Lore - Lore 313: Tall, Tall Tales

Starting point is 00:00:00 When the crew of Artemis II took their famous trip to the moon a few months back, it got me thinking about the passage of time. Specifically, the idea that astronauts age ever so slightly slower in space. It has to do with Einstein's theory of relativity. Basically, speed and gravity impact time. So when someone is hurtling through space at crazy high speeds, time slows down a bit for them. Say that you sent one twin into space,

Starting point is 00:00:40 while the other stayed on Earth. The astronaut twin would be fractions of a second younger than the one who stayed behind when they returned. Meanwhile, the closer a clock is to a center of gravity, the slower it moves. In fact, believe it or not, the core of the Earth is estimated to be a full 2.5 years younger than the surface. It's called gravitational time dilation,

Starting point is 00:01:03 and it's honestly heady stuff, too heady to get deeper into here. But it may be wonder, Just how high off the ground do you have to be before time starts to shift? Well, it turns out I wasn't the only one wondering this. In 2023, roughly $2 million was granted to a team of scientists to explore exactly that idea. They wanted to see if a clock atop the towering peak of Mount Blue Sky in Colorado would tick faster than a clock down in Boulder.

Starting point is 00:01:32 We'll have to wait until 2027 for the results, but this is what we already know. time at sea level does move more slowly than it does at high altitudes. Infantasmally, for sure, but still, there's a difference. In a way, climbing a tall peak isn't just adventurous. It's a form of time travel. Then again, that wouldn't be the strangest thing to occur on a mountaintop. And if the stories are true, there might be one mountain more prone to oddity than all the rest. I'm Aaron Mankey.

Starting point is 00:02:05 And this is lore. It looms over the land like an ancient god. Crowned in snow with a cloak of hardened lava on its massive shoulders, the giant has slumbered there for nearly 600,000 years. In that time, it's become the subject of countless legends, too. Creation myths and conspiracies, ghost stories and religions, all have gathered in the great shadow of Mount Shasta. Located in Northern California, about 50 miles south of the Oregon border, Mount Shasta is the

Starting point is 00:02:51 second tallest mountain in the Cascade Range. But don't be fooled by its silver metal. This Leviathan is a whopping 14,179 feet high, and if that weren't intimidating enough, it also happens to be an active volcano. Now, while scientists believe it last erupted around the year 1250, the U.S. Geological Survey ranks at number five on its list of most hazardous volcanoes in the country. In other words, just because it hasn't erupted in a while, doesn't mean that it won't go off again. The mountain gets its name from the local Shasta tribe, but they're not the only native population living in the mountains' foothills. In fact, the area is home to the Shasta, Wintu, Achimawi, and Modak people, among others. And unsurprisingly, many of them have legends about the prominent peak.

Starting point is 00:03:41 According to the Wintu, the very first members of their tribe emerged from a sacred healing spring right there on Mount Shasta. To this day, they hold a ceremony by that spring every August. Meanwhile, the Wintu claimed that there were once giants living within the mountain and that spirit beings dwell above the tree line. In fact, humans should never go above the tree line at all, they say, except for rituals, advice that the Shasta people insist upon as well. In Modoc mythology, the great creator himself resides on the mountain, and as such, Modoc people bring offerings like water or tobacco whenever they visit. They also believe that all animals originate from a race of animal people who came down from the top of Mount Shasta and made new homes for themselves on Earth.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Oh, and also living on the mountain are a creature known as the Keepers of the Woods, the Matakagmi, or as you might call them. Bigfoot. The Achu Maui, on the other hand, tell of an entirely different supernatural entity residing on the slopes. They're called Isu Chin and are magical black imps known for punishing those who disrespect the sacred mountain. Punish how, you might ask, well, they might simply scare you or make you get lost on the mountain forever. Or if they're feeling particularly cheeky, drive you fully and entirely insane. Then again, not all the mountain's legends come from its indigenous neighbors. No, it turns out some might just come from a local Mount Shasta area teenage boy with a typewriter and a tiny obsession with Atlantis.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Let me explain. His name was Frederick Spencer Oliver, and let's just say he wasn't a very good student. He had trouble concentrating in class. His teachers called him lazy. But in the early 1880s, one mentor took a chance on the 17-year-old Frederick and changed his life forever. Now, let me be clear here. If you're imagining a strict tutor with a scowl and a hickick switch, you've got the wrong idea. This was no typical teacher. In fact, Frederick's mentor wasn't even, well, human. You see, the boy was actually under the careful tutelage of an invisible being known as Phyllos the Tibetan, former resident of Atlantis. According to Frederick, this supernatural being had begun projecting spiritual messages right into his brain.

Starting point is 00:06:04 Messages the teenager transcribed into a 442-page doozy of a manuscript. And let me tell you, folks, this thing is wild. First, it describes Phyllos' life on Atlantis, way back in 11,000 BC, a high-tech world complete with public transportation and anti-gravity airships. Apparently, Atlantis even had X-rays, which, for the record, hadn't even been discovered yet when Frederick was writing. But it's in the next part of the book where things go really crazy, because that's where Frederick mentions his favorite local landmark, Mount Shasta. You see, if his book is true, the mountain has a secret. It hides a tunnel leading to a temple city deep within Mount Shasta's belly. There are walls of polished quartz veined with gold, luminous white light ebbs from no clear source,

Starting point is 00:06:55 the air is perfumed, and presiding over it all is a multicultural robe-clad brotherhood with access to all the secrets of the universe. In other words, Frederick Spencer Oliver had written one heck of a sci-fi novel. But, hey, if Elron Hubbard taught us anything, it's that fiction and fact have a pesky way of blurring together. That's right. Plenty of people were happy to take Frederick's book, all too literally. Frederick Oliver passed away at the young age of 33. But in 1905, his mother had his book published under the title, A Dweller on Two Planets. And immediately, it was super popular among a very particular type of people who, suffice to say, did not consider it to be fiction.

Starting point is 00:07:52 And the book's biggest fans? The Rosicrucians, an esoteric order, hodgepaging together Masonic traditions, alchemy, Christian mysticism, and the theories of Paracelsus. And they went bananas for the Mount Shasta stuff as well. Not only did they gobble up Frederick's book, but they added brand new details in writings of their own. Specifically, they offered new information on an ancient race of possibly egg-laying people called Lemurians. Lemurians, they said, lived in the mountain, protected by a huge force field while traveling via a flying boat. You know, totally normal stuff.

Starting point is 00:08:29 Word spread, though, and by the 30s, the conspiracies had leaked into the mainstream. No more gatekeeping that secret underground city. In fact, one man even claimed that he had been there. But let me say, if you thought Frederick Spencer Oliver was a bit of a bit of, you know, quirky, just wait until you meet Guy Warren Ballard. He had come to California in 1930 in search of Mount Shasta's Secret Brotherhood. Or, okay, maybe Ballard's trip had more to do with the fact that Illinois authorities were after him for selling stock in phony gold mines, but he'd failed to mention that specific detail. So, anyway, according to Ballard, he'd been at Mount Shasta, bending down to

Starting point is 00:09:07 drink from a spring, when suddenly a man had appeared and asked to borrow his cup. Ballard, obliged, and at once the cup was filled with, and I quote, creamy liquid. Ballard drank that, and the stranger explained that the beverage was actually omnipresent life itself, before going on a rant about universal love. At this point, Ballard realized that the stranger was, and I quote, Godlike in a white jeweled robe, a light and love sparkling in his eyes. He also came to the conclusion, and don't ask me why he did, that the man was none other than the Count of Saint, Germain, an actual 18th century alchemist. The alleged Saint Germain went on to show Ballard golden ribbons containing the whole history of the universe, plus heaps of rescued Atlantean gold,

Starting point is 00:09:56 and as a cherry on top, he revealed Ballard's own past lives as an Egyptian priest, an inkin prince, and George Washington. So what did Ballard do next? He published the account far and wide, of course, outlining every last detail of this encounter that definitely happened and certainly wasn't made up by a man who was already a known con artist. And what do you know? It was a huge hit. In fact, it started a whole religious movement called the I Am activity, based around the idea that the words I Am have a sort of powerful creative vibration. Ballard and his wife Edna hit the road touring the country in a cream-colored catalog. Edna brought her concert harp along. They sold I Am pins and rings, recordings of Edna's heart music,

Starting point is 00:10:44 and garrishly colored pictures of St. Germain and Jesus Christ. But it wasn't all light and love. At I Am meetings, they didn't only spread their teachings, but rallied against communists, labor unions, and anyone they saw as anti-American. For a taste, here's just a little sample of actual dialogue from one such meeting. First, Guy Ballard shouted, everyone who opposes the light silenced them forever, to which his followers screamed, Annihilate. Ballard then yelled,

Starting point is 00:11:16 Anyone who stands against me, I shall blast his carcass to pieces. And again, the devotees cried, Annihilate. Yeah, slightly alarming, I know. And like similar esoteric movements they allegedly had ties to fascist groups, which really puts a damper on that whole

Starting point is 00:11:32 universal love thing, right? But the worst part, this was no niche obscure cult. By the time of Guy Ballard's death in 1939, they were anywhere from 400,000 to a million I am devotees worldwide. And believe it or not, they're still around and even hold an annual pageant right there on Mount Shasta itself. And as for Ballard's wife Edna, well, she ended up convicted of swindling people through a fraudulent religion, at least until the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that whether a supposed religion is true or not,

Starting point is 00:12:05 frankly isn't any of their business. In the end, the ballards got away with it, and they weren't alone. Because the I Am activity, it is only one of about a hundred or so new religious movements that erupted from the mouth of Mount Chasta. And just like hot lava, some conspiracies are impossible to contain. It was June 18th of 1934, and no one could find J.C. Brown, which was worrying to say the least. You see, Brown had promised around 80 people that he would meet them that day at 1 p.m. He told them that he would have a surprise waiting for them, and in a way I suppose he did. That is, the surprise was that he'd never showed up. But let me rewind just a bit. Earlier that spring, Brown had rolled into the city of Stockton, California, a little over 200

Starting point is 00:13:08 miles south of Mount Shasta. A kindly 79-year-old white-haired geologist, he was quick to make friends with the Stockton locals. And soon he began to tell them an incredible story. You see, Brown claimed that 30 years prior, he'd been working for a mining company in the Cascades when he noticed a large rock that seemed oddly out of place. Turning it over, he discovered a tunnel underneath. Cautiously, he crept inside, but no matter how far he walked, the tunnel didn't seem to end. It ran on for miles and miles, all the way into the heart of Mount Shasta. Driven by curiosity, he just had to see where it all led, and so he kept on walking. Eventually, Brown came upon a room. Well, two rooms, actually, both filled with copper and gold tablets covered in fine, intricate

Starting point is 00:13:57 writing. Then a third room, this one full of copper weapons. I imagine it would have felt like Aladdin in the cave of wonders, all that gleaming treasure in such a strange, impossible place. But when Brown reached the fourth room, the tone changed, because this one wasn't full of gold or copper. No, it was full of skeletons. 17 of them, to be precise. And let's just say they weren't exactly of a typical stature. The shortest of them was six and a half feet tall. The tallest, over ten feet. Continuing onward, Brown entered a room containing two more bodies. These ones preserved by some sort of embalming process. Both were draped in royal robes, so Brown assumed that they must have been a king and queen of whatever people had once inhabited this space.

Starting point is 00:14:42 And lastly, he found a worship room, teeming with gold and copper sons and statues. This is the story that he told the awestruck residents of Stockton. And now, three decades later, he had returned to California to finish what he had started. He was going back to get the treasure. Now, if you're wondering why it took him so long to come back, well, he claimed that he had planned to explore the cave with his wife, father-in-law, two daughters, and an old college friend, but all of them had died in, and I quote, a series of tragedies.

Starting point is 00:15:16 Heartbroken, treasure hunting had taken a back burner, but now finally he was ready, and he was going to need help. Help from who? Why, the people of Stockton, of course. Anyone who came along would not only be paid handsomely, but could keep whatever they wanted from the first two rooms. Brown was a multi-millionaire, you see, and was more than happy to fund the expedition. He just needed strong, capable hands alongside him.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Needless to say, there were plenty of takers, around 80, in fact, and Brown began gathering these eager believers twice a day for strategy meetings. They discussed their expedition to the tunnel, yes, but other topics came up as well. Topics like the Lost Lemurian civilization, mysticism, occultism, and possibly another ism, beginning with fash. Yeah, the slopes of Mount Shasta sure do seem to be slippery ones. Soon enough, Brown's followers began preparing for their journey, into the mountainside. It was going to be a long, immersive voyage, so some quit their jobs. Others gave away or sold their possessions. But to be fair, not everyone was so quick to blindly fall in line. One follower, a man named Henry Noyes Pratt, wanted to see proof of Brown's story

Starting point is 00:16:29 before going on some wild goose chase. Pratt was Stockton's History Museum curator, you see, and he knew the value of a secondary source. And so that's what he asked for. Solid, concrete evidence that Brown's tale was true, and he wanted it by June 18th of 1934. On June 17th, Brown made an announcement. The very next day, he would finally provide that proof that Pratt had requested, and what's more, he'd have a big surprise for everyone. All they had to do was meet him the following day, June 18th at 1 p.m. But of course, you already know what happened next.

Starting point is 00:17:07 Although Brown's followers waited and waited, their leader never showed. In fact, J.C. Brown, if that was even his real name, was never seen again. We all want something to believe in, some proof that our world is more than it appears to be, that there's magic hiding in the rocks and hills all around us if we only look hard enough. There's a lot of banality to day-to-day life, a constant cycle of groceries and chores, commuting, and bill-paying. And when that drudgery gets to be too much, we start to dream. We dream of fairy worlds and fire-breathing dragons, of flying saucers and time travel, and yes, of secret tunnels in our own backyard.

Starting point is 00:18:05 Tunnels, of course, that lead to ancient hidden cities. And surely that's what young Frederick Spencer Oliver was doing. That teenager in the 1880s who wrote a whole book about the enchanted brotherhood living under the mountain near his house. And that's what J.C. Brown's followers clung to. as well. Unfortunately, there will always be swindlers ready to take advantage of hope. People like Guy Warren Ballard, who conned a million people through his fake religion and made a pretty penny in the process. And as for J.C. Brown, he lied to his followers, too. He didn't meet

Starting point is 00:18:39 them when he said he would. And remember how he promised to fund the expedition with millions of his own dollars? Well, you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that Brown was not a multi-millionaire. In fact, he had spent the beginning of that year living in a government-run shelter. But here's where things get complicated. While Brown certainly was not truthful, there's a major difference between him and Ballard. J.C. Brown never asked his followers for money. As a matter of fact, he didn't ask them for anything other than their help entering the mountain. In other words, his tall tail wasn't a tool for extortion.

Starting point is 00:19:16 So what was it? Perhaps he did it for the attention, or maybe he was suffering from delusions and believed his story just as much as his followers did. And then there's the third option. Maybe, just maybe, the mountain secret was real all along. A secret that Brown had come a bit too close to unveiling until someone, or something perhaps, came along and stopped him. And if that's the case, well then I suppose that all those tunnels are still. there, waiting to be found again. Thanks for joining me on this daring hike through the countless mysteries of Mount Shasta. Some places are just magnets for supernatural stories,

Starting point is 00:20:13 and this peak is certainly one of them. But guess what? Shasta isn't the only part of the cascades with legends attached to it, and thanks to one final story we've uncovered, we're standing on the precipice of another adventure. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. It was laid for February of 1910, and Wellington was being downright walloped. Wellington, Washington, that is, a small railroad town in the Cascade Mountains, and by walloped, I mean pounded by unbelievable amounts of snow. Heck, in just one day, they received 11 feet of snowfall. Unsurprisingly, the railroad's plows were struggling, leaving the tracks absolutely buried,

Starting point is 00:21:07 and also stuck on those tracks, that would be two trains containing around 50 passengers and 75 railroad workers. Now, as the railroad workers got busy shoveling off the tracks, the passengers could only wait and wait and keep on waiting. In fact, they were trapped on those stalled trains for nearly a week. Folks were tired, they were restless, and to make matters worse, they had started running out of food. Eventually, some of the passengers got so fed up with the situation

Starting point is 00:21:37 that they decided to hoof it through the snow, hiking down the mountain on foot. It was a risky move for sure, and a pretty reckless one at that, but little did they know that decision would save their lives, because early in the morning of March 1st, a thunderstorm rolled in. Lightning streaked the air, rain lashed the valley, and as for what happened next, well, perhaps a thunderclap caused it, or maybe it was all that falling water.

Starting point is 00:22:06 Whatever the case, what we do know is that this thunderstorm triggered an avalanche. Unbeknownst to all the innocent people fast asleep on board the trains, a 14-foot-high, half-mile-long wall of snow began racing down the mountain, headed right for them. The results, according to railroad engineer Charles Andrews, who witnessed it all firsthand, were devastating. White Death, he wrote, moving down the mountain side above the trains,

Starting point is 00:22:34 relentlessly it advanced, exploding, roaring, rumbling, grinding, snapping, a crescendo of sound that might have been the crashing of 10,000 freight trains. It descended to the ledge where the sidetracks lay, picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and, swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster, into the ravine below. Charles had witnessed a disaster. The avalanche knocked the trains off their tracks

Starting point is 00:23:03 and sent them plummeting into the Thai River Valley, where they fell for 150 feet, before crashing to Earth. The people of Wellington tried to dig out the survivors, but the trains lay beneath a good 40 to 70 feet of snow and debris. Miraculously, they were able to drag 23 people out of the wreckage alive, but the number they couldn't save? Well, that was far higher.

Starting point is 00:23:26 96 people died that day, 35 passengers, and 61 railroad workers. Now, remember, Wellington was a train industry town, and let's just say this sort of disaster didn't look great for the railroad's public relations. Following the accident, the railroad quickly renamed the town of Wellington to tie, hoping future travelers wouldn't realize the area's connection to that fateful tragedy. By 1929, though, the town had been fully abandoned, and today, nothing more than a handful of empty buildings remain. Buildings, and, if the stories are true, more than a few ghosts. They say that whispers and screams are heard floating on the air of what was once Wellington.

Starting point is 00:24:10 Some have heard the sounds of trains passing by, although trains haven't run there for years. Others have spotted figures walking along the old tracks before suddenly vanishing. Dogs are said to behave strangely, and people have reported feeling, and I quote, like they are being watched or followed by death. And look, I'll be honest with you here. All of that sounds a bit like ghost tourism sensation. to me. After all, these reports do come from self-proclaimed ghost hunters, and of course, they're going to claim to have bumped into some creepy crawlers after visiting the disaster site.

Starting point is 00:24:44 Except, well, there's one paranormal experience that's a bit harder to explain away. Remember Charles Andrews, who described the white death roaring down the mountain? Well, it turns out that he had been fast asleep just 15 minutes before the disaster, tucked away in a small cabin for railroad workers when he suddenly woke up. And what woke him up, you might ask? Why, that would be an impending sense of doom so strong that he climbed out of bed and nervously made his way to the larger bunkhouse. And it was right there on the steps of that bunkhouse

Starting point is 00:25:18 that he witnessed the avalanche devoured the trains, along with the very cabin in which he had been sleeping. Only minutes before. This episode of lore was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Jenner Rose Nethercats, research by Cassandra de Alba, and music by. Chad Lawson. Hey folks, it's official. My brand new creepy history book, Exhumed, is finally here, available in hardcover, e-book, and an audio version that's narrated by me. Exhumed is 300 pages of

Starting point is 00:26:00 brand new material exploring the strange and twisted roots of the New England Vampire Panic and its star player, Mercy Brown. Grab your copy today by heading over to Aaron Mankey.com slash exhumed. Don't like ads on lore. Well, there's a paid version available on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free. Subscribers there also get weekly mini bonus episodes called Lorebytes, and Patreon members specifically get discounts on lore merch. Learn more by heading over to lorepodcast.com slash support. Follow the show on YouTube threads, Blue Sky, and Instagram. Just search for lore podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi.

Starting point is 00:26:43 And as always, thanks for listening.

Lore - Lore 313: Tall, Tall Tales

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