In 1908, President Teddy Roosevelt wanted to declare the Grand Canyon off-limits to all timber and mining operations. It would take another 11 years for Congress to designate the Grand Canyon as a national park, but sensing a final opportunity for adventure, explorer G.E. Kincaid took a boat down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. The canyon was rich in minerals like gold, silver, and copper, and Kincaid wanted to see what he could find before the area was closed off for good.
About 40 miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal Canyon, Kincaid saw stains in the sediment formation about 2,000 feet up. He tied off the boat and got out to investigate. Kincaid couldn't find a trail, but after a short hike, he found something extremely interesting: covered in desert brush were steps, hundreds of them carved in sandstone. The steps wound their way up to a high shelf on the side of the canyon. He followed the steps until he came across a cavern entrance, an entrance that was clearly man-made. Kincaid entered the cavern and turned on his flashlight. On the walls, he saw writing, but it wasn't English or Native American writing, it was Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Kincaid lifted his flashlight and saw that the tunnel ran far into the distance. He didn't realise it at the time, but this was only the beginning. When G.E. Kincaid tied off his small wooden boat to investigate the strange coloration of the rock wall, he was hoping to find clues that would lead him to a mineral deposit, he wasn't expecting to find hieroglyphics. When Kincaid noticed chisel marks in the walls, he drew his pistol, turned on another light, and slowly walked deeper into the gloom, keeping detailed notes of everything he saw.
"The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side passages branch off to the right and left, along which on both sides are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today. Though some are 30 by 40 feet square, these are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness. The passages are chiselled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer. The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a centre. The side passages near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the rear, they gradually reach a right angle in direction."
It dawned on G.E. Kincaid that he wasn’t simply in a cave, he was in a huge manmade complex carved out of the rock. He estimated that as many as 50,000 people could have lived there. In some rooms, he found granaries with shelves of glazed pottery, many of which still contained seeds. He found cooking areas and a huge dining hall. The rooms were strewn with ancient artifacts. Kincaid carefully wrapped a few small metal and ceramic objects for later study. In another large room, he described an area for metalwork, a technology that should not have existed in this area. Here, tools of all descriptions made of copper were found. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this metal, which has been sought by chemists for centuries without result. On a bench running around a workroom were charcoal and other materials, probably used in the process. There was also slag, suggesting that these ancients were smelting ores, but no trace of where or how this was done was discovered, nor the origin of the ore.
G.E. Kincaid explored the underground complex for several hours, still having no idea when this place was used, what it was used for, or who the builders were. Then he came across another large room, a crypt. The crypt had shelf upon shelf and row upon row of mummies, dozens of them. At this point, he realised that if he was going to explore this entire underground city, he was going to need some help.
G.E. Kincaid sent a few artifacts to the Smithsonian Institute, along with his notes of what he had found. He requested financial and logistical support for what he felt was probably the most significant archaeological discovery ever made. The Smithsonian agreed. A few weeks later, Professor S.A. Jordan arrived with a team of about 40 scientists, researchers, and laborers to excavate and explore the ancient underground city. Now, with more lights and manpower, the scientists realised that the cave system layout wasn't random; it was a symmetrical, deliberate design. The tunnels all led to a central chamber. In the chamber was a large statue that Kincaid thought looked like Buddha.
“Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the Cross Hall, several hundred feet long, where the idol or image of the people's God was found sitting cross-legged with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of this face is Oriental, and in this cavern, the idol almost resembles Buddha, though we are not certain as to what religious worship it represented. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, we think it possible that this worship most resembled the ancient people of Tibet”.
Because of this discovery, Kincaid's team started calling the complex "The Citadel."
The crypt was one of the bigger rooms discovered. Now, with enough light, Kincaid was able to fully describe what he saw.
“The walls slanted back at an angle of about 35 degrees, and on them were tiers of mummies, each one occupying a separate shelf. At the head of each shelf was a small bench on which copper cups and pieces of broken swords were found. Some of the mummies were covered with clay, and all were wrapped in a bark fabric. The urns or cups on the lower tiers were crude, while the higher shelves had finer urns. It is noteworthy that all the mummies examined so far have proved to be male, with no children or females buried here. This leads to our belief that this exterior section was the warriors' barracks”.
Kincaid, Jordan, and the Smithsonian team explored the entire cave complex. They were overwhelmed with evidence that this was not some faraway temple occupied by a few priests. This was a huge city lived in by thousands of men, women, and children for hundreds or possibly thousands of years. The question nobody could answer was: who were they?
By the end of the expedition, G.E. Kincaid and Professor Jordan's team had discovered hundreds of rooms, barracks, granaries, metalworking shops, temples, and many living quarters. Though most of the rooms were empty, thousands of artifacts were found. They found swords and shields made of copper, bronze, and a grey metal that they couldn't identify (they thought it looked like platinum). They found pottery urns, utensils for cooking, small yellow stones called cat's eyes, and large stone tablets, all engraved with hieroglyphics. On the urns, on walls over doorways, and on tablets of stone were found mysterious hieroglyphics. They reasoned that the engravings on the tablets probably had something to do with the religion of the people.
Even with all the relics and writings Kincaid and Jordan found, they were still no closer to determining who built the Citadel in the Grand Canyon. Some of the statues looked Tibetan, but they weren't quite right. The writing looked Egyptian, but again, it wasn't quite right. There were experts on-site, none of whom could identify the statues or translate any of the texts.
However, there were two things that the researchers could agree on.
The civilisation that built the Citadel was very advanced, far more advanced than the native tribes that had occupied the area for a few thousand years. This now lost civilisation worked with bronze many years before the Bronze Age began. They understood division of labour and agriculture when every other society on Earth was presumably still hunting and gathering. These were discoveries that went against everything taught in mainstream archaeology and anthropology. A civilisation like this shouldn't exist.
They also agreed that the civilisation that built the Citadel didn't emerge locally. This civilisation undoubtedly arrived there from the other side of the world. Kincaid and Professor Jordan sent boxes of artifacts and books full of notes and drawings back to the Smithsonian, along with their hypothesis that an ancient civilisation existed in the Grand Canyon thousands of years before Native Americans arrived in North America. These people were technologically advanced, educated, skilled, and spiritually complex, and likely originated somehow in Egypt or Asia.
Kincaid wanted more resources and a larger team to help them research the Citadel and search the Grand Canyon for more evidence of this lost civilisation. However, their request was denied, and G.E. Kincaid and Professor S.A. Jordan were never heard from again.
Northern Arizona is home to one of the most spectacular natural wonders on Earth, the Grand Canyon. Carved over millions of years by the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon is more than just a pretty landscape and a spot for tourists to take selfies. It's a place of deep spiritual significance for the people who have lived in the area. The Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Apache, and several other tribes have lived around the Grand Canyon for several thousand years, and they still do.
Hopi mythology says that from the Grand Canyon, the first people of the world entered. The story says that many thousands of years ago, a reptilian race emerged from the Grand Canyon and transformed into humans. Other Pueblo cultures like the Zuni and the Acoma have similar legends that there were people there before the tribes. Some legends mention reptilians, while many others mention a race of giants. There are rumours that skeletons of giants have been discovered all over the western United States, but that evidence has been suppressed (by the Smithsonian, of course).
We already have evidence that people landed in North America before Columbus. The Vikings famously explored and settled parts of Newfoundland 500 years before the New World was discovered. There's growing evidence that ancient Chinese explorers also landed in North and South America before the Vikings. Landing on the east or west coast of America is one thing; getting to the Grand Canyon is a whole other thing.
How could people get there, and even if they could, how did they have the technology to excavate millions of tons of rock in order to build an entire underground city?
Traveling from Europe and Asia to America thousands of years ago was almost impossible, or at least very challenging. Many brave people did it, but traveling to the Grand Canyon is a much more difficult task than landing on a California beach. To get to and build in the Grand Canyon requires advanced technology.
The Hopi have a very intriguing legend about the Ant People. These are humanoid creatures that are smaller than humans, with pale skin and large insect-like eyes. According to their legend, a series of cataclysms hit the Earth many thousands of years ago. As the Hopi were on the verge of being destroyed, a sky god emerged from what they called a moving star. The sky god brought the Hopi to the Ant People, who escorted them to underground caves for protection. The sky god then got back into his moving star and flew off above the clouds.
The Paiute also have a legend about the Hav-Musuvs. They are usually described as humanoid in shape, with golden skin and large eyes, resembling aliens. They lived in a vast underground city and traded with people from far away. The Paiute described the weapons of the Hav-Musuvs as silver tubes that shot lightning and could instantly kill a man. The most interesting part of the Hav-Musuv legend is that they supposedly flew silver canoes in the sky which made a humming sound and could manoeuvre like an eagle, moving at great speeds.
As I’ve written about in previous articles, most ancient cultures around the world have their flood myths which describes a global catastrophe that melted the ice caps and caused sea levels to rise by 400 feet. According to their legends, entire cities, and perhaps even entire continents were wiped out during this time. Interestingly, most of these flood myths also mention how after the waters receded, God-like beings descended from the sky. These gods gave humans the gift of civilisation and taught them skills and knowledge they had forgotten from before the great flood, such as writing, astronomy, and agriculture. Could the city in the Grand Canyon be evidence of this time in history? And if it is, why would anyone want to suppress it?
In reality, even though the details are highly convincing, all the information about G.E. Kincaid and his story comes from just two front-page articles from the Phoenix Gazette published in 1909. In the years since, mainstream researchers have dismissed these articles as a hoax, a fantastic story designed to sell newspapers in the 19th century. That could very well be true, however, it is a fact that many people still believe the story to be real and that the Smithsonian is covering it up.
The Smithsonian Institute has publicly stated that no artifacts of this type in the G.E. Kincaid story have ever been found in North or South America, and the institute has never been involved in any research or excavations like this in the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else. The Smithsonian has also stated it has no records of anyone by the name of G.E. Kincaid ever having working for them. They make it clear they believe the whole story to be a hoax.
Even Kincaid himself seemingly wanted to keep people out.
“First, I must emphasize that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land, and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists wish to work undisturbed, without fear of archaeological discoveries being disturbed by curious relic hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor would be sent away”. Whether at the request of the Smithsonian or simply to protect his find, it was clear that Kincaid (assuming he actually existed) wanted to dissuade people from finding the Citadel.
That's the official story then, Kincaid's cave is a hoax, so there's no reason to try and find it. Nothing to see here. That’s probably the easiest story to believe, that this was all a hoax created by an imaginative newspaper editor in Phoenix who wanted to sell a few more copies of his local rag. But perhaps that is just what they want you to believe. It’s not the whole story, there is still a twist.
Even over a hundred years later, people are still trying to find G.E. Kincaid’s cave system, and some of them claim they found it. Jerry Wills and his wife Kathy have been studying the Kincaid cave mystery for years. Their approach was to find the original base camp of the explorers, which would lead them to the cave. After years of research and exploring the area where G.E. Kincaid said he found the cave, Jerry and Kathy discovered a location covered in artifacts from that time, and on the canyon wall just below this area, they believe is the entrance to the underground city.
Exploring is difficult, though. The entire area where the cave is supposed to be is now designated as firmly off-limits by the federal government. About a thousand caves have been discovered in the Grand Canyon, many of them man-made, but only about 30 have been mapped, and many of those have been sealed off, for supposed safety reasons. There are plenty of people who would be willing to take the risk and sign a waiver stating that the government isn't responsible if something happens. In fact, people have tried this, but the government still says no, it's too dangerous. Is that the government merely looking out for us? I for one don’t buy that.
A number of other caves in the Grand Canyon have been blocked by steel gates. They say this is to protect the bat population. Really?
Despite the obstacles put in place by the federal government, a number of people are still willing to risk a fine or imprisonment to find the lost city in the Grand Canyon. Their determination is to be admired, however, anyone who goes looking should expect a response.
When Jerry and Kathy's team tried to explore the area, an unmarked plane appeared out of nowhere and flew over their heads. Clearly, they were being watched, despite that part of the Grand Canyon being a no-fly zone and the fact that no aircraft is allowed to fly below the rim. Jerry Wills is convinced this was a warning, and his team decided they should not continue their expedition.
Exploring the cave from above is also almost impossible. But what about exploring it from below, as G.E. Kincaid did? Another group of explorers tried this but as they approached the location, a black helicopter showed up. Not a tourist helicopter, not even a black civilian helicopter, but an Apache combat helicopter. When this team then explored the area above, looking for the ventilation shafts Kincaid wrote about and seeing this as possibly a way down, they found massive random cement blocks in the middle of nowhere. Some of these blocks are platforms near the edge of the rim with hardware and steel anchor rings that would be used to assist mountaineers abseiling over the edge. When asked about this, the authorities say these are merely reinforcing structures to prevent rockfalls.
Also, in this forbidden zone, rock formations have unusual names. There is Isis Temple, Tower of Set, Horus, the Keops Pyramid, and Ra. There's also the Manu Temple, the Buddha Temple, the Krishna Temple, and the Sheba Temple, among many more names that refer to ancient Egyptian and Hindu cultures. Cultures that specifically have myths about a god helping civilisation after the great flood. The official word is that the fact that these names exist within the Grand Canyon's no-go zone is a mere coincidence. My problem is I don't really believe in coincidences. Do you?
David Hatcher Childress is a renowned author who has published 200 books, often covering ancient mysteries. He believes that the United States government is actively suppressing archaeological discoveries. He mentions that while the film Raiders of the Lost Ark is fiction, the final scene showing the warehouses is close to reality, indicating that the Smithsonian, an independent federal agency, is hiding some of the most important discoveries made in the Americas. He says the cover-up began in 1881 with the famous geologist John Wesley Powell.
Powell appointed Cyrus Thomas as the director of the Eastern Mound Division of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology. When Thomas came to the Smithsonian, he believed that there was a race of mound builders that were distinct from and arrived before the Native American Indians. This school of thought is called ‘diffusionism’, which suggests that throughout history there has been a widespread dispersion of culture and civilisation even across great distances. The Smithsonian took the opposite approach and promoted ‘isolationism’, which claims that most civilisations are isolated from each other and have little contact, especially when separated by large bodies of water.
It was held that the advanced and highly populated civilisations of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were rare and that they didn't have contact with other advanced cultures like the Aztecs, the Toltecs, or the Maya. But the Mississippi River runs from Canada all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. To say these cultures were isolated is ridiculous.
When ancient mounds of the American Midwest are examined, they show all the existence of a complex culture, with cities larger than those in Europe at the time. They also reveal burials of extremely tall people, sometimes seven or eight feet tall.
When the Spiro Mounds were excavated in the 1930s, seven and eight-foot-tall skeletons were found. This was a time when the average height of a human male was about five foot six, so they were truly giants. Unfortunately, those skeletons have been lost. In 1892, Stone coffins were discovered in Alabama by Frank Burns during a Geological Survey. The coffins were approximately seven and a half feet long and had seemingly been hollowed out using fire and metal chisels. The findings were sent to the Smithsonian in 1984. Researcher Frederick J. Pole came across this report and inquired with the Smithsonian. Their response was, "We have not been able to find the specimens in our collections, though records show that they were received." How do you lose giant Stone coffins that weighed several tons? I don't know, but never underestimate the incompetence of the federal government. Eight years later, the Smithsonian claimed they had found the coffins, but they were stored in a warehouse that was contaminated by asbestos, so nobody could go in to see them.
During World War II, a crew building an airship in Alaska excavated a mound that also contained gigantic human remains. The skeletons were reportedly twice or three times the size of a normal human. This report has been confirmed by multiple sources. The Smithsonian collected the findings, and that was the last anyone heard about it. Stories like this exist from Alaska all the way down to Mexico City. An amazing discovery is made, the Smithsonian steps in, and the story disappears. The saying "skeletons in your closet" means you have secrets you don't want revealed, secrets that, if discovered, would be embarrassing and possibly dangerous. In the case of the Smithsonian, skeletons in the closet could be taken quite literally.
It would seem that the U.S. Government literally has evidence that an advanced race was in North America long before the native tribes arrived. For whatever reason, this is evidence they don't want revealed. Mainstream science may dismiss this as nonsense, but the Hopi and other Grand Canyon tribes believe in it. The Hopi say that when the first people emerged from the Grand Canyon, they sent a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking for a blessing of peace. That messenger hasn't returned, but even today in Hopi Villages, at sundown, tribal elders can be seen on rooftops gazing toward the setting sun, waiting for the messenger to come home. And when he does, the ancient land will be returned to the first people.
Now, that's an optimistic belief. The United States spent 200 years taking land from the first people. Do you really think they're going to give it back?
What are your views of the many mysteries surrounding the Grand Canyon, did an advanced ancient civilisation make its home there many thousands of years ago, were they the teachers of our ancestors, is the story of G.E. Kincaid based in fact or just the vivid imagination of a struggling newspaper editor? I’ll let you decide, but I’d be very interested in your views.
This article covers a fantastic and insightful investigative video on this subject by the incredible Why Files team. They have an absolutely amazing series of videos on YouTube. Please click on the link below for more on this story and please subscribe to their channel, you’ll not regret it.