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Review of America Unearthed S03E01 "Secrets of the Alamo"

11/8/2014

105 Comments

 
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Even two full calendar years after the launch of America Unearthed in December 2012, each airing of the show—even in reruns—produces a flurry of traffic on my website, and often a barrage of email from viewers who are looking for more information about the program, and particularly those who are outraged that I would seek to evaluate the show’s claims in anything less than worshipful terms. Show host Scott F. Wolter, a professional geologist specializing in concrete stability issues, refers to me as a “hate-blogger” and has accused me of being part of a conspiracy to attack him, so it’s hardly surprising that his fans follow his lead. 

If you are one of the new readers coming to this blog for the first time because of the season premiere of America Unearthed, I invite you to read the full background on my interactions with Scott Wolter which I outlined last year in my review of the second season premiere, including a threat of legal action against me A+E Networks, the parent of H2, made on his behalf. To this I must unfortunately add also more recent events, in which Wolter lashed out at me again for a news article I wrote in early 2013 noting that the honorary master’s degree he had claimed to possess for two decades was not an officially recognized award. Writing in September, Wolter threatened future legal action against me: “While the debunker’s post falls just short of the bar necessary to initiate legal action, future events could change the current situation.”

Background

America Unearthed returns from a long hiatus with shiny new graphics and a slightly different focus than it has had over the past two seasons. Publicity materials released to promote the new season depict a program widening its scope to find new material to keep the show going and audiences interested. This season Scott Wolter will be doing less of his trademark questing for Knights Templar, Holy Bloodlines, and pre-Columbian European visitors (though all of that is coming this season) in favor of more mainstream mysteries, such as the Lost Dutchman Mine, giants, and Bigfoot. The season premiere, S03E01 “Secrets of the Alamo” is firmly in the camp of expanding the show beyond Da Vinci Code fans and fringe history true believers with an appeal to patriotism, nationalism, and the and one of the seminal events in the heroic myth of the American frontier.

The myth of Davy Crockett is as American as a story can get: A civic-minded frontiersman sacrifices everything to fight for freedom in the far parts of the wild frontier, surviving on wits and weaponry, giving his life to protect the liberty of others. The popular version was embodied in 1960’s The Alamo, with John Wayne as Crockett. But it was never that simple, not least because the freedom he died to protect was that of American colonizers seeking to detach the part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas now known as Texas from Mexico. According to popular legend, Crockett died at the Alamo on March 6, 1836, felled in defending the site against the forces of the Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. This version of events is supported by testimony from Madame Candelaria, speaking in 1890; Felix Nuñez, speaking in 1889; and Captain Rafael Soldana, as well as American newspapers accounts from the time.

The legend, however, has been challenged repeatedly. A self-published 1955 Spanish-language text claiming to be a transcription of the diary of Mexican soldier José Enrique de la Peña (translated into English in 1975 to much controversy) asserted that Crockett actually surrendered to Mexican forces and was executed shortly thereafter by an irate Santa Anna. According to de la Peña, he was tortured and killed with swords. While the diary’s authenticity has never been confirmed, in fact similar claims from other eyewitnesses had been in print since the 1830s. The New Orleans Post-Union reported, for example, that Crockett had attempted to surrender to Santa Anna, who refused. In September of 1836, a letter from George M. Dolson to his brother appeared in several newspapers, and it claimed that a Mexican soldier had told Dolson that Crockett had been captured and taken to Santa Anna, the “monster,” who in a fit of pique ordered Crockett shot to death in front of him. A fictitious diary of Crockett’s was published in 1837 under the title Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas, and it similarly claimed that Crockett had been captured alive and executed by Santa Anna: “…a dozen swords were sheathed in his indomitable heart; and he fell, and died without a groan, a frown on his brow, and a smile of scorn and defiance on his lips.”

Thanks to Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett series and the 1960 Alamo movie, any revisionist claims that failed to cast Crockett as a hero became grist for America’s endless culture wars. But nearly all of the accounts agreed on one thing: No matter how he died, Crockett was dead.

However, from time to time faulty claims that the great hero had survived the battle of the Alamo resurfaced, notably in a widely reprinted secondhand account published in The New-Yorker on May 7, 1836, which forms part of the “evidence” for the Davy Crockett conspiracy featured in the third season premiere of America Unearthed:
Col. Crockett not dead yet.—We are much gratified in being able to inform our readers that Col. Crockett, the hero and patriot, it is said, is not yet dead. This cheering news is brought by a gentleman now in this city, directly from Texas, and who left the Colonel, as he states, three weeks ago, at the house of his brother-in-law in Texas, where the Colonel was lying quite ill, but gradually though slowly recovering from his wounds.

The gentleman who brings this news is known to a number of our citizens, who believe him to be a gentleman of veracity. He states that Crockett was left upon the battle ground at St. Antonio covered with wounds, and as the Mexicans supposed, dead. That after the Mexicans" had abandoned the place, Crockett was found by some of his acquaintances to be lying among die slain, still exhibiting signs of life. He was immediately taken care of, and conveyed to comfortable lodgings, (as before stated) where his wounds were dressed, and every attention necessary to his recovery paid him. He had received a severe gash with a tomahawk on the upper part of the forehead, a ball in his left arm, and another through one of his thighs, besides several other minor wounds. When the gentleman who brings this intelligence left his brother-in-law’s house, Crockett was doing well.

In relation to the death of Col. Crockett, the Natchez Courier relates the following:—While Col. Childers was questioning Col. Travis’ servant (who escaped the general massacre) about the battle, he asked, “How did Col. Crockett behave?” The negro simply replied, “It was thought Col. Crockett killed the most, as he had the biggest pile of dead around him.”
It’s not really much to go on, one secondhand account against all the accumulated testimony of history, but when has that ever stopped Scott Wolter? Coupled with the fact that Davy Crockett joined the Freemasons while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (his apron is still housed at Tennessee’s Weakly Lodge), and you have all the foundation a conspiracy theorist needs to imagine that Crockett had a secret second life as a sort of frontier Cincinnatus.

The Episode

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America Unearthed's news-like graphics package.
We open at the battle of the Alamo and the end of Davy Crockett in one of the standard cinematic recreations typical of America Unearthed. The production values are higher this year, and the letterboxing gives a suitably movie-of-the-week flavor to the wordless proceedings as dramatic music swells. The version of Crockett’s death from the fictitious Col. Crockett’s Exploits (or, more likely, a sanitized version of the de la Peña account, subtracting the torture) is depicted, but rather than watch Crockett die, the reenactment departs from the 1837 narrative by making Gen. Santa Anna offer Crocket his hand in friendship.

We go to a revised version of the opening credits, with shiny new graphics even more closely modeled on those of Fox News than earlier versions. After this, Scott Wolter talks about his love of the 1950s Disney Davy Crockett TV series, and he outlines Crockett’s biography. Jason Nelson, a tipster, tells Scott Wolter that he has a land grant signed by Davy Crockett after the hero’s death, in 1859, which in turn proves that Crockett lived out his days in Winston County, Alabama. The land grant gives to a David Crockett a tract of land, and it is signed by James Buchanan with the presidential seal. Nelson’s mother shows Wolter the 1836 newspaper article copied above, from what she says was an earlier printing in April, which Wolter finds “compelling.”

“If anybody can get to the truth, I think I can,” Wolter tells Nelson, and Nelson’s mother tells Wolter that she believes Davy Crockett is buried on her land.

There’s a fairly obvious rejoinder: A presidential decree is a public record and therefore hardly a convenient way of hiding.

Nelson brings up some irrelevant information about the Indian Removal Act, instigated by Andrew Jackson, and Wolter suggests that Crockett purposely used the Alamo as a way to fake his own death after falling out with Andrew Jackson, who had already left office, over Indian Removal, and that Buchanan, twenty years later, gave Crockett land as a payoff. If you followed any of that, you are a better man than I because this makes precious little sense. The conclusion seems to be that Wolter wants to appear as a friend to Native Americans rather than a Eurocentric fantasist and therefore is looking for ways to fold protection of Native Americans into his historical revisionism.

After the break, Wolter gives archaeologist Mike Arbuthnot the order to start scanning the Nelsons’ home for human bones, which Arbuthnot tells Wolter will require notification to the medical examiner’s office should any emerge. Wolter takes off for the Alamo to learn more about Crockett because he finds the Nelsons’ documents “compelling.” One might think that the first step would be to check local records to see if anyone named David Nelson lived in the region in the 1850s and 1860s, or if the signature on the land grant matched known signatures of the famous Davy Crockett. A Google search found several David Crocketts in the 1850s.

At the Alamo, Wolter suggests that the Ave Maria logo on the Catholic mission is really a secret Templar-Freemason logo, but drops it to talk with historian Michael Wallis about Crockett’s actual life defending and protecting Native Americans against Andrew Jackson’s efforts. Wolter takes Crockett’s side and goes some way toward repairing his Eurocentric image, though the show fails to note the irony that Crockett, for all his love of Native Americans and disapproval of Indian Removal, died fighting to detach Texas from its sovereign government and turn it over to people who would replace Native populations with white rule. After the break, I realize that we are nearly halfway through the show but Wolter has done not a lick of actual investigation, even as Wallis tells Wolter more about Crockett’s early life, which is irrelevant to the issue at hand. Wallis repeats the information about the Alamo we heard at the top of the hour, with the same reenactment, but this time Wallis is on hand to offer some additional details. Wallis explains to Wolter that he believes that de la Peña’s version of Crockett’s death is the one most likely to be correct, but Wolter offers no background on the controversy over de la Peña’s manuscript.

Wallis tells Wolter that despite Wolter’s insistence that Crockett could have survived, the only thing to survive the Alamo was Crockett’s legend. We go into yet another commercial—H2 seems to have added an extra break this season—with a decidedly different tone to America Unearthed. This time, the producers have let the expert have the last word and to directly contradict Wolter’s ideas without being shouted down. If this represents an effort to make the show less fringe, less controversial, and more mainstream, it also has the unintentional effect of making the show less entertaining.

Seriously, at 9:30—halfway through the show—there has been just about one minute of actual content. The rest is just filler.

In the second half of the show, Wolter visits a Masonic lodge in Minnesota to talk with Jack Roberts, a Crockett expert, about his Masonic connections. Gen. Santa Anna, we hear, was a Freemason as well as Crockett. (So, too, was Andrew Jackson, Crockett’s enemy, for that matter.) Wolter is shocked that Freemasons were on both sides of the Texas conflict. He believes that Crockett was privy to a Masonic sign of distress that was actually Templar in origin—despite their being no such documentation of any such thing among the medieval Templars except in conspiracy literature—but Roberts suggests that Crockett escaped the Alamo by appealing to Santa Anna’s Masonic affiliation with the Masons’ sign of distress, since apparently Masonry is more important than politics or even war.

“Dead men can’t sign their names,” Wolter says, emphasizing that the “land grant” is strong evidence that Crockett lived on after the Alamo. He has yet to do even cursory research into who actually lived on the land in the 1850s, which should be the very first step in research. Instead, he and Arbuthnot are scanning the Alabama homestead hoping to find human bones.

After another break, there is just fifteen minutes left in the hour, so Arbuthnot and Wolter decide to use a backhoe (!) to roughly excavate what Wolter suspects is a nineteenth century human burial on the site. The backhoe cracks into something hard, and Wolter jumps into the hole and discovers—a rock.

Wolter takes off for Rutherford, Tennessee, to talk with a descendant of Davy Crockett, Joy Bland, and compare the land deed signature with one of Crockett’s authentic signatures. Bland tells Wolter that he’s full of it and Davy Crockett would never have kept quiet for 23 or more years. She tells Wolter that David Crockett was a common name at the time, and she personally knows of at least two or three others of that name from the time period. She gives Wolter a photocopy of Crockett’s signature from 1829, and we go to another commercial.

After the break, Wolter announces that there is no archaeological evidence of Crockett at the homestead. Wolter also acknowledges that a handwriting expert declares that the signatures from 1829 and 1859 are different and not written by the same man. Wolter, however, asserts that he knows better than the expert and therefore rejects the expert’s conclusion. He therefore chooses to authenticate the signature based on what he reads as the similarities. Arbuthnot, however, notes that his research determined that the land deed was likely made out to David Crockett Cagel, a resident of the area. But Nelson’s mother and Scott Wolter both reject this because Cagel failed to sign his full legal name. She is right to be skeptical, but for the wrong reasons. As pointed out in the comments by Warren Lawrence below, Bureau of Land Management records show that this piece of land and another nearby were both sold in 1859 to David Crockett and Clark Crockett, two brothers whom genealogical records indicate were the sons of Samuel and Lucinda Crockett. This is more evidence that America Unearthed failed to do even cursory research.

“I’ve seen a lot of evidence here that really questions the established history of Davy Crockett,” Wolter says, and he therefore validates the Nelsons’ beliefs as something that cannot be disproved.

And that’s the end. If this is the new direction for the show, it’s a boring one. There was even less content than last year, making it a protracted exercise in patience to watch from beginning to end in hopes of seeing a rare burst of fringe-worthy ranting. On the other hand, Wolter successfully dismissed all of the expert opinion he solicited, from the archaeologist to the historian to the handwriting analyst, asserting that he has more expertise than all of them combined, so perhaps the show is not that different this year.

105 Comments
EP
11/8/2014 02:19:40 pm

"If this is the new direction for the show, it’s a boring one."

Wasn't Steve St. Clair going to get eaten by the Illuminati Killer Bees, or something? Or am I confused?

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Bored
11/8/2014 02:27:46 pm

Does anyone take this seriously? I only watch it because of special effects, ridiculous theories that rival the Assassins Creed games (and are partly inspired from them) and because it's not painful to watch like Ancient Aliens.
In Aliens, these idiots actually believe it.
In Unearthed, he is just putting on a show. He might believe it, but he isn't as psychotic as Tsoukalos.

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EP
11/8/2014 02:30:45 pm

People like this guy take it seriously (which to anyone other than Wolter and his kind would be a warning sign):

"Haters are sad is all. They have nothing in their lives to give happiness so they want to bring others down so they don't feel lonely. I'm watching your show now on TV! I like this episode about the vikings. I believe all kinds of things, some very different then others, even you Scott but that's OK. We all should beeentitled to believe what we want. If I want to say hey my belief in polar reversal is possible in objects and is induced a combination of sound frequency and magnect field generating is true... I can say that. So keep up the good work... we like your show. And everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. And the ones who don't question and live by faith in others words..... good for them, I bet life is much easier for them."

(A recent comment on Wolter's blog)

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Jason D.
11/12/2014 02:20:54 pm

I always kinda felt it was the other way around. Wolter to me always seemed to true believer, the guy that 15 years ago would have been making his living studying concrete by day and posting on fringe message boards by night. Tsoukalos always seemed to be riding Von D's coattails into trying to get as much money and fame as possible and saying what he thinks he needs to to achieve it. Maybe I'm wrong.

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Coridan
11/8/2014 02:32:41 pm

At least they have left in a lot of the opposing evidence this time, and for that I give them credit.

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CHV
11/8/2014 02:40:14 pm

Once again, Wolter chooses to adopt Creationist-style reasoning (e.g. despite a truckload of evidence to the contrary, unless one was actually at a historical event when it occurred, it opens the ball up for valid counter-conclusions.).

I agree with Crockett's descendant. Had he somehow survived the Alamo, he wouldn't have gone into hiding. His ego was way too large.

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Coridan
11/8/2014 02:46:52 pm

Maybe Davey Crockett was also an ancestor of Andy Kauffman and they're both laughing it up at some secret place with Elvis and Hoffa.

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EP
11/8/2014 02:59:08 pm

I am Davy Crockett! :D

Margaret McCleskey
12/24/2015 12:10:49 am

You should know that if David Crockett survived the Alamo. Susannah Dickenson who did survive would have known it. You should also be aware that his widow received a land grant from the Republic of Texas for his service and that she is buried at Acton, Texas.

Randy hallenbeck
2/18/2015 05:38:03 am

I agree...people don't change...unless his brain was altered by brain trauma at the Alamo...or by Ancient Aliens. Though I find the show entertaining, on NONE of his shows I have seen has Wolter actually "gotten to the bottom of things...the real new truth". Like ALL reality tv, the reality is that it's meant to be "for entertainment purposes only" ...meaning to make ratings for A&E(actually entertainment). Not much different than the pseudo news were fed in tv and newspapers...to thorough "discovery and due diligence" or bibliography required to cite assertions/ideas as fact.

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Only Me
11/8/2014 03:23:16 pm

I caught the last twenty minutes, and hooooo shit!

After Wolter's Charlie Brown moment ("I got a rock"), he tries to save face by completely deep-sixing the handwriting expert's analysis...because, you know, he's a jack of all trades. Definitely a master of none!

Does it really surprise anyone he didn't spend one moment looking at public records? He set that precedent by having Alan Butler looking for records of "Rough" Hurech in "Medieval Desert Mystery".

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CHV
11/8/2014 03:33:27 pm

Scott Wolter is a lot like Rush Limbaugh in that he tends to cling to "evidence" that supports his theory-du-jour and ignore all other data that debunks it - even (and especially) if that data is overwhelming to anyone who bothers to look for it.

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Only Me
11/8/2014 04:26:02 pm

Agreed. It's especially telling that Scott goes totally apeshit when anyone challenges his work, but he has qualms about disregarding the work of other experts with ease.

I'm convinced he could pick up a hammer and declare it a screwdriver, and his fans would defend him with "He knows what he's doing! He's a trained geologist!"

pat
5/5/2015 04:39:20 am

rush limbaugh voices political opinions. name a "theory" he supports. i am fairly certain you have never actually listened to him. political opinion has nothing to do with wolters dbaggery, and you invoking it reflects on the level of your reasoning

Walt
11/8/2014 07:14:58 pm

I wouldn't mind tossing out a handwriting expert's analysis if it were the only piece of evidence that contradicted all other evidence. They don't all have a great track record. Anyone who sees the handwriting experts on Pawn Stars should google it. That's a fun read full of screw-ups and lost money.

But, in this case, tossing out the expert's analysis resulted in the only evidence that supported the theory. The conclusion in the last 10 minutes of the show seemed to contradict the evidence dicussed in the previous 50 minutes. He usually manages to find enough loose ends to leave a slight question for those who have a predilection for asking the question to begin with, but in this episode there seemed to be no loose ends.

I enjoyed the episode though. It didn't seem to move any more slowly than other shows airing these days. All of the "no actual content" bits and the "filler" is what makes it a TV show. It sounds like Jason would've cut it down to 60 seconds, but he isn't a successful host or producer, so that's not exactly an informed opinion. What works is what works.

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Only Me
11/8/2014 08:24:54 pm

I got to see the whole episode when it re-aired, so his dismissal of the handwriting expert's analysis was even more ridiculous.

This seemed to be the icing on the cake, since he didn't have any real evidence that could convince Michael Wallis or Joy Bland of the possibility Crockett survived the Alamo.

We got a rock, unconfirmed documents, lots of Scott traveling the country, Freemason-Templar connections...and that's it.

Jason Colavito link
11/8/2014 10:30:01 pm

I had more content in the "Background" section I wrote in 30 minutes that they had in the whole hour. There's no reason they couldn't have spent a chunk of time discussing the different people who claimed to have witnessed Crockett's death, as well as the controversy over the Pena manuscript, or the cultural impact of the Disney version. It isn't about cutting down the show to 60 seconds but offering enough in the hour to justify the run time.

Byron DeLear link
11/9/2014 02:19:55 am

This is definitely a different track for AU. Coincidentally, this week there was a discussion on a vexillological forum concerning the flags that flew at the Alamo during Santa Anna’s siege. American and European volunteers from New Orleans --- the “Greys” --- formed companies and traveled to Texas in 1835, and flew a flag at the Alamo which was captured by Santa Anna.

During the vexillological discussion, I read a little more about Davy Crockett, and was surprised to learn the guy was not merely a coon-skin capped frontiersman, but maybe more like a version of Teddy Roosevelt in regard to how his progressive principles drove his adventurism.

As a member of the U.S. House, Crockett espoused some pretty populist ideals including introducing a bill to shut down the military academy at West Point, because he felt it was public money going to benefit the sons of wealthy men.

And Crockett's opposition to President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act is most likely the animus that drove him to the “wildes of Texas.”

In a letter to Charles Schultz on December 25, 1834 (Gilder Lehrman Collection) Crockett explains:

“I have no doubt but that he thinks Andrew Jackson has full power to transfer the people of these united States at his will, and I am truly afread that a majority of the free citizens of these united States will Submit to it and Say amen Jackson done it…. I have almost given up the Ship as lost. I have gone So far as to declare that if he martin vanburen is elected that I will leave the united States for I never will live under his kingdom. before I will Submit to his Government I will go to the wildes of Texas. I will consider that government a Paridice to what this will be. In fact at this time our Republican Government has dwindled almost into insignificancy our [boasted] land of liberty have almost Bowed to the yoke of Bondage. Our happy days of Republican principles are near at an end when a few is to transfer the many.”

So, I was surprised to learn how progressive this coon-skin cap wearing “frontiersman,” really was; Davy Crockett seems to have been driven by a conviction of his principles. There is no doubt he may have held other potentially distasteful attitudes contemporary to the culture of his day, but the admiration that’s been heaped in his direction does not seem to have been misplaced.

EP
11/9/2014 02:30:41 am

Walt, what are *you* successful at?

Walt
11/9/2014 05:11:58 am

Only Me, I agree. I can't remember any evidence they presented other than Wolter's rejection of the signature that supported the theory. There were no loose ends for me. But, at least they presented enough information for viewers to draw their own conclusions. AA doesn't even do that much.

Jason, I think your critique of the show's content could be applied to most shows airing on the History family these days. I'd enjoy your version, but I'm not sure enough other people would for the show to be hit.

CHV
11/9/2014 07:01:11 am

Wolter's casual dismissal of the writing analysis of the Crockett signature (whoever did it) was pretty arrogant. But what baffled me more was his blowing off the (very apt) statement by Crockett's great-granddaughter that had he survived the Alamo the last thing Crockett would have done was lived quietly in some backwater town in Alabama.

This is what I find most irritating about Scott Wolter - that he sees fit to single-handedly edit history to fit his revisionist worldview.

Finally, my family has a land grant document extremely similar to the one allegedly signed by James Buchanan that was assigned to "David Crockett" in Alabama. The one my family owns was "signed" by President Martin Van Buren - however, after a little research it became clear that these documents were certified by a secretary or clerk who also signed the current president's name on his behalf.

Barry Elder
11/8/2014 04:41:21 pm

Thank you Mr. Colavito. Your blog is fresh air in world that seems hell bent on dumbing down everyone. I just don't understand how the " History" channel can call itself that. Maybe America Unearthed will do an " in depth" investigation of the relationship of the "History Channel " to actual history. Please keep up the good work.

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T
11/8/2014 05:59:44 pm

The History Channel has a secret land grant on the truth and therefore must obscure it. Only the initiated few "producers" choose to leak a few clues out at a time.

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Brent
11/8/2014 05:38:59 pm

How many times did we see those guys get bayoneted? Lol

And who knew that putting your hands up was a Freemason sign? I guess there were a lot more Freemasons than I thought, seeing as anyone who puts their hands up is really flashing a super secret signal.

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Bryan
5/23/2015 07:18:03 am

How can you be sure two hands in the air isnt a Masonic sign? Are you a traveling man?

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Dan
11/8/2014 05:44:46 pm

I got a good belly laugh out of the silly claim that both hands in the air signal of surrender somehow is a secret Masonic message. Wolter is really off his rocker these days.

But the discovery of a meaningless rock as the only result of his excavation of the Alabama property is pretty much symbolic of entire nature of this series.

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EP
11/8/2014 06:23:12 pm

It is also rather ironic given Scott Wolter's only real credentials...

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CHV
11/9/2014 07:03:10 am

>>>>But the discovery of a meaningless rock as the only result of his excavation of the Alabama property is pretty much symbolic of entire nature of this series.

Bingo.

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tm
11/8/2014 06:59:41 pm

I would think a 73 year old man with a huge tomahawk scar on his forehead might have created quite a stir in Winston county Alabama in 1859. Wonder how he avoided that kind of attention then, and where did he hide for the 23 years before he moved there. Why not just live on the land grant his wife Elizabeth claimed in his name in Texas in 1853? Just southwest of Ft Worth. She lived there until she died in 1860.

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Jason Colavito link
11/8/2014 10:31:22 pm

Hush! Clearly he must have been trying to fake his death to get away from his wife even though he was apparently living in "secret" under his own name!

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Gary
11/9/2014 12:34:10 am

I was raised in Texas and was taught that everyone was killed at the Alamo, fighting for freedom. Only later did I discover that there were women and slaves there that were not killed and that the "heros" were fighting for the right to keep their slaves, against the anti-slavery Mexicans. I remember when a historian first published on that Mexican officer's diary describing Crockett being captured and executed. He got death threats.
The only man to leave before Santa Anna arrived, after the line in the sand episode, was a man named Rose. When I jokingly asked my elementary school teacher if he was the Yellow Rose of Texas, she was not amused.

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EP
11/9/2014 02:35:21 am

"When I jokingly asked my elementary school teacher if he was the Yellow Rose of Texas"

That is actally really witty. I mean that.

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Gary
11/9/2014 02:39:35 am

Thank you, EP. My fellow students thought it was pretty funny, too.

CHV
11/9/2014 07:07:05 am

The Alamo historian that Wolter spoke to on the episode was (IMO) very correct in pointing out the difference between "David Crockett" and "Davy Crockett" - the latter being the folk hero puffed up by American pop culture.

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Me
11/9/2014 02:05:27 am

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." - Albert Einstein

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EP
11/9/2014 02:32:16 am

Are you related to Only Me, by any chance? :)

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Only Me
11/9/2014 03:43:18 am

Nope! I, for one, don't misuse the wisdom of great or educated men to defend the likes of Scott Wolter.

Mark E.
11/9/2014 03:03:47 am

Einstein quote duel!

"A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be." - Albert Einstein

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Will
11/9/2014 02:35:37 am

It is bad enough this show has no respect for the scientific method or basic logic.

It is scary that there are enough people out there in TV Land who are not thinking critically that a show like this would actually be successful.

And doubly so with so many connected to the Internet to do basic fact checking.

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Illuminity Melgarius
11/9/2014 02:42:10 am

My god you are empty. Spend years watching TV you know you are going to hate and then write how much you hate it. How meaningless and worthless can people be.

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EP
11/9/2014 02:44:14 am

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc4oajSpxC1qzytg1.jpg

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Only Me
11/9/2014 03:41:06 am

Since when did someone's *hobby* have to be fulfilling, meaningful and worthwhile to YOU?

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Not the Comte de Saint Germain
11/9/2014 07:19:25 am

Jason's best-known work seems to be these cable-show reviews, which get testier as the shows get ever more repetitive and content-free. But his most valuable work (at least in the realm of fringe debunking) is in tracking the evolution of ideas that fringe theorists use, providing the context that the theorists say nothing about. Do a site search for "watchers." The concept of nephilim/watchers/ancient giants have an incredibly convoluted history, just in the ancient and medieval texts. I don't know that anybody in academia, let alone the fringe universe, has traced them in as many different directions as Jason has. Even though he's building on the work of other scholars, he had to do a lot of tedious research to write those blog posts. I think he should turn that research into another book.

EP
11/9/2014 07:27:14 am

It's funny you should mention that. Jason and I have been discussing the possibility of a genuine connection between the Nephilim and the Anunnaki recently. (As opposed to Sitchin-style fantasies.) Well, I suggested that there is a case to be made for it, at least. I wouldn't call it tedious, personally. But then, I am weird :)

Not the Comte de Saint Germain
11/9/2014 08:56:44 am

I have my own hobby research projects, and I end up doing a lot of stuff for them that most other people would find tedious but I find fun. I don't have quite enough interest in the Nephilim to apply that same degree of patience to researching them. And I certainly wouldn't have the patience to track down 19th-century primary sources with ridiculous biases and florid language, or translations of obscure Arabic texts that are hard to Google because of inconsistent transcription systems.

EP
11/9/2014 08:57:55 am

Are you kidding?! That's, like, half the fun! :)

Jason Colavito link
11/9/2014 01:42:59 pm

You seem like the kind of person, Illuminity, who doesn't get Mystery Science Theater 3000 either.

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L Bean
11/10/2014 01:43:10 am

B U R N !

Clete
11/9/2014 05:14:59 am

I wondered later how much actual content was in the show. I figured about fifteen to twenty minutes. There were a lot of commercials and of Scott Wolter driving from somewhere to somewhere else. It finally dawned on me who he reminds me of. Drumroll please...Dick Tracy from the old Chester Gould comic strips I read when I was younger. The same box shaped jaw line, the same steely gaze. The same battle for his own warped sense of reality.

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FrankenNewYork
11/9/2014 05:17:06 am

I have to admit that I love the part where the backhoe operator hits something, which at that moment we have to allow might be the remains of Davy Crocket, repeatedly with the bucket and then Wolter repeatedly tells him to scrape the object with the heavy equipment. Mainstream archaeology methods be damned! They're only trying to suppress the truth. (He doesn't say that but it's funny.)

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EP
11/9/2014 05:45:51 am

Your comment got me thinking. There is NO WAY Scott Wolter would have been that careless had he really thought that there could have been Davy Crockett's remains there.

In fact, I'm pretty sure they would not have done it this way unless they were sure it ISN'T Davy Crockett's remains.

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Mark E.
11/9/2014 07:12:14 am

I totally agree, much more care would have been taken if they actually thought it was an archeological site with potentially valuable artifacts.

Also take into consideration that the last letter Davy Crockett wrote before the Alamo sold for $550.000.00 in 2007. If anyone thought that the land claim was an authentic document there would have been a lot different behavior observed.

EP
11/9/2014 07:16:50 am

Exactly.

By the way, does anyone know whether it would even be legal for them to conduct excvation of what *could* be human remains in this manner? Because if not, then they are either breaking the law or misrepresenting themselves to the viewers in a demonstrable manner.

Clint Knapp
11/9/2014 10:48:13 am

But, backhoes are how manly men dig! Trowels and brushes are for academic lady-boys who never spent their college years chasing balls around fields and patting their teammates on the ass... in manly-man fashion of course, not lady-boy style.

Nevermind that they're just plain fun! What six year old boy from the midwest doesn't remember the glee with which he first saw a backhoe operate? Oh backhoes... we love you.

(This message brought to you by people who sarcastically love backhoes)

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EP
11/9/2014 10:59:05 am

Sigh...

I have known Scott Wolter for 25+ years both as a personal friend and a professional colleague...

There is nothing essentially unmanly about his chasing of balls...

Clint Knapp
11/9/2014 11:18:44 am

I was born in the Backhoe Capital of the World and find their use on this show offensive. If Wolter can besmirch the good name of the backhoe through inappropriate use, I feel it's only right to point out the logical inconsistencies of using a sports background as a benchmark for manly rightness.

Mr. Wolter; leave backhoes alone. They're tired of your abuse.

Only Me
11/9/2014 11:21:43 am

@Clint

Scott is essentially 99.5% manly in his relationships and dealings.

@EP

Nor is it appreciably, significantly or substantially unmanly!

EP
11/9/2014 12:37:48 pm

I like you guys and everything, but this just doesn't feel like a Scott Wolter thread without an unhinged weirdo or three... :)

Clint Knapp
11/9/2014 12:55:39 pm

I know. It's a shame! There's been like... one guy complaining about Jason having no joy in his life. It's kind of a sad day in Wolterology, but maybe even the staunchest supporters couldn't get behind this abortion of an episode.

Keith Jackson
11/9/2014 06:14:05 am

I was pleasantly surprised and thought he was on something new until the dreaded word "Mason" came out and I started thinking, "Here we go again."

Also, Scott talked about how the signature would change over time and how the newspaper article commented that Davy had been shot in the arm and maybe that was the arm he signed with. Well, the article stated that he was shot in the left arm and looking at the slant of the signature, it was not done by someone who was left handed.

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EP
11/9/2014 06:17:39 am

"the article stated that he was shot in the left arm and looking at the slant of the signature, it was not done by someone who was left handed."

Well, clearly he had to use his right hand because he'd been shot in his left, duh! :)

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Kal
11/9/2014 07:02:02 am

I tried to watch this one but it was so stupid I couldn't do it. It's an insult to American culture and to archeology, and to the Freemasons, but mostly to Davey Crockett. I'm not even from Texas or anything. Keep on reviewing this show though. They can claim to sue all they want, but it's free speech, or writing.

Maybe SW wants to be the 'Yellow Rose of Texas' as one blogger commented for someone else. But it would be made a Freemason symbol.

SW calls himself a forensig geologist but he uses a back hoe to do a Geraldo moment, (a Gerlado Rivera is named for the show he used to have. In the famous episode, the safe of Al Capone is allegedly found, but it isn't, but for hours we'll talk about it). History repeats itself. Here is a rock, not a tomb. But if it had been a tomb, he just dessicated it, proving he should never be any type of digger, forensic of otherwise.

No wonder people tell him he can't come on their property, It's not a conspiracy. It's they don't want his people digging up their yard!

Maybe if we review him enough and call him on it he will eventually go away, like the 2012 people.

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tm
11/9/2014 07:21:14 am

Ah, yes. Square jaw, steely eyed determination, warped sense of reality. And don't forget the convoluted problem solving.

Dudley Do-Right! Bullwinkle maybe? With a hint of Wile E. Coyote? Was that backhoe from Acme Corporation?

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titus pullo
11/9/2014 08:36:55 am

I doubt the show will last another season. They have run out of historical "mysteries" and are now just reaching for anything..UFOs soon.

What I would like to see if more substantial investigations targeting one of the more "promising" issues covered. sort of like Oak Island..focus on one topic for a few shows and do some serious analysis.

The "Great Copper Heist" seems to have generated the most interest. Ok...go back and review the evidence. update the supposed calulations of billions of tons of copper mined from 6K to 1K BC. Any evidence of the people's who mined? Any garbage found from Phoneicians and so on. The one thing that still is unclear to me is how paleo indians got to Grand Royale Island if it is beyond sight from the shore. And is it realistic to have transported so much of the ore from the island to the mainland in what canoes or did the miners have larger vessels. Whomever mined 6K years ago in the Great Lakes was far ahead of the Europeans and I'd love to see a few shows on that topic. Do a show on logistics of how Phonecians could mine that area (that alone would show how ridiculous that idea is).

So much American history to unearth...or at least put to bed...

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John Dunham
11/10/2014 03:02:50 am

Did not this whole genre of televised paranormal "investigations" begin when the SciFi Channel did a pretty detailed examination of the Kecksburg Incident back in 2003. I may be senile now, but I remember that being pretty good and fair minded. I guess once you investigate bigfoot, ghosts and ufo's 1000 times and don't find anything you need to start making the shows crazier.

Its funny, because there are a lot of really interesting anomalies in the country - where did the Anasazi go, why do compasses not work in the Black Hills, what is that weird Indian looking head that you see on google earth in Montana, that a "forensic" geologist could actually investigate and develop a good story around. And who knows maybe there are real Viking artifacts outside of Newfoundland if one really looks. Its a shame that this has deteriorated into what it has.

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EP
11/10/2014 04:51:04 am

"where did the Anasazi go, why do compasses not work in the Black Hills, what is that weird Indian looking head that you see on google earth in Montana, that a "forensic" geologist could actually investigate"

Anasazi aren't a geological mystery, exactly. And Black Hills magnetic anomalies aren't a forensic one. (Never heard of the Montana thing.)

"who knows maybe there are real Viking artifacts outside of Newfoundland if one really looks"

I recommend trying Scandinavia :)

John Dunham
11/10/2014 06:18:09 am

I'm not suggesting that things are real or that magnetic anomalies are due to UFOs or something, I'm suggesting that there are oddities and topics that are a mystery to the general public that would make interesting TV and that don't involve Knights Templar, Freemasons, or bigfoot.

EP
11/10/2014 06:52:08 am

On that we are in agrrement!

Could you give a reference to the Montana head though? I can't find it for some reason.

John Dunham
11/10/2014 09:50:33 am

my mistake - alberta

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-badlands-guardian

EP
11/10/2014 10:09:27 am

That's awesome!

But surely there is no mystery here. It's clearly just a natural formation that happens to look like a dude.

BillUSA
11/9/2014 03:35:40 pm

I wish I could sit still long enough to watch any of this tripe like you do Jason. A lot of us realize you do it as a service to the intelligence of humanity. But as Scott Wolter and his cronies are apt to do, they distort facts for any of their nefarious purposes. It's easy to sit back and accuse anyone being a hater simply because they don't agree with you. his defensiveness is most telling when he threatens to go legal on you. ("Hater" is a term thrown around so much online that the word "troll" is beginning to fade into obscurity.)

One of the many things that I notice about fringe theorists is that they are awfully sensitive about criticism. I say that because any legitimate scientist will issue a paper on their latest theory to undergo peer review. God forbid an inconsistency is detected lest any "fringie" seize it as an opportunity to peddle their belief that the establishment is fundamentally flawed.

I issued engineering concepts and business plans on occasion throughout my career and the "back and forth" wasn't meant as rejection, but as an opportunity to develop the idea further. It was possible to install them but not all of them could be. And that's the way it goes.

These bozo's are akin to the gossipy troublemaker who stands on a lie for whatever purpose they think befits such childish behavior, with no regard for the truth or the effect such machinations have on a person. Wolter is interested in only having his image on television and what it takes to stay there regardless of the effect his garbage has on the development of young minds.

I like how you continue to conduct yourself within legal limits as you "dissect the lie to reveal the truth" because the education is twofold for developing minds.

It's a human shame to have people pumping their garbage into space as these fringies do. First it was Hitler presiding over the first televised Olympic Games and all the other garbage since then for technologically capable aliens (if they exist) to take it in and decide whether to ignore our little planet or dispatch our species for the good of the Universe.

Gotta run...

Reply
Coridan
11/10/2014 02:43:12 am

No one seems to have mentioned yet that the "secret Masonic sign of distress" was both hands raised in the air. I always thought that the universal sign for surrender, seems like Masons might get confused.

Reply
John Dunham
11/10/2014 02:56:34 am

Boring does not even begin to cover this one. Unless Wolter went on a rampage at the end. I fell asleep after he repeated that they were going to to a ground penetrating radar survey for the eighth, maybe ninth time.....

Reply
lurkster
11/10/2014 05:27:24 am

"... and often a barrage of email from viewers who are looking for more information about the program, and particularly those who are outraged that I would seek to evaluate the show’s claims"

Jason, it would be amusing AND informative to see a light-hearted post at the end of the current season featuring a "best of" montage of the AU emails expressing outrage that you received. I'm picturing an embedded slideshow of screensnaps with personally identifying info redacted. Or something similar.

IOW, a post that shows just how seriously dedicated viewers take a show like this where the best defense to date is an apologist-style rendering of "oh it's just good fun, for the sake of TV entertainment."

If done carefully, such a post could show that you're not the hater they like to label you as. But rather, a proponent of critical analysis based on rational thinking and fact checking. While still reflecting that there really is a need for an educated approach to the debunking of fringe theories.

Reply
Tom
11/10/2014 06:06:00 am

... Over ... to you ... Reverend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDnE-5lD7w8

Reply
EP
11/10/2014 06:54:43 am

ANSWER THE CALLOUT, REV!!!

LET US DO BATTLE MOST FURIOUS!!!

Reply
Only Me
11/10/2014 07:35:39 am

Scott Wolter's hypotheses form the basis of his investigations on America Unearthed and often invoke symbolism and imagery. In this same spirit, I thought I'd try another approach to the repeated playing of the scene where the last of the Alamo's defenders are executed, save Davy Crockett.

Disclaimer: The following is for entertainment purposes only, and does not represent the views of Jason Colavito, his readership or even my own.


What if the soldier with the bayonet is America Unearthed?

What if the defenders are government, the Smithsonian, peer review and critics/skeptics?

What if the scene represents each of these entities falling before the hidden/suppressed "truth" America Unearthed claims to reveal?

What if Crockett, raising his hands in the "Masonic sign of distress", is academia?

What if Santa Anna represents Wolter, graciously extending his hand in acceptance, because he knows he's won at last?

Of course, the above questions are not to be taken seriously. I just thought it strange that particular scene was replayed so many times during the episode, even considering the need to pad the episode to meet its one hour time slot.

Reply
Jerky
11/10/2014 04:57:27 pm

"But Nelson’s mother and Scott Wolter both reject this because Cagel failed to sign his full legal name. "

I can prove that one didn't need to sign ones full legal name to a land grant. My proof is a land grant from 1904 signed by T. Roosevelt to one Joseph W. Mix where Mr. Mix only signed his name as Joe. He later sold the land to a Mr. Later a small chunk of the land, that my house sites on, was sold to a man who signed his name only as X (he couldn't spell or write, so an X was sufficient).

So no, that's not Crockett's mark. Secondly they spared General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna's life in exchange for Texas independence after the battle of San Jacinto. Sam Houston and his Texian Army couldn't have given a rats ass about Anna being a Freemason. They wanted one thing and one thing only, a Republic of Texas.

This episode would have been better if it was about John William Smith and his escape from the Alamo with the Travis "Victory or Death" letter. Now that would be interesting to see how he managed to escape capture after leaving the walls 24 hours after the siege began.

Reply
Jerky
11/10/2014 06:02:29 pm

"He later sold the land to a Mr. Later a small chunk of the land, that my house sites on, was sold to a man who signed his name only as X (he couldn't spell or write, so an X was sufficient)."

Edit: He later sold the land to a Mr. Turner, a small chunk of land, that my house sites on, who signed his name only as X (He couldn't spell or write, so an X was sufficient.).

Got in a rush and posted it before proof reading

Reply
Only Me
11/11/2014 03:36:45 am

That's awesome, Jerky!

I had to question Mrs. Nelson's insistence that for the land grant to be legal, one had to sign one's full name. My thought was, "Are you saying that the laws covering the requirements of land grants/deeds haven't changed in the last 85 years?"

Thank you for sharing!

Jerky
11/11/2014 07:22:01 am

Only me, I did too, seeing as I purchased my house and signed with just my first name. And flipping through the title abstract revealed I was not the first person to have signed with a first name only. The oldest deed in the title abstract was dated to 1904. It would seem not much has changed in 110 years, so one must conclude it hasn't changed much at all.

Jacob Atkins
11/11/2014 04:49:05 am

Just wanted to say thanks for writing this, I happened to catch this episode and had serious doubts about how sincere the host was about presenting actual, factual evidence. I figured those people he gathered evidence from were sincere and truly believed what they'd been told for generations, but the way it was presented just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose it's just too much to ask for the History Channel to present some real, concrete history and not this 22 minutes of drivel that could have been summed up in 2 paragraphs. I regret giving them the viewer credit. Thanks again.

Reply
Warren Lawrence
11/11/2014 05:16:48 am

Scott Wolter's research techniques are laughable. This is just another attempt to add to the myth of Davy Crockett. Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia were full of David Crocketts at that time who were of legal age to obtain a land Patent. SW should have ran a title search of the land tracing down the chain of title holders on the landfollowing Crockett, provided the records still exist after the actions of the Civil war and the propensity for old court houses to burn so they may not be available.. Maybe he did, but the results will not substantiate his "Davy Crockett" claim.

Being a genealogist, I decided to see what I could find. First I looked up the transaction on the website of the Bureau of Land Management at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx
You can do the same if you are interested. At that web address select " Alabama" for the state and "Winston" for the county, enter "Crockett" for last name and hit search.

This will return two entries for Crockett dated 1 Dec. 1859. One is the entry we are holding in question for a David Crockett. The second entry is for a Clark Crockett. The land descriptions are given and the the two properties are 3/4 to a mile apart. To see the legal descriptions of each patent, click on the image icon beside each name. This will not be an image of the old document like the family had but will be the legal record of the patent giving all the information for recording.

Why didn't SW mention the entry for Clark Crockett, wouldn't you he expect there might be a connection and leads to help trace down the David of the patent? I'll bet he did. But the result might refute his claim of this being "the" Davy Crockett.

Clark Crockett can be traced back through his ancestors. It appears he is a son of a Samuel C. Crockett and Lucinda McClendon and guess what, Clark has a brother named David. For those interested in genealogy, tracing the family line back it goes to Samuel Crockett and his wife Esther Thompson of Wythe Co. Virginia. Most Crockett researchers will know of this family line. Clark and David would be great great grandsons of Samuel and Esther.

I believe that the David Crockett on the land patent is the son of Samuel and Lucinda McClendon Crockett.

Reply
Dan
11/11/2014 05:31:51 am

Great work!

Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/11/2014 12:34:40 pm

Astonishing research! Thank you so much for sharing this. I will add this to the post above for future readers.

Reply
Seeker
11/11/2014 03:48:17 pm

I Tivoed but didn't watch yet. Thanks for the review, Jason. Now I know I can just delete it. I need the space with so much other good stuff on right now!

Reply
bodie
11/13/2014 04:10:57 pm

My ancestors, Blevins, were early settlers of Winston county(Hancock county),Alabama.They were Unionist in the Civil War.More than one thing bothered me about the show but one which stuck out was no mention of Looney's Tavern, where the people of the county chose representatives to the state convention to decide whether to secede,stay neutral or remain in the Union,if Davy Crockett was in Winston county at the beginning of the war he almost certainly would have been at Looney's Tavern. Unionist,Confederate's and neutral people were there and someone with such strong opinions as Davy Crockett would be there and it would be widely reported.But the show is only entertainment meant to make money not sense.

Reply
Becky Plumlee
11/14/2014 01:01:38 am

why isn't easy to believe that David "Davy" Crockett had a cousin with the same name

Reply
TJ
11/17/2014 08:13:38 am

Hi, just wanted to say that I stumbled across this blog and for a lot of people who really don't like this form of entertainment, you all sure do spend a lot of time watching it. My suggestion is that you pitch your theories to Discovery and get your own TV show, or even your local PBS station. Start of with a government grant. My advice, don't watch it, this will reduce the ratings and his show will be cancelled. Keep watching it and talking about it, this will give more demand for this type of bad programming as you call it. My two cents so respond and tell me how crazy I am.

Reply
Jerky
11/18/2014 12:09:52 am

Yes, well, I don't watch it.

Secondly, I wouldn't call this show "entertainment", There is nothing entertaining about a full grown man whining like a child who was told no.

Finely, there are too many people out there who see this show as the "truth". There are even teachers who want the history books to be rewritten with garbage like "the Celts where in Oklahoma".

Reply
TJ
11/18/2014 02:49:39 am

Perhaps so but he is free to express his views. Don't you think it's a bit sophomoric to dedicate a whole blog to sensor one person or a group of people's opinion? I don't mean to disrespect anyone's opinion here either. Seriously, just step back away from this situation and look at what is being done. Here is a man who has a show on TV. Here is a group of people who wish is debunk every little aspect of the show to include graphics and commercial intervals? I too can see many discrepancies in the shows. As I said, if you don't like it, why justify the show by dedicating so much time to it?

EP
11/18/2014 02:55:54 am

TJ, your comments are ironic in light of your line of reasoning...

TJ
11/18/2014 04:10:14 am

EP- you just proved my point! Instead of rolling out a quip, explain it. That's my whole point.

Reply
EP
11/18/2014 04:47:05 am

Explan what?

Also, people aren't obligated to explain anything to you. Especially things that most would find self-explanatory.

Reply
Paul Robinson
11/22/2014 03:43:28 pm

I found the show to be ridiculous. What led me to this blog was a desire to see what others felt about it. I found the idea that 23 years after the Alamo, at the age of 73 that Crockett received a land grant to quietly live out his days. Really! What of the 23 years prior, that is a very long time. What was he doing? Where was he living prior to that? Why if he was trying to hide would he still be going by David Crockett?! At 73 how many more days would someone have anyway in 1859? Even if he survived the Alamo as alleged in the show, how likely is it that he would still be alive at the age of 73?

Reply
Graham
11/24/2014 01:51:01 pm

Kevin Randle of Roswell fame watched this episode and weighed in with his own two cents, his conclusion:

"Anyway, TV shows are all about ratings and if the show hadn’t been about Crockett, I wouldn’t have watched it. This one sucked me in, but then, I could see all the padding to make it an hour long, I could see where it slipped badly off the rails, and I knew what the historical errors were. There wasn’t new history here, or alternative history, just poor research and a desire to “set the record straight.” Too bad all they did was clutter it up with irrelevancies, half-truths and faulty research."

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/america-unearthed-and-davy-crockett.html

Reply
ShawnO
1/5/2015 08:56:33 am

This case was closed with the first - and only - piece of evidence that was provided, the land patent to David Crockett. One call to a surveyor (that's me), an attorney, the county courthouse, or a Google search would have ended the show.
1) David Crockett did not sign the patent. A deed (a land patent is a type of land deed) is only signed by the grantor, not the grantee. Therefore no handwriting expert was needed.
2.) The President did not sign it either (though his name appears as a signature), but rather a representative of the Gov't Land Office filled out the entire form and signed the president's name to it under his authority.
3.) Clark Crockett's patent was filled out & signed by another GLO officer because the handwriting is completely different, including the president's signature (see reason above).

It's sad when I can sit in my chair while watching the show and "solve the mystery" via my laptop and have both land patents (David's and Clark's) printed out before the 1st commercial break is over. Oh well, I spent the rest of the time the show was on surfing ancestry.com looking around at the various Crockett family trees, lol.

Reply
john smith
6/5/2016 08:21:36 pm

Great review whilst posing some generally interesting hypotheses they are, as usual, built on little or no substance.
Tabloid television.

Reply
B Miller
5/31/2017 01:50:23 pm

Of course Davy Crockett lived on... He hid in various alternate forms until resurfacing in the 1980's under his new persona: James "Sonny" Crockett, the famous Florida Vice Detective. This explains his skill with firearms, his fondness for country music, and "Miami Vice's" unquestionable cultural influence. Undoubtedly that show got its starting money from a portion of the lost Templar treasure...

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      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • 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
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • 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
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • 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
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • 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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