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Review of America Unearthed S01E08: "Chamber Hunting"

2/9/2013

226 Comments

 
I grew up in upstate New York, an older part of the country whose settlement dates back to the colonial era. Although I lived in the city of Auburn, I spent a great deal of time traveling across upstate New York’s farm country, and I’ve visited plenty of farms whose structures dated back to the early 1800s, and more than a few that had origins in the 1700s. I’ve seen pretty much every type of farm building used in those days, and a goodly number of outbuildings, root cellars, spring houses, powder magazines, and other buildings that were built using the dry stone technique brought over from England.

This is a rather longwinded way of saying that the mysterious “chamber” Scott Wolter investigates in America Unearthed S01E08 “Chamber Hunting” is “mysterious” only to those who’ve never spent much time visiting farms or studying the lives of people who were not part of the cultural, religious, or political elite that Wolter favors.

The episode opens with overhead footage of a semi-wooded area, with an on-screen graphic telling us that 800 mysterious stone sites exist in the northeastern United States. They are “mysterious” because the show does not ask anyone knowledgeable about them what they really are. Some manipulated intercut footage is made to look like grainy VHS tape of the stone sites, a trick borrowed from low-rent horror movies to give a touch of conspiracy to the program, especially when the graphic tells us that “many” of the stone sites are not open to the public. That would be because many of them are colonial era root cellars or spring houses, Victorian boundary markers, etc. currently on private land.

The manipulated video shows a man in contemporary dress (so the video isn’t old—it was filmed within the year) entering what appears to be at first glance a late eighteenth or early nineteenth century stone storage chamber with a small aqueduct feeding water from a natural spring to a tiny basin within. The water flows into the chamber and then immediately out again. Why, I wondered, did the producers purposely degrade the footage? The manipulation shows that the producers are playing fast and loose with the “truth” of the video, and it makes me question what else they’re willing to manipulate alongside the video.

I should probably pause here to explain that in colonial times down to the nineteenth century, farmers built “spring houses,” which were wooden or stone buildings constructed over the outlet of a natural spring in order to use the cold underground water to cool the air within the chamber and preserve the food stored within. The chamber on display here is exactly like every known colonial spring house in America and Canada. One in West Virginia is on the National Register of Historic Places (the Tomahawk Spring spring house), so they are not exactly unknown. This image from Wikipedia shows one that, although it has a wooden upper façade, is similarly made of the same type of masonry as this episode’s spring house.

Picture
A spring house near Collegetown, PA. © 2011 Michael Parker via Wikimedia Commons.
No one on this show, I predicted in its first five minutes, would spend even a moment contemplating the historical record to discover whether early Americans ever built atop springs.

The opening credits roll, and we’re off.

We open at Scott Wolter’s lab in Minneapolis because Committee Films and H2 needed to film a contractually mandated amount of footage in Minnesota to qualify for public funding from the state of Minnesota. Wolter receives an email from the discoverer of the root cellar and immediate runs off to investigate since the email says that the site “seems old.” A staged phone call shot with dramatic lighting wastes some extra time as we fly out to Chad Snyder’s land in Tionesta, Pennsylvania, near the site of the stone “chamber.” Some of the show’s $7,200 wardrobe budget seems to have gone to buying Wolter a new jacket.

Wolter meets Snyder and another man, and they examine pictures of the stone chamber. The workmanship on display is completely typical of eighteenth and nineteenth century dry stone construction methods, widespread throughout the northeast in farm country. It is unlike the architectural styles used in Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Even Wolter seems aware of this.

Wolter immediately leaps to secret societies, claiming that the Knights Templar and the Freemasons use “ritual bathing” in their rites and therefore “could have a connection to this chamber.” Snyder and his friend offer that the site might have been a root cellar, but Wolter will have none of it because root cellars don’t have water, and no one seems aware of spring houses. He says such stone chambers have been found since colonial times, implying that they existed prior to Columbus. Since Native Americans don’t build in stone, they must belong to white people who came in the Middle Ages. This seems wrong, especially since spring houses can be constructed and forgotten in as little as a single season, especially if the farmer should happen to die, as in a particularly cold winter. I’d need to see more evidence that they were older than the colonists who reported them.

We then watch the video from the beginning of the show, shot by Snyder and the other man, and we can see that there is no grain in the tape, nor is there static as it leaps from scene to scene, exposing the producers’ overdramatic manipulation of the video.

Wolter chips at some stone and explains how long it takes to build a chamber. He wants to see the chamber, but the land owner (who is not Chad Snyder) informed Snyder (off camera) that Wolter’s television production is not allowed on the land, which everyone involved assumes is aimed squarely at Scott Wolter himself, who was not a famous television personality when this was shot back. Wolter gets angry (even though he must have known before arriving that no filming permission was  granted) and snarls that “this kind of shit has happened to me before, and the fact that they won’t let me on means that either they’re hiding something or they’re afraid to know what the truth is.”

No, there’s another option: The land owner knows full well that this site is a colonial spring house and has no interest in turning his or her land into a circus for alternative speculators, especially since it’s highly unlikely that Committee Films is going compensate anyone for shooting on the land.

Wolter does an end run around the site owner but taking advantage of the fact that the owner has opened the land for public hunting. He sends Snyder across the property line in bad faith, posing as a hunter, to gain access to the site.

Either this was all staged for the camera to make Wolter look heroic, meaning that no access was really denied, or Committee Films knowingly chose to engage in trespassing. Either way, this is terrible and a gross violation of ethics in one way or another.

After the break, we see the same “shit” scene again to reestablish the conspiracy, but the wording is different. This time Wolter speaks of “bullshit” and “crap.” How many takes does this supposed “documentary” series make of each scene? The manipulation of “reality”—even this show’s reality—is awful.

So, Snyder dresses up as a hunter, complete with gun, thus conspiring with Wolter to fraudulently gain access to the land and to trespass thereon. Is this photographic evidence of a crime? Or is the entire scenario created ex nihilo to make Wolter look like the victim of a conspiracy? I wish I had some way of knowing, but since the landowner is never named, I can’t call him or her up to find out. Wolter explains over and over that someone doesn’t want him to know what’s going on. He sounds paranoid. But we never actually see Snyder cross the property line, so we have no way of knowing that he actually went to the chamber or took the alleged measurements he returns with.

I think it’s interesting that at this point Wolter seems to recognize that the chamber is not very old. Now he begins attributing it not to the Knights Templar, as in the beginning of the show, but to the Freemasons, in the eighteenth century, thus conceding that it is a colonial-era structure. This means that the earlier speculation about pre-Columbian stone chambers is now moot. Thus, the only question left to address is whether this colonial-era spring house also featured in Freemason rituals in an era when the Freemasons had their own Masonic halls and were practicing openly. The conspiracy was so deep that even the president, George Washington, was a Freemason and clearly being oppressed by the federal government!

Wolter states his belief that the water in the chamber must have been used for ritual bathing because it’s the only thing “I can think of.” This would be because he did not bother to do even cursory research into colonial architecture and farming practices. Farmers are often forgotten in televised history because they weren’t the elite and weren’t possessed of gold and glory, but farmers outnumbered cultists and conspirators and are much more important to understanding daily life than the few hundred people involved in any given “secret society.”

Using measurements taken by fraud from the “mysterious stone chamber,” Wolter concludes that the chamber is aligned to sunset on the summer solstice, a time of day of no particular relevance to any of the secret societies Wolter has investigated. He then hires someone to build a model of the chamber from the measurements by deriving chamber’s shape and size from the video and some rough sketches. Accuracy, of course, can’t possibly be proved and any conclusions are highly suspect, especially when claiming an accuracy of millimeters, as any astronomical alignment would require—as we established a few episodes back at Anubis Cave.

While the model is being built, Wolter travels to Gungywamp Archaeological Site in Groton, Connecticut, the site of some stone ruins whose origins have not yet been definitively established but which are believed to be colonial era root cellars based on their close similarity to known root cellars in use in the area. Archaeologist Ken Feder, a card-carrying member of the anti-alternative conspiracy and a friend of mine, has identified the stone circle at the site as a bark mill used in colonial leather making. The reason for the confusion is that Native American artifacts and petroglyphs have been found here as well. Archaeological investigation has found that Native Americans placed stones around the lodges they are known to have built in this area (and the remains of which still exist and have been excavated).

Native Americans are not mentioned, likely because they are not white. Seriously, I don’t think a single non-white person has been interviewed on this show except when Wolter was in Mexico and was forced to meet with a Mexican. Surely Native Americans have an important viewpoint on their own history. Instead, we hear that the Irish and any number of white people came here to build these root cellars. One root cellar is claimed to be a calendar “measuring” (I suppose they mean recording) the equinoxes, which is presented as a mystical event. Wolter fails to mention that on the equinoxes the sun rises due east, so any building well-aligned to the east will “measure” the equinox. Instead, Wolter concludes that the root cellar was built by Irish monks on the model of Newgrange, a Neolithic stone tomb aligned to the winter solstice (note: not the equinox).

(Note: Native Americans were also well-aware of equinoxes and solstices and marked them with calendars made of standing wooden poles, as at Cahokia, or “medicine wheels” of standing stones. White people are not necessary for this “amazing” feat.)

On this strength, Wolter makes the “early Irish candidates for construction” of these stone sites. Wolter has simply decided to go with the hypothesis that the chambers are ancient and of non-American origins. Not once does he do any research into colonial era construction even though in an earlier scene he already said the Pennsylvania chamber was from the colonial era!

Wolter travels to Ireland to learn about St. Brendan the Navigator, and he meets with Tim Severin, a nautical adventurer who is famous for recreating ancient voyages. I know him best for the 1984 Jason voyage, in which he attempted to recreate the voyage of the Argo from Greek myth, traveling from Greece to the Black Sea in a Mycenaean-style ship. In that trip, Severin failed to recognize that the story of Jason and the Argonauts was not static (he recreated Apollonius’ version) and that the oldest versions of the tale had a completely different itinerary, with the Black Sea never mentioned. Severin has a tendency to take myths at face value and then try to explain them literally on the theory that they “might” be true, not a good sign for an “expert” in the field. Therefore, I have little faith in his opinion on the reality of Brendan’s voyage. Severing proved that the Irish could have sailed to America, but we already knew that because the Vikings did the same thing 500 years later; knowing something can be done is not the same as proving that it actually happened.

A medieval Latin text called the Navigatio tells of Brendan’s voyage to the Isles of the Blessed in the West, but I find it silly to assume—with no evidence—that this mythological text tells of a real event, or that we could separate fact from fiction if it did. Some people think this story refers to a trip to North America, but I just don’t see how. Supposedly, on this trip Brendan encountered an island populated solely by blacksmiths (chapter 23) who throw slag at his crew, obviously modeled on the fuming Polyphemus and Talos of Greek myth. They also find a volcano—not something available in America, though they can be found in Iceland—and one of their party is taken to Hell. So, Hell is real? There is nothing in the Navigatio that correlates in any way to North America, not the grapes Brendan found, nor the (white) monk he found, etc. It’s a religious allegory, very similar in form to other nautical-themed popular entertainments of its period, including the earlier Voyage of Bran, which was its likely model and probably the direct source for some passages.

We then meet Alan Butler again (from S01E02), described this time as a “Megalithic Era Historian,” and he is no more helpful than when he speculated wildly last time about cliff dwellings, or when he tried to sue me for reviewing his terrible book about megaliths. Wolter and Bulter examine Newgrange, but neither can quite explain how it is that a pagan tomb from 3200 BCE should be reproduced by Christian monks in 500 CE on another continent while no similar examples from that period exist in Ireland or anywhere in between. Wolter simply asserts the continued existence of an astronomy-based Irish cult for 3,700 years without any proof of continuity. In fact, the published texts of the early Middle Ages make quite plain that the Catholic Church did whatever it could to wipe out any remnants of continuity from pagan times. That’s part of the conspiracy, of course.

Wolter returns from Ireland to review a model of the chamber, which, as I’ve noted, simply cannot be taken as accurate but only as a very rough approximation of the chamber. To discuss alignments in any detail, one needs more than a “precise” angle for the chamber entrance; one needs a careful survey of the site to know the exact measurements of the chamber’s interior. So, the light he shines into the model is cute, but useless. He moves the light around the trace’s the sun’s path and find some point in the day when it enters the chamber. Nor did he survey the land around the chamber to see whether the sunlight would have reached the chamber, which is set into a hill and appears to be surrounded by hills and a forest. The light, even by Wolter’s measurement, enters the chamber only at some unspecified point during the day on the solstice, not at the key moment of sunrise, the period most commonly believed to be the essential moment of the solstice in esoteric lore.

I find it strange that Wolter is seen asking Snyder trespass again on the summer solstice to prove the alignment. He called this “going back,” implying the program was filmed prior to June 20, 2012, the date of the summer solstice, but the exterior shots looked were filmed in autumn rather than spring, as indicated by the autumn leaves on the trees and the ground, as you can see from the screen shot below:

Picture
A funny type of spring they're having.
This means one of two things: Either (a) by their own admission this was yet another episode (at least the second) filmed prior to the June 26, 2012 start date for filming that Committee Films gave for the pilot (i.e. first) episode in legally binding documents in order to secure public funding (thus by necessity filmed in Fall 2011), or (b) the timeline given in the show has no real relationship to reality and most of the episode was filmed in Fall 2012, long after the June 20, 2012 solstice footage was supposedly shot. Either way, something is seriously screwy here, and the fakery is bothering me.

From this experiment, Wolter concludes that the Freemasons built the site to symbolize “the fertilization” of the earth “by the male” principle of sunlight. I am not aware of any sun-earth pagan fertility rites in Freemasonry, though maybe I’m just part of the conspiracy. Nineteenth-century anti-Masonic activists argued that the square and compass symbol of the Masons was an esoteric sexual symbol of the pagan god Baal and his consort, Astarte. In fact, the "sun-earth" fertilization claim is taken nearly word-for-word from Victorian anti-Masonic tracts (misrepresenting Masonic symbolism under the assumption that the Masons preserved Ancient Egyptian fertility rites) and repeated in modern conspiracy books and websites like this one. It isn't true, but it was part of the anti-Masonic hysteria of the time, which Wolter has apparently bought into.

After repeatedly calling the chamber’s builders “ancient” throughout the hour, Wolter concludes the show by conceding that the building “dates back to colonial times”—hardly ancient—and therefore utterly irrelevant to rewriting American history. So, while this place appears to be a colonial era spring house, even if this one was a Freemasons’ chamber (for what purpose?) it changes nothing. George Washington was a Freemason in the same period; the Masons had well-known lodges in that period, and though they did have some secret rites and hidden sites, I can't see that they needed a tiny “secret” chamber out in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. 

226 Comments
Gus
2/9/2013 05:58:10 am

Your blog is a truly necessary companion to this dumb show. Much appreciated.

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Nate
2/9/2013 05:35:17 pm

So true. The DVR has been changed - Wolter's shows...Deleted.

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Mike M
5/18/2013 03:14:58 am

That is hilarious! I had the DVR set to record this series. Then around halfway through the 3rd episode I watched I changed the DVR and deleted the shows too. However, now that I found this website, I have returned to watch the shows just so I can read the reviews by Jason. This site is awesome! Thanks!!

Jason Colavito link
5/18/2013 07:51:38 am

Mike M.: I'm glad you're enjoying the reviews!

Sybil Bailey
11/30/2013 07:17:12 pm

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought this was the dumbest show. It's sad that they are perpetrating this as historical fact. How many people are dotted by this crap. Shane on the history 2 channel. At least ancient aliens is comical...for the hair styles alone.

Paul Devine
1/6/2015 07:48:01 am

I just wanted to add that I first thought about stopping watching these shows but after finding this blog I now really enjoy watching the show and then reading Colavito's responses. I'm not a huge history or archeology buff but it is a very entertaining way to learn about popular historical mythos and then the true history and science that debunks them. Plus America's Unearthed's staging for "surprise" events always cracks me up.

Ann
7/30/2013 12:38:59 pm

Although the name of the land owner is not verbally mentioned, it is on the flyer handed to Scott Wolter on the episode; Chagrin Land Developers, Conservancy. Not a farmer.

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Alan
10/24/2013 03:45:42 pm

Interesting stuff. I noted on that particular episode the similarity of a structure that a friend of mines' dad had on his property when I was a kid. As a child I knew that it went along with his house nearby and had a similar basin that collected water with a similar oval top shaped structure made of rock with cave and rock ledge spring that actually led through a channel through the basement of the house where ham was hung to cure. I imagine the house itself was probably from the early 1800s or earlier as the house I lived in had a foundation about that old. The stone cave and basin protected the spring and I still found it interesting but as a child I knew it was functional as the one in this episode could likely be (rather than ceremonial, mason related, etc.) Also, I noted as well that "historians" will also quickly state that Native Americans didn't build in stone when in fact, many references show other wise. Come on now,.....Native Americans weren't always nomadic.(The structure and others I grew up with, were in Pa. as well.)

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Stephen
6/13/2016 01:46:31 pm

the structures are too similar to ones that can be found across the atlantic. The chances of both civilizations developing the same exact concepts independently are impossible. It would be the equivalent of 2 ancient foreign races, both of which have no understanding of life outside of their tribe, made pizza exactly the same way all the way from scratch. Another example would be if these 2 ancient foreign peoples spoke the same language. not a similar language, but the same. Research these Chambers and youll see what I'm talking about. First search for them in the old great Britain, and then search new England/ New York/ Pennsylvania. I'm from Ma, I'm surrounded by these things. It is worth the research

John Marks
10/10/2016 11:00:13 pm

If you notice the walls have mortar between the stones and their is a ledge to the one side. This would be a spring house. There is an old circa 1800 mansion near me with one that also includes an ice cellar. Nothing too mysterious about this at all.

N. K. Adams
11/28/2013 04:57:44 pm

Indeed! Debunking this modern day version of the old lost or buried treasure con man's game is not easy, but your site provides a welcome breath of fresh intellectual air in the stale atmosphere of half-baked conspiracy theories Wolter cooks up.

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Terry Shoffstal
3/20/2015 09:23:55 am

I could not believe that those mysterious chambers were so mysterious. Those old farmers were pretty smart afterall.

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xinunus
2/5/2019 09:26:28 am

Wow!! I have never in my life heard such petty and narrow minded comments in my life, I love history and at NO point did I think Scott Wolter was misleading me but OPENING my mind up to other opinions. I have a Masters degree in Engineering and consider myself a logical thinker. What Scott Wolter is trying to expose is the one sided biased opinions that are leading us to wrong conclusions based on bad data. If your a TRUE free thinker you will love this show if not you won’t. It’s amazing that most of the people that think they are free thinkers actually aren’t. Humans are inherintly not free thinkers and we are extremely flawed. You have to always keep an open mind to everything in life and the Science community is horribly bad at this and I know cause I belong to it.

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Jim
5/9/2021 08:33:56 pm

You are right on. Open minds vs closed minds.

H
10/23/2020 06:45:48 pm

Thank you! I know this area very well. Any local will tell you it's a dang spring house! They're everywhere around here. I can think of about three more of em around Marienville alone in the woods. They're pretty cool in their own right without any of the contrived secret society mumbo jumbo.

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Fenway5
2/9/2013 06:10:14 am

Given the end of the episode voice over (regarding it being colonial era construction) completely invalidates the previous 41 minutes of the episode building the mystery. Certainly there was no need to discuss Saint Brendan, The Navigato, or a host of other irrelevant theses given the acknowledged construction time period.

As the show is produced and edited prior to airing, it feels like either a poor attempt at a hoax or fraud and neither one does Mr. Wolcott any favors towards credibility. I appreciate what Mr. Wolcott is attempting and am interested in it, but to assume conjecture trumps known historical data seems intellectually dishonest.

I approve of critically looking at alternative possibilities if the facts support the conjecture, but to knowingly make up "alternative mysteries" when one knows the facts do not support it is disingenuous at best and fraudulent at worst.

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fenway5
2/9/2013 06:19:36 am

Sorry, my mistake, I mean Mr. Wolter, Scott Wolter. My mistake.

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L Bean
2/9/2013 07:01:19 am

This is what happens when profit motive collides with an almost complete ignorance in many modern humans of what it means to be human in the eras preceding this one. I find it absolutely horrendous that people like Wolter have been allowed to spin their fairy stories unchallenged.

For me the most gut-wrenching part of the whole episode was right in the beginning when those two hunter fellas said "we heard you were the guy to go to about this kinda stuff". How much more blatant does the lie have to be before....?

Another chauvinist, farcical foray into modern American fever-dreams - debunked! Bless you Jason, I am following your blog in earnest now. Keep up the excellent work!

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Lynn Brant
2/9/2013 09:35:28 am

Scott knows this stuff is bullshit. I think he also knows it has to cast discredit on his KRS work. I hope it's paying well enough.

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Jason Colavito link
2/9/2013 09:39:05 am

According to documents Committee Films filed with Minnesota Film and TV seeking public financing for the show, they pay him $27,000 per episode in salary and travel compensation, plus $7,200 for wardrobe.

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Kim
2/11/2013 02:04:27 am

I've enjoyed reading your reviews of Ancient Aliens and America Unearthed for a while now. I work for a television show on another network and it's been fun watching you pick apart our competition.

While part of my job is to read reviews and keep up on what the competition is doing, I generally don't get involved in any kind of blog posting. As a TV professional, however, I feel the need to point out some inaccuracies in your assessment of the budget for the pilot episode that you posted. I applaud your pointing out inaccuracies in the science on both of these shows but I think you've unfairly jumped to some conclusions regarding the budget.

- FIrst - what you posted was an application for a tax rebate program - not the final budget for what was actually spent. Many states have these tax rebates to help create jobs in the film and television within individual states. My company has taken advantage of these incentives many times. When applying, you basically include everything you think you might spend. It's always better to overestimate because if you end up spending more that you've estimated, you're out of luck, but if you spend less, your rebate will just be adjusted down.

- Second - television pilots cost significantly more than subsequent episodes of any given series. We usually plan on double the cost. For the pilot episode you have to create everything from the scratch - the music, the sets, the graphics - all at significant expense. If your show goes to series, great, you can make some of that money back on subsequent episodes, but if it doesn't, you still had to spend all of that money to create those things for the pilot.

- Third - contrary to what some other posters have suggested, if you look at the pilot budget as likely double what the budget for a "regular" episode would be, this is right in the ballpark of what networks like Discovery, History, and National Geographic are spending. And while H2 is a second tier-network, it's a new one, so History is likely throwing more money at those shows to get the network off the ground. I'm not sure where the other posters are getting their information. The numbers they suggest are way out of date.

- Fourth - several people have latched onto the amounts on the budget for the "cast" and the "wardrobe" and have assumed that those amounts were all spent on the host. I'm betting that the majority of those line items were used to pay for the wardrobe and cast of the reenactments.

I applaud what you're doing with the reviews for these two shows, but I feel that you've overstepped in posting a copy of the budget and implying that there are some nefarious things going on behind the scenes.

My two-cents.

Kim

Jason Colavito link
2/11/2013 02:39:53 am

Hi Kim,

I'm sure you're right about the wardrobe going primarily to the reenactments, and yes, I do know that pilots are more expensive than subsequent episodes.

I did make clear in my original posting that the figures were the proposed budget, not the final amount spent. Based on the original estimates and final budgets submitted for Committee's previous reimbursements, their estimates have tended to be fairly accurate.

I never meant to imply that there was anything nefarious in the amount spent (indeed, network pilots are orders of magnitude more expensive), only my disappointment that (a) such large amounts of money are going toward pseudoscience and (b) that taxpayer money is being used to support it.

I published the proposed budget because (a) it's public record, and (b) I think the public ought to know the kind of money that's being spent to tell untruths to them.

Jason Colavito link
2/11/2013 05:23:22 am

Kim,

I thought you'd like to know that I posted a piece today (2/11/13) addressing your concerns about my presentation of the show's budget. I did not mean to imply there was anything nefarious going on with the finances, only that I felt it's important for the public to know the big money that goes into such shows and the incentive this creates to manipulate the truth to keep the money flowing.

Arthur
6/28/2013 12:51:03 pm

I can't honestly believe you discredit a guy that is associated with the same far fetched ideas you have. It is one thing to have differing opinions but you lose all credibility when you start publishing how much someone makes. You seem angry ...

Jason Colavito link
6/28/2013 12:54:13 pm

His compensation was only relevant because the production took taxpayer dollars, which means that the people of Minnesota were contributing to his pay. That said, the numbers quoted are somewhat inflated. The wardrobe was mostly for historical reenactments, so his compensation is closer to $15-20,000 per episode.

Lisa
1/26/2014 07:29:44 am

You sound jealous Jason or you have a bone to pick with either Wolter or the network. Wolter is a highly educated and trained Geologist and I happen to enjoy those shows. Chagrin Land Developers probably didn't want Wolter on his land because they were or are afraid that it would prove to be a historical site and the state would not allow any development on the land because it would be labeled a historical land mark. So I'm sure there was a monetary reason for not letting Wolter and company on that site. Who cares what he is paid, he does his job well and in my opinion causes me and my family to want to spend my money to visit the sites that Wolter has covered on the show. So he may have gotten $27,000, but it will be thousands more in income from tourists to the state and the local economy from those of us who may want to visit the sites .
PS: Also didn't like your racial undertones in that Wolter will only interview white people . . . so now you are going to use race now . . . REALLY!

Zac
4/23/2013 08:56:04 pm

I came to this page after watching this very episode almost halfway through. I had a weird feeling about this show and after reading this blog I can only laugh at such nonsense but at the same time it's sad that the history channel keeps sinking down to new lows with the "reality" show craze. Fuckin rediculous! This clown wolter is a good laugh

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Art Jones
2/9/2013 10:47:09 am

This show is a total joke. They should at least verify their archeoastronomy. Per the NOAA solar calculator, the 300-degree sun azimuth at sunset point is met on May 26th in Tionesta PA (where this chamber is), well short of the Summer Solstice date of June 20th last year.

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The Doctor
4/17/2013 05:18:02 pm

I stood in front of this chamber today with compass in hand and it is actually 309 degrees.

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Woodlawn
4/21/2013 02:28:35 pm

I should have taken my compass with me when I visited the entrance recently. I did, however, take my GPS and logged the coordinates. Also, I took my camera and snapped a few pictures. Very cool spring house.

The Doctor
4/21/2013 03:02:47 pm

I too took some pics. I got great pics of the basin and as you aproach the basin from the hallway you can see the front of it and is two stones,each with a semi-circle cut out of them and placed on top of one another to form a circular hole through which the water flows from the basin. I see people that have only seen some dark and grainy footage that the basin is "obviously" made from poured concrete. These people entertain me.

Jon
5/20/2013 08:15:54 am

Can someone post the coordinates of the site?

jeff M
1/25/2014 12:28:09 pm

309 magnetic would equate 300 true if you consider declination

Lisa
1/26/2014 07:35:57 am

I'm sure the world has shifted 9 degrees in a few thousand years. I blame global cooling! lol

Lisa
1/26/2014 07:32:48 am

I'm sure they would love to but the developers wont let Wolter on to prove his theory. They probably fear it will be labeled a historical land mark and stop any development of that land.

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Tracey
2/9/2013 11:21:25 am

Like L Bean above, I am a follower of your blog now, too. So I guess the show's not totally useless! I came to the same conclusion that you did about the landowner, he probably had no idea who wanted on his land, he just wanted no part of it. Wolter's ego must make him insufferable. And since you've pointed out the archaeoastrology misuse I want to shout at the screen every time he says it. But in the end, I am just grateful that you told me what the structure actually is!

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MikeNJ
2/9/2013 02:21:34 pm

It's over-dramatacized. It's inaccurate. It's speculatory. In other words, it's a television show, not a courtroom testimony. GET OVER IT. With all its flaws, I got to see some interesting shit I hadn't seen before. I know it's a lot of fluff. Anyone with any common sense can sniff that out, without you having to enlighten them. Regardless, the show was still more interesting than your self-righteous "blog". Seriously, you spent hours typing up all that crap, and for what? The show hasn't changed, people still watch it, and Wolter still gets paid. I could point out several things in your "blog" that were equally inaccurate, and spend numerous wasted hours explaining your errors, but I'm not going to. Do you know why? BECAUSE NOBODY CARES!!! I'm actually upset with myself that I wasted the time to write this. It was time which would have been better spent pinching a loaf.

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terry the censor
2/9/2013 04:38:22 pm

> Anyone with any common sense can sniff that out

Right. And if you've been reading the comments, you'll know people with common sense have been coming online to find the facts. Jason is providing a service desired by these viewers.

Are implying the viewers themselves need to "get over" how shitty the show is?

> I could point out several things in your "blog" that were equally inaccurate, and spend numerous wasted hours explaining your errors

Empty rhetoric. My common sense sniffed that out!

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The Doctor
4/16/2013 05:04:01 pm

One question. Why would a springhouse be built on the side of a steep mountain nowhere near any farmland or settlements? I'm from the area so I speak fact. I'm not just spouting off because I can.

Jason Colavito link
4/16/2013 11:25:30 pm

Do you know that no one was living or farming there in the early 1800s? Reforestation of a formerly settled area can occur in mere decades.

Jason Colavito link
2/9/2013 10:29:11 pm

I think we can all agree that your time is better spent on the toilet, and I thank you for pointing this out.

If your argument is that anyone watching this show knows that it is fake, then you seem to be saying that you expect the very worst of both television and American audiences. That's sad.

And I write these reviews as I watch the show. It generally takes me only about 20 min. after finishing the hour to polish the review and have it ready for publication.

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Lisa
1/26/2014 07:50:02 am

PS: Guess what Jason . . . the show is still on!

Christopher Randolph
2/10/2013 03:23:10 pm

I do believe that you have pinched a loaf of sorts here.

Interesting use of quotes around the word blog. Are you asserting that this is not a blog..?

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Lisa
1/26/2014 07:45:24 am

@Mike NJ . . . . LMAO! and I totally agree. This dude needs a job.

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John J. McKay link
2/9/2013 02:42:02 pm

I'm sure I'm repeating the obvious here, but there is no bathing in any surviving Masonic ritual. There is however the Mikveh, the bathhouse for mensurating women in traditional Jewish culture. And Freemasons, Templars, and Illumimati are often used as synonyms for Jews in conspiracy theories. I'm not saying the AU crowd are Antisemites; though they might be unwittingly drawing on Antisemitic literature.

And just to be pedantic, there are lots of volcanoes in North America; they're just on the far side of the continent from anywhere a literal St. Brendan could have visited.

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Jason Colavito link
2/9/2013 10:31:55 pm

You're right about the volcanoes. I was thinking of the Northeast, where the Irish are alleged to have visited.

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Christopher Randolph
2/10/2013 03:30:29 pm

I wanted to comment about the ritual bathing myself.

Can anyone think of a billion-plus-strong group of people who do indeed engage in ritual bathing on a daily basis? How about Muslims?

Yet the overwhelming majority of Muslims are brown people, and brown people must not be suggested to have navigational or architectural ability on the so-called History network. Thus even though they are the very obvious first and largest faith to name when compiling a list of people who would be engaging in ritual bathing in the past thousand years, the apparent Identity Christians who write and produce this crud must not even name Muslims in their flight of fancy bathing ritual canard.

Should we look forward to the spin-off series Earth Unearthed, wherein we "learn" that British Freemasons built the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat?

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Lisa
1/26/2014 07:55:38 am

@Christopher Randolph . . WRONG! The world's largest religion is Christianity, making up about 33% of the world population according to a 2005 survey by the Encyclopedia Britannica. That is approximately two billion people. Other large religions include Islam (20%), Hinduism (13%), Chinese folk religion (6.3%) and Buddhism (5.9%). Indigenous religions make up 4% of the world's population, and atheism about 14%. You are ridiculous and I bet a liberal! hahaha

Lisa
1/26/2014 07:58:02 am

Christopher Randolph . . WRONG, The world's largest religion is Christianity, making up about 33% of the world population according to a 2005 survey by the Encyclopedia Britannica. That is approximately two billion people. Other large religions include Islam (20%), Hinduism (13%), Chinese folk religion (6.3%) and Buddhism (5.9%). Indigenous religions make up 4% of the world's population, and atheism about 14%. Your posts screams Liberal loon! hahaha

Jason Colavito link
1/26/2014 08:06:04 am

Lisa, as per the new JasonColavito.com comments policy adopted on 1/24/13 (see post of that date), personal attacks and off-topic discussions will no longer be tolerated. Please refrain from posting additional personal attacks, or they will be deleted.

terry the censor
2/9/2013 04:32:45 pm

I just sent this bug report to the History Channel website support team.
--------------
I found some typos on a page:

History website: "America Unearthed proves there is a lot we don't know about our past, and that people have gone to great lengths to cover up these mysteries."

Should be: "America Unearthed proves there is a lot THE HOST DOESN'T know about our past, and that HE HAS gone to great lengths to MAKE up these mysteries."

http://www.history.com/shows/america-unearthed/articles/about-america-unearthed

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Jason Colavito link
2/9/2013 10:32:37 pm

Ha!

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WCP III
3/24/2013 07:37:32 pm

My hero!

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Bert
2/10/2013 01:38:36 am

I like the show. I also like Ancient Aliens, but do not believe in ancient astronaut theory. I think that is part of the point about it being a TV show. On the other hand, I think that H2 should consider a real, authentic "Learn More" tab on their website that has a more robust and credible set of references. I have my 13 year old daughter watch these and encourage her to laugh where it is BS, but still sort out some remaining questions.
Thanks for the insight on spring houses. Two features I noted in the footage: the last foot or so of the water trough looked like it was stepped down a bit. I "speculated" that a metal spout may have been there. Why go stand by a well and haul up a bucket in the winter when you can stand inside a chamber and fill it up. The other feature they showed, but did not comment on, was a shadow at the top of the ceiling. Was this possibly a flue vent? if so, then the distilling operation has credibility. In general, my perception was that this was more likely a functional, rather than spiritual, site.

I also note that the exchange between Scott and Jason was some of the more tame discussions, even though it seems with personal attacks by both. I hope they do go for a beer.

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William M Smith
2/10/2013 05:12:18 am

I agree with the comments about the shows of the H2. I would like to point out that a magnetic compass with a home in Miniapolis Minn. (44.59N lat. by 93.16W long.) would be off 9 degrees and 54 mins. at Tionesta, Pa (41.29N lat. by 79.27W long.) unless it was properly adjusted for the change in magnetic declination. I speculate that you will hear about how the sun comes through the south tower window at the Newport Tower in R.I. and shines on an oval red stone in the first floor west archway on Dec. 21st at 9:00 am. What you will not hear is how it shines through the floor of the second story. By the time the H2 shows are complete we will have the Old world discovered by the New World. I think we did give them the potato and syfliss sp?

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Coridan Miller
2/10/2013 06:28:01 am

We absolutely gave the old world the potato, and in fact most of the planet's food crops (corn, tomato, squash, blueberries, etc) the Amerindians were every bit masters of domesticating plant life as the old world was at domesticating animals.

Syphillis is theorized, but not proven to have come from the Americas. There is an excellent book on the subject by Mann titled 1493 which goes into great detail on the Columbian exchange.

As for pre-Columbian contact, it is proven to have happened (Lanse aux Meadow) but was generally isolated events. Stories of a pair of natives in canoe washing up in Europe, English fishing off the American coastline in the mid 1400s a possible visit from the Chinese or polynesians on the west coast or trade between the Alaskan natives and people of Kamchatka. Nothing of global significance until 1492 though.

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Dave Roberts
4/5/2013 08:53:41 am

The Viking site in Newfoundland Lanse aux Meadows, is in a likely spot for Viking explorers staged in Greenland. A short hop across the Labrador Sea, coasting down to the northern tip of Newfoundland proper. They likely came for wood. They no doubt contacted the locals, how that went we don't know precisely but the sagas suggest maybe not so well.

The archaeology is clear, they did arrive, they built substantial houses, they even made iron. They left some definitive artifacts, iron boat rivets (wooden boats used iron rivets) and a stone device used, by women, in making thread.

My speculation on seeing the site is that it was not built in a defensive fashion, a single row of houses facing the beach. The reconstruction is compact and looks defensive but that might just be my eye.

The Doctor
4/17/2013 05:23:54 pm

I was there today and its interesting that you say that because the chambers alignment is at 309 degrees.

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J W Meacham link
2/10/2013 08:10:47 am

I thank you for your conscientious veracity. I should think Mr. Wolter is cashing in on the coin of credulity and through his use of the media to spin a sequence of segments into a creed of verisimilitude for profit and not for credibility, he is able to present material for consideration that otherwise would be swept aside or buried.
With some one like you for filtering the 'public' can use their own descrimination, while the masses are entertained.

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Tim Holt link
2/10/2013 08:32:12 am

I think that History Channel 2 should allow you do a "Pop Up Video" type running commentary during each show...every time he says something stupid you can pop up a thought bubble showing how it it BS...Now that would be entertaining video!

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Jason Colavito link
2/10/2013 10:28:02 am

Ha! Or: Mystery Science Theater for H2... thrill as the 'bots heckle Wolter!

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Mark the Historian
11/25/2013 07:34:51 am

Way to kiss Jason's bum.

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Patrick
2/10/2013 08:39:27 am

Anybody else notice that the basin looks like pured concrete?

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william m smith
2/10/2013 01:52:45 pm

Patrick - Yes I noticed the concrete basin. In addition many others have researched this site and just above the basin is reported a rectangular opening that goes to the surface above. I also noticed the mortar between the stones and understand the Midwest Epigraphic Society sent a sample to Mr Wolter in 2009 to be studied in his concrete lab. He stated that the small game hunter Chad Snyder found the new site in 2012. He also said the Templars used it as a bath on the summer soltice. If their was a well house above the concrete basin be sure and not drink the cold water when the Templars are bathing.

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The Doctor
4/21/2013 10:12:16 am

The opening in the ceiling is aprox. 12"x12" and appears to be for ventilation. It's not directly above the stone basin. The interior of the basin is very smooth and perfectly square so it does,when looking only at the inside of the basing to be poured but as you walk down the hallway you can see the front of the basin and it is infact stone.

intelligentheating
2/10/2013 10:13:50 am

Just some observations from last nights show:

1.) The continued mis-use of the phrase archaeoastronomy has become grating.

2.) The sites in Groton look nothing like Newgrange. You would have thought they would have picked a neolithic site that looked vaguely like the Gungywamp 'calendar chamber', for example Wayland Smithy. This was such a jump in assumptions I'd be surprised if even fans of the show didn't think it a bit hokey.

3.) Surely a site this large, had it been settled by Irish monks (or Norse, as that was the other suggestion made by the gentleman Wolter interviewed) would have left some sort of evidence. Pottery, artifacts, graves, arrow heads, nails, garbage etc?

4.) On the subject of dualism. Now I am not a professional historian so I may be off base here. My understanding of dualism is that is was essentially a belief in a god of the material and god of the spirit and that the spirit is trapped in the human shell in the world of the god of the earth (Rex Mundi).
Dualist christians in their various forms (Bogomils, Gnostics, Cathars etc.) were considered heretics and largely stamped out by the Catholic church, the most obvious example being the Cathars during the Albegensian crusade (Cathars being a popular subject amongst conspiracy theorists I've noticed).

Maybe somebody schooled in the subject here can help out, but Wolter's explanation of dualism didn't sound like what I have read about with regards to the subject.

Overall the show seemed really weak this week.

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Jason Colavito link
2/10/2013 10:25:56 am

Dualism doesn't have to refer to Gnosticism or the Manichean heresy but can refer to any religion that separates the cosmos into opposing forces. (male/female, light/dark, sky/earth), the most common being the division of spirit and matter. Wolter is associating male-light-sky with spirt and female-dark-earth with matter. This division is by no means universal (the Hittite sun deity was female, for example), but it follows the (wrong) Victorian idea of the "pure" and "noble" Aryan solar religion (see, e.g. F. Max Muller) as opposed to the crude and corrupt goddess-oriented orgiastic rites of the non-Aryans.

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intelligentheating
2/12/2013 11:50:40 am

Thanks Jason for the above explanation.

billy hears squire link
12/8/2015 02:37:38 am

i only read bout thirty some comments and they all were negative wit more and more people jumping on the bash down these lunatics bandwagons idk bout all theyre theorys myself and dont think they should ever represent speculation as truth..That being said i also know all to well the feeling of know u hav something really big and deeply meaningful at ur fingertips and jus always comin up short of smokin gun evidence u need to base ur opions on facts. i never saw the show i have no clue who these assclowns r. It was the words that i googled that led me to this article. I live in backwoods Pa we have a spring on our property. For years it was just water seap out ground. when we had great flood of 2012 the subground level of water roaring off the mountain blew out a huge chunk of earth revealing a masonary constructed spring house foundation of sorts. here i found many strange ancient artifacts. i am a machinist i know a rock thats been worked by a human yet most people try say they r just rocks. A neighbour finnaly told me the spring was intentionaly buried in 1800's as locals way of standing up for themselves...blackmail of what is true history thats denied ill leave it at that. trust me ive learned alot from this and culture is unique to differnt areas. Dont think for a second that stuff u never would dream of doesnt exist cause whatever ur dream is somewhere there is a lil village or burough thats just as weird as u...living it. Hell is real. Evil LIES and HIDES thats its specialty. Its no suprise the father of all lies would not want u to believe in Christ..of course not He wants ur soul! Everytime u tell urself its just a differnt schene..remember its just differnt from what youve seen.

Christopher Randolph
2/10/2013 03:50:59 pm

FYI I live in PA (although nowhere near this site, I'm in Philadelphia which is as far away as one can get still in the state). Collegeville where a photo on this post was taken is in the far Phila. suburbs & is one of the two towns used for the filming of "The Blob." Obviously that's no root cellar but a Blob HQ and Wolter and his wardrobe should investigate that immediately.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to a party last night where I likely would have run into a friend of mine who used to work as an archeologist (he has a real MA, not a coffee-froth one) for the National Forests, specifically repeatedly at Allegheny NF, which is the exact area Wolter went last... Sprall or Fing. It was his job specifically to check areas for sites of historic interest before any logging roads or oil drilling could happen (this is Oil City / Titusville country where the US oil industry began and a lot of small operators still exist).

I was up there camping with him and friends a couple of times. If you go just a very few miles up to the NY border you're on the Oneida Reservation; the PA side also used to be Oneida territory. We notice that Wolter didn't bother asking those folks or any local archeologist who deals with their artifacts what they thought the "ancient" site was, even though this would be a far more obvious and fruitful path than speculating about Freemasons. The area is incredibly well studied already, and I'm sure would be immediately identified by the professionals who stumble across these structures all of the darn time.

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Thorne
2/11/2013 06:02:34 am

I would guess that Wolter DID interview at least a few locals, but didn't put them on record since they didn't agree with his own misinterpretations. I would bet that, had he found even one local who claimed that this was an ancient, pre-native, site he would have blasted that comment from the rooftops.

Thanks for these take-downs, Jason. I rarely watch these programs, since they adversely affect my blood pressure, not to mention insulting my intelligence. It's nice to know that someone else out there can see through these charlatans as easily as I can, and can actually write about them intelligently, as I can't!

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Joe
2/11/2013 10:44:39 am

If the local thinks a giant Viking was buried on his land, he's on the show. If the local knows there's nothing unusual going on, he's not interviewed at all.

But this episode really takes the prize. It's one thing when there's an unusual site where it's not entirely clear what it was used for, but this one goes over that line straight to the willful misinterpretation of common things. At this rate, Wolter will soon be claiming millstones were really the wheels on the Flintstones' cars.

Rocky R Rockbourne
2/11/2013 08:31:20 am

Did you say Wolter actually chipped the stones? Doesn't that mean we've also got him for vandalism? And his friend was probably "hunting" without a license if it is what it looks like. Hmm ... :-)

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Jason Colavito link
2/11/2013 08:37:50 am

Wishful thinking! He chipped at some unworked stone outcroppings on Snyder's land. He never touched the chamber.

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Jaime
2/11/2013 02:58:26 pm

I think all you know it all uptight yuppies don't know your stuff. The guy Scott is a expert in his field what the fuck do you people know?

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Christopher Randolph
2/11/2013 03:42:47 pm

Shows like Wolter's have such a big audience because of the rabid anti-intellectualism of Americans. Not only are people uneducated, but they have a hate and envy of people who are educated. There's a paranoid suspicion that college professors with their big words are getting one over on you. In a sense that's correct; they grapple with reality.

And of course anyone who prefers reality to chipping away at the fantasy world in which your lack of education and respect for education is worth more than having an education is an "uptight yuppie." What a society we have,

I say this as a working class American who was the first in my family to attend college; my father didn't finish high school. I'll bet I grew up a lot poorer than you, Jamie. I watch football, I eat meat, I drink beer, I wear a tie maybe twice per year. I also happen to be literate. Try it out.

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terry the censor
2/11/2013 03:49:19 pm

So, Jaime, any specific thing Jason wrong? Or do you just need to be mad at someone?

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Jason Colavito link
2/11/2013 10:23:13 pm

Scott's field is the stability of concrete structures, and yes, in that field he is an expert. He has a bachelor's in geology as against my bachelor's in archaeology, and on that we are even.

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Gary J.
2/11/2013 11:51:41 pm

Of course ... having a degree in something doesn't necessarily make one an expert. Perhaps he was a poor student ... who knows? I have bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering, along with over 40 years experience in the field and I don't really consider myself an expert. Compared to the average person, perhaps yes; but compared to my peers, not necessarily. A person is always learning, so is never truly an "expert". I'm certainly not an expert in archaeology, but it's always been an interest and therefore a subject that I find intriguing.

Joe
2/12/2013 11:32:10 am

Well, the term "expert" typically is reserved to describe a person's primary field of work or study. When was the last time Wolter devoted any time to concrete stability?

Jason Colavito link
2/12/2013 12:05:15 pm

It's his day job at American Petrographic Services, the geological services company he runs. Alternative history was, until recently, a hobby of his, not his primary occupation.

Art
2/12/2013 10:51:29 pm

Is your degree in archaeology or anthropology? From you bio page - :Colavito holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York where he majored in both anthropology and journalism."

Jason Colavito link
2/12/2013 10:53:48 pm

In Europe the two disciplines are separate, but in the United States most archaeology programs are folded into anthropology. My degree's title was "anthropology," but my coursework was primarily in archaeology.

DC link
2/15/2013 06:07:46 pm



Expert in what?

He bills himself a Forensic Geologist.

Forensic Geologist? What type of expert is that? Specialization in the study of how rocks commit murder? My understanding is that the closest thing to this study references is the examination of geological material to conduct forensic investigations of criminal activity. What would this have to do with proving the repeatedly cited pre-Columbian visitation theme? Maybe he'll reveal in the season close that Columbus killed previous civilizations with a bunch of rocks? Certain not with any landslide of the truth...

Did he mean Anthropological Geologist? Or would not have sounded sexy enough? Then again, there would be a degree related to that area; which would require some justification to assert that title, which he has not.

Or was Forensic Geologist conveniently not traceable, since the self-assumed title is hard to discredit, given its study-voracity-expertise hard to prove.

I look forward to the show where the study of stone formations relate to criminal evidence, as opposed to the content relating to a criminal distortion of logic and the scientific method:

Supposition -> Conclusion -> Effort to gather random data points to support an expense paid travel fling -> Ratings -> Another season! Nice formula.



Then again, the murder of the facts and the mangled truth might justify him as a perpetrator set in stone, but not the investigator.




Thanks JC for taking the time to call out the carnival barkers for what they are.




BTW: I like the gig [I'd like a state/cable channel gig, sending me to Ireland! Too bad there's no market for debunking the conspiracies...] and I am ready to start my own "History" series, as soon as I have cleansed myself of my last bit of conscience and ethical thought.





The DC

jztroutball
3/18/2014 12:49:44 pm

I disagree.....his (Wolters) stability is directly proportional to the books of Barry Fell and Bill Bradley neither of whom had a concrete theory.

Chip chip (nice blog btw)

GLFischer, Cumming, Georgia
2/12/2013 03:13:05 pm

I love your blog and appreciate your keen eye. I couldn't help but notice the absolute perfection on the concrete basin--particularly, the perfect right angles and the straight line cut between the basin and trough. This was most likely made offsite and placed in the chamber.

I'm puzzled but not surprised, that Wolter had a model made based on rough measurements. I saw no transits, no lasers or no other accurate measurement tools being used.

What puzzled me the most was how the "hunter" dropped into the opening, suggesting light could not get tothe back of the chamber under any circumstances.

You have heightened my awareness when watching this and other shows. I'm now going to compare my finds to yours to see if I can be a novice assistant to your observations.

Please forgive typos--no glasses and I am not using any forensic, ancient archeo hooked x or dotted R either.

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The Doctor
4/17/2013 05:29:21 pm

Theres no concrete basin. The basin is formed from several perfectly rectangular stones with great corners. It was definitely not made off site.

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Anonymous
2/13/2013 05:29:43 pm

The show is over dramatiscized but I disagree with your theory of it being a simple spring house. Based on what you said of spring houses why farmer is gonna crawl down into that little whole to store food or any supplies? Did you take note of how narrow the walkway wato the basin? That just doesn't make sense.

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Jason Colavito link
2/13/2013 10:38:57 pm

Have you ever visited a colonial root cellar or spring house? Try doing a Google search for images. They are almost all like that. The narrow entrance and descending passage help to keep the cool air in and animals out.

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J.
2/13/2013 07:47:27 pm

Like most of the other comments here suggest, this episode had me grinding my teeth. I couldn't see any reason to bring in a supposed Newgrange connection. Why would Christian monks be replicating pagan neolithic structures? They didn't do that in Ireland, where they were pretty unmolested, so why to to Pennsylvania to do it? If they in fact did make it to the New World, why would the hike all the way into the mountains of western Pennsylvania, where there isn't ready tillable land nor any access to large bodies of water? (These seafaring monks were, well, seafaring people, and seafaring people tend to keep close to the sea.) And since when did someone have to be Irish to notice something like the solstice? Is it really true Native Americans didn't work in stone? If that's the case, did the Irish also build the 800 year-old stone medicine wheel in Bighorn National Park? Because that's also in accordance with "archaeoastronomical" alignments. Or maybe Native Americans could have also watched the stars and noticed the seasons.

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Alan
2/15/2013 04:02:34 pm

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania and knew at least two farmers who were still using spring houses as late as the 1960s. I am not sure but based on when the land was first settled by my ancestors - in the 1830s - the spring houses I knew of were constructed no earlier than the 19th century.

As soon as I saw the photos I said to myself "that's a spring house." You are right Jason. There is no mystery.

Wolter's suggestion that they were ritual baths is absurd. People used spring houses to keep things cold. It is a great way to keep food or milk cold before refrigeration. Why would anyone choose to take a bath underground in a cold spring?

Applying Occam's Razor, the explanation is relatively straightforward. But the history channel cannot sell advertising on programs about spring houses.

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Charlie Patterson
2/15/2013 04:17:02 pm

Hi there,
I enjoy reading your blog about these shows and the way they mislead folks with pseudo scientific innuendo. When I saw the video inside the chamber, the first thing I thought of was SPRING HOUSE! I live in Tennessee and they are very common. Take note- the water came out of the spring into one section. Then it over flowed into the next section. Is this a natural way to eliminate excess sediment in the water? I'm no archaeologist by any stretch but to me it just makes simple, logical sense. Who wants dirt and grit in their drinking water? Just an observation. This Wolter guy is a trip. He really knows how to make silly drama and conspiracy out of anything!

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Scott Vincent
7/12/2014 11:57:36 am

Spring houses all over ky. too.

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Un-Reality TV
2/15/2013 07:44:45 pm

You have all missed the real story that the Egyptians must have built this stone chamber and it is aligned with the sun in a way that guides the mother ship in when it returns with the arc of the covenant and the Holy Grail.... Actually it's a nice example of pre-industrial American tech. Imagine trying to keep your food supply through the year with no refrigerator, freezer, no microwave oven. Farmers have always been innovators. You could probably safely store meat year round in a stone room with a cold running stream. It's too bad that reality TV has so little basis in reality. A show on how these storage cellars work would be far more interesting.

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Bruce
2/18/2013 04:16:23 am

To easily disprove Wolters overall theory of pre-Columbus travel between Europe and North America is to just look at the disease transmission that only happened after Columbus. Syphilis to Europe and Small Pox to the Americas. If there was all this contact and trade going on prior to Columbus, why did the previously untransmitted diseases wait?

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Kat
2/18/2013 09:49:06 am

LOL - I used to live in the Finger Lakes area and I knew immediately what that "spring house" was. Obviously, Wolter is not a country boy.

I'm enjoying this blog and all the comments - although I think this show is pure bunk, I do think the "experts" can be a bit stuffy. We all need to ask questions, ask "what if", and not throw out the baby with the bathwater. What if we didn't ask "is the world really round"?

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Phil
2/18/2013 12:58:58 pm

Regarding the dates and the "go back on summer soltice to verify" comment. No speculation is needed regarding the scenary or the implied date that filming started. Just watch the beginning sequence in his lab, when he gets the email from Ryan Beichner on November 15th 2012. From that day to this (Feb 18 2013), there has been no summer solstice.

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Jason Colavito link
2/18/2013 01:07:06 pm

Thank you very much for catching that. Between my small TV screen and the need to be taking notes during the show, tiny type like that tends to pass me by. So, that proves once again that Wolter and the producers are lying, and the entire "scale model" scene was created after the fact to waste time.

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Aaron
3/17/2013 12:04:04 pm

This is a nitpick - He can "go back" next year, I don't understand why you consider it implied that he is filming in the spring.

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Jason Colavito link
3/17/2013 12:19:46 pm

He sent the fake hunter "back" to film the solstice (and that video was shown--meaning that the show claimed that a solstice had occurred) even though no solstice occurred between the filming in the fall and the air date. Therefore, the video was shot prior to filming the show.

Aaron
3/18/2013 07:50:59 am

Now I get it, yes complete BS, well I guess you need a little movie magic when spinning a a fictitious yarn such as this.

Larry
2/21/2013 06:43:04 am

Having been in the chamber a few years ago, I can share a few facts:
The entrance has partially collapsed, requiring one to crawl in.
It is not dry laid stone, but heavily mortared.
There is in fact a small chimney to the surface, now blocked but visible on the surface.
The basin shown is exactly 30"x30" square, about 14" deep, with a 3" drain hole. It is (well done) cut stone, not concrete, and the stone walls are placed on top of this same stone.
The chamber itself is too small to store anything inside it. There are two very small "shelves" against the back wall. The narrow "hallway" to the rear part of the chamber allows a person to pass thru, nothing more.
Among other reasons for a needed water source in this vicinity are that there was oil drilling all along this part of the Allegheny River in the latter 1800's, along with iron furnaces.
It would seem that the resources required to build this structure would be greater than what one or more farmers would have. A business entity of some sort would have had the ability to fund such an effort, from having the stone floor/basin prepared and put in place, then having the structure built upon it. creating a year round water source for its needs.

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Gary Gilmore
7/28/2013 02:40:18 pm

Larry, your observation " A business entity of some sort would have had the ability to fund such an effort, from having the stone floor/basin prepared and put in place, then having the structure built upon it." is what I am thinking. Look into the President Hotel at President, PA. With all the oil and timber money in the area, this was suppose to be a "fine" hotel. The spring is on the hill side above where this establishment stood.

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Phillip
2/23/2013 05:58:18 pm

Once again, I am now dumber having watched that episode.

cheers

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Levi janosik
2/27/2013 04:41:31 am

This is clearly NOT an old spring house! Spring houses were built directly over the mouth of the spring, and did not have a long stone corridor. Whoever built this thing had put a lot of time and effort into building it. The entire thing is made of stone with very large stones across the breadth of the ceiling, once again not typical of an old spring house.

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Cory
2/27/2013 03:22:07 pm

Jason, is wrestling real? Thanks

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Pam
3/1/2013 01:47:41 am

I grew up in Tionesta and recently saw the American Unearthed video of the underground chamber, personally I think it is an old spring house.

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shELTIE
3/1/2013 04:05:19 pm

Scot W.t is TOTALLY wrong about the cross of the Knights Templar,n its published the cross has 3 cross members not 2! One above the middle cross member and one below the middle cross member. Scott, ask a York Rite member for the symbol.

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sheltie
3/1/2013 04:42:53 pm

Scott, something you need to understand about freemasonry, every state has it's OWN version and initiantion for all three degrees, example, NJ is written whereas TX is ONLY word of mouth. So please get your act together and stop putting down freemasonry or using your "so-called" experts that know nothing!

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sheltie
3/1/2013 04:46:18 pm

also, i forgot to add, a symbol has a different meaning for different states and countries. i get annoyed at people trying to fabricate things for the media.

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Pam
3/2/2013 01:45:38 am

I grew up in Tionesta and as for the "Underground Chamber" in Tionesta, Pa, it is nothing more than the spring house for a group of homes that were within walking distance... No secret ceremonial bath... It's located on the old Crawford Farm which was part of the old President Oil tract of 11,000 acres now owned by the company .ITL Corp....They did deny permission to the film crew due to liability issues that could arise from everybody and their brother traipsing in there to see it. Hunting is allowed due to original agreements with Western PA Conservancy & PA Game Commission who were party to the sale & purchase from the Crawford Family.

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Pam
3/3/2013 02:34:38 am

(Got info from Jeff Scott and Bobbie Bell)

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Charles Dague
7/6/2020 06:32:12 pm

Charles
I spent much time in Tionesta in the late 60's & 70"s at my fathers trailer camp property on German Hill Road @ Sunny Side Lane. Just across from the Crawford Farm, used to neck with Becky Crawford. Once took Jug Handle Rd, to Tionesta Creek & rafted clear passed Nebraska Bridge to the Lake. Explored all over on my Husqvarna stirring up deer. I have seen road side spring water sites time & again, some with similar stone work as The Chamber, where exactly is this cave like spring in question ?

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Charles Dague link
7/7/2020 07:55:18 pm

PAM, I spent much time in Tionesta in the late 60's & 70"s at my fathers trailer camp property on German Hill Road @ Sunny Side Lane. Just across from the Crawford Farm, used to neck with Becky Crawford. Once took Jug Handle Rd, to Tionesta Creek & rafted clear passed Nebraska Bridge to the Lake. Explored all over on my Husqvarna stirring up deer. I have seen road side spring water sites time & again, some with similar stone work as The Chamber, where exactly is this cave like spring in question ?
charlesdague@aol.com

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Cynthia
3/3/2013 05:25:55 am

It didn't even cross my mind that the structure was a spring house, but that makes perfect sense. I spent my middle and high-school years in West Virginia in a new subdivision outside of Morgantown. The neighborhood sported a ramshackle and tiny old spring house there that was finally taken down in the '90s, I think. It was built onto the side of a hill just above a road in order to take advantage of the water flow. Kind of an ingenious thing -- and obviously what the structure in the show is, now that you've brought it up.

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Terry
3/15/2013 05:36:37 am

You're a duesh Jason. Get over yourself. You think you're so much smarter than everyone. Then why is it that you don't host a show on Tv? Because you're pretentious and ego headed.

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Rebecca link
3/15/2013 11:47:31 am

"though maybe I’m just part of the conspiracy" brilliant. I am so happy I stumbled on this blog. This show was leaving me irate, and knowing I'm not alone in seeing the foolishness in this "archaeology" makes me feel so much better!

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Jonathan
3/15/2013 05:04:14 pm

Has anyone seen Jimmy Hoffa?

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Justin
3/16/2013 08:33:18 am

I think what people enjoy is the whole treasure hunting aspect. Who doesn't find to find/unearth something no one else has. There might be inaccuracies but with anything we need to look at it with a grain of salt. People can spin something to look how they want it.

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Aaron
3/17/2013 12:16:54 pm

A critique of the critique:

As I read this review I find that there is the use of the same devices of misinformation that are ridiculed on AU.

One could just as easily argue that denying people access to historical sites is just as much a "crime" as your opinion that these people are doing something inherently wrong by accessing this land. It's not a given as this article implies.

Also apparently you are a believer in a mass "white people" conspiracy, since you hold no standard of equality in your article when referring to one ethnic group as "Native American" and in the same sentence to another as their color of skin. Race clearly plays no part in this ridiculous show, and your apparent suggestion that Scott Wolter and others that make this show are racists is totally uncalled for.

That being said, thank you for the knowledge of what this really is and I agree that it is sad that our culture would rather make up stories of fantasy rather than learn the truth. I would much rather watch a show about this colonial structures, than have to filter through BS like AU in order to learn about this stuff.

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Jason Colavito link
3/17/2013 12:22:53 pm

When have I ever suggested a "white" conspiracy. I call Native Americans and white people by their conventional designations. It is not my fault that there is no standardized usage. I imagine I could say "caucasian" or "Euro-American," but the convention is to say "white."

I've never accused the show or its cast of being racists, only that their show advocates a narrative that has been historically associated with race-based claims. Please see my posts specifically on racism, which you can find by typing "racism" into my search box.

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Aaron
3/18/2013 07:46:42 am

"Native Americans are not mentioned, likely because they are not white. Seriously, I don’t think a single non-white person has been interviewed on this show except when Wolter was in Mexico and was forced to meet with a Mexican."

This is what you wrote, don't really understand what I'm missing? I think any variety of terms can be used but shouldn't we be moving away from defining people by color?

Also this: "only that their show advocates a narrative that has been historically associated with race-based claims"
Seems to me to be the exact same analogy you used regarding secret societies and farmers.

These "narratives" @ least presently, are the ideas of hundreds rather than the majority. Most people interested in pre-columbian European exploration of America are not white supremacists. And @ least how I read it, it seems you are accusing them of it.

Love the discourse, will certainly check out your other articles.

Diana Thornton
3/17/2013 02:38:56 pm

This one I have to agree is so bogus it's laughable. I don't think pre-Columbrians used concrete in North America as this "basin" obviously is. He's beginning to sound like the Jesse Ventura of archeology "everyone is conspiring against me". This is obviously a spring house and the spring flowing into the basin used to cool milk, butter and other perishables. How do the people of the History Channel pedal crap like this?

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The Doctor
4/17/2013 05:37:56 pm

When were you there to see that the basin is "obviously" concrete? I was there today and it's obviously made of perfectly cut stone.

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JoAnn
5/29/2013 01:25:19 pm

Thanks for sticking up for our locals Doc. I live very close by as well. Found it very interesting. Any chance you would meet with me and take me there.????

David Scheaffer
3/19/2013 11:41:37 am

I watched the "Newport Tower" last night. The way Mr. Wolter was trying to get evidence to fit a theory was irritating! The longer I watched, the less I wanted to watch. This blog is fantastic! I now know that I am not the only viewer to feel we were being sold a bill of goods.

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tracey mcfarland
3/24/2013 04:14:41 pm

Well, thank you. I immediately thought, when the photos of the chamber were shown, "That just looks exactly like a really well built springhouse to me." And I wondered why they didn't look around the area nearby for remains of housing. I was saying, "It's a springhouse, a springhouse, ya idiots." Oh well. At first I was fascinated by his shows but have gradually lost interest as I have continued to feel he was overdramatizing , ignoring evidence that did not fit his pet theories and deliberately misinterpreting other evidence.

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Scott Vincent
7/12/2014 12:14:43 pm

I thought the same asTracey McFarland! Kept thinking "spring house!" it's a spring house! They are all over kentucky.

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Dan
3/27/2013 03:54:12 am

I live, not far away from the site. A co-worker recently found the site and it was hidden with brush, rocks, etc. He was skeptical also, until he visited. It is into the side of a very steep hill, where it would have been very difficult to build. He noted the very nice stonework and the exactness of the stone basin with "half round" water gutter and it was in the shape of a S. He came out wondering why they would go to all that work and trouble. He is now wondering a bit more now, than before he went in. Who knows?

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Thomas
5/13/2013 03:05:41 pm

I was just at the site last week. It is very well built and all stone. It is built into a steep hillside where there are at least a dozen other springs. We did quite a bit of hiking all around the site looking for an old foundation or any signs of past buildings and not only did not find any, but came to the conclusion that there is not anywhere to build a house. There was never a farm there unless they planted on the steep river hill and built the house into the hill side like the chamber itself which is very unlikely. It makes no sense where it is located and left us asking ourselves more questions then before we saw it. One thing I am convinced of after seeing it though is it is Not a spring house. Way to much work involved and in a horrible location to get water from. Also like I said before there are at least a dozen other springs coming out of the hill. You would have to travel a long way up and down a steep grade to carry buckets of water from this place.

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BobT
6/26/2013 06:56:12 pm

Other springs may have been observed, but are they all sprongs or just seeps? Do they run all year, even in lower rainfall months or are they intermittent? I would speculate that this is the best spring available.

Next you assert that there are no foundations. As an archaeologist Imam well aware that the few stones (if even that luxury was employed to support a wall) cabins seldom leave substantial traces of their presence. if the walls were slightly leveled spot no evidence would remain after decay has finished. Similarly if the bste was too steep a building could have been built nearby with a level floor raised on the down hill side with posts, that again would leave little trace over time.

Finally you think that too much work was lavished on the spring house. How much work would you do on the refrigerator that could help you preserve your food -- especially if you were in an isolated area away from help. Also, what if it was hard to build and use? If that is where the spring is, that is where you build you spring house. If building there means you have to work harder, then "so be it" Asking a question like that is like asking why anyone would cut their entire hay crop with a scythe rather than something else. if that's what you got... that's what you use. Life can be hard.

Gary Gilmore
7/28/2013 02:27:10 pm

I have been to this underground chamber and agree that it is not what you would call a traditional spring house. As noted, there are no foundations around and the ground has not been farmed. However, at the base of the hill was a large hotel built in the late 1800s. Since it was along the river people would vacation here in the summer. My feeling is the spring was developed as an attraction for the summer guests to hike to.

Dave Roberts
4/5/2013 08:41:41 am

I too have an issue with this series, at least what I have seen of it. You essentially have the same view.

Lame, pseudo-science, drivel.

Find some site and make up some wild speculation, ignore any previous science on the topic and let go. Its just entertainment.

It isn't when it misrepresents science.

If he called himself a "mystery explorer" and declared that everything he does is not science but a hunch and science is a conspiracy. I could let it go. But what he does is not science and should not be presented as a valid hypothesis, just one guy's non-scientific thoughts on what a site means.

Like that pile of rocks was made by the Knights Templar because it is round and it has holes on it and the light of a star would cast a light on the wall there, and there 6 months later, my god, it makes a cross. Duh.

Thanks for your blog. One can only hope the producers of this drivel see the light.

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Dave Roberts
4/5/2013 09:03:13 am

Thanks for that picture and description of a spring house. I live in Newfoundland and I am well aware of root cellars, the local variety are top loading for the most part, although some have doors on the side wall. Several years ago I found what you call a spring house which is exactly what you describe, what puzzled me was that it had no apparent well at the back but water flowed through gravel out the door. I thought it was weird as I had never seen water in a root cellar before. This place was built like the proverbial brick house, dry stone walls with a vaulted flagstone roof.

Now I know what it is and how it worked.

Thanks

Darn the Templars did not build it!

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Dave Roberts
4/5/2013 09:03:23 am

Thanks for that picture and description of a spring house. I live in Newfoundland and I am well aware of root cellars, the local variety are top loading for the most part, although some have doors on the side wall. Several years ago I found what you call a spring house which is exactly what you describe, what puzzled me was that it had no apparent well at the back but water flowed through gravel out the door. I thought it was weird as I had never seen water in a root cellar before. This place was built like the proverbial brick house, dry stone walls with a vaulted flagstone roof.

Now I know what it is and how it worked.

Thanks

Darn the Templars did not build it!

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Titus pullo
4/6/2013 11:35:49 am

Jason
Funny u should mention Auburn ny. My 90 year old father grew up there in the 1930s. I grew up in Fairport near Rochester and used to spend my summers in the 70s wondering around the woods and came across two spring houses although we didn't know the name but it reminded me of a natural refride using the cold water...I was 8 when I found the first one and it was apparent to mean old farmer 100 years ago made it not Vikings or the knights Templar.


I'm crude toy reading the great deformation by Dave stockman. I recommend the book as it shows economics to be the worst form of junk science right up there with this episode. Keynesian astrology is on par with ancient aliens...

We just got back from a short vacation in Newport staying at the Viking hotel about a block from the Newport tower. My teenage kids laughed at the idea it was built by Chinese or knights...we got breakfast one morning ata small cafe called cafe. Ellevue and the guy who runs the Newport tower museum it is a small place in a small set of stores next to the park was eating breakfast and said he told the episode producers it was built in thee 1600 century.

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Jason Colavito link
4/6/2013 11:59:20 am

The chances are pretty good, then, that my 96-year-old grandfather met your father at some point in the 1930s. He seems to have known everyone who ever lived in town.

Spring houses are common, and it's just sad to see that the disconnect urban-dwellers have with the countryside leads them to attribute farm buildings to wandering Knights Templar and Freemason conspiracies.

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The Doctor
4/17/2013 12:48:10 pm

There seems to be nowhere in close proximity to the chamber that would be level enough to build on. You have to crawl into the chamber as it appears that the original entrance collapsed years ago leaving huge rectangular stones laying in a heap. Once you're in the hallway I could stand up without my head touching the ceiling and it was several inches wider than me. The stone walls are held together with a sand mortar that crumbles when you touch it. As you walk back the hallway aprox. 16 feet, you reach a knee high stone with a 3 inch hole through it through which the spring drains from a perfectly square basin that is aprox. 30''X30". The basin is in a seperate room from the hallway. It is in a chamber that is aprox. 4'x4' and 10'to12' high. There is a vent in the ceiling that is aprox. 10''x10'' that upon looking from above ground is aprox. 16'-18' underground. The spring snakes into the chamber through an S shaped trough about 6' long then dumps into the basin. These are conservative dimensions. Oh, the mortar in the chamber is not like the mortar in the hallway. The mortar in the chamber is very hard and defineitly has a cement quality.

M.M.
4/23/2013 04:41:14 pm

To quote from your review of America Unearthed episode:
"So, Snyder dresses up as a hunter, complete with gun, thus conspiring with Wolter to fraudulently gain access to the land and to trespass thereon. Is this photographic evidence of a crime? Or is the entire scenario created ex nihilo to make Wolter look like the victim of a conspiracy? I wish I had some way of knowing, but since the landowner is never named, I can’t call him or her up to find out".

I just watched this show for the first time, try hitting the pause button at approx. 10:30 into the show & the land owner is clearly listed as: "Chagrin Land LP"

Quick google search & 30 seconds later you have the land owner, & an individual representative w/ phone number to contact??
http://www.ekobai.com/company/95171/chagrin-land-limited-partnership

Am i missing something here? Go ahead & finish what you started.

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Jason Colavito link
4/24/2013 01:21:34 am

Thank you for that. I'll give them a call and see what I can find out.

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Andor the Bold
5/14/2013 07:40:27 am

Can't wait until Scott takes on the crystal skulls! What a knucklehead!

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Jon
5/18/2013 03:44:02 am

Funny type of spring? You ain't never seen spring in northwest PA.

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Kristen
6/21/2013 01:31:18 pm

I grew up right down the hill from this "secret cave". The whole show is laughable to me. The people who carved out this spring house were very well versed in stonework which can be observed all over
President village. There is an old pier in President village which served as the old ferry landing that took folks across the river to the train station across the river where you can see more cut stone. The remains of the old President hotel still sits below the chapel. The old stone bridge abutment still remains on both sides of Hemlock Creek. Behind the bridge was a gristmill and the stone remains from that are still there. Further up hemlock there is what is left of an old iron furnace. Not to mention the stone foundation of my parent's house. I don't know if there was ever a house up near that spring house but I do know that they used horses to drag the stone down off the hills in the area. No one had to walk to any spring to get water. They had horses! There is more than one of these spring houses on that hill also....none as elaborate as this one but they are there.

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Charles Dague
5/18/2021 11:30:41 pm

Thank you, Viewing Google map; President Road comes to Route 62 just across from Hemlock Creek bridge remains, from there where is the old President Hotel foundation and the spring?
charlesdague@aol.com

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Charles Dague
9/15/2021 11:07:17 pm

"Robert Elliott lived where President village now is. He was one of the early settlers of the county. He had a grist-mill seven miles below Tionesta, and a good farm on the river bottom. William Elliott, son of Robert, was in business in Franklin in company with Hugh Henry, and afterward in the foundry business, as Elliott & Eply. He was a prothonotary of Venango county and a good man. The grist-mill was a water-power at the mouth of Hemlock creek. The property now belongs to E. E. Clapp. Mr. Clapp has expended considerable money in making roads, and in the erection of a large hotel on the river bank. I should have mentioned that Mr. Ralph Clapp, the father of the present owner, had a furnace on the property, and manufactured pig-iron for a number of years. He sometimes preached the gospel to his neighbors, and was an able and eloquent man.
www.pagenweb.org/~forest/history/chapt2.htm

chuck dague fb messenger

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David
6/26/2013 01:16:37 pm

I grew up in Bucks County at the other end of Pennsylvania. The thought of the mysterious stone chamber with water being a spring house immediately occurred to me as well. There are a number of early homes with these forms of refrigeration.

The idea that it was some sort of ritual bath is silly considering there is no tub where one could bath.

Thank you for exposing another conspiracy type show.

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Mike
6/26/2013 05:36:16 pm

The basin and channel carrying waer to it looked modern like it had been precisely machined. Any thoughts?

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Are you kidding me?
6/27/2013 02:32:41 am

I am sorry to say that I wasted time reading the first several paragraphs of this article. When was there some unwritten rule passed that anything you see on tv needs to be real. This is for entertainment, not a college thesis. Nothing you see on television is real, down to the crowds at award shows or tv specials.

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Jaime
7/30/2013 10:07:32 pm

See this is why all you people suck on these blogs your so critical and close minded and right away come to your tight ass nerdy conclusions who knows who built it you people dont and yeah he might be wrong on some things but to say this and that and be certaint this dumb guy went to alot of trouble to review this show and talk about wardrobe funds what a moron the guy should end his nerdy life already

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aj
8/8/2013 02:30:28 pm

Jaime...go back to school. Quick

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Jaime
7/30/2013 10:09:00 pm

Jason Convaito put your address and ill send you some rope and hopefully you know what to do with it

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terry the censor
7/31/2013 07:50:32 pm

Jaime, seek medical help immediately. And legal advice too, since you're naive enough to post death wishes

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blakeavon
8/16/2013 12:10:55 pm

Im late to this blog, as i have only just started to watch this show in Australia. After one episode i was like "just another lame History Channel Faux truth show" then after one or two more it became like a historical version of Sharknado. Something one watches on a boring night and in need of hysterical laughter. You blog is bloody brilliant. Im a season behind in Ancient Aliens, which i stopped watching as it got too stupid, but with your blog in hand i might start watching that for entertainment value. Thanks for all your hard work.

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Jason Colavito link
8/16/2013 12:58:26 pm

You're very welcome. Laughter is the only way to cope with the sheer idiocy of it all. That, or a quick dip in the chilly waters of your nearest Templar-Freemason ritual bathtub.

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C. Davis
9/17/2013 01:29:03 pm

Hope some teachers start using the show along with this site to introduce kids to critical thinking and analysis. Glad someone else noticed the inherent racism. Shocked to find out public money is being used for this drivel. Well, maybe not so shocked.

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Bimmerella
9/17/2013 07:20:14 pm

When I first saw this show advertised I thought it looked interesting, but less than 5 minutes in, I was asked by Wolter to accept his assumptions as fact. I'm sorry, but that just doesnt fly with me. At ten minutes I found myself thinking ..."this guy is a bit of a presumptuous bag of douche". The over dramatization of him not being allowed on the property...yeah, had my bs detector going off the chart. I began thinking there is no way a reputable scientist would require thoughtful intelligent viewers to make the leaps in logic without facts to back it up, the way he does. I did a google, to get some background on Mr. Wolper, and found exactly nothing that led me to believe that he was uniquely qualified as an expert on anything other than industrial type geology. Then I happened upon this posting, and it confirmed my suspensions. Thanks for doing the service of researching the claims and the so called expert. This just proves that having a questioning nature, is never a bad thing!!!
You got yourself a new subscriber :-)

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Lynne
10/2/2013 08:46:05 am

I happened on this show while checking on our channel lineup--probably about 15 minutes in. At first, it seemed sort of interesting, until he mentioned Irish monks. Irish monks? Why would monks leave their homeland and build 800 "mysterious structures" all over Northeastern US? Surely, with 800 of them, the mystery would have died out quickly. Seemed a lot more logical to check with Indians whether these were places for hunters to store their caches before heading home with the meat. Or--as has been suggested a myriad of times herein--spring houses. Or maybe even smoke houses at one time (I'm guessing).

I've been to Newgrange. Very interesting place, but clearly not a burial chamber: no place for graves, for one thing. Used for some ritual, ok. And it looks straight out at a huge Celtic horse carved into the hillside directly across the Valley. It's on a lonely, wind-swept hill. Yes, I noticed the spirals--they're on many Irish and Welsh structures. And Newgrange is oriented toward the winter solstice, as someone mentioned above. The solstice was considered by Celts to be the start of the new year. Thus, Hallowe'en was sacred to both Welsh and Irish. So Newgrange probably figured into that in some way. Springs, wells, rivers were also sacred to Celts, but I heard no mention of that.

So I turned the damned thing off after the Knights and the Masons. This is drivel, pure and simple. Just speculation. But, sadly, not even informed speculation. I was a bit intrigued by the regularity of the basin, so I googled, "Ancient rectangular stone basins" and got this site, Jason. Have enjoyed the comments here, and your blog, far more than any of the silly stuff on the program. Thanks!

As I watched Wolter, it became clear he was hunting for some mysterious conspiracy that just doesn't exist. Then Knights Templar? Really? And Masons? Gimme a break. Never mentioned the Welsh, who it has been proven arrived in Mobile Bay (now Alabama) around 900-something (I am NOT sure of the date--should have googled it, sorry).

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DrFurstDunaharm
10/9/2013 09:07:35 am

The first thing that caught my attention was that the "hunter" said he was hunting "small game".

I grew up in WV not far from that site and have lived and hunted in every quadrant of the country. I can honestly say that I have never said, nor heard it said, that somebody was hunting "small game". An actual (unscripted) hunter would say I was rabbit hunting, or squirrel hunting, or deer hunting, or even varmint hunting (groundhogs, coyotes, crows, etc).

Never heard "small game hunting" said by an actual person. I don't know about the site itself, but I know that if that guy was a hunter - he was completely scripted.

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aquitana link
2/22/2014 10:30:07 am

Also I like how the "hunter" leans on the muzzle of his 12 gauge with both hands. WTF?

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Jeff link
11/2/2013 07:08:18 am

I was just watching this show, as it happened to come on and I was too busy at my PC to be bothered to change the channel. It did seem to me that he was quickly moving from bad theorizing based on no real information to even worse theorizing based on even less information. Cable TV is now swamped by these stupid shows for stupid people. Civilization is dead. (I did find this site because I was curious about what kind of reaction this show was getting. It is at least slightly comforting to see that I am not alone in my unbridled skepticism.)

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Skye Wellington
11/3/2013 01:03:47 pm

I wanted to thank you for this post! I agree with you. I saw this episode last night and I was completely insulted by it. My father Byron Dix and colleague Jim Mavor had researched these sites extensively and wrote a book about it them called Manitou. I can't tell you how disgusted I felt to watch Scott Wolter traipse around the site and completely ignore all the amazing scientific proven work of my father and all the many amazing researchers who have spent decades discovering its mysteries. I don't understand why these brilliant scientists work were never recognized and the points in Scotts show went against what they had proven scientifically. And, more importantly the fact that he gave absolutely no credit to the native american ancestors made me absolutely want to hurl. We understand the connection with all these site universally to other sites around the globe, but to completely dismiss the knowledge of native american shaman tradition is disgusting.

Scott Wolter did have his secretary email me back...they do not understand why I was insulted.. they want these sites to be properly studied and projected (however that is not what I saw in the episode.) Do they not understand they have been properly studied, extensively??? What a slap in the face. Soooooo confused.... But then again, this is what Jim and Dad faced there entire lives while researching the sites, they had there hands in the dirt of it until the day the died.

There Message:
"Hi Skye,

I am sorry but I do not understand what you are upset about. Scott knew Jim Mavor and respected his work. He says he did not know your Dad but knows that there were many people that came before him who did much to advance these sites. He wants these sites to be properly studied and protected as you do.

Thanks for writing.

Janet

America Unearthed Team"

My Message:
Dear Scott Wolter,

I am watching your show on History Channel and I am finding it quite interesting and I really appreciate the subject matter. But, I must also admit that I find it insulting to my fathers life's work and your show has given me a great distaste because it discredits all his scientific works and proofs, and I'm afraid it also disrespects the relationship of the peoples who built these sacred ceremonial structures. Many of the questions you have asked in your show were the very questions my father and his colleagues had asked and proved through radiocarbon dating and years upon years of research. My father Byron Dix was not an idiot, he was a brilliant archaeo-astronomer and aerospace engineer who built rockets and telescopes. His colleague, Jim Mavor an ocean engineer for WHOI was also not an idiot, I'm sure you've heard of the Alvin Submarine, he designed the Alvin, Jim also dedicated a great deal of his life to researching a site he believed was home to Atlantis.
In this episode I am watching you are looking at stone structures in the North East, you visited Gungywamp in Groton, CT. Your claims that the early irish built these structures shoves a dagger in my heart. My father and Jim (and my mother) studied gungywamp extensively, did you happen to see the bird effigy carved in one of the standing stones at this site, my mother discovered that with her crew with Jim Whittal while the site was being researched in the late 70's. I ask that you please acknowledge my father and Jim's work, they wrote a book about it! I have boxes and boxes full of files with there research. These stone structures are amazing as you know so if you are interested in learning about them I'd suggest you look into their work. And please show some respect for these sites as they are sacred to our ancient native american ancestors.

The book is called Manitou, co authored by Byron Dix and Jim Mavor. Published by Inner Traditions (Simon and Schuster distributors)

If you ever want to learn more about these sites I'm sure my mom Diane and myself would love to share information with you, including the struggles we have to preserve these sites from destruction. We have connections. These sites are extremely important and sacred. I agree there is an amazing pattern and that this influence stretches across earth.

Thanks a bunch!

Skye Dix Wellington

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Ray
11/28/2013 02:20:30 pm

Thank you for your summary of this episode, which re-aired tonight. Although I sometimes enjoy this series for entertainment purposes, you are correct in saying that the processes used to 'prove' the theory presented were inadequate to say the least.
I am a Professional Land Surveyor in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and I was befuddled by a number of issues, including the instructions to trespass and the coarse methods used to take measurements. Surely, the History Channel could afford to arrange for an accurate survey to compute the tunnel entrance orientation and serve as the basis for constructing the model, instead of relying on an imprecise Brunton compass in the hands of a layperson. Simply eliminate the expensive trip to Ireland, which was totally off topic anyway. Your comments regarding lack of research are well founded too, since there was no record evidence presented that made any solid determination of what the underground structure might be instead of jumping to conclusions.
I am very much interested in these types of theories, however, by airing a show based purely on an unreliable data set, speculation instead of research and jumping to a desired conclusion, it does not help the cause of finding anything truly unique; rather, it only gives skeptics more ammo to point out the inaccuracies. Sure, there is a lot we don't know, but we can only arrive at conclusions through scientific research, reliable data and objective review of the results. This show could be something decent. but there are too many agenda-based assumptions being made.
Thank you!

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Robin
11/30/2013 09:16:47 am

I grew up a few miles from that site. My grandparents lived in Tionesta and had a spring house nearly exactly like that. They didn't have indoor plumbing until around the time I turned 13 (circa 1975). I remember my brother and I taking turns bringing buckets of water to the house for cooking and bathing. I spent many summers there and explored the area extensively. There are numerous sites like this all over. There are also natural caves to explore if you know where to look! Ah the memories! :-)

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Leo P
12/1/2013 02:48:30 am

Jason,
I was watching this episode and my internal BS meter started blaring in my mind, which then led me to your website. My first reaction to Wolter's claim was, who in the world would bath underground in a cold spring? The spring looks exactly like a natural spring well we used to get fresh water from in Willimantic, CT when I was a kid. I know nothing of root or spring cellars but was flabbergasted when Wolter claimed he "couldn't think of any other use for the spring than ritual bathing". Really?? Hmmm what possible use could there be for water besides rituals??? Not to mention that the "bathtub" would only hold an infant and the corridor only a few people due to its cramped quarters. It's a well for fresh water in my opinion and the whole episode underscored to me that Wolter is pulling this stuff out of his a$$. Its too bad because, like most viewers, I was truly looking forward to discovering something new about history but have found a charlatan instead.

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Mark
12/1/2013 04:29:43 am

'When Militant Skeptics Attack!', we hardly get started before the ad hominem attacks come out. Wolters got a coat at the expense of the taxpayers of Minnesota! He doesn't even really live there! He doesn't interview any Native Americans so he must be a racist!

I'll give you a much better(speculative) reason there aren't any Native Americans on the show: the first one Wolters interviewed identified the hole in the ground as a spring house built by a local farmer, so that film went directly to the cutting room floor. If you don't like it that way, make your own show about how spring houses are misidentified and see how many viewers you attract. Wolters is making entertainment and he has no reason to apologize for that. If you don't like it, don't watch.

But don't take Wolters to task for having his helpers pose as hunters and then turn around and post a hateful screed like this and misrepresent it as a 'Review'. Your hypocrisy only adds credibility to Wolters' claims of victimization.

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Jason Colavito link
12/1/2013 04:42:21 am

So, in your mind a review has to be positive? In that case, it doesn't really serve much purpose, does it?

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Jack Najalack
1/3/2014 04:48:32 am

Ironically, many of the posters seem as naïve as those who credit Wolter's shows. Proven facts are optional in the TV genre called "entertainment documentaries." Outrage is unwarranted.

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Kelli
12/3/2013 02:53:14 pm

Jason, thanks so much for pointing out that the Irish could never have sailed to America, such a silly notion. Taking it one step further, there's no way they could have made it to Ireland.

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Wendy
12/8/2013 09:11:08 am

So I recorded these shows and, since I'm from PA I decided to watch this episode first. My first thought was, uh, that's a springhouse. And I thought the channels were made of concrete. So I looked for reviews of the episode and found your blog. Yay, lots of other people agree with meeeeeee!!! Wish I could make money off of my enormous wealth of knowledge! Unfortunately I don't lie, so it looks like I'll remain merely comfortable and able to live with myself. What a charlatan this Wolter guy is

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Andy
12/9/2013 06:30:07 am

I'm halfway through this episode . . . If I was playing the "misused the term archeoastronomy" drinking game I'd be hammered by now.

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Andy
12/9/2013 07:36:24 am

The one thing I am impressed with is how each episode is dumber than the one that came before it.

The only thing demonstrated by shining a light into a very nice model of a linear spring house is that light goes in a straight line.

They could have at least put some naked Knights Templar action figures or something in there. I mean seriously . . . I'm watching every episode of this show - give me SOMETHING.

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gumby
1/3/2014 03:12:44 am

I just now saw this show, and live within 20 miles of this site. To me it looks like a root cellar or a type of milk house built by early settlers. The Amish in that area use similar root cellars/ milk houses still today. The bath chamber does look like poured cement and very well could be; Cement like that has been in development since the early 1800's. I have been in milk/spring houses similar to the chamber from the show and to me that what it looks like.

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ScottW...
1/3/2014 04:03:10 am

I'm "RICH BITCHES" and you're not;) Move along now, the king has spoken!

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AZ Rail Rat link
1/25/2014 12:42:20 pm

P. T. Barnum, who said, "There's a SUCKER born every minute." Is laughing his ASS off over America Unearthed.

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GaryC
1/25/2014 12:46:22 pm

As soon as I saw this "Ritual Bath Chamber" I told my Wife this moron has never seen a spring house! What hokum! My Dad was from western Pennsylvania and the family farm had a spring house. Been in it multiple times and recognized what Wolter's chamber was right away. One thing about our spring house that he's right about.....it was built by the Irish!!!!! Show has no credibility

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Scot Reed
1/25/2014 05:11:00 pm

Firstly let me say that I am not necessarily a fan of the show Unearthed. But I find your assertion that this is a spring house a bit hard to swallow.I have seen several spring houses and the first problem I have with this being one is its entrance. Why would someone build a spring house that they would have to crawl on the ground to enter? Secondly I have never seen a spring house with a basin in it. I am tempted to believe that this is in fact a ritualistic chamber used to mark and celebrate the planting and harvesting seasons and was intentionally made the way it was to possibly hide its entrance. This would be because in colonial times this type of practice could be considered as some type of witch craft. As to your portrayal of the show, I find you not much different than the creators of the show with all of your conspiracy theories. IT IS A TELEVISION SHOW! It is designed to be theatrical so that people watch it. So the grainy video and other things you mention are done solely for artistic reasons. And the assumptions that you make throughout this article seem to me to be no different than the assumptions that Wolter makes in his show, highly questionable, overly dramatic and done solely for consumption by the reader.

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S.vincent
7/12/2014 01:01:12 pm

Spring houses sometimes have several basins. The basins allow particulates to settle and provides reserve. Why wait for a bucket to trickle full when a whole pail can be dipped full? Things like milk and butter was submerged in basins to keep cool and fresh.

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Fred
2/15/2014 11:03:30 am

Hey wasn't this the area of the Great Whiskey Rebellion....great site for a still and store house to keep that that sippin' whiskey fresh......

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Jay
2/22/2014 10:26:12 am

I was with you right up to the point that you implied Scott is some sort of racist...

"Native Americans are not mentioned, likely because they are not white. Seriously, I don’t think a single non-white person has been interviewed on this show except when Wolter was in Mexico and was forced to meet with a Mexican."

After that I completely lost interest in anything you had to say. So tired of race baiting along with political correctness in America. More often than not I find those accusing racism are the racists.

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Ray
2/22/2014 11:22:18 am

Yep. My earlier comment about surveying technique is one thing, but I too am growing weary of being persecuted because I'm a white male. The science issue, I agree with. The race issue should never enter into science

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Jason Colavito link
2/22/2014 11:29:49 am

And if anything on this show were science you might have a point. But it isn't, so you don't. It's not persecution to note the failures of Wolter's research.

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Bongo Bob
11/22/2014 02:35:13 pm

He does seem to be a self-loathing white guy, doesn't he?

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Donn
3/31/2014 12:46:24 pm

Oh dear lord! Several months ago my mother recommended I watch this show. I'm an active Mason and get a kick out of people and their crazy Masonic theories...10 min in and I wanted to poke my eyes out and bleach my brain!! He was so far off on everything!! I felt embarrassed for him!

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JR Nance
4/14/2014 12:47:05 am

Native West Virginia here.
I have hunted, climbed, kayaked, spelunked and hiked through out the eastern states.
I've seen and visited many places such as the one on Pa.
No one has mentioned, I believe, that they are called cold or ice houses.
The naturally pooled and flowing waters reduce the temp's in containers place with in to very low, some times near freezing' range.
We had such a "cave" dug out on the home place that had a natural spring source that would form pieces of ice in the butter milk kept there.

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williamj
7/10/2014 10:44:16 am

Wyeth Painting

http://www.bierstadt.org/upload1/file-admin/images/new10/NC%20Wyeth-632267.jpg

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Theresa Devine link
10/27/2014 09:38:24 am

You have successfully unlocked and opened the grate but you are now looking down into an underground chamber. There is no way to get down in there unless you invent something. Go here to invent: http://www.innovateus.net/innopedia/what-are-leonardo-da-vincis-inventions

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Jeff F
11/4/2014 06:41:43 am

Wow, this guy. I keep an open mind. What I do know is that Scott W. has a lot more experience and knowledge about such things than you do. I would bet I do too. You sound like an idiot. You go to double the extreme trying to prove him wrong. You have not been in a spring house ever if you think this is what this is. Do spring houses exist? Yes. Does this even remotely resemble any other spring house known to be built during colonial times? No. You actually have quite some nerve to go so in-depth on a topic that you probably learned about on Wikipedia while writing your "blog". You might have actually learned something here if you did your research accurately.

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Danny
11/15/2014 03:35:05 pm

I'm sure only people who have this sites views get posted but I still want to add my beliefs. First, Scott is a well known geologist. He was involved in studying the concrete and rock from 911 at the pentagon and World Trade Center cite. He isn't a quack. H2 offered me a show throwing rocks in a pond Id do it. If you wouldn't your an idiot. He doesn't do it for free as you all seem to point out. Id like to know how all your degrees would stack up against his.

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Ariel Frostborne
11/16/2014 05:34:57 am

I don't think it's so much an old ''spring house,'' but an old basement instead! The opening is what is left of an old basement, it may have caved in and once had a wooden door in front of it. I live in PA. And I have also lived in a home that was 230 years old here, in PA. Honestly, it looks like what is left of an old homestead. Old homes frequently were built on top of springs. The ''basin'' looks like a great way to get fresh water from the comfort of your own home. Also, it could have been a place to bathe children, and store food in the water so it could stay cold. I like to explore old houses. I have actually dug up a plumbing system from an old homestead, made of what seems to be a pottery material. It went from an old basement into a stream nearby. Some homes DID have this stuff, even though people think that no one had running water, or sewage systems. That being said, it's a pretty cool spring house/basement! And it is historical for sure.

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G. Edwin
11/16/2014 09:50:02 am

Just saw this episode again last night and I have to say your analysis is spot on.

As the Great grandson of a Masonic High Priest, I have made finding out about freemasonry a hobby of mine. As soon as Wolter started talking about Freemasons and Ritual washing a little WTF alarm went off in my brain. In all my research into Freemasonry, I had never heard of such a thing.

And, as you pointed out Freemasons had well appointed meeting halls to perform such functions.

When you mentioned spring houses, a little light went off in my head! When I was a child growing up in Southeastern Pennsylvania, one of my favorite haunts was an old spring house about a 1/2 mile from where I lived. It was a small stone building whose construction looked very similar to the interior of Wolters mysterious underground chamber in fact, the rectangular basin was a dead ringer for the basin in the spring house I had visited so often in my youth!

Finally, as to the "return" to the chamber on the equinox or solstice or whatever it was. I would have to see the episode again, but I will wager even money that that footage was not filmed at the mysterious underground chamber, but in the model Wolter had constructed to test his theory!

As a model builder myself, it occurred to me that the model was far more detailed and "accurate" than would be needed to simply show where the sunlight would shine into the cavern.

I think they used that model to show the "magical" alignment of the sun and the chamber! And, of course that would explain the apparent contradictions in the filming timeline.

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Sarah smith
1/25/2015 09:48:11 am

You people probably believe good ole Chris Columbus discovered America , right?

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jztroutball
1/25/2015 09:54:15 am

Intellectual clot! We all know CC discovered Caribbean vacations.....

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D
1/31/2015 05:18:10 pm

Just watched this episode of this show on Netflix tonight. I am from Southeastern PA, so immediately I recognized the "chamber" as a spring house. In fact, the basin was very similar to the spring houses I've visited before. I stumbled on this blog and saw many of the replies where people seem to also believe it's a spring house. So why is it that no one on the show suggests this or brings it up?

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Ed A.
2/5/2015 05:02:12 am

This same type structure (spring house) can be found in the Kinzua area. Yep, Ya get water and cool your food in it. No big mystery.

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Max Airing
2/6/2015 04:44:04 pm

You sound like a dick who needs to wake up and instead of spending your time challenging other people's findings and beliefs you should come up with your own or contribute to actual science instead of nasty hearse.

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Tiffany
2/16/2015 02:48:26 pm

I'm currently pursuing my doctorate in rhetoric and, much to my embarassment, am enrolled in my first history course since high school. It's si fascinating that I've been spending my free time trying to supplement what I'm learning (currently on the later Roman Empire) with podcasts and shows. This was the episode that "broke the camels back." I, too, grew up in western PA so this episode really got my attention. Just reading through the comments, I agree that no one here says "small game hunting." I also began to feel uncomfortable that, unlike other episodes, he didn't interview any other locals. Thank you for this blog, though! Since this is all so new to me, I tend to take what I learn at face value and this episode seemed so off that I sought out more information. Now, I'm off to see if you posted information about the Minoan/Michigan mining episode.

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Brodrick
2/24/2015 01:36:03 pm

Started watching this show recently on Netflix. Jason, I really enjoy your reviews and the comments. I don't think I could watch the show by itself.

What I would like to know - Does Scott Wolter actually believe these kooky theories he presents? Or, does he know it's all a bunch of hooey and does his bit simply as an actor for a tv show? Or, some of both?

Even a country bumpkin like me easily recognized the "chamber" was a spring house. It's interesting that spring house was never mentioned in the show even when ideas were being thrown out as to what this chamber was. I heard root cellar, but never spring house. I feel confident that everyone involved knew that it was / could be a spring house, but that was purposely left out of the show to build intrigue and work toward the ritualistic bath nonsense.

Among the above comments, I believe someone mentioned, why would a spring house be out in the middle of the woods. I've been involved in some genealogy here in the NC mountains and have two ancestral home places where people lived a hundred years ago, but nothing is left but the dry stack rock structure surrounding the spring. One is by the river and one is in the middle of the woods (which wasn't exactly in the middle of the woods back then).

I also own family land that features some dry stack rock structures: A fence, chimney, foundation for a short bridge, retaining wall on the lower side of a farm road and various piles of field stones on the hillside. Perhaps I could get Wolter to declare these as pre-columbian and I could charge admission.

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Chad link
3/19/2015 02:48:57 pm

Goes to show how you can't believe everything you see, hear or read. Learn how to think and not what to believe is what I say. Great review of the show and I think this will make people look at it differently and question some of the theories presented when there isn't concrete proof.

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Josh Miller
3/25/2015 07:38:26 pm

I love that the only thing the host could think of as a reason for the water is "ritualistic bathing." It's not one of the most important elements vital to all life on this planet or anything. What good is it other than to ritualistically bathe with?

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JHX
4/20/2015 02:25:42 am

Watching the series on Netflix. I don't have a background in this sort of thing, but the Templar narrative and the complex relationships drawn (Seemingly right out of the air?) by Wolter did feel totally contrived. It appears this is indeed the case.

I tell you, though.. I like this sort of series, as I like alternative explanations and I like to see the alternatives explored. But I like it much more with this blog as an accompaniment, because as much as I enjoy alternative theories and explanations, I don't like Wolter lying to me outright. (Even if it is lying by omission)

I'll continue watching, because I like to see footage of the sites. It's interesting to me to view all of these different places and see some of the personalities that are involved with them. I think things like this are fascinating in their own right. I don't need a strained Templar narrative or some wild conspiracy to keep me interested. I'd watch even if he just took a camera and walked around all day, filming this stuff without comment.

Thanks for shedding some light on this for me.

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Neil
8/13/2015 07:08:52 am

I appreciate you take the time to write so strongly about what you feel, but I think I said this before, it's almost like a witch hunt mentality towards people with a different viewpoint, and also as if everything is just a big money-making conspiracy.....I read this quote in the article above "Using measurements taken by fraud.....Wolter concludes that the chamber is aligned to sunset on the summer solstice, a time of day of no particular relevance to any of the secret societies Wolter has investigated."

I'm not sure how you can even say this. Wolter has investigated the Knights Templar, there is a book written about Sacred Sites of the Knights Templar, and alignment for the solstice/equinox is all over it, whether or not you agree, it is what it is. But the other thing is, because these societies are secret it's often difficult to say and there's much speculation as to what their secrets are and what the true meaning of their beliefs can be. I read your blog and there is very few exploring questions, but more of a non-scientific approach where because "I have seen" or "I grew up here, I know" and "these people are frauds", and you come off as an absolute authority and then the minions who want to believe or are pre-disposed to your view point follow suit. It doesn't necessarily make you wrong, but I think that being right would contribute more to "odds" than to something gleaned from a scientific approach because it's as if you have shut off any other viewpoint. You sound angry, sarcastic (a sign of hidden anger), and there's no place for that in a scientific approach, it will only cloud things. It sounds almost political, like a right wing/left wing debate. Strive to be more like Mr. Spock if you will, lol, tell facts unemotionally, but ask some questions also, and actually try to understand and explain to others why people MAY have a different viewpoint.

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Thorne
8/14/2015 04:00:17 am

Neil said: "because these societies are secret it's often difficult to say and there's much speculation as to what their secrets are and what the true meaning of their beliefs can be."
While the idea expressed here may be true, I have wonder how Scott Wolter has become so privileged within these secret societies that he knows just what the meanings of their beliefs really are.

"I think that being right would contribute more to "odds" than to something gleaned from a scientific approach because it's as if you have shut off any other viewpoint."
The whole point of these posts is to show just what the scientific data show, as opposed to Wolter's wildly speculative fantasies. Scott Wolter does not use scientific procedures to verify his claims. Instead, as is evident from his show, he predetermines what he wants to be true, then goes out and tries to find evidence to "prove" his story. And if he has to twist the evidence to meet his needs, he'll do so gladly.

"try to understand and explain to others why people MAY have a different viewpoint."
To quote Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Jason, along with many of his followers here, tries to present his readers with facts, and he generally clearly labels them as facts. When stating an opinion, Jason will generally let his readers know that it is HIS opinion, but when relating scientific consensus, he's stating FACTS. From what little I've seen of Wolter's show, he declares his own opinion to be fact, and is very disturbed by those who bring real evidence to the discussion, especially when that evidence contradicts his beliefs.

I always want to laugh at those who get butt-hurt because people don't consider their opinions to be valid, and who then try to claim that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Why is it that they cannot accept their own statement, letting those who oppose them state THEIR own opinions. Especially when they are doing so IN THEIR OWN BLOG!

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Susan Patrie
11/5/2015 12:13:33 pm

I was thinking the same thing while watching the show. "It's a springhouse, dude!". I've lived in PA my whole life and there are loads of them here. Heck, they even mention them in Colonial era romance novels. There's a particulary nice one in the basement of the Daniel Boone Homestead here. As you said.... I guess it was too difficult to do any actual research.

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jesse
12/20/2015 01:42:32 pm

Hi, i'am an anti bias person and 90 percent of the time i always question things. I take reason and logic. i have read some of these comments and the one that makes since is a ice house, but i don't believe that. Root cellar is wrong, because you don't wont water around the vegetable your trying to keep dry. Here is my problem with the spring house, this structure is made of rock. In the picture you see the wall is stone but what surrounds the spring is wood. A Colonialist would not go through the trouble making it out of stone and not wood. I think that a person making a spring house has other things on his to do list. I seen where someone said a whiskey still, but there's a problem with that. its not big enough for a still. Also there is not enough water to run a still, unless that person is making one cup of whiskey at a time. See here is my problem with this is that it marks summer solstice. See if you were a farmer you wouldn't care about the solstice, you would care about the equinox's, which mark the beginning and end of the growing season at 12 hours of light in a day (Vernal Equinox). Another thing is who ever build it carved that channel so that the spring flow would move in the direction of the solstice.They also covered it in earth, either to hide it or to make sure the stones would not fall away from each other. There is only one reason i know of that a person or culture would mark the solstices is for religion. Today we know of the four season. The pre-history man knew of eight. Today everyone see the solstices as the beginning of winter and summer, which is wrong they are the mid-way points. Mid-summer solstice and the mid-winter solstice. Also they are the longest and shortest days of the year. A lot of cultures celebrate the mid-winter solstice which is the shortest days of the year(Christmas/Yule). There is only two cultures that i know of that still celebrate the beginning of these eight season. They are the catholic church and the northern europe pagans know as the celts. pagans call it the wheel of the year. when you look them up you can find both pegan names and church covered names for the hoildays. we know one as St. Patrick's day which is Ostara the vernal equinox that marks the beginning of spring at 12 hours of light. Most of the irish still celebrate the other holidays to this day. I believe it is a irish holy well made by the irish immigrants that cover most of western PA.

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Stephen
6/13/2016 01:35:10 pm

I'm with you on this, and there are Thousands of these Chambers around the northeast: MA, NY, CT, VT, PA. I have one question. why would they use this chamber for the episode. the chamber in the episode is clearly modern. from what I remember of it, the interior was really modern. it had bricks and mortar. After I learned of these stone chambers, I began to research them. out of the hundreds/thousands of these things, the chamber from the episode is the only single one I have seen that looks in any way modern. Why would they use this Chamber to begin with??? I think your absolutely right though, I think there is a link between Celtic Europe and northeast America. Farmers didn't build these chambers, nor did "native Americans". Why is there no state or federal funding to study these? I have compiled 2 folders of pictures of these stone chambers, one from old great Britain ( Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, ) and one from the northeast. There is an absolute clear and obvious connection, yet not even a sound ever about them. The End

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Barry
1/25/2016 02:50:01 pm

When I first saw Wolter a few years ago, it took me 2 or 3 episodes for me to vow not to get sucked into his nonsense. I would like to see some of you folks above develop a 'debunking' show/episode. Not likely you'd be able to have it broadcast on the History Channel so how about using YouTube. Since I'm from Western PA, I started to watch the Tionesta show and darned if it didn't happen again! I got sucked in to it until he went to Conn. Enough! I went to the Palladia channel. Seriously, please will some of you develop a 'debunking' presentation, point by point, on YouTube?

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Stephen M
6/13/2016 01:18:59 pm

"This is a rather longwinded way of saying that the mysterious “chamber” Scott Wolter investigates in America Unearthed S01E08 “Chamber Hunting” is “mysterious” only to those who’ve never spent much time visiting farms or studying the lives of people who were not part of the cultural, religious, or political elite that Wolter favors."

I'm from Mass, just next door to Ny. its the same here as it is there. A lot of colonial stone masonry and old colonial establishments. having said that, I will point out 2 things. 1: Colonial settlers did not build beehive style-corbeled vault chambers, set to perfectly predict the equinox's and solstices. 2: there are written logs on account of governor James Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts bay colony, where he himself is asking who built them and why they are here. other such logs written from Roger Williams, and I believe possibly even Thomas Jefferson. if you need a 3rd piece of evidence, find a way to date any one of these structures. You could even look at any one of these stone formations and see with the naked eye how much older they are from any other colonial establishment. Some of these chambers have trees and roots growing right through the stonework

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Susan McFarland
7/16/2016 09:41:22 pm

No colonial farmer would waste his time building a spring house as elaborate as the structure in western Pennsylvania, and if you are as "knowledgeable" as you say you are you know this.
Your snarky, mean diatribe sounds like someone who's extremely jealous and immature. You even bitch about clothing used during the taping! Honestly -- go find something else to do, silly boy.

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Mike Lee
10/30/2016 05:30:02 pm

Years ago I watched an episode of Andy Griffith where Andy explains to Opie that in the days before refrigeration people used "cold cellers". Five minutes into Unearthing America I remembered Andy and thought this couldnt be THAT bogus. I just read your review. Funny and maddening. I guess I'm done with H2. Thanks for the laugh.

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Cecilia
11/21/2016 06:11:26 pm

This show was recently added on UK Netflix and me in my little procrastination bubble started watching it because I wanted to watch something silly and brainless that would still have that adventure element, like an underwhelming tribute to Indiana Jones. I immediately need to pause and find this kind of a source because not even my half-a-sleep ass could ignore the desperate and awkward attempts this Wolter dude was making in order to keep this show interesting. Anyway, very grateful for some more accurate info on this,and may I say; as stupid as the show obviously is, it brought forward a few places with some interesting things I didn't know about from a complete touristy perspective.

Also,I'm sort of sad about the reality of those cold cellars,I almost wish there would've been a bunch of freemason granpa's forming a line outside the cellar with towel and schampoo in hand,Idk throw in a bathing duck.(yes I know this comment was pointless,sorry)

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Donna L Holcombe
12/6/2022 09:23:58 pm

I thought the rubber duckie (US for bathing duck) was funny.

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SandraE
3/24/2017 12:09:41 pm

Thank goodness there are still people around who know how to think for themselves. I applaud you on your efforts to bark at the heels of producers who insist on sensationalizing the mundane for the sake of "entertainment".

The problem comes when things of this sort become commonly accepted "knowledge" and people use it as a base from which to launch well-meaning projects and research, thus producing more "knowledge".

I am so incredibly tired of endless TV shows on channels with reliable-sounding names like "History" and "Discovery" that essentially tell modern fables and myths, couched in rhetoric that appeals to thrill seekers and conspiracy theorists.

Our grandchildren will have so much trash to sift through... not the middens of ancient physical refuse, but the middens of all the virtual refuse we leave behind.

Stay in the fight, my good man.

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Matt B
10/22/2017 04:26:04 pm

I live less than 300 meters from this Spring/Cellar thing. I walked there this morning and had a peek. One of the previous visitors has left a nice flashlight, and it worked this AM, so thoughtful. My home down the hillside is spring fed (gravity) probably the same water.
I think the spring was a hiking site connected to the old President Hotel; seems to make the most sense.
Ritual bathing nonsense - no room.
Food store - no home to supply.
Nothing out here to justify such an elaborate build except the old President Hotel.

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Charles Dague link
7/7/2020 08:19:12 pm

MATT B, I spent much time in Tionesta in the late 60's & 70"s at my fathers trailer camp property on German Hill Road @ Sunny Side Lane. Just across from the Crawford Farm, used to neck with Becky Crawford. Once took Jug Handle Rd, to Tionesta Creek & rafted clear passed Nebraska Bridge to the Lake. Explored all over on my Husqvarna stirring up deer. I have seen road side spring water sites time & again, some with similar stone work as The Chamber, where exactly is this cave like spring in question ?

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Charles Dague
5/18/2021 11:22:37 pm

Thank you, Viewing Google map; President Road comes to Route 62 just across from Hemlock Creek bridge remains, from there where is the old President Hotel foundation and the spring?
charlesdague@aol.com

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WmB
2/5/2019 02:58:55 am

This episode ran late-night on the Travel Channel (5 February 2019). My curiosity about the bizarre conspiratorial nature of the program led me to Jason Colavito's blog.

I confess I didn't read all the way through the comments, but wonder whether anyone has suggested a connection to the mid-19th century "water cure" movement. There were many places to take the cure -- the most famous US location being Saratoga NY. Hydrotherapy involved both bathing and drinking spring water. There seem to be other known spring locations nearby this "chamber" and the connection several commenters made to a hotel suggests this might have been an area where people "took the waters."

This could explain the very regular appearance of the stonework --which looks more modern to me than colonial ear construction. And, while dimensions were not given for the basin, it seems too small for any sort of bathing, but large enough to have supplied local spring water for drinking.

I seldom sample "reality" TV. Having been a journalist at one time, it really bothers me when people rush to believe baroque conspiracy theories when simple common sense, and the slightest bit of research, could result in a likely and satisfying answer.

Jason Colavito is doing a public service by calling out the unreality of this so-called reality television.

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Aaron
8/24/2020 12:33:56 pm

I made this photo showing what the chambers are aligning to.

Photo: https://share.icloud.com/photos/0i1LbWTmpVAUGNESDTT-Skj5w

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Susanna Dzejachok
10/18/2020 07:35:51 pm

The underground chamber in Tionesta does resemble a spring house on the inside and doesn't look too old. I would really like to know what the round indentation is for on the right of the square basin.

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THE DR
10/23/2020 10:44:36 pm

I've been to this spring and i believe the trough to be the overflow for the basin. Just my opinion.

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Charles Dague
5/18/2021 01:05:23 pm

Message me directions to the spring please.

Charles Dague link
10/24/2020 02:03:58 pm

Someone Please post exactly where the spring basin IS.
- Charles

charlesdague@aol.com

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Charles Dague
10/5/2021 11:19:04 pm

I've finally seen the Spring Cave. Thrilling. To be concise, my leanings favor “it” is a sheltered spring water source. Although, part of me entertains “it” is linked to the ineffable cosmic unknowable. If granted there is a celestial alignment, of what use is that? Is it about successful crops? Is the timing of plant life that precisely temperamental? What of sundial use?

Charles Dague ATP-AP

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Phillip Nunnaley
9/6/2021 02:10:03 pm

After reading your assessment, I appreciate your perspective, but it's quite clear you didn't really listen to what Scott's rationale for his theoretical assessments are. Not just for this underground bunker, but his passion and life's work. I consider your perspective short sided as a result. Many things you argue, he agrees with. Regardless of the truth, it's an interesting find. Thanks for teaching me about the water cooling ideas of our ancestors though.

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CHARLES DAGUE
5/24/2022 12:32:19 am

Greetings fellow enthusiasts, Casting a line here around the evolution of thee spring cave. Much like most forgotten tunnel entrances in ravines the passing of seasons silt and such fill in the cracks. This spring on a hill became a spring cave from fortification, stewardship. How curious it is to know the timeline.
Share.

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Donna Holcombe
12/6/2022 09:19:32 pm

Thanks for your posting. The show is back on Pluto TV. I appreciate your leaving this up. I entertain myself by reading the skeptics after watching an episode. I was really annoyed when Wolter implied that the Native Americans couldn't have figured out how to dig housing into sandstone cliffs by themselves without "teaching" by medieval Englishmen.

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Charles Dague
12/7/2022 09:19:49 am

Fortunate to have witnessed the spring cave before its inevitable collapse. The search for its location revealed remnants of history; foundations, canals, bridges, railways, ferry's, furnaces, cemetery's, skirmishes. Intrigued and thankful.

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        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
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        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
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        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
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        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
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        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
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        • Noah's Ark Cables
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      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
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        • Plane of Ether
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      • A Message from Mars
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      • Orville Wright on UFOs
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    • The Supernatural >
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      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
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      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
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      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
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      • The Second Satellite
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      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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