Camp Gagnon - What REALLY Happened To Percy Fawcett And The Lost City of Z?

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

Who was Percy Fawcett, and was he the original Indiana Jones? Today, we take a closer look at the strange life of one of the most famous explorers. We’ll talk about Fawcett’s early life, his first adventures, the day Fawcett played accordion to survive, Fawcett's obsession with the Lost City of Z, the failed expeditions of Percy Fawcett, Fawcett’s last known location, the search for Percy Fawcett, and other interesting topics. Welcome to camp! 🏕️Shoutout to our sponsors: BlueChew, Morgan & Morgan👕🧢 GET YOUR CAMP DRIP HERE: http://camp-rd.com🏕️ Get Today In History Email Here (Free): https://camp.beehiiv.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.comTimestamps:0:00 Welcome to Camp0:58 Who Was Percy Fawcett?2:55 The Early Life of Percy Fawcett5:29 First Adventures of Percy Fawcett10:25 Hunting the Hidden Source of the Rio Verde12:41 The Day Fawcett Played Accordion to Survive16:05 Member of Earnest Shackleton's Crew Turns on Fawcett19:20 Fawcett's Obsession With The Lost City Z Begins26:30 Failed Expeditions of Percy Fawcett + Coded Messages In Letters28:24 The Hunt For The Lost City of Z31:31 Dead Horse Camp: Fawcett’s Last Known Location33:50 The Search For Percy Fawcett38:52 LiDar Scans Find The Lost City of Z41:52 Ancient Amazon Civilizations + Harsh Reality of Percy Fawcett's Death

In the early 20th century, the Amazon was still a blank spot on the map. A place explorers called Green Hell. And yet, Percy Fawcett believed it held a secret that could rewrite history. He wasn't chasing gold or fortune. He was chasing a city, not a myth, not a legend, but the ruins of an ancient advanced civilization hidden beneath the jungle. Most people laughed at the idea, but Fawcett was certain, so certain that in 1925, he marched into the rainforest with his son and small team and vanished. complete. For decades, people have risked their lives, retracing his steps, and some banished just like him. But here's the thing. Recent discovery suggests that Fawcett might not have been

chasing a fantasy after all. This isn't just the story of a man who disappeared. It's the story of the legacy that was born from his absence. So, sit back, relax, and welcome to camp. What's up, people, and welcome back to camp. My name is Mark Yagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent, where every single week we explore the most interesting and fascinating stories from around the world from all time, from all ages, forever and always in the past and the future. That's right. I'm on a journey to try to understand everything that's ever been taught ever in the world. As always, I'm joined by some dear friends, producers. My friend David is helping me out as well as Christos, Papadapodos.

Chris, what's up? What's up, everybody? All right, right, right. We have too much to go through, okay? Because we are talking about the great Percy Bosset. This is a fascinating guy, British explorer, who in 1925 walked into the Amazon rainforest and vanished. His life has inspired, you know, many, many stories, many films. But today we're going through the actual story of who this guy was. I mean, he spent years mapping uncharted regions of South America. And what he found changed everything that he thought he knew about to this dense jungle. I mean, roads, temples, advanced agricultural systems, ancient stories of cities buried underneath the jungle built by ancestors.

who disappeared centuries ago. But Fawson became convinced that these weren't just stories. He actually believed the locals when they told him that, no, there are actual ruins, actual temples, cities of gold. And he believed that somewhere

in the vast expanse of the Amazon lay these ancient ruins of these advanced societies. A lost city, specifically, that he called Z. And Fawcett himself staked everything on one final expedition to find this very city.

But in the end, he never returned. And for nearly a century, search parties, scientists, adventurers have all gone out to try to solve this mystery.

I mean, what happened to this guy? But an even bigger question remains unanswered. Was he right? Like, were the stories of these locals and all of his research actually true?

Is there really a lost city of Z? So, let's go back to the beginning. May 29th, 1925, three people stand on the edge of the known world, about to walk into the Amazon jungle and never be seen again. The leader is this guy we've been talking about, a British colonel who spent two decades

chasing what everyone else calls a fantasy, this magnificent lost city in the jungle. And with him are his 22-year-old son and his son's best friend. They send one last letter home and then vanish completely. No bodies, no explanation, nothing. So here's the thing that makes the story wild. Everyone thought that Fawcett was chasing like a fantasy,

but modern technology has proven that maybe he was right all along and sadly never lived to see it. Or maybe he did. So let's go to the very beginning of Percy's life, right? August 18th, 1867 in Torquay Devon. He's basically born to this aristocratic but financially troubled family. His father, Edward Fawcett, had blown through not one but two family fortunes and, you know, gambling and drinking. He also died of alcoholism.

at age 44. That is true. He was a gambling man and a drinker and had a good freaking time, but succumbed to the disease of alcoholism in his 40s. So this left a young Percy and his four siblings, kind of a tough spot. They had social connections, you know, education of the upper class, but none of the money, which I mean at that point, like, you know, what's even all four? As you can imagine, this is a pretty typical British upbringing at the end of the 19th century. Right? If you're getting raised by the British in 18, 80. I can't imagine that's going to be extremely affectionate. But here's the thing that this harsh upbringing actually made him tough and self-reliant. So he attends the Newton Abbott

proprietary college in the 1880s, and he studied alongside Bertram Fletcher Robinson, who would later help Arthur Conan Doyle create Sherlock Holmes. So this is like a pretty well-to-do academy. He was around the right people. And at just 17, he entered into the Royal Military Academy, me. And he called his place, you know, what everyone called it, the shop. This is where the British trained its most elite artillery and engineering officers. And it was here that he learned one of the most famous quotes that, you know, changed his life. Regard the risk of death as the most piquant sauce of life. Basically, it's saying that, you know, you should see death as something that makes life actually more interesting, almost like memento mori. Like, hey, you're going to die, so you might as well

make the most of it while you're here. And Percy absolutely did. Two years later when he was just 19, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and served in various colonial postings including Hong Kong, Malta, and his military background gave him crucial skills that would come in very handy, as you can imagine, while he's traversing the Amazon with his boy.

He had training in surveying, mapmaking, he had great leadership and command experience and also like the physical conditioning that was necessary to go through these extreme expeditions and basically just living off the land and surviving with what's around you. So in 1901, he then joins the Royal Geographical Society, who is known as the RGS, which is basically like a top institution for British explorers. And by the early 1900s, the British were exploring with, you know, the specific aim of, you know, bettering his skills and matmaking and surveying.

He really had a passion for being out in the wilderness. His first field assignment came in 1902 when he was sent to Morocco, officially as a cartographer, but then actually as a spy for the British Secret Service. and he was there kind of gathering military intelligence on the sultan. This mission success demonstrated his capabilities, not only to survive in hostile terrain around, you know, a foreign people, but as well as a surveyor and a geographer. Now, Fawcett wasn't just your average explorer. He was tall and, you know, muscular, steely blue eyes, just lats, just insane lads.

Just so, this guy was a piece, all right? And, you know, he had this manicured beard. He had a sick hat. He was just known for just being like kind of a stud. I mean, colleagues would describe his extraordinary physical stamina, you know, not only in the bedroom, but in the wilderness as well. And that helped him outperform, like, basically all the guys that he was around. Is that crazy? I mean, he was known for his stamina.

But he was able to outperform even dudes, like half his age. And he also was, like, very sharp, you know, mentally. He just would never make errors in his calculations. He had a gift for languages and would actually learn different languages or different pieces of languages to actually deal. with indigenous peoples of any place that he went. Now, here's where his life takes a dramatic turn. In 1906, the RGS got this commission to sort out a border dispute in Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.

Basically, nobody knew where one country ended and another one began in the jungle. So you need the British to go in there and figure it out, right? I'm sure that's exactly how it went. They were like, hey, how do we figure this out? We've been doing this for 2,000 years. If only the British could come by and help us. So that's what they did. And the RGS president comes to Fawcett and tells them what's basically like a suicide mission.

He tells him like, look, this terrain is impassable. It'll take you two years if you're lucky and going fast. There's no guarantee you're going to survive. There's rampant disease everywhere. And the local indigenous people who have been, you know, terrorized for many years will probably kill outsiders on site. And Percy Fawcett, at 39 years old, was stoked. I mean, that just puts you in the mindset of who this guy was, right? he's like, yeah, let's run it up. So he sends out the whole fleet and this is what he's been

waiting for his entire life. So he heads out in June of 1906 to map this disputed jungle territory between Bolivia and Brazil. And he does brilliant surveying work. I mean, he resolves this international dispute and something fundamental in this moment actually shifts inside of him. The RGS thought that this job would take two years minimum. But Fawcett knocks it out just a couple months. And that's what everyone realizes they're dealing with like a star when it comes to like the exploration community. Like this guy is so passionate about what he's doing. So this one, he gets back home and begins sharing what he found and what he'd seen there and things get a little weird. He claims to have shot a 62 foot anaconda in 1907. No, not that type of anaconda. You guys,

you guys are children, you know that? An actual, an actual snake in 1907, which at that time, Like no one had ever seen, like, anaconda that big. And he's like, no, dude, for real, 62 feet. He even talks about these mysterious, like, animals that no one's ever heard of. A small, like, cat-like dog thing. And this giant spider called the Apazaka. And that local swear can actually poison you just by, like, being near it. And the scientific community is like, ah, I did.

Really, you went over there and you saw all these crazy animals. That sounds wild. You'd probably do an ayahuasca. But here's the thing. The actual mapping work is flawless. Surveing techniques are advanced. He's, like, developing new techniques for actually. surveying, creating maps. His record keeping is meticulous, like every single detail that he's

doing, journaling, everything. And it's like there's basically two faucets that they don't understand. There's the surveyor who's brilliant and actually able to handle these disputes. But then there's also the same guy that's like, no, dude, there's monsters in the jungle. And this distinction of being accurate in detail, but also outlandish with the stories caused people to not really know what he's talking about. Like they're confused. They're like on one hand, he's accurate. The other hand, he's being crazy. So some people said maybe there are monsters. And other people said, all right, he's probably just telling lies. So he goes on a second expedition of the Rio Verde.

And this journey is almost ended before it even begins. His plan was to navigate the river by canoe and then map out the source of the Rio Verde. But the extreme rapids made this passage basically impossible. So they were forced to actually abandon the river route. And his team had no choice but to continue on foot through this dense jungle. It was a small crew for such a big mission. Basically you had a waiter, a silversmith, a bearer, a beller. baker and then two indigenous guides i'll be honest i don't think you need most of them i mean like call me

cynical i don't know if you need a waiter right like you just need like a guy with like shitty tattoos being like yeah so what else what else you need silver smith you probably use a baker i think you're good i don't know how many muffins you need of the amazon and then the indigenous guides take them but after losing most of their food now they just have a dumb ass waiter that's just walking around with them They lived for weeks on basically palms. They actually like palm hearts and like nuts that they find in the forest. And then they're getting attacked by insects every single day. And they're like getting like these inch long black ants, like these massive Amazonian ants.

And then when they finally make it back to civilization, all five men who joined Percy ended up dying shortly after. Most likely from distress and like the pain from the actual journey, potentially disease as well. But against all odds, Fawcett actually achieved what he had set out to do. He successfully located and mapped the source of the Rio Verde. And he, you know, takes his set of geographical coordinates and maps it so precise that they would be used by explorers for years to come. On the one hand, the cost for this type of operation was, you know, massive. But the mission cemented his reputation as a man who could endure, even thrive in the world's most unforgiving landscapes. I mean, it's truly fascinated that this guy in England at this time was actually doing these types of, like, it's almost hard for me to put myself in the mindset of someone.

that's going to the Amazon in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and seeing what he actually saw, like proper indigenous tribes, never spoken to or touched by, you know, Europe or, you know, colonial settlers in America and trying to actually deal with them and then traversing some of the most harsh jungle in the entire world. It's like kind of fascinating that he was able to do this. Now, his next expedition in 1910 really shows what kind of person he was. He gets sent to survey the Peru-Belivia border at the Heath River, a job that at the time was, again, another death sentence.

But again, that's exactly what Percy wanted. The crazier and more dangerous it was, he wanted that one. The German explorer, Edward Heller, had lost 20 canoes and 40 men to the hostile tribes that lived there. And again, these aren't just like 40 random dudes. These are 40 men that are trained in some capacity to handle these types of expeditions, and Edward Heller lost 40 of them. And then in 1893, General Jose Manuel Pando barely made it out alive after a barrage of arrows. forced him to flee the jungle.

So Fawcett hears all this, and he assembles a crew, and when they arrive, they're almost immediately under attack. I mean, the tribes are shooting these six-foot-long arrows from somewhere deep in the trees. They don't even know where they're coming from. They're just getting these barrages of giant arrows hitting them. Most people in that situation would have tried to fight back or just get out. But what does Fawcett do?

He doesn't panic. Instead, one of his soldiers pulls out an accordion. Yeah, like a literal accordion and starts playing music. in the middle of the ambush. And Fawcett, as if this is like a completely normal thing to do, start speaking to the warriors in their own indigenous language. And the craziest part, they all got murdered. No.

The craziest part is that it works. Like the mood shifts and the warriors go from like trying to kill them to like listening to them and vibe into the accordion a little bit and then actually helping them set up camp. Camp. Welcome to camp, dude. That's crazy. Literally, him and the boys just pull out an accordion, and then the locals are just like,

ah, these guys are chill as hell. They've no polka. So, news about Percy and his team's arrival eventually travels upriver to the other tribes, and they're basically saying, like, look, these outsiders are different than the other ones. Okay, I promise. The German guy, fuck him forever, all right? But this guy is not like that. And they're not here to harm us, so let them pass through.

And the idea of calmness and human connection was exactly what set faucet apart from all these other explorers in his era. He wasn't trying to, like, take their land or, like, change the customs. He was genuinely interested in them as people and preserving them exactly how they were. I mean, you can imagine like, you know, from basically the end of the 1400s, every colonial power that went there was trying to rob these people, trying to convert them to a, you know, different religion. Doesn't matter which one it is. And, you know, we're basically trying to like just take their culture and their women. And all of a sudden, this guy comes along with a good faith

interest in trying to actually learn about them as human beings. And so he follows the Heath River. from the outflow deep into the actual headwaters and carefully charts everything. And he didn't quite reach the true source, though later he explained to the RGS, quote, I never actually visited the source of the heath, but only traced the river to the junction of two streams near the source, the actual point being indicated on my map of 1910. So even his own reports he was precise about what he did and didn't do, which is, again, unique for a lot of explorers of the time. I mean, most of these explorers are like borderline delusional and very arrogant. So even if they don't do something, they'll just kind of say like, yeah, yeah, it's over here.

And just hope no one ever checks their work because you got to go play an accordion for a killing tribe just to do it. So you actually was honest. And to his credit, people actually respected it. So this fourth expedition that he goes on in 1911 was a massive turning point in how he thought about these ancient civilizations. This is where his perspective on this continent actually changed. This time he wasn't just running through the jungle for like the sake of mapping rivers. He wanted to actually piece together like the broader picture. And so alongside him was his right-hand man, a man known as Henry Koston, and the Scottish biologist James Murray.

And together they pushed through hundreds of miles of uncharted rainforest. I mean, places that no outsider had ever set foot in. And James Murray wasn't just any scientist. He was a member of one of my favorite expeditions ever. Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. If you don't know about Ernest Shackleton, actually, Chris doesn't mark that because we need to do an episode on Ernest Shackleton.

That is long overdue. I mean, truly, like, the best. You already did. I mean, I did an episode kind of about him with an explorer that actually went and redid the entire journey, which you guys should check out that episode. But going through his expedition was fascinating, and this guy, James Murray,

was actually a part of that team. This is a guy that went down to the South Pole, got their entire ship destroyed, and then survived long enough to have. actually make it back home. I mean, fascinating. So this is a squad that Percy Fawcett puts together that is very competent. But unfortunately, the Amazon is an unforgiving beast. I mean, the heat was crushing. The air is so humid. It's filling your lungs with every breath. You can barely breathe. There are swarms of insects that are relentless. And Murray's health

began to unravel. I mean, he's getting fevers and he's, you know, potentially having his wounds turned septic. And he couldn't keep up with the pace. And suddenly the mission to, you know, go through this land turns into a basically a time race to save this guy and not have him die in the middle of the Amazon. So Fawcett diverts the entire expedition just to save Murray. So by the time they reached La Paz in 1912, rumors swirled that Murray had actually died on the way, but he hadn't. But when he recovered, he shocked people by publicly accusing Fawcett of mistreatment. And this is a claim that would hang in the air and kind of affect his legacy for years to come. Still, this wasn't just an expedition divined by hardship. It planted the seeds for Fawcett in a very major way that

actually became his most famous obsession. So along the way, he would have conversations with these indigenous communities deep in the forest. And he began to hear stories that they would talk about, consistent stories of these ancient ruins, of these massive megalithic stones hidden under the canopy of the jungle and of carved monuments abandoned long before Europeans had ever arrived. I mean, we were talking about civilizations that had their peak, I mean, maybe, you know, in the BC era, or, you know, even before 1400s when the Europeans had actually gotten there. So to Fawcett, he starts to hear these myths, and then he hears more of them, and then even more. And they're all kind of consistent.

They're all pointing to the same thing. And then he starts to think, I don't think these are myths. I think these might actually be clues. This might be a map. And they're out there somewhere, swallowed by the rainforest, like laying just forgotten on the floor of the jungle, remnants of these massive advanced civilizations. And this idea would lodge itself in his mind and eventually drive him towards his most legendary and final journey. So by 1912, something had taken hold of his mind, right? He's starting to piece together the stories that he'd been hearing.

He's going back through his journals and reading everything that he had learned from talking to these indigenous people. And eventually he gave this city a name, the lost city of Z. Now, if you don't know, this is happening right after Hiram Bingham finds Machu Picchu in 1911. So suddenly everyone is realizing that there are massive ancient civilizations just sitting there. I mean, Machu Picchu is massive. It's huge and it's extremely advanced. And no one from the outside had ever really seen it. So now Fawcett is fired up.

But for Fawcett, you know, this Lost City of Z isn't just riding the wave of this, you know, archaeological fever that is, you know, sweeping all of Europe and America. He is convinced it exists because of something more tangible. In 1914, he finds this document in Brazil's National Library that just blows his mind. And it's called manuscript 512. And it's written by Portuguese explorers in 1753. These guys claimed that they found ruins of an ancient city with, quote, monumental buildings, roads, and a plaza, in each corner of which is a spire and the style of the Romans.

The way Percy describes Zee, after reading this, was also unnerving and how specific it was, and a letter to his son, Brian, he told of a city in a valley just basically, you know, surrounded by mountains, only accessible by a single stone paved road. He claimed the houses had no windows and at the center of the city was a pyramid-like temple. And the inhabitants he believed tended, you know, domestic animals and mined a lot of the surrounding hills. And this wasn't the language of a guy that was just guessing. This was a guy that was talking as if he had seen it or, you know, had heard specific details about what the city was. And then there's the strangest detail of all. Fawcett mentions in this letter,

rumors of a strange source of light is in the buildings. This is something that terrified, you know, the local indigenous people that have claimed to have witnessed it. And no one knows exactly what he means. Is it like bioluminescent like insects? Is it like fireflies? Is it a way that they're using crystals to like channel the light from the sun into the brooms?

Maybe it is like an ancient technology that's lost. or maybe it's just another jungle myth, you know, that made its way into his imagination. Who knows? Regardless, it only deepened his conviction and his desire to find it. So this now isn't a vague treasure hunt. And Fawcett's mind, Z is 100% real, and Hugh knew exactly what it looked like. And the only question left was, you know, how far is he willing to go to figure it out? So in 1914, just as his obsession is sharpening into like a mission, like a life purpose, World War I breaks out. And the Amazon has to wait.

Despite being almost 50 years old at this point, he volunteers for active duty and actually commands an artillery brigade in Flanders. And then in 1916, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Fawcett the prestigious gold medal, recognizing his exceptional surveying and mapping achievements. His work had provided accurate geographical data, used for international boundary agreements

and opens new regions for explorations. I mean, for most people, this is like their crowning achievement of their career, right? He is a decorated war veteran. He, you know, has gotten these awards from, you know, the RGS. Like, he did it. He was also mentioned in dispatches three times by field marshal Sir Douglas Haig and received the Distinguished Service Order Award in 1917

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And let's get back to the show. After the war, Fawcett immediately returns to Brazil, and his obsession with this city of Z was stronger than ever. So in 1921, he sets out on his first expedition to find this lost city. Not long after departing, he and his team become demoralized by the hardships of the jungle. I mean, once again, the dangerous animals, the insects, the disease, and this causes the expedition to fail, and the team returns home. But that same thing, year, Fawcett set out on a search again, this time from Bahia, Brazil, on a solo journey. And he traveled this way for three months before returning again and failure. And despite these failures, his theories had evolved from, you know, this, like, scientific

sort of speculation that's somewhat skeptical but still measured to ultimately, like, a religious conviction. He even became so secretive that he wrote encrypted letters to his wife Nina, who would use a cipher code to actually decode them to prevent rival explorers. from discovering the city of four. In one letter he wrote, there are three kinds of Indians. The first are docile and miserable people, easily tamed.

The second, dangerous, repulsive cannibals, very rarely seen. And the third, a robust and fair people who must have a civilized origin. Now, this idea of a civilized origin, I mean, it sounds a little racial and sort of classist, of course, for this British guy to be like, yeah, you know, it's not civilized. But again, this is just his way of describing a people that had a technology that he couldn't fathom existed on this continent. And it fascinated him. And he began to imagine the city's inhabitants as maybe descendants of this long forgotten culture far advanced from what he was seeing on the continent in that time. It also shaped his tactics, right? Like if he's going to reach them, he couldn't arrive like this conquering force with a dozen men and animals and all this stuff. He had to be nimble and above all, non-threatening and peaceful.

So by 1925, Fawcett is 57 years old. I mean, think about that. He's 50, like this, like people aged bad back in the day, specifically, you know, the Brits. And this guy is 57. And he's like, you know what? I don't need to retire. I don't need to do. I don't want to just chill in the countryside.

He's planning the most dangerous expedition, possibly of all time and certainly of his life. So he's failed to find Z twice already in, you know, in the early 1920s, but he's not given up. And this time, he makes a decision that seems crazy, but actually makes some sense if you think about it. So get this. Instead of taking this huge expedition with a bunch of men, he's going to go small, and just three people total. His theory is that if they can move fast and they can live off the land easier and they won't look like an invading army, the tribes will be much more agreeable to letting them in. So he chooses his eldest son, Jack, who's 22, and he had dreams of actually being an actor before his dad convinced him to join in this quest. And then there's Jack's best friend from childhood, this guy named Raleigh Ramell. who's only 23. And these guys aren't hardened explorers, right? They're just young dudes who have been

kind of raised in this tradition of, you know, Percy Fossett's obsession, and they've kind of been swept up as well. So the funding comes from a group in London called The Glove. Now, this is a wealthy investment group who are basically gambling on Fawcett finding something spectacular, and he also sells the story rights to North American newspapers, which means 40 million people are going to be following on this expedition. So a lot of pressure. But, here's the detail that haunts this entire story. Fawcett specifically tells everyone. If we don't come back, don't send anyone to look for us. He doesn't want more people trying to die in order to save them. And he knows that this entire journey is very dangerous. And it's almost like he knew something might go wrong.

So in January 1925, the trio sailed from New Jersey to South America with Fawcett's promising reports. He says, we shall return and we shall bring back what we seek. So they arrived. in Rio de Janeiro in April, and they travel inland to Kuyaba. This is like a remote Amazonian outpost and the capital of Matto Grosso, the state there in Brazil, where they purchase pack animals and then hire two Brazilian guides. Now in April, in 1925, this final expedition departs this city. The party consists of Percy, Jack, and Raleigh, and then two Brazilian guides, two horses, eight mules, and then two dogs.

The expedition was just like the rest. They faced these immediate challenges like the insects and the disease and the animals. But then Rommel's foot becomes severely swollen from a tick bite, causing him to not be able to keep up with the rest of the team. But despite this, Fawcett maintained a demanding pace of 10 to 15 miles per day through, I mean, increasingly hostile terrain. Each step you go is even more dense than the one before it. During one stretch, he got so far ahead of the rest of the crew that he was forced to camp alone

and wait for them to catch up. I mean, this isn't like a leisurely hike where, you know, the guy's, you know, 20, 30 feet in front of you. He's miles ahead of them and actually has to wait for them to get back to him. And then on May 29th, 1925,

we get the last known location of the three men. They reached a place Fawcett calls Dead Horse Camp. And he calls it this because this is actually where his horse died on the previous expedition in 1920. Remember, this isn't some guy just running through the woods.

He knows exactly where he's at. He's mapped the jungle. numerous times, he's returning to previous sites to expand on them, and then he's laying out the geography of the Amazon. He's not lost. Well, yet. He carefully records the exact coordinates of their location in a letter to his wife. He says, here we are at Dead Horse Camp, latitude 11 degrees, 43 south, and longitude 54 degrees, 35 degrees west, and the spot where my horse died in 1920. He knows the exact specific coordinates. Fawcett's final letter to his wife is weirdly optimistic, I guess you could say. I mean, he says, Jack is well and fit and getting stronger every day.

You need to have no fear of any failure. But he also mentions their guides are getting more and more nervous as they're continuing to push deeper into the jungle farther into indigenous tribal country. And the guides are starting to get nervous and they want to turn back and they're actually going to go home because they believe it's far too dangerous. But here's something strange. Fawcett gives different coordinates to different people. So the newspaper gets coordinates that are actually 200 miles off from where he actually is. So get this. He sends his wife the coordinates very specifically.

And then he sends a newspaper coordinates 200 miles away from where he sent his wife. So which is the truth. Experts think that he was deliberately trying to throw people off his trail. He didn't want rivals seeing this in the newspaper and then following his path to the Lost City of Z. And he didn't want anyone attempting the dangerous rescue if things actually go wrong. And after May 29th, 1925, There's nothing. Percy Fawcett, Jack Fawcett, and Raleigh Ramell walk into the jungle and simply cease to exist as far as the outside world is concerned.

No bodies are ever found, no definitive trace of what happened. I mean, just evaporate into the jungle itself. I think about that for a moment. And in age before GPS, no satellite phones, before like an emergency beacon, three men walk into quite literally one of the most hostile environments on Earth and are never. seen again. So in 1927, the Royal Geographical Society declares them officially lost, nearly two years after their last communication. And by then, the outside world was captivated by the mystery of what had happened to these guys. I mean, the first major British expedition came in 1928, led by British American explorer, Commander George Miller Diet. And his expedition dubbed the Suicide

Club found a brass nameplate from Fossett's equipment with the Nahakwa tribe. Diet claimed that this was evidence that, you know, this tribe and the chief of this actual group had killed Fawcett, but his evidence was largely based off of some unreliable testimony, and he wasn't actually that convinced. Then in 1931, the Penn Museum's Mato Grosso expedition led by Vincenzo Petruo encountered the Foset mystery by complete accident. The purpose of the expedition was to make a scientific record of, you know, the human, animal, and plant life in this. Matto Grosso region. Instead, the leader of the expedition ended up meeting Alouca, who's the chief of the tribe that I mentioned before, and other natives who had last seen Fawcett. Photographed the exact spot where Fawcett had crossed the Keloenna River and concluded that Fossett had died of thirst or hunger or disease east of the river. Over the years, various artifacts supposedly belonging

to Fawcett were found like a compass in 1933, and oddly his gold signet ring was discovered in a Kwiaba pawn shop in 1979, inscribed with the Fawcett family motto, hardship hold no fear. I mean, kind of bars and sort of poetic, but how did it actually end up in this pawn shop? No one really knows. Now, obviously, multiple theories have come about, you know, as far as what actually happened to Fawcett in this expedition. Some people think that they may have been robbed, considering that the ring was found in a

pawn shop, but the most commonly accepted theory is that they were killed by the indigenous peoples there, particularly the Havante. And these were a tribal group that were known to basically kill anyone that they could catch in their territory, according to reports from other explorers. The Kalapalo tribe, who was the last to actually see Fawcett, Jack and Raleigh alive, have actually preserved some oral accounts from their time warning Fawcett against going eastward into the territory of what they called the fierce Indians. And then in 2005, author David Grant interviewed the Calapalo leaders who had remembered these three men in their visit. They recalled Warning Fawcett against this planned route.

I mean, you know, they said it was just too dangerous, not necessarily from the jungle, but from the people there. But they went anyway. Then they noticed campfire smoke for five days before it just completely disappeared, believing that these fierce natives had killed them. Other theories include that they died from natural causes, potentially disease, starvation, or even animal predation. Fawcett's longtime friend, Harry Koston, believes,

that he died of exhaustion rather than violence, noting that Fawcett typically had excellent relations with the indigenous people and would likely be able to, you know, barter some type of deal between them. And then there are some more wild theories that have, you know, emerged over the decades as well. Some believe that Fawcett had basically gone native

and was living as, you know, a part of a tribe or potentially even as a chief, or that maybe he had been captured and been held prisoner. There's a Swiss trapper named Stephen Radin who claimed in 1932 to have actually seen Fawcett wearing animal skins and held captive by a native tribe. But experts basically dismissed this as completely ridiculous. And in 1951, Brazilian explorer Orlando V.S. Boyce claimed to have found Fossett's skeletal remains in Calapalo territory. However, after analysis was done,

it was concluded that the bones were not Fossett at all because the jaw bone didn't match his spare denture that was left in England. And the shin bone also suggested, you know, someone that was much shorter than Fawcett himself. And then in 19, 1998, BBC investigator Benedict Allen interviewed Calapalo elder named Vahuvie, who denied his tribe's involvement and confirmed that the bones found in the V.S. Boas belonged to a tribal ancestor, not Fawcett at all. There's also claims that over a hundred people died while searching for the body of Fawcett over the years, but expert John Hemming confirmed that only one person had actually died searching for him, a lone explorer who went out all by himself.

However, numerous expeditions faced significant dangers, including the 1996 incident where businessman James Lynch and his 16-year-old son were captured by Calapalo Indians and held captive until they surrendered their $30,000 worth of equipment. I mean, that is wild. In 1996, isn't that crazy? I mean, these guys, a businessman goes down there, which is kind of ironic. Like, obviously, I don't think this business guy is just like Percy Fawcett, but is weirdly reminiscent of kind of the same thing, right?

This guy goes down there with his young son trying to explain. this vast terrain and then gets captured and held hostage for money. I mean, it's interesting. In 1986, that happened. That's crazy. Now, what's interesting about this part of the story is kind of where things, you know, kind of change. So for decades after Fawc disappeared, he was basically seen as like this delusional guy

who got this crazy idea that he heard from locals and believed in a myth so strongly that he was willing to go out and kill his son and his friend while chasing this fantasy. And the scientific establishment basically treated this like kind of like a bad story. And the moral was ultimately like, hey, don't let your obsession override like science and your good senses. But then technology caught up and in a lot of ways vindicated Percy Fossett. So in the 2010s and the 2020s, scientists started using something called LIDAR. And this is basically where they shoot lasers from planes that can see through the jungle canopy. You can almost imagine it like a massive X-ray on a giant piece of land.

And what they found changed everything that archaeologists, adventures, and historians thought they knew about the Amazon. In the exact spot where Fawcett said that Z would be, they found a massive complex belonging to the Kihu Kugu people. And this isn't some small settlement. We're talking about streets, bridges, giant public square, and this place was active from about 1,500 to about 400 years ago. I mean, like, he nailed it, like exactly what he had described. Like paved streets with stone, a massive plaza, potentially a pyramid. I mean, Fawcett was right. And there really was this lost city exactly where he said that it was.

The only thing that Fawcett actually got wrong is that there's not one lost city of Z. There's potentially hundreds. I mean, scientists now estimate that 8 to 10 million people lived in the Amazon prior to the European arrival. And I mean, that's not like villages. These is massive civilizations. I mean, giant cities, metropolis is holding hundreds of thousands of people. I mean, a civilization on scale of the ancient Egyptians or the Mesopotamians or in some ways even the Europeans. I mean, they had agriculture and urban planning. They had monumental architecture and art. Everything that Fawcett believed was actually there was actually there. His adventures directly inspired

Arth and Conan Doyle to write The Lost Worlds in 1912. And he served as one of the primary inspirations for Indiana Jones and his entire character. His story has been the subject of numerous books and films and documentaries and recently the movie The Lost City of Z, obviously named after his fascination. And Fawcett wrote in one of his journals, quote, Deep down inside of me is a tiny voice that is calling. At first, scarcely audible, but it persisted until I could no longer ignore it. It was the voice of wild places, and I knew that it was now part of me forever. He continued, but it should be remembered. that the difficulties are great and that the tale of disasters, a long one.

For the few remaining unknown corners of the world exact a price for their secrets. I mean, bars, Percy. So, what exactly happened to Percy Fawcett, Jack Fawcett, and Raleigh Ramell in the Brazilian jungle in 1925 remains unknown. Again, the most likely scenario based on what seems like the available evidence is that the three men, already ill and exhausted, died from net. natural causes or an indigenous attack or maybe a combination of both. And their bodies were likely consumed by the jungle, you know, back into the earth, into this land that Percy was fascinated by. His journey is as much about the pole of curiosity as it's about, you know, the cost of chasing a vision. I mean, you know, he had this shift from like this disciplined British officer to an explorer that was

chasing a dream, you know, that really reflects both the promise, but also the hardship of following your passion and exploration. And then recent research has revealed an Amazon far more populated and sophisticated than Fawcett could have ever imagined, right? I mean, he may have not found his lost city of Z, but he helped point the way towards this deeper truth, that the Amazon itself is not just, you know, a jungle, you know, filled with animals and insects, but also once a sprawling complex system of civilizations still hidden beneath the forest canopy today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the life and adventures of Percy Fawcett. I mean, what a fascinating guy.

Like, I couldn't even imagine going to, like, traveling to, like, London, you know, from New York in, like, the 1920s is like, dude, I'm in a different world. I'm in London. Everyone sounds different. They're wearing different stuff. They're, like, talk. Like, it would be fascinating to do that. I couldn't even imagine going to the Amazon.

Like, you go to the Amazon today. I don't know. I've never been. But I imagine it's like, okay, you go to this place, you see this site, you stay at this hotel. Like, it's all very much like if you want it to be, you know, a very like organized experience. But like to do it in this time, I mean, there's nothing. Like, you go out there and you're truly just amongst the indigenous people and the wild animals. And sure, there's versions of that you could do today.

But I just feel like, you know, there's just so much more that's known about it. But even to this day, in an episode I did with Luke Caverns, he talks about just how many of these places there are. I mean, I mentioned to him, I was like, dude, do you think there's like an Eldorado like the movie? And he's like, no, there are multiple Eldoradoes. He's fully convinced that there are cities of gold and whether they were just painted like a golden color or actually possess like gold plated temples like fully with gold. I mean, this whole region is rich with gold throughout. So it's possible that there's not only one, but potentially dozens. if not hundreds of these actual massive cities

that are completely untouched, still underneath the jungle today, waiting to be discovered. I mean, for me, I'm, like, stoked on this. Like, I get excited about, like, Egypt, and I'm like, I don't know how much more of Egypt there is to be known. There are dozens of Egypt all throughout South America

and the Amazon. I mean, it's, like, crazy. But if I had to put money on it, I'd probably say that Percy died from disease. Like, I don't know. I would be surprised if, like, the indigenous just came out and, like, murked him, you know what I mean?

Like, he knew how to deal with it. these people. You'd be surprised about that? If he got killed by the indigenous, I'm like, he knows how to navigate, he knows how to talk to him, and he generally knew which way he was going. But he was going into territories that he hadn't gone to prior, correct? Yes, after the dead horse camp. Yeah, I'm assuming best guess is that he came across natives that were more hostile than the ones he encountered. It's possible. But it is possible that he was friendly with tribes, so maybe that word spread amongst people like, hey, this white boy is kind of chill. That's what I'm saying

But again, the tribe that he last saw him It was like, yo, we don't know those boys over there And they get wild Yeah And then they buck off I mean, Chrisus, what do you think of having? I think he personally just went Became his own person

And lived on his own for the rest of his turner Just homesteaded dude Yeah, we got to talk We gotta learn about his wife Because maybe she sucked Also we kind of glossed over the fact That he volunteered for the war at age 50 Yeah, that is kind of crazy

That is a great point he did volunteer for the war as a 50-year-old. It was behind-the-scenes work, you know. Yeah. Pushing paperwork. Yeah, exactly. But also, like, war back in the day, like, World War I was brutal, don't going to be wrong, but they didn't know how bad it was going to be.

So I bet you he was like, yeah, I'll pick up, like, a old war gig. You know what I mean? Like, I think they saw it, like, PA work. They'd be like, yeah, I'll just, like, pop in, you know, hold a couple rifles, bayonets, some motherfuckers and then get out. That's what I'm assuming. But then he gets out. He's like, yeah, that shit sucks.

That's how you know how bad war is that, like, he's serving the war and was like, I need to go to the Amazon immediately. I need to get the hell out of here. You know it would be the sickest shit ever? If they went to that lost city, like the one that he charted, that, like, they used LIDAR to discover the plaza. And if they went there and they found his remains, how fire would that? Statue in his honor. Oh, imagine. That'd be so sick.

Percy Fawcett. So handsome. So jacked. Fucking diesel. Do they find that city? Could you look that up really quick? Percy Fawcett's Lost City of Z has never been found in the exact way he described it, but archaeology and the Amazon has uncovered evidence suggesting he may have been partly right.

But do they go to that spot? That's what I want to know. Don't they have drones to like scan beneath the canopy to like see structures of buildings and roads and stuff? Well, that's the LIDAR stuff. But again, like it's one crazy expensive to do LIDAR. work and that's such a massive piece of land. I think Luke was saying that by, and his theory that by the end of this century, all of the Amazon is mapped.

But even the way he described it, he was like, yeah, it's going to take 50, six years to actually map it effectively. Yeah. So I was like, damn, that's a long time. Who's the guy that... It's also crazy? Paul Rosalie. Yeah, Paul's the man.

You got to get him on here. Oh, it'd be a dream. I'd love Paul. I'm like... Want to ask him right now on the camera? Paul Puddy-Puis? Mm-hmm. Next time we're in New York, come through.

Say what's up. He's from Jersey. He's a Jersey, man. Hey. He's a Jersey, Guinea. Hey, we're going down. We're trying to find

these fucking tribes, you know? That's not how he sounds. He's very sophisticated and smart and empathetic. But it is way funnier to think that Tony Sopranos is down there. Hey, yo. All that to say. I don't know. It's just a fascinating thing that this guy went down there.

I'd be so curious to know how many of these cities are there. And the other thing that Luke was telling me that's fascinating is like, Concusators went down there looking for gold. They were trying to find these cities of gold. Like many of them after Pizarro, they were like, we're going to figure it out. And they went down. And in his theory, he's like, they probably were at the cities. But the jungle growth is so rapid and so violent that it just covered them completely.

And that they were probably walking directly on top of the gold ruins they were trying to find. The only way you'll find these cities is deforestation. It's the one that we don't want right now. Yeah, it's not ideal. But if you can do very select deforestation in just a little plaza to discover the remains of, you know, the remains of like some sick ancient civilization. Yeah. Right?

I'm like, that's worth it. You get some rubber. Yeah, right? It works out for everyone. But I don't know. I think my favorite theory about Percy Foss is the one that I thought of.

That I think he just like met a baddie. And I think he just dipped. Imagine he meets Chell from Rhode El Dorado. Oh, God. I mean like, dude, out of here. You see,

you meet Chell and you're just like, dude, like he lived in England his whole life. I was who she looks like again. He was, He was dealing with British women and then all of a sudden sees Chelle and he's like, oh, don't mind if I do. Road to El Dorado cast. All right.

Well, David enjoys that. I'm going to let you guys get back to your wonderful day. Thank you all so much for tuning into another episode of camp. David likes it when I really emphasized the... But this has been, yeah, another episode of camp, just a place for... Oh! All right, guys, this tail is about to fly out of this tent. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I appreciate it. If there's anything I missed about Percy Fawcett, if you guys are reversed in this topic, please drop a comment. And if you didn't know anything about Percy Fawcett, drop a comment, what did you think? I read all of them, Spotify, YouTube, every which place. So just be nice about it. All right. Give the episode a thumbs up, subscribe. It helps the channel. And I will see you guys next week. Thank you all so much. Peace, love, and blessings to all. A good night.

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