Los Angeles Lizard People

So, as Halloween 2006 draws to a close (well, at least for those not in L.A. City, where Halloween lasts until noon on November 1st), I wanted to share with you a frightening legend that is not oft discussed in Los Angeles these days. It dates back to the 1930s (1933 & 1934, to be exact) when Los Angeles was amidst an oil boom.

In 1933, while searching for minerals in the Los Angeles area, Mr. Warren Shufelt claimed to have discovered a network of underground tunnels that created a city hundreds of feet beneath the surface. He discovered this tunnel network by using his own invention: a radio x-ray device. He then traveled to Arizona and connected with a Hopi Indian named Chief Little Green Leaf who confirmed the Hopi belief that such people, Lizard People, lived underground in various places in the southwest 5000 years ago. Shufelt, along with Rex McCreary & Ray Martin, got permission from the County (not the City) to dig a hole out to excavate the tunnels that they were convinced existed, and the treasures that were exhumed would be split 50/50 between the County and the miners. Unfortunately, after burrowing for 250 feet into Fort Moore Hill (the current construction site of Downtown's new arts high school), nothing was discovered, and the operation, abandoned. (You can read articles written in 1934 here).

So, here are some other facts that are rarely mentioned which lead me to believe this was all a hoax:

1. At least 3 years prior, Shufelt oversaw mining operations in Arizona. He could have easily heard about the underground tunnels legend and the lizard legends while there and used them to build interest on his device or his name.

2. With Los Angeles going through an oil craze and people mining throughout Southern California, this could have easily been a ploy to grab attention so that he could make money on a scam.

3. Still convinced his radio x-ray device worked, a few years later, Shufelt volunteered to help recover the missing, drown body of a boy in the Los Angeles area. He claimed that a lock of the grief stricken mother's hair placed in the device would lead the authorities to the body. He searched for days, with no results. This further proves his device a sham, besides that fact that modern day science cannot prove his theories.


So, believe what you will, but I think the whole thing is a scam - back in the 1930s and today for anyone who leads you to believe that the tunnels were real. OK, maybe this isn't a scary Halloween story, but the fact that people believed that Shufelt really did what he claimed in "divining" the tunnels with a radio x-ray is quite scary.

LA Times map via Reptoids.com.