Ancients in the Grand Canyon

One of the most memorable scenes out of the Indiana Jones series is the final one from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they Ark is packaged up and put into storage in a miles long underground facility beneath the Smithsonian. Now what if, just by chance, the Smithsonian had such a facility, or partook in other nefarious activities just to keep our standard views on history the standard. Believe it or not, they may have done just that.

The Grand Canyon is one of the worlds greatest tourist destinations. Over 277 miles long and at points as wide as 18 miles, the Grand Canyon is a sight to behold and is full of areas the public gets to see, as well as areas it doesn't. Heck even employees of the National Park service don't always get to see some parts of it. It makes some sense at least. You of course have dangerous rapids mixed up amongst the rock formations, sheer cliff faces, and probably areas of unstable rock. No wonder people don't visit some parts of it and why they are off limits to the public. Of course there couldn't be something in those off limit areas that they don't anyone to know about could there?

In April of 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran a story with the title “Explorations in the Grand Canyon” in which it is mentioned that one G.E. Kinkaid had discovered a series of ruins within some of the many caves dotting the Grand Canyon. This series of ruins not only showed connections with the Ancient Egyptians, but they also happen to lie in one of todays many off limit areas.

As the article continued, it is mentioned that a group of archaeologists from the Smithsonian led by an S.A. Jordon had just begun excavating the ruins. Now this is where the funny stuff starts. Not only were the rumored ruins found within a current off limit area, but those who have contacted the Smithsonian about the excavation, even in our day and age, have all been told that no such ruins were ever found. Making things even more confusing, the Smithsonian claims that an S.A. Jordan never worked for them, and it seems that the original discoverer of the ruins, G.E. Kinkaid never existed.

Now this of course would pretty much narrow it down to two options, either the article was fabricated, as some papers often did back in the day, or the Smithsonian has been hiding something for nearly a century. Clearly it was a hoax right? Well let's look at it from the point of view that any Egyptian artifacts being found as far away as North America, would be a major find. Not only would we have proof that they could travel farther then once thought, but it'd also rewrite the history books, which means that Columbus is no longer the first to find North America!

Big no no right? Well seeing at it took modern historians forever to accept that the Vikings beat Columbus to North America by 500 years, I would say so. Heck admitting that the Egyptians had reached the Americas back in their glory days now would mean that Columbus was not only 3rd to find North America, but the Egyptians did it first thousands of years before both Columbus and the Vikings. Big change for those who have accepted our current historical standard.

Conspiracy or not though, you have to admit, the whole setup is rather odd, and the Smithsonian does have a lot of power and some rather curious goings on, even now at days. I seem to recall reading last night that they don't even let anyone (even the press) know about what goes on during the meetings between it's heads and what not, almost as if they are trying to hide something...something that may just change the way we look at the world.

Sources and Further Reading:
I highly suggest that those interested should read more into this, there a lot that I didn't cover that is really interesting and much more revealing...

Egyptian Artifacts in the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon Egyptian Connection
Lost City at the Grand Canyon
The article in from the Arizona Gazette