- 24 minutes ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I don't know.
00:50the history that we were all taught growing up is wrong my name is Scott Walter and I'm a forensic
00:57geologist there's a hidden history in this country that nobody knows about there are our pyramids
01:03here chambers tombs prescriptions they're all over this country we're gonna investigate these
01:10artifacts and sites and we're gonna get to the truth sometimes history isn't what we've been told
01:27as a forensic geologist it's my mission to study what others have missed or discounted
01:35that's why I'm in Chicago to study the city's oldest artifact a huge boulder called the Waubonsie
01:42stone it's been a witness to the city's history and possibly its prehistory I can't believe I've
01:51never heard of it until I got a letter from an ER doctor in Indiana Scott I think you should
01:58look
01:58into the Waubonsie stone in Chicago stone used to sit at the mouth of the Chicago River by Fort
02:04Dearborn the unusual fact is that it has a carved face on it apparently with a beard I hope you'll
02:11come to Chicago to figure out who carved the Waubonsie stone and why they did it sincerely
02:17Scott Mastorris MD Richmond in the air a face carved in an old stone definitely has me intrigued
02:45I'm meeting Scott in a very specific spot at the base of the Chicago River
02:56well Scott I love the idea of the water taxi but why did you want to meet here well we're
03:01gonna go
03:01by the side of Fort Dearborn where they found the Waubonsie stone so the Waubonsie stone was found
03:07where Fort Dearborn was right it was there when they built the fort Fort Dearborn was American
03:13outpost 1804 there's no one here but one house and it was right up here on the right side of
03:20the river
03:20at the Michigan Avenue bridge do you have a picture of it yeah it gives you a feel for what
03:25Chicago used
03:26to be like one house one fort slow moving creek nothing else today Chicago stretches for miles along the west
03:36side of Lake Michigan the Waubonsie stone used to sit at Fort Dearborn which was strategically located
03:44on the south side of the Chicago River just a half-mile walk from Lake Michigan how many people are
03:51we
03:51talking about at that time less 50 so how many people do we have in Chicago now 2.7 million
03:57wow
03:59tell me a little bit more about the Waubonsie stone well I have a picture here I can show you
04:04okay so
04:053,000 pound boulder to face carp on the story is a soldier carved the likeness of the Potawatomi
04:11chief Waubonsie on the stone which seems unlikely to be okay that's the story I don't know if I buy
04:18that
04:18but what evidence do we have to support that there's really no documentation of anything there's no
04:24documentation of anybody making this but we know it's been around for what at least 200 years right
04:30it was there when they built the port 1804 1804 it was already there already carved no one knows well
04:37it was carved thousand years before that or ten years before that nobody knows for sure you know
04:43well that's the mystery behind this Waubonsie stone right is who carved that face on this stone and why
05:03so obviously Waubonsie is an important figure in this story what was his relationship with the
05:08people at at the fort he was the Potawatomi Indian chief and he was basically friendly to the Americans
05:13but unfortunately despite that things didn't turn out well have you heard about the Fort Dearborn
05:19massacre the Fort Dearborn massacre took place during the war of 1812 between the Americans and
05:26the British the local Potawatomi sided with the British since they were tired of the Americans
05:33taking their land American soldiers from Fort Dearborn were headed to Fort Wayne when they were stopped by
05:40the Potawatomi they say it was a bloodbath they only made it a mile or two and there was a
05:46battle down
05:47there it's a little controversy about who actually fired the first shot okay but basically the
05:52uh the settlers and the soldiers were massacred by the Indians about half of them were killed 12 out
05:57of 18 children were killed the rest of them were taken hostage so they were outnumbered and they were
06:03wiped out basically right what what happened to the fort after that next day it's burned the fort to the
06:09ground
06:14the Michigan Avenue bridge here right here on the right that's where Fort Dearborn was at the lower level of
06:22what's called
06:22Wacker Drive so it was on this side right here right right so let me ask you this if you
06:28don't think that a
06:28soldier did this and it's connected to Chief LaBonsee what do you think I think the stone was here and
06:35carved before the fort was here so basically what you're saying is this is this is this is the
06:39stone has been here a hell of a lot longer than 200 years that's my suspicion yes a lot of
06:46other
06:46people agree with that well you might be on to something there and before I can render any opinion
06:53about this stone I need to see it
07:20Scott claims the last location of the Waubonsee stone is a museum in downtown Chicago
07:39when we got there we couldn't find it we looked all over but came up empty the oldest artifact in
07:49the
07:49entire city and it's not on display we pressed the issue and found the guy with the answers
07:56we were looking for
07:59hi are you the fellows who want to learn more about the Waubonsee stone well yes we are well
08:04I have a lot of research here I've looked a lot into the Waubonsee stone show us what you got
08:09this is the stone in the early 20th century okay and at that time it was in the side yard
08:15of Isaac Arnold's house who is Isaac Arnold he was actually a lawyer a member of the US House of
08:22Representatives and a very close friend of Abraham Lincoln a big shot
08:25uh absolutely well this thing certainly has had a pretty interesting history and I might be able
08:31to shed some light on whether or not some of the man-made surfaces are old or not I'm a
08:36forensic geologist
08:37I've done a lot of work with man-made surfaces carved in stone we'd love to see it if that's
08:42at all possible
08:43I can take you to see it but you can't tell anyone where it is so you're concerned about security
08:48uh yes we are concerned about security we have over 22 million artifacts and objects in our collections
08:55and we can only have a small fraction on display so we have to have some stored all of them
09:00are worth
09:01a lot in historical values well I can understand wanting to keep the location secret can we take a look
09:16so Peter how big is the Waubonsie stone well it's fairly big it's about 3 000 pounds used to be
09:23a lot
09:23bigger than that uh that's right when the museum took possession of the stone in 1914 several feet were
09:30lopped off the bottom it cut it off well yes it's something that wouldn't happen today at any museum
09:36but the owners of the museum wanted to make it into a drinking fountain that is uh every historical
09:44archivist nightmare is cutting an artifact but that information is very helpful to me because
09:50when I see this freshly cut surface I'm gonna know where it came from
09:57all right well this is the Waubonsie stone guys all right are we ready yeah all right go ahead here
10:06we go
10:09wow
10:10wow
10:39All right, here we go.
10:42Wow.
10:44There it is.
11:05Well, my first impression is, I think it is a granite.
11:10So what sort of methods do you plan on using to evaluate this?
11:15Well, it's actually pretty simple.
11:17The way we do all of our investigations is, first of all, there's a blank slate.
11:21We don't assume anything.
11:23We just start by looking at the large-scale features and then work small.
11:39There's no damage here.
11:46These look like overflow grooves right here.
11:51And it was meant to channel the water to this.
11:59It feels good to see this stone and touch it.
12:04Photographs are fine, but they can't compare to studying the artifact up close.
12:10There's a large cavity on top, sort of bowl-shaped.
12:14A lot of holes in this thing, too.
12:17Very strange.
12:20I still can't believe the museum staff cut off several feet of the Waubonsie Stone to turn it into a
12:26drinking fountain.
12:27It's a shame.
12:30One of the things I noticed right away, we've got these holes here.
12:34It looks like there's a hole that's plugged up here, there's one here, and there's another one on the back.
12:39Some of them are old, I think, and some are not.
12:42The hole inside the center of the bowl that I assume connects with the mouth, I think that's more recent.
12:50I think that's part of this whole fountain system.
12:52So there's been a number of modifications, I think, to facilitate the fountains.
12:57But I see a couple of other interesting holes.
13:00There's two on either side.
13:02They are rounded triangular holes.
13:05They're called stone holes.
13:07I've seen stone holes like this before.
13:10Hundreds of them have been found on rocks along lakes and rivers in the upper Midwest and on the East
13:16Coast.
13:17The holes, usually four to five inches deep, are a mystery.
13:22Some call them mooring stones, as though people tied ships to them.
13:26But there's no real evidence that's true.
13:30The only way you can make a hole like that is with a straight chisel and a hammer.
13:35So they certainly could have been made in modern times, but they could have been made hundreds of years ago.
13:41I think it could be a marker for the Chicago Portage.
13:44The Chicago Portage connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River and was an important waterway for early Chicago citizens.
13:52Native Americans knew about the Portage for centuries.
13:57But white explorers didn't discover the secret passage until the late 1600s.
14:03It's part of the reason why Chicago is as big as it is today.
14:08The secret channel not only brought people into this area, but it also helped move people and cargo to other
14:15parts of the country.
14:20It's at a prominent place. This is a travel route, a portage route, probably in the distant past all the
14:27way up until the fort was built.
14:28So I think that's at least one of the rules that this Waubonsee Stone played.
14:33I agree.
14:39And when I was kneeling down, I could smell smoke and the soot.
14:43This thing has been through a lot of Chicago history, hasn't it?
14:46That's right. There was a fire at Fort Dearborn on August 15th, 1812, that destroyed the fort.
14:52Then there's the really famous Chicago fire of 1871.
14:58When about a third of the city was consumed, over 300 people died, 18,000 buildings destroyed.
15:04But was the Waubonsee Stone gone? No, the Waubonsee Stone survived.
15:08Rocks survive fires. They do a great job with that.
15:10So it's amazing the history that it's witnessed just in modern times.
15:15One of the other things that we have a really good picture of is the point at which the museum
15:21turned the Waubonsee Stone actually into a fountain.
15:24So you can see the fountain here and you can see where several feet were lopped off the bottom.
15:30Okay. And here's the mortar that I saw on the bottom right here.
15:34It is indeed the fountain. It's the plumbing coming up the middle, which has now been plugged with putty and
15:41looks like lead.
15:45This is the namesake of the stone, Chief Waubonsee, who was a Potawatomi leader.
15:50That's him in the early 1800s.
15:53Many people believed that the stone was carved by a soldier from Fort Dearborn, where the stone sat outside of.
16:01And because Waubonsee visited the fort a lot, the soldier supposedly carved the face of this chief.
16:08Is there any documentation that it was actually carved by a soldier?
16:12There's nothing. There's no documentation.
16:15Nothing exists in that way of records from the fort.
16:19So if there really isn't good documentation of this story, where did it come from?
16:25Well, it comes from this book published in 1881 by an amateur historian.
16:31The title of that book is called Chicago Antiquities.
16:33So really, it's speculation.
16:35Absolutely. That's what it is.
16:37Well, that's interesting.
16:39I mean, as I look at, you know, the chief here and I look at this face, to be quite
16:44honest, the only similarity I see is there are two human faces.
16:47I can't say that that looks like him, in my opinion.
17:00There's no way that this stone would have been deposited naturally in that position, upright.
17:06It would have been flat.
17:07So you know what that means?
17:09I don't. What does it mean?
17:10It means this was erected by man.
17:14This had to have been a standing stone.
17:19If this truly was a standing stone, then that's important.
17:24Standing stones were erected all over the world, starting in ancient times.
17:30The world's best known standing stones are at Stonehenge in England.
17:35There's a lot of debate about what functions standing stones serve.
17:38They were early calendars, helping farmers know when to plant.
17:43They hosted ancient religious ceremonies.
17:46In some cases, they marked burial grounds.
17:50There's even a school of thought that some standing stones were used for human sacrifice.
17:56This stone, if it was upright like we think, as it's described in this document, this thing could be ancient.
18:02We're talking potentially thousands of years old, erected by man.
18:21For years, anyone who wanted to could see the Waubonsie Stone, what is arguably Chicago's oldest artifact had been turned
18:31into a museum drinking fountain.
18:36Now, to see it, I had to travel to a secret storage vault and promise to keep the location under
18:42wraps.
18:44Some people think the Waubonsie Stone was a tribute to a local Native American chief carved by a soldier at
18:50Chicago's Fort Dearborn.
18:52But I'm not so sure.
18:58As I look at the face on the side of the rock, the resemblance just isn't there.
19:05When the mouth is open, why is my first question.
19:09I wouldn't expect to see that.
19:11That just doesn't seem right to me for some reason.
19:14And as I look at the eyes, they look close to me.
19:20This just doesn't look like the face of a Native chief, somebody that typically is very stoic and proud.
19:28I don't know. What do you think?
19:30I think it looks like a death mask.
19:33You know what? It does look like a death mask.
19:42Death masks are exactly what they sound like.
19:45They're actual copies of dead people's faces made using wax or plaster.
19:51They serve a couple of purposes, as a way to remember the deceased or as a model for a portrait.
19:59Death masks have been made of some very famous people, including King Tut, Napoleon, and Mary Queen of Scots.
20:09Who carved this thing? What are some of the ideas that people have tossed around?
20:13Well, you know what, Scott? There's no shortage of ideas.
20:16Some people think that the mound builders who lived in southern Illinois around Cahokia came this far north to Chicago
20:23and maybe erected the stone and carved the face.
20:26I know about the Mississippian mound builders. I learned about them when I visited Astalon in Wisconsin last year.
20:35The folks who lived there built huge walls to keep their enemies out.
20:40Astalon was the northern outpost of Cahokia, which was America's largest city around 1000 A.D.
20:48One thing the Mississippians are known for are human head effigy pots.
20:53So how do the facial features compare?
20:57The faces on the pots appear dead with parted lips, just like the face on the Waubonsie Stone.
21:04There's one major difference. The face on the Waubonsie Stone is carved into granite, while the Mississippian pots are made
21:11of clay.
21:12Going a little bit further forward in history, some people think maybe the Aztecs from central Mexico around modern-day
21:19Mexico City might have come this far north.
21:22Death masks were used in religious ceremonies by the Aztecs, like this one with inlaid turquoise.
21:29It was an offering to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
21:33I'm not sure the Aztecs made it this far north, but there's a good reason to believe they got their
21:38start in the American Southwest, not Mexico.
21:46You know, this has been invaluable for me to see this stone, to get my hands on it, to examine
21:51it closely.
21:52And I think we've learned a lot here today. We've got the soldier that could have carved it 200 years
21:57ago.
21:58Aztecs, not sure about that. Native Americans are another possibility.
22:02We may never know exactly who carved this, but I'm going to do my damnedest to try to get you
22:07as much information as I can.
22:12After we left the secret storage warehouse, Scott and I had plenty to talk about.
22:20But very few answers.
22:25So what do you really think?
22:28Well, the stone was amazing, and I'm absolutely convinced that it's a standing stone that was placed probably thousands of
22:36years ago.
22:37But the question that I just can't figure out is, when was that face carved?
22:42That's the real mystery to me.
22:44What do you think about that bowl? You know, some people think that it involved human sacrifice.
22:49Some people think the Phoenicians might have carved it.
22:53Well, the Phoenicians would be going back a long ways, and that begs the question.
22:57I mean, these guys were ancient seafarers.
23:00They were around, you know, 3000 BC to about 100 BC.
23:04And I did do an investigation a while back.
23:06I talked to an expert who thinks that the new world appears at the bottom of a Phoenician coin.
23:12It's actually a map of the new world.
23:15He believes the Phoenicians were definitely in North America.
23:17The Phoenicians did practice ritual sacrifice, and for them to come over here makes a lot of sense.
23:23Coming up the Mississippi into this route, entering Lake Michigan, it does fit.
23:29It's not ruled out.
23:30You know, this whole thing about ritual sacrifice, it's actually a very good point.
23:34I mean, in modern times, people think this is barbaric and horrible.
23:38But, you know, to many of these cultures, this was part of their everyday life.
23:41It was very important.
23:43It was a sacred ritual.
23:44So, it's absolutely on the table as far as I'm concerned.
23:48I'm really excited to see what I can learn more about the time the stones spent at Fort Dearborn,
23:53and the history associated with that.
23:55That may shed some important light.
24:09Chicago is America's third largest city.
24:13Hard to imagine this place without all the skyscrapers and the people.
24:18But that's exactly what I'm trying to do.
24:23I'm on my way to the site of the old Fort Dearborn.
24:27I'm investigating the Waubonsie Stone, a bizarre boulder that used to sit outside the fort alongside the Chicago River.
24:35I wonder if that location plays a role in this mystery.
24:40Did the river, or Lake Michigan, just a half mile from here, have something to do with the face carved
24:46on the Waubonsie Stone?
24:49Some people think a soldier carved the face to honor the chief of a local tribe.
24:54But I don't see the resemblance.
25:07Today, Michigan Avenue covers the site of Fort Dearborn.
25:11But there are markers and a sculpture where the fort burnt down during the War of 1812.
25:19The inscription describes a brutal massacre and calls those who died martyrs in our early history.
25:28There's got to be more to the story than what's written on the marker.
25:31I'm on my way to meet a guy who's an expert on the Fort Dearborn massacre.
25:50We're meeting at 360 Chicago, where you can hang over the city thanks to an attraction called The Tilt.
26:08John, this is fantastic. That's the Navy Pier, right?
26:12It's Navy Pier. Navy Pier is now the number one tourist attraction in the state of Illinois.
26:16Well, one of the things I wanted to find out about was Fort Dearborn.
26:19And wasn't that just down the street?
26:21Yeah. You go down Michigan Avenue, follow the little curve over there.
26:24That's the bridge over the river.
26:26Fort Dearborn was on the south bank of the river right over there.
26:30So tell me about Chief Waubonsie. I'd like to learn more about him.
26:33Chief Waubonsie, interesting person.
26:35We have a street named after him in Chicago called Waubonsie Avenue.
26:39This is Chief Waubonsie.
26:40Waubonsie was an interesting character, to say the least.
26:43Why do you say he was interesting?
26:44I'm just thinking one of the stories, a couple of Waubonsie's wives got in an argument.
26:48Okay.
26:49And here's Waubonsie just taking it easy.
26:51And they come up to him and one of the wives is complaining about the other wives.
26:54So Waubonsie just wants to be left in peace and quiet.
26:57So he says to the one wife, he says, here, take the tomahawk, go cut off her head.
27:01That'll settle it.
27:02And according to the story, that's what she did, cut off the other wife's head.
27:05And that's all the problem.
27:06I guess that's one way to settle an argument, isn't it?
27:09Yeah, I want my daughter to be married to Waubonsie.
27:11I don't think so either.
27:14So Fort Dearborn is right here.
27:16Right.
27:17And what I really want to learn more about is this massacre that took place.
27:21Well, usually referred to as the Battle of Fort Dearborn now, because let's face it, massacre is a loaded word.
27:26It gives you the idea that the-
27:28It was a one-sided thing.
27:30It was a one-sided thing.
27:31That the Potawatomi and the native people just were nasty people.
27:35It's a little more complex than that, more complicated.
27:37Sure.
27:37So we call it the Battle of Fort Dearborn.
27:39This is the scene of the battle.
27:40The commander at Fort Dearborn got word from the general to evacuate the fort.
27:46Give the native tribes some goods to get them on your side and then you can leave.
27:53In other words, buy their friendship.
27:55The young braves were upset about something.
27:58What was it?
27:59The captain destroyed all the liquor.
28:01He destroyed all the firearms because he didn't want those to get in the hands of the native tribes.
28:06And these young men got very angry about that because they thought they were being cheated on the deal.
28:12And what happened is they left the fort, the Americans.
28:17They started marching along the shoreline.
28:19Right down here, right?
28:20Right down here.
28:20They got to some sand dunes, actually, around the shoreline.
28:24And the captain saw there were some native tribes that were hiding out behind the sand dunes.
28:29There were some natives there and they figured, well, there was going to be an ambush.
28:31And so I thought, well, we're not going to wait to be ambushed.
28:33So they charged up the sand dunes.
28:35Well, as it turned out, they were vastly outnumbered and they were wiped out.
28:40Here's the picture over here of John Kinsey's cabin.
28:43Tell me about how he plays a role in this whole story.
28:46Well, Kinsey had a lot of friendship, a lot of juice with the Potawatomi and the local tribes.
28:51He was in the fur trade and a bunch of other things over here.
28:54So when the attack comes, Waubonsee actually saves the Kinsey family because Kinsey was very tight with the native tribes.
29:02Because he understood them, he didn't have this patronizing attitude that a lot of the Americans had.
29:07And he got along very well with them.
29:08So there was a mutual respect there.
29:10There was a mutual respect with Waubonsee and Kinsey.
29:13This is all great information about Waubonsee and the Battle of Fort Dearborn.
29:18But it still doesn't help me answer the question of who made the carving.
29:24The way I see it, there are four possibilities.
29:28There's the anonymous Fort Dearborn soldier.
29:32Then there's the Mississippian mound builders.
29:36We've got the Aztecs.
29:39Or it could be the Phoenicians, thousands of years ago.
29:58Right now, I have too many leads and not enough facts.
30:03My next stop is a Chicago portage where I'm meeting a writer named Brad Olson.
30:08The portage connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and played an important role in the development of Chicago.
30:25So Brad, there's a lot of theories being tossed around about who may have carved the Waubonsee stone.
30:30I mean, some people like the Mississippi culture, some people like the Aztecs, others like this soldier 200 years ago,
30:38although I'm not buying that one.
30:39Who do you think carved it?
30:41Well, Scott, I think the evidence clearly indicates, to me at least, the Phoenician people of the Mediterranean region.
30:48Really?
30:48What specifically are you talking about?
30:51These are some examples of Phoenician art.
30:55Okay.
30:55And I wanted to emphasize the face, because the face is big, flat and wide, like a Caucasian.
31:01And most importantly, facial hair, beard, mustache.
31:05Okay.
31:05This is a big key in the equation, who carved this thing.
31:10And we can see this on the next one, which comes from a sacrificial altar in the Mediterranean region.
31:16The whole idea of the beard or facial hair, that works.
31:19That's why I want to point out the bowl on top, because this is a big part of the puzzle
31:25here.
31:25In my opinion, this is a telltale sign of being a taffet.
31:29What's a taffet?
31:30A taffet was a sacrificial altar of the Phoenician people.
31:35This bowl on the top of the head is about the same size as an infant child would be.
31:42So you think this was used for ritual sacrifice of babies?
31:47As grisly as it sounds, Scott, I think it's indicative of child sacrifice on the banks of the Chicago River
31:54thousands of years ago.
32:08So you think the Waubonsie Stone was used for ritual sacrifice of babies?
32:14As grisly as it sounds, Scott, I think it's indicative of child sacrifice on the banks of the Chicago River
32:21thousands of years ago.
32:22That's horrifying for people to think about today, but back then, it may have been, you know, everyday life.
32:28What else about the Phoenicians intrigues you?
32:31Well, the Phoenicians were master navigators, as I'm sure you know.
32:34Sure.
32:35The Phoenicians' home base was in modern-day Lebanon.
32:39But thanks to their incredible voyaging and trading skills, they were able to set up colonies all over the Middle
32:45East and the northern coast of Africa.
32:48They were the first to historically round Africa.
32:52They were all over the place looking for resources that they could trade.
32:56There's a waterway here that is a big part of the puzzle that I really want to show you.
33:00Let's go.
33:01All right.
33:08Well, this is the Chicago portage.
33:10This is it.
33:11A swamp.
33:12Yeah.
33:13More to it than just a swamp.
33:15This is one of the most important waterway portages in North America.
33:21Native Americans knew about this key connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River for hundreds of years.
33:27They shared the information with French explorers.
33:31But maybe the Phoenicians knew about this area even earlier.
33:37What's happened in more recent times?
33:39I know they've made some modifications.
33:41Some modifications.
33:42That's an understatement.
33:43They reversed the flow of the Chicago River.
33:45It's a major shipping canal now.
33:48That's how strategic it was.
33:50Okay.
33:50How does this route here fit into your Phoenician theory?
33:54I think I have an idea.
33:55Does it have anything to do with the copper culture?
33:57Well, it sure does.
33:59There's a lot of mystery around the old copper culture and who pulled so much metal from ancient mines in
34:05Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
34:07Some people think it was the Minoans, people who lived on the Greek island of Crete.
34:12I'm starting to think the Phoenicians were also involved.
34:16They had contact with the Minoans as early as 1900 BC.
34:20So maybe copper mining in the area was a joint effort.
34:25Maybe the Waubonsie Stone is something they left behind.
34:30What would be the motive of these Phoenicians coming all this way halfway around the world?
34:35It's a profit motive just as it is today.
34:38And economics is certainly a very powerful motivator.
34:41How does the sacrificial ritual fit into all this?
34:45Well, just consider if it was you and I and 35 young men who came to seek our fortune.
34:50We came up to mine the copper and in the belief of the Phoenician people to have a ritual sacrifice
34:57would have been like a blessing on our voyage.
34:59This whole idea of child sacrifice as a way to, you know, clear the way if it were for safe
35:06passage.
35:06Do we have any other examples that we know of here in the New World?
35:10There's one that was found in Florida.
35:13This was the Sea Market altar stone.
35:16This was a monument very similar to the Waubonsie Stone with a cavity on the very top.
35:24There's no denying the similarities between the Waubonsie Stone and the Sea Market altar stone.
35:29Which was found south of St. Petersburg, Florida.
35:33Both stones have a depression on top, big enough to hold a small child or a small animal.
35:40And both feature carvings of a face with closed eyes and parted lips.
35:45I often think if you find one very similar artifact, it's a pretty good chance it was the same people
35:52who did it and for the same reasons.
35:55So you think the Phoenicians are responsible for the Waubonsie Stone and the Sea Market altar stone?
36:01I do indeed.
36:02So before they made the big push across the Atlantic and then they performed one last ritual to ensure safe
36:09passage on the final leg home?
36:11And they would know the dangers of crossing the Atlantic was the last big hurdle that they had to great
36:17riches.
36:20So Scott, do you know Wayne May?
36:21I absolutely do. Wayne's a good friend.
36:23Yeah, I just submitted an article about the Waubonsie Stone to his magazine.
36:28So does Wayne have something up his sleeve that I don't know about?
36:31I've heard that Wayne has an artifact that was connected to the Waubonsie Stone.
36:36Really?
36:36Yeah.
36:37Well, I'm gonna have to call him then.
36:46I've known Wayne for eight years now. He's based in Wisconsin, where he started Ancient American Magazine more than 20
36:53years ago.
37:05Scott!
37:06Hey Wayne, how are you doing?
37:08Hey, I'm doing good. What's up?
37:11Well, I've heard you've got an artifact that might be connected to the Waubonsie Stone.
37:17Scott, I don't own that anymore.
37:20You do.
37:27I've spent the past few days in Chicago trying to figure out who carved the Waubonsie Stone.
37:33Could it be an anonymous soldier at the old Fort Dearborn?
37:37Maybe.
37:39But I'm more interested in the possibility that Phoenicians could have carved and propped up this standing stone thousands of
37:46years ago.
37:57There's been a weird twist in this mystery. I just found out that an important clue was sitting in my
38:03own basement.
38:05I asked my wife Janet to pack up the artifact and send it to my friend Wayne.
38:10Now, I'm gonna find out how an artifact I got in a trade with Wayne might be connected to the
38:16Waubonsie Stone.
38:21So Wayne, I can't believe that this whole time I'm investigating the Waubonsie Stone, trying to figure out who carved
38:27the face, and it turns out an important clue is sitting in my basement.
38:32You know, I asked Janet to overnight that thing. Did you get it?
38:35Yeah, I've been wanting to open it, but I left that for you.
38:38All right, well, let's see what we got here.
38:45Okay.
38:48Ah, there it is.
38:52So, you think this is Phoenician?
38:55It could be.
38:57Obviously, it is an Egyptian Ushapti.
39:00Ushaptis were placed in the burial tomb with the deceased, and they were thought to come alive and help serve
39:06them in the afterlife.
39:07That's correct.
39:08I bought this from a woman whose husband had passed away.
39:11He found a mound along the Des Plaines River.
39:13North of Chicago.
39:14And out of it came this unusual object.
39:17The Ushaptis Egyptian, how did it get with the Phoenicians?
39:21Well, you have to keep in mind that the Phoenicians copied Egyptian art, and they copied their culture.
39:28So you think that this Egyptian Ushapti was actually carried by a Phoenician sailor?
39:34Actually, I do.
39:36Keep in mind that when the ships set sail out of Egypt, yes, all of the officers, those were Egyptians.
39:41But the men who did the work, the rowing, running the sails and the ropes, those were Phoenician mariners.
39:49So how did this thing get here to America?
39:52One of the things that very few people realize, around 600 BC, the Egyptians were circumnavigating Africa.
39:58We also know that Phoenicians were already ahead of them by a couple hundred years, crossing the waters.
40:04If any ship were to get off course, coming around the western side of Africa,
40:09if they got too far away from the Canary Islands, they would have been trapped in that current.
40:13And the winds, the prevailing winds that would carry you all the way to the western hemisphere.
40:18So whether it was deliberate or by accident, somebody definitely arrived here on the shores of North America.
40:23You don't think it was by accident, do you?
40:26I do not. I do not.
40:28So, Wayne, how do you think this ended up in the mound?
40:30Well, there's two ways.
40:31Number one, Native Americans could have got it possibly through trade or, I mean, maybe they even found the thing.
40:38You know, who knows?
40:39But they had it, and they revered it, and it got buried as a precious object.
40:43Okay.
40:43Or the second thing is, these guys actually arrived here, and someone of import on that ship died,
40:49and the Ushapi went with them into the burial.
40:52So this could have been buried with a Phoenician or with a Native American?
40:56Absolutely.
40:57Well, you know something?
40:58This idea that this came over here traveling with the Phoenicians millennia ago makes a lot of sense.
41:05And it's consistent with the whole thesis that the Waubonsi Stone was carved by the Phoenicians.
41:10And as far as the origin of the Waubonsi Stone, even though there are a number of very plausible theories,
41:16I think it boils down to either a bored soldier at Fort Dearborn or the Phoenicians.
41:23If I had to pick right now, I don't believe that bored soldier story.
41:28I think the Phoenicians did it.
41:30I think the Waubonsi Stone was carved by the Phoenicians.
41:33So did I.
41:36I wish that face on the side of the Waubonsi Stone could talk.
41:40It witnessed a lot of Chicago history.
41:44The first settlers.
41:46The bloody battle of Fort Dearborn.
41:50And the great Chicago fire.
41:52I can't prove it, but I think Phoenicians carved the Waubonsi Stone after pulling copper from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
42:00As reprehensible as it may be, those Phoenicians may have sacrificed babies on the Waubonsi Stone.
42:07A gift to the gods to ensure safe passage through the Chicago Portage, onto the Mississippi, and across the Atlantic.
42:15Back to their homeland in what's now the Middle East.
42:18Those incredible voyagers didn't stick around, but two artifacts did.
42:24One in my basement, and the other in a museum warehouse where its secrets are still being kept.
42:32Next time on America Unearthed.
42:35Is that a real Egyptian obelisk?
42:37The Freemasons found artifacts inside the foundation stone.
42:42These are tangible artifacts that ties modern Freemasonry to the ancient Egyptians.
42:48If you have a mysterious artifact or sight I need to see, I want to know about it.
42:53Go to history.com slash unearthed.
Comments