Greetings Springield and everyone,
Thank you for the kind words and for your interest, I hope to be finished soon with that book project and will be happy to let you know when it is to be released by the publishers. I did contribute a piece to a book that is on the market now, an anthology edited by Preston Peet titled Underground, The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Civilizations &c. you can find a copy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or in most libraries - my own small contribution is titled The Secret Land, but there are articles included by many famous and popular authors including Erik von Daniken, Graham Hancock, Andrew Collins, Robert Schoch and others. I think it is a fascinating read (in spite of my own bit) with many interesting theories propounded, though some are pretty far out there. Enough self-publicizing! There is a bit more on the same subject (though a totally un-related thread) elsewhere on this forum, at:
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,36420.msg325993
As to Custer, a great deal of information and official records are available on this most controversial of US military leaders - all sorts of points of view from those who knew him well, from high praise (winning medals etc) to terrible accusations (like having an affair with a black servant) all apparently with a particular bias. The truth lies somewhere in between all the claims, and we are all entitled to an opinion on him (most everyone has an opinion on him) but based only on the fact that he died fighting for his country counts for something in my opinion.
You are welcome to dismiss any or all of the old tales of lost treasure like the 17 tons of gold, but if you do I hope you have arrived at this conclusion based on having researched the matter thoroughly. I never take stories or claims at face value without doing research on the background of the story or claim, and back when I first started investigating I was amazed at how many of these old tales are TRUE. The facts of where the location of the treasure is, are most often garbled and incorrect - though the deliberate mis-leads are less frequent than you might expect. The incidences in which I found deliberate lies about the true location of a lost treasure or mine almost always occur when someone has FOUND it and recovered it, is working the mine, or has found it and has not yet had a chance to recover it - they have good reason to put out lies to mislead others, in order to protect their interests. So by all means, you are welcome to disbelieve the story of the 17 tons, that makes for one less THer that we (who may be out hunting for it) have to compete with, but I do hope your choice to disbelieve is because you have thoroughly examined the evidence. In this particular case, there are the letters of negotiation undertaken with the US government, that you can get copies of - if there were no other supporting evidence, we must wonder why these owners of the gold, would bother to go to the length of trying to negotiate with the government in a way to save themselves from prosecution for possession of imaginary gold. That does not make sense. Besides, it is a good habit to get into, if one is serious about hunting for lost treasures or lost mines, to always research the matter as thoroughly as you can so as to better increase your chances of ever finding any without trusting wholly to luck. We need only look at a sample of the successful treasure hunters who chose to believe those old tales and literally “struck it” such as the fabulous treasure ship Maravilla, found by Fred Marx (if my swiss-cheese memory is correct) the world famous Atocha, found by the most famous treasure hunter of all Mel Fisher, which ship produced over $400 MILLION before unhappily Mel passed on (his son and company continue to reap rewards from this seemingly boundless treasure) or the long lost mines like Tayopa, found by my good friend Joseph Curry, or the Breyfogle, which is today known as the Amargosa, to see that it can pay you off BIG time to follow up on even the most famous of lost treasures and lost mines.
Dang, never heard of UFO sightings in the Pedragosas! I live in the Sulphur hills so the Pedragosas are not within sight, but I would sure like to hear about what you saw! Whether US secret test aircraft or little green men from Mars, makes little difference to me, these mysteries are just plain intriguing to me - and here too we have people with all kinds of opinions on the phenomenon, and many of these said opinions are held, without the person having done any investigating of the subject whatsoever - simply taking a position based on what they saw or heard on TV or what some friend or relative has told them. Anyway, if you are not too worried about what some of the other members might have to say here, please tell of what you know of the incidents? I never worry about being branded a member of the Tinfoil Hat Brigade, as I have already been accused of being a member of the "illustrious" band of misfits, eccentrics and outright loonies. Besides if anyone dismisses your reports out of hand, without investigating the facts of the matter, it is similar to dismissing the old tales of lost treasures and lost mines without researching the facts. You know more about it than anyone who was not present.
As to the subject of dowsing - I too admit that I could not believe it could work. One fine day in Wyoming a number of years ago, a good friend of mine and I were looking at some properties (town lots) to buy. We could not locate the public water mains, so I said we will have to go to town hall and ask for maps - but my friend said hold on while he went and got a pair of brazing rods. He bent the brazing rods and started walking around the lot. I had to bite my lip to keep from breaking out laughing, as I really thought this was an exercise in silliness. A few minutes later, he stopped and called me over, and said here is the line, and using the rods he traced it to a spot where he then stopped and dug down a few inches, and showed me the shutoff! I could not believe my eyes, and I knew for a fact that he had never been to this place before, so he told me to try it myself. With more than a little doubt I sheepishly held the two rods and started walking around, and sure enough the rods reacted (crossing) every time I crossed the water lines! I instantly became a believer. As to how it works, there are theories out there including that it is psychic in nature but the one that seems to make sense to me is that it is an electric charge involved. Water carries an electric charge, and what convinces me that this is electrically motivated is that you get the exact same reaction from the rods when you pass them over electric wires (buried) as you get from water and water lines. the rods reaction, first crossing then forcing apart fits with the way two light pieces of metal react when held over an electricity source, first being attracted to it, then when the two pieces have picked up an identical electric charge (positive or negative) they are forced apart by the old law of physics that says opposites attract while like opposes like in both electricity and magnetics. Does it work with treasure too? I think so, if the treasure has metal in it, (not for instance gemstones) as most metals have a base electric charge. I have not tried this method for hunting treasure, but did do an experiment with some coins that were deliberately hidden in the yard, and sure enough the brass rods DID react for them when I passed over the coins, just as it did for water and electric lines. I do not think this method is fool proof however, as I can see no difference in the reaction between finding water or finding electric lines, or an old beer can versus gold coins. It seems it would be helpful, especially coupled with electronic tools like metal detectors and ground penetrating radar, but alone the method is an imperfect locating tool as it cannot differentiate finds. Here too, we risk being 'drafted' into the Tinfoil Hat Brigade if we are convinced the mysterious (to un-informed observers) method does work, as many folks do not believe it works at all. Here in Arizona, if you are going to drill a well, most drilling outfits will recommend that you first get a water dowser to locate the best spot - though they do not admit this publicly too often, it is small risk involved even if one thinks the whole business is nothing but superstition. The practice goes FAR back into history, you can even find what almost certainly is an incident of dowsing in the Old Testament, when Moses "taps the stone" with his staff to find water when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and desperate for water. A miracle from God? Or just a man wise in the ways of deserts who had learned the art of locating water using a witching rod? In either case he was successful in finding the water, which certainly impressed his followers.
Roy A. Decker - Oroblanco
"From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it." –Groucho Marx
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
--Groucho
