Conversations regarding Pictures, The Grand Canyon and Conspiracy Theories.

It all started with a few of our staff physicians displaying some of their very large and colorful photography. One in particular was a huge 4 x 6 foot photograph of the Grand Canyon, all purple, deepest twilight, no stars were out yet. I could almost feel the breeze and smell the faint hint of sage brush and mesquite. I lust for a room large enough to hang that piece.

A few weeks ago, whilst browsing in my favorite junk shop in Bandon, I noticed a largish print, about 1 foot by 2 foot of the Grand Canyon. It had in large letters on the bottom “1909”. It was hung too high to take a good look at it and had a price tag of $250.

I mentioned the print to the physician who had taken the purple picture. He spoke about the early explorations of the Grand Canyon and how the photographers used huge glass plates to make the pictures and had to go by mule back to get any decent pictures. He also mentioned that an original print would be quite valuable.

I was curious and decided to Google “1909 Grand Canyon pictures” and got lots of hits but the main two pictures were of “Rust Camp” and “El Tovar Hotel”. These prints are readily available on the net for 25 bucks or so. I told the Doc of my Internet search and we both wondered just how old that print was in the Bandon shop.

Still curious, I Googled again seeking further information and up popped several references to an article printed in the Arizona Gazette April 5, 1909 about an expedition to a location in the Grand Canyon that held miles of underground caves, tunnels, mummies, hieroglyphs, statues that looked like Buddha etc. The Smithsonian funded the expedition. Unfortunately there were no pictures. This sounded interesting until I found a hit for “Coast to Coast” a late night radio show that specializes in woo-woo, the utterly fantastic and conspiracy theories. The conspiracy of course being that no further word of this expedition was heard because the government was protecting sacred lands, Elvis' underground bunker, secret White House, etc.

Dang….. I hate it when a story ends like that. Maybe it was a slow news day in 1909 and someone thought it would make a good April’s Fools joke.