Legends 42: Written in Stone

Summary

Lore Legends Episode 42: "Written in Stone"
Released on December 9, 2024
Host: Aaron Mahnke
Description: In this episode of Lore Legends, host Aaron Mahnke delves into the enduring legacy of stone as humanity's primary medium for recording history, law, art, and even deceit. From ancient graffiti to elaborate hoaxes, the episode explores how stone has been both a vessel for truth and a canvas for deception.

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The Enduring Legacy of Stone

Aaron Mahnke opens the episode by reflecting on humanity's intrinsic desire to leave a lasting mark on the world. He states, "We all want our mark on the world to last forever" (04:07), highlighting stone's suitability for this purpose due to its permanence. Mahnke discusses how, long before the advent of paper, humans used stone to document significant events, laws, and personal expressions.

Ancient Graffiti: The Prehistoric Scribbles

The episode transitions into the world of ancient graffiti, tracing its origins back to the first cave drawings made thousands of years ago. Mahnke notes, "In Egypt, for example, the tomb of Ramses VI is covered in thousands of inscriptions made by tourists" (05:04). These early scribbles ranged from mundane complaints to personal declarations, demonstrating that the impulse to document one's experiences is deeply rooted in human history.

One particularly vivid example comes from Pompeii, where crude and lewd graffiti have been discovered. For instance, one message reads, "I hope your hemorrhoids rub together so much that they hurt worse than they ever have before" (05:58). These inscriptions provide a candid glimpse into the everyday lives and humor of ancient civilizations.

Stones as Legal Records: The Code of Hammurabi

Mahnke then explores how stone has been instrumental in preserving legal codes. He references the Code of Hammurabi, carved into a four-ton stone slab around 1750 BC. "It's this very set of laws that gave us the phrase 'an eye for an eye'" (08:35), Mahnke explains. This monumental work outlined 282 legal precedents, covering everything from criminal punishments to family law, underscoring stone's role in maintaining societal order.

The Lascaux Cave Discovery: A Window into Prehistory

Shifting focus, Mahnke recounts the accidental discovery of the Lascaux Cave by a group of French teenagers in 1940. Initially searching for a secret passageway, they instead uncovered nearly 6,000 prehistoric paintings depicting wild horses, oxen, mammoths, and humans (09:03). Dubbed the "Sistine Chapel of prehistory," Lascaux offers invaluable insights into the lives of Paleolithic humans, demonstrating the artistic prowess preserved through stone.

The Newark Holy Stones: A Tale of Hoaxes and Prejudice

One of the most intriguing segments of the episode covers the Newark Holy Stones, including the Decalogue Stone and the Keystone, discovered by David Weirich in Ohio in the 1860s. These stones featured Hebrew inscriptions and carvings that some claimed linked Native Americans to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel—a theory rooted in racial prejudice.

Mahnke explains, "The discovery of these Hebrew stones in Ohio seemed to change all of that. Suddenly, here was evidence, it seems, that a Hebrew-speaking community had once been in North America long, long ago" (11:24). However, closer examination revealed discrepancies in the Hebrew script and the weathering of the stones, leading academics to debunk them as hoaxes (12:01). The revelation that the stones were fabricated by members of the Davenport Academy of Sciences to support a biased agenda underscores how stone can be manipulated to perpetuate false narratives.

The Curse of the Petrified Forest: Conscience Letters and Misfortune

The episode culminates with the legend of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, where visitors who took petrified wood began receiving "conscience letters" pleading for the return of stolen rocks (29:00). These letters, filled with tales of misfortune attributed to the theft, embody the park's supposed curse: "the curse of the Petrified Forest" (29:26). Mahnke explores the psychological impact of attributing bad luck to such actions, tracing its origins to similar legends like the Hawaiian curse on stealing lava rocks.

Stone: A Double-Edged Sword

Throughout the episode, Mahnke emphasizes stone's dual nature as both a keeper of truth and a tool for deception. He reflects, "Just because something is carved into stone doesn't mean that it's true" (21:13), reminding listeners that permanence does not equate to authenticity. The stories of the Newark Holy Stones and the conscience letters at the Petrified Forest illustrate how stone can be exploited to manipulate beliefs and enforce moral lessons.

Conclusion: Moving Beyond the Past

In wrapping up, Mahnke urges listeners to learn from history's misuse of stone and strive for a future built on verified knowledge and integrity. "Our future is certainly not [carved in stone]," he remarks (21:48), encouraging ongoing improvement and progress over the static legacies of the past.

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Notable Quotes:

• "We all want our mark on the world to last forever." – Aaron Mahnke (04:07)
• "It's this very set of laws that gave us the phrase 'an eye for an eye'." – Aaron Mahnke (08:35)
• "Just because something is carved into stone doesn't mean that it's true." – Aaron Mahnke (21:13)

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Final Thoughts:

"Written in Stone" offers a captivating exploration of how humanity has utilized stone to narrate its journey, preserve laws, express creativity, and even propagate falsehoods. Through engaging storytelling and well-researched historical accounts, Aaron Mahnke invites listeners to ponder the lasting impact of their own legacies and the mediums they choose to immortalize them.

Transcript

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[Aaron Manke]

Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

We whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin. It's safe to assume that he knew.

[Aaron Manke]

What he was doing.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Sure, Dr. Jesse William Lazear hadn't started.

[Aaron Manke]

Out his mission thinking that he would kill himself. He was there to save lives, not take them.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Jesse, you see, was one of the foremost medical researchers in the country, studying yellow fever since 1895. By 1900, the high mortality disease had.

[Aaron Manke]

Killed hundreds of thousands of people. Entire cities would be ravaged.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And during the Spanish American War in Cuba, five times as many men died.

[Aaron Manke]

From yellow fever as they did on the battlefield. Something had to be done.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And so after the war, the United States army brought doctors down to Cuba, reporting to queimadas in 1900.

[Aaron Manke]

Jesse joined some of the best medical practitioners in the country, and together they formed the Yellow Fever Board, hoping to discover the root cause of the disease. In the end, it was Jesse who figured it out.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

He believed that infected mosquitoes were transmitting.

[Aaron Manke]

Yellow fever through their bites.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But there was no way to prove it without sacrificing people by forcing mosquitoes upon them.

[Aaron Manke]

So Jesse did what he had to do.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

He intentionally let a mosquito bite him. Within days, he was dead.

[Aaron Manke]

And everyone knew exactly what had killed him. Today, there is a memorial to Jesse in Washington D.C. 's National Cathedral.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

A pane of stained glass depicting a.

[Aaron Manke]

Man injecting himself with a deadly shot.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It's a part of a larger window entitled Sacrifice for freedom. There.

[Aaron Manke]

Jesse's bravery is in Shine, forever immortalized in glass and lead. We all want to leave our mark on the world, to leave some kind of legacy behind.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Not many of us will be lucky enough to be depicted in a cathedral.

[Aaron Manke]

Window or put into the history books.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But there is still hope that somehow.

[Aaron Manke]

We will be remembered long after we're gone. People have left legacies behind for as long as humans have been around. Big or small, we can all carve out a place on this earth.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But for some, that mark has been.

[Aaron Manke]

A bit more literal than figurative, because.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Sometimes their legacies were written in stone.

[Aaron Manke]

I'm Aaron Manke, and this is lore, legends.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

All throughout human history, we've been scribbling on rocks.

[Aaron Manke]

It makes sense if you think about it. Paper is a relatively modern invention, all things considered. And long before paper or even parchment.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Were in the picture, people still had.

[Aaron Manke]

The very human urge to record their life experiences somewhere.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

They were just itching to draw out a successful hunting trip or write an.

[Aaron Manke]

Ode to a lover.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Rocks were the perfect solution.

[Aaron Manke]

You could paint on them, carve into them, cut them. It all worked. And most importantly, whatever you put onto stone would last. And it would last for a very, very long time. That's one of the funny things about humans. After all, we all want our mark on the world to last forever.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Even if that mark isn't entirely serious.

[Aaron Manke]

Which for many whose writings have survived.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Into the 21st century, it rarely was. See, one of the most prevalent stone carvings we see throughout history is actually graffiti. It may seem modern to us, but.

[Aaron Manke]

Graffiti isn't a new thing.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

In fact, it's ancient. The first cave drawings were made thousands of years ago, and humans never really stopped defacing rock faces after that.

[Aaron Manke]

As casual and unserious as it may.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Appear, graffiti has always documented the true human experience. In Egypt, for example, the tomb of Ramses VI is covered in thousands of inscriptions made by tourists. And they weren't the kind who wore Hawaiian shirts.

[Aaron Manke]

No, these Greco Roman tourists were nearly as old as Ramesses himself. One review from a disgruntled visitor reads.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

I visited, and I did not like anything except the sarcophagus. Another reads, I cannot read hieroglyphics. And there's something comforting in knowing that.

[Aaron Manke]

Ancient Roman tourists were not much different than your average reviewer on TripAdvisor. No matter how much time passes, it.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Seems people never change something else that never changes. Lewd graffiti the human race has always.

[Aaron Manke]

Had something inappropriate to say.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

One of my personal favorites comes from.

[Aaron Manke]

The walls of a basilica in Pompeii.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Where someone carved, I hope your hemorrhoids rub together so much that they hurt.

[Aaron Manke]

Worse than they ever have before.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Another spot of graffiti from Pompeii said, adametus got me pregnant. The Pompeians weren't the only ones, though, who wanted a record of their romantic conquests.

[Aaron Manke]

In the 12th century, a group of.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Viking warriors took shelter from a snowstorm in a burial chamber dating back to 3000 BC, and they left it completely covered in runes. Many were of a sexual nature, while the most tame were just ancient humblebrags. One says these runes were carved by.

[Aaron Manke]

The man most skilled in runes in the Western ocean.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And another says Fulfir Kolbeinson, carve these runes high up. Over the years, some messages have been.

[Aaron Manke]

Carved into stone simply to remind us that someone had been there.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

One from ancient Palmyra reads, this is.

[Aaron Manke]

An inscription that I wrote with my own hand.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

My hand will wear out, but the inscription will remain. And you've got to love that, right? Perfectly on the nose and straight to the point.

[Aaron Manke]

It's insightful, while also representing the commonness.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Of marking a place.

[Aaron Manke]

But over the centuries, our ancestors have used graffiti for more useful purposes as.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Well, such as keeping track of the weather.

[Aaron Manke]

All over Europe, researchers have found what they call hunger stones. These stones date back many centuries, and they've mostly been found within the Elbe River.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The concept was simple. When the river got too low, the.

[Aaron Manke]

Stones would become visible. And if the stones were visible, that meant that it hadn't rained in far.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Too long, which in turn meant that.

[Aaron Manke]

Drought and crop failure were imminent. It was a sort of warning system, and a chilling one, too. One small stone has a carving on.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It that reads, we cried.

[Aaron Manke]

We cry and you will cry. And one of the most famous hunger stones in the Czech Republic has an.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Inscription that reads, when you see me weep. That same rock also has dates carved into it, starting in 1417 and ending in 1893. They mark every year that drought got.

[Aaron Manke]

Bad enough to reveal the stone. And beyond that, rocks were even used to record laws.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

In fact, one of the first written legal codes in human history was carved.

[Aaron Manke]

Into a four ton stone slab. Known today as the Code of Hammurabi.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It was created during the reign of the Babylonian king Hammurabi around 1750 BC. The carving includes 282 legal precedents outlining everything from the exact punishments that criminals.

[Aaron Manke]

Could receive for all manner of offenses.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And the intricacies of family, family law.

[Aaron Manke]

To what working professionals could charge fairly for their labor.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It's this very set of laws that.

[Aaron Manke]

Gave us the phrase an eye for an eye.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

From the Rosetta Stone to prehistoric cave paintings, we have used rocks as a.

[Aaron Manke]

Canvas to tell our stories. And those tales have followed us all the way into the 21st century, their.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Permanent nature ensuring that we will never.

[Aaron Manke]

Have a chance to forget. In 1940, the archaeological world was turned upside down. And it was done by a group of teenagers. On September 12th of that year, an.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

18 year old boy was out walking.

[Aaron Manke]

His dog when he found a depression in the ground that seemed to go much deeper than your average hole. So he fetched a few of his.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Friends, and soon enough, these four French teens were dropping down into their newly.

[Aaron Manke]

Discovered cave system, Hoping that it might.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Be some kind of secret passageway.

[Aaron Manke]

They decided to investigate further. But instead of hidden tunnels, they found something far more precious.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The cave walls were completely covered in paintings. Nearly 6,000 figures and symbols decorated the stones, depicting wild horses, oxen, mammoths, and humans. The red and black pigments seemed to.

[Aaron Manke]

Shimmer under the beam of their flashlights, each painting more vibrant than the last.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

They didn't know it yet, but they.

[Aaron Manke]

Had stumbled upon some of the most well preserved prehistoric cave paintings on earth.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Estimated to have been created almost 20,000 years ago. And it was beautiful. Ever since, the Lascaux Cave has been called the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.

[Aaron Manke]

And through its artwork, we've been given a window into what life might have been like for our Paleolithic ancestors.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Now, archaeological discoveries dating back thousands of.

[Aaron Manke]

Years are nothing new, although some, like at Lascaux, are more remarkable than others.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But the world is still littered with.

[Aaron Manke]

Evidence of the humans who came before us. Long, long before us.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Sometimes, though, these archaeological discoveries don't always.

[Aaron Manke]

Work out quite as smoothly as the Lascaux Cave did. And sometimes their founders aren't as guileless as the young teenagers were.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Out in Ohio, there was an entirely different sort of artifact waiting to be found.

[Aaron Manke]

And In November of 1860, a man named David Weirich would be the one.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

To dig it up. David was exploring an indigenous burial mound.

[Aaron Manke]

10 miles south of the city of Newark when he unearthed a sandstone box.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And within that box was a mysterious stone.

[Aaron Manke]

A robed figure was etched into the.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Slab, along with an odd form of Hebrew writing. In fact, the entire stone seemed to.

[Aaron Manke]

Be inscribed on all sides with what he deduced was some version of the Ten Commandments.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It came to be known as the Decalogue stone. And it wasn't David's first jackpot.

[Aaron Manke]

Just a month earlier, he had uncovered another rock that he called the Keystone.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

This artifact was oddly also covered in Hebrew. But unlike the Hebrew on the Decalogue.

[Aaron Manke]

Stone, this version seemed to be similar to that used in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Together, the Decalogue stone and the Keystone were creatively dubbed the Newark Holy Stones.

[Aaron Manke]

And some people were all too happy to use them to push an agenda. You see, there were many who believed.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And still do, by the way, that the 10 lost tribes of Israel actually traveled to the New World and that.

[Aaron Manke]

They were the original Native Americans. These missing tribes have often been the subject of speculation, but this is one.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Of the most prevalent conspiracies regarding the matter. Make no mistake though, any connection between the two cultures is completely non existent. It's a theory that's based in large part on the prejudice of white communities.

[Aaron Manke]

Who didn't want to accept that Native American tribes could have their own rich culture and history.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But the discovery of these Hebrew stones.

[Aaron Manke]

In Ohio seemed to change all of that. Suddenly, here was evidence, it seems, that.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

A Hebrew speaking community had once been.

[Aaron Manke]

In North America long, long ago.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Or at least that's what some people thought. In 1861, just a year after his discovery, David Weyrich released a pamphlet outlining his evidence. It should have been a triumphant moment.

[Aaron Manke]

For him, but it was tainted. Most untrained people accepted his findings, but.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Something about the physical evidence gave members of the academic community pause. The Hebrew script on the holy stones wasn't quite right because it was too modern. And once people got a closer look.

[Aaron Manke]

And studied the depth and the weathering.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Of the carvings, they realized that there.

[Aaron Manke]

Was no way that the text had been written thousands of years before.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Today, the Decalogue stone and the Keystone.

[Aaron Manke]

Are known to be a hoax.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

If David didn't plant them in the ground himself, then it's believed that someone.

[Aaron Manke]

Else did it so that he would find them.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Either way, though, they aren't real. Regardless, they are still on display to.

[Aaron Manke]

This day in Ohio's Johnson Humrick House.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Museum, where they still attract visitors who.

[Aaron Manke]

Believe in the Missing Tribes of Israel theory.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

David Weirich was a con man eager.

[Aaron Manke]

To push an agenda that had no basis in fact.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

For him, stone was the perfect canvas.

[Aaron Manke]

To paint his lie.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But just because something is carved into stone doesn't mean that it's true.

[Aaron Manke]

And as history has shown us time and time again, David wasn't the only one. When you think of Iowa ancient civilization probably isn't. The phrase that comes to mind.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And an ancient civilization of white people.

[Aaron Manke]

Completely absurd. But for a while, that idea inspired an entire branch of archaeology. In January of 1877, Reverend Jacob Gass.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Was participating in an archaeological excavation near.

[Aaron Manke]

Davenport, Iowa, when he announced that he had made an incredible find.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Now, even though Gass served as a Swiss minister at a local Lutheran church.

[Aaron Manke]

His true passion was antiquities. And so he jumped at any chance to dabble in archaeology, including this 1877 project, the excavation of an indigenous burial mound.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It was a good thing that the.

[Aaron Manke]

Reverend had joined in too. Otherwise he might have missed the find of a lifetime.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

You see, Jacob unearthed two slate tablets.

[Aaron Manke]

One was etched with hunting scenes, while.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The other was covered in curved lines.

[Aaron Manke]

And circles that seemed to make up the rudimentary outlines of a calendar.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The local Davenport Academy of Sciences was.

[Aaron Manke]

Just as thrilled by this discovery as the Reverend was. They had been desperate to prove that Iowa was once the home of an ancient society of mound build. And this discovery brought them closer to understanding what these Mound Builders may have been like.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Now, the phrase mound builders is really.

[Aaron Manke]

Just a general term. It's not tied to any one tribe or society.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It just means the people who in.

[Aaron Manke]

Pre Columbian America built large earthen mounds, often for burial. And these mounds have been found all over America, including just outside of Davenport, Iowa. Today, we know that there were multiple tribes across North America who built effigy mounds which can still be visited today. And they remain sacred spaces for the descendants of those tribes. But the Davenport Academy of Sciences wasn't.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Interested in Native mound builders.

[Aaron Manke]

No, they subscribed to a theory that these structures were actually built by ancient.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

White European settlers who predated the native tribes. Fans of this theory believe that the white people were stamped out by violent tribes, but that before that, they had.

[Aaron Manke]

Created a rich American empire. Not everyone bought into this, though. In fact, Thomas Jefferson himself tried disproving the theory. There were mounds on his land at Monticello, and he personally funded their archaeological excavations.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Jefferson, although usually not a great champion of non white peoples, was adamant that.

[Aaron Manke]

The mounds had not been built by a lost race of white men, but by Native Americans.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And yet the theory persisted. Between the mound builder myth and the lost Israelite myth, it was clear that.

[Aaron Manke]

Many white Americans were just unable to accept that the Native American tribes around them had been there first and that they had their own technological advances and were smart enough to build powerful societies.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It was just easier for Americans to.

[Aaron Manke]

Believe in a false history. It's unclear why the Davenport Academy of Sciences believed that these newfound Stone tablets might have been from an empire of.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

White mound builders, but they did.

[Aaron Manke]

And they encouraged the Reverend to find all that he could about them.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The following year, in 1878, he uncovered.

[Aaron Manke]

A limestone tablet in yet another mound. This one actually had color on it and depicted a red figure with a bow and arrow. And after that, he uncovered a pipe shaped like an animal that resembled an elephant or a mammoth.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Reverend Gass continued his digs for the next five years until he moved away.

[Aaron Manke]

And all of them, it turns out.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Were financially backed by a wealthy attorney named Charles Putnam.

[Aaron Manke]

The Reverend's findings had been gathering a lot of buzz in the archaeological community too. So it was no shock when in 1884, the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology published a report about them.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It wasn't the glowing praise that most.

[Aaron Manke]

People had expected it to be, though. Instead, their report questioned the authenticity of the carvings.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Outraged by this, Jacob Gass financial backer.

[Aaron Manke]

Charles Putnam issued a response. And with that, an all out academic war was born. Putnam and the academics in Washington traded increasingly antagonistic articles in scientific journals with.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Experts Roberts calling him out as a.

[Aaron Manke]

Fraud and Charles insisting that all of their discoveries were legitimate. And they were. At least both the Reverend and Charles thought they were. But both of them, it seems, were wrong.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Eventually, the state archaeologist of Iowa, a guy named Marshall Basford McKusick, got involved in the fight. He published two very large papers, each.

[Aaron Manke]

One dissecting the entire drama. And in the end, he identified what really happened. Do you remember what I said earlier about the Reverend being a Swiss minister?

[Lore Legends Narrator]

He was really Swiss, as in a.

[Aaron Manke]

Recent immigrant from Switzerland.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And it seems that the Davenport Academy of Sciences weren't too happy with the fact that an immigrant was sticking his.

[Aaron Manke]

Nose into their archaeological projects and that he bragged about his success.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And so the Academy of Sciences had.

[Aaron Manke]

Secretly created the tablets themselves and then put them in the burial mounds for the Reverend to find.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

After he uncovered the first ones, they planted the second.

[Aaron Manke]

And all the while they were laughing at the Reverend's gullibility. In the end, it was the Academy and not Reverend Gas, who had orchestrated the hoax. There's something attractive about stone. It's always there, barely changed by time and the elements as perceived by our limited temporal human lives. So it's easy to see why our ancestors chose it as their go to format for permanent records.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Even today, we refer to unchangeable decrees.

[Aaron Manke]

As set in stone. We bury our loved ones in grassy.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Parks, their graves marked with slabs of.

[Aaron Manke]

Stone that bear their names and dates. Our best option for a lasting and maybe even eternal reminder that they once lived among us.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But as history has shown us, stone.

[Aaron Manke]

Has been just as attractive to those who want to spread lies. Whether it was an Egyptian pharaoh chiseling away references to a hated predecessor or the holy stones of Ohio, the quest.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

For truth has often quite literally put us between a rock and a hard place.

[Aaron Manke]

And the same was true in Davenport.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Jacob Gass and Charles Putnam became laughing stocks of the scientific community because people.

[Aaron Manke]

Were told that they were frauds. It must have been a bitter pill to learn that the whole ordeal had been a setup designed to ruin them.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But the worst part, the Academy had.

[Aaron Manke]

Assistance from an unlikely place. The Reverend's own family. In a real Cain and Abel like turn of events, Jacob Gass brother Edwin, along with his brother in law Alfred Blumer, had been the ones to actually create the fake artifacts. Unbeknownst to Jacob, they had helped make a laughing stock of him.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Reverend Gass and his backer Charles Putnam.

[Aaron Manke]

Truly didn't know that their artifacts were fake.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

I think we need to acknowledge here.

[Aaron Manke]

That archaeology doesn't have the cleanest history. For a long time, it was used.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

To perpetuate ideas that had been made.

[Aaron Manke]

Without much evidence to back them up.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Fitting a square peg into a round.

[Aaron Manke]

Hole, if you will.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

It seems that there have always been people who have used their platform to.

[Aaron Manke]

Spread ignorance instead of knowledge.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And the best we can do with the legacy they left us is to.

[Aaron Manke]

Improve upon their work and move forward.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Because while the past may be carved.

[Aaron Manke]

In stone, our future is certainly not. I hope you enjoyed our journey today as we made our way carefully through the rocky past. Yes, stones have been powerful tools for ancient cultures to leave reminders of themselves. But they have also given fakes and frauds an inflated sense of truth. The fact of the matter, though, is.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

That you don't have to stage an.

[Aaron Manke]

Elaborate hoax to leave your mark on the world. And as one final story will show.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

When it comes to rocks, some might.

[Aaron Manke]

Even leave their mark on you. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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[Lore Legends Narrator]

That's qui.

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To get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com lore this episode was also made possible by Squarespace. Squarespace is an all in one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything products, content, your time all in one place and all on your terms. Squarespace just made it even easier with their new Design Intelligence feature which combines two decades of in industry leading design expertise with cutting edge AI technology to unlock your strongest creative potential. Design Intelligence empowers anyone to build a beautiful, more personalized website tailored to their unique needs and craft a bespoke digital identity to use across your entire online presence. And Squarespace Payments is the easiest way to manage your payments in one place. Onboarding is fast and simple.

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And start receiving payments right away. Plus give your customers more ways to pay with popular payment methods like Apple Pay, Klarna Ach Direct Debit in the us, Apple Afterpay in the US and Canada and Clearpay in the uk. And speaking of selling things, you can even use your Squarespace site to sell digital content like memberships or courses or files that your customers can download like PDFs, music or eBooks. So what are you waiting for? Head over to squarespace.com lore for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code lore to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Squarespace Build something Beautiful and finally this episode was made possible by SimpliSafe.

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[Lore Legends Narrator]

That's too late.

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[Aaron Manke]

Here are your rocks, the letter read.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Nothing but trouble. Another pleads, please put this back so.

[Aaron Manke]

My husband can get well.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

I tried to keep him from taking it. Yet another letter reads this stone with misfortune abounds to you.

[Aaron Manke]

I am now absolved.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

And yet a fourth says this little rock wanted to go home, so I sent him.

[Aaron Manke]

There are hundreds, if not thousands of.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Letters just like these sitting in a.

[Aaron Manke]

Room in Arizona, and upon arrival, each and every one was accompanied by a little rock, or rather by something that looks like a rock. Because at the Petrified National Forest Park, a rock isn't always a rock. Don't get me wrong, the region is basically just one giant fossil. But these fossils didn't start out as stones. The Petrified Forest, once a lush tropical wetland, is now part of the Painted.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Desert There may not be many trees.

[Aaron Manke]

Anymore, but we can still see the remains of the trees that once lived there. 200 million years ago, a volcanic eruption buried the area in ash and sediment, and that's when the long process of transforming them into petrified wood began.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Petrified wood feels like solid stone, but.

[Aaron Manke]

It'S probably more accurate to say that it's a mineral compound. After wood is buried under the earth, it can gradually fossilize, its organic material slowly being replaced with sediment. Sediment until it looks and feels like a rock, and I do mean slowly. This entire metamorphosis takes hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to occur. Today, the national park's ground has eroded enough that its petrified wood is now exposed to the elements and to human eyes and hands. And while access to these remarkable formations is certainly a special opportunity for both.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Researchers and tourists alike, sometimes ignorant people.

[Aaron Manke]

Can ruin it for everybody. Now, the Petrified Forest national park has.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Been home to native tribes for at least 13,000 years, but it didn't come.

[Aaron Manke]

Across the radar for white settlers until the mid-1800s.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

The travelers were so fascinated by the.

[Aaron Manke]

Phenomenon that they frequently pocketed pieces of petrified wood, you know, as a souvenir. Today, taking fossils from the park is illegal, but most people haven't changed since the 19th century, and for many, the petrified wood is just too tempting to leave behind.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Today, the park estimates that they lose.

[Aaron Manke]

About 12 tons of petrified wood from the park every year.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But don't worry.

[Aaron Manke]

It always finds a way to come back home. Since the 1930s, visitors have reported experiencing extremely bad luck after taking petrified wood from the park in 1935, the park.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Actually received its very first letter, bemoaning.

[Aaron Manke]

The senders regret that they ever stole the petrified wood in the first place.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

These letters have been dubbed conscience letters, and the park hasn't stopped receiving them ever since. The legend has come to be known.

[Aaron Manke]

As the curse of the Petrified Forest. No one really knows how people decided that their pilfered goods were cursing them with rotten luck. One theory claims that the entire idea actually originated from Hawaii Volcanoes national park.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Where it was believed that the native.

[Aaron Manke]

Fire goddess Pele cursed anyone who took lava rocks from the island.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Somehow, that concept made its way to.

[Aaron Manke]

The mainland, and it attached itself to the Petrified Forest National Park. But no matter where the whole idea.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Came from, people believe it.

[Aaron Manke]

The park holds over 1,200 conscience letters, all of which express in some way or another that their lives have gone downhill since stealing their little pieces of petrified wood. Their personal tragedies have ranged from financial.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Woes to relationship problems and health issues. One letter from 1983 even says that.

[Aaron Manke]

The sender almost choked to death on a vitamin, and then that his car died at the Grand Canyon. It's all just a hodgepodge of general misfortune, no matter how unrelated their experiences are, though they all seem to agree that it's the curse's fault. Most of the letters are sent with the stolen petrified wood. Sometimes the wood is returned after just a few days, and sometimes after decades.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

But the sad thing is that the.

[Aaron Manke]

Wood can never be returned to the park. Now that they're essentially foreign objects, they would disrupt the natural environment. So the petrified wood is stuck in limbo, with more and more tons of wood added to a pile every year.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

So if you want to leave behind.

[Aaron Manke]

A positive legacy, then I would say the last thing you should do is steal from one of our national parks. And if you don't want to take.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

My word for it, don't worry.

[Aaron Manke]

I have a feeling that nature will take care of it for you.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

This episode of Lore Legends was produced.

[Aaron Manke]

By me, Aaron Manke, with writing by.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Alex Robinson and research by Jamie Vargas and Robin Minoter. Don't like hearing the ads? Friends, I'm with you, but I've got.

[Aaron Manke]

A solution for you. There's a paid version of Lora that's.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Available on two different platforms.

[Aaron Manke]

Apple Podcasts for those who use Apple.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Podcasts as their app, and Patreon for.

[Aaron Manke]

Those who use every other app. And all of them are 100% ad free.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Plus subscribers get weekly mini episodes called Lore Bytes.

[Aaron Manke]

It's a bargain for all of that.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Ad free storytelling and a great way to support the show and the team behind it.

[Aaron Manke]

For more information about those ad free.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Options, head over to lorepodcast.com support lore is much more than just a podcast, though. There's the book series available in bookstores.

[Aaron Manke]

And online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime. Information about all of that and more is available [e-mail] and you can also follow this show on threads, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Just search for Lore podcast all one.

[Lore Legends Narrator]

Word and click that follow button.

[Aaron Manke]

And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening. This episode of Lore is brought to.

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