a great controversy in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois over strange artifacts found between 1874 and 1915 in Indian mounds (mainly in seventeen counties of lower Michigan). Among these artifacts were many large tablets made of clay, slate, stone and (in a few cases) copper. […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: The question which arises is: why this great interest in a cave filled with artifacts, when the people who are used to working with artifacts say the whole thing is a fraud? Barry Fell, founder and president of the Epigraphic Society, claims that these artifacts are all copied from his book […]

Written by Russell Burrows: The series of events which I am now going to relate are so strange that they just do not seem real. They could well have been a script from a James Bond movie. I received a call from my brother; he lives in Virginia and knew about the cave and its […]

Written by Fred Rydholm: Jim Whittall wrote to Burrows saying he was going to come out to Illinois and explore the cave himself. He also said he was going to bring along a man by the name of Chris Bird, to photograph the cave. If Whittall had had the slightest inkling of what Russ Burrows […]

Written by Russell Burrows: Jim Whittall runs the Early Sites Research Society out on the East Coast, and he certainly should have been a good contact for our group. According to what Virginia said, he was into epigraphy, archaeology and other fields relating to Old World diffusion. She thought that he would be a lot […]

Written by Virginia Hourigan: On the way back to New York that fall I visited friends who all became excited by my photos of such unusual artifacts. One told me about Oscar Muscarella, a genius in authentication at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was restudying Schliemann’s discoveries at Troy. He had been invited to […]

Written by Virginia Hourigan: Finally, Russell said the owner had agreed, and if I came to Olney on my way back to New York he would take me to the cave. I could hardly wait. Most of the summer was gone by the time I got there and checked into a motel, and then Russell […]

Written by Virginia Hourigan: Because we’d had a pleasant conversation the day after a very unpleasant one with Barry Fell, I phoned Barry’s friend Wayne Kenaston to tell him I was coming to San Diego. “Be sure and call me right away,” said Wayne. “I’m dying to see those pictures.” So as soon as I […]

Written by Virginia Hourigan: [There is an error in the book where apparently 1 or 2 pages did not get properly included in the final printing. Therefore, this chapter is missing the beginning.] That’s Gloria. Well, at least I didn’t have to try to persuade her that it was a good idea. We arrived in […]