The Ghosts of McKinley County
Formed in 1889, McKinley County, New Mexico was named, inauspiciously enough, for President William McKinley. Two years later, McKinley would be dead – a victim of anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
The Old County Courthouse dates from 1938. The Works Progress Administration, or WPA, funded the construction as a New Deal project.
Originally, the third floor of the courthouse housed the county jail. Courtrooms were located on the second floor, and prisoners would be brought down a narrow iron staircase. The staircase and the third floor are now two of the focal points of paranormal activity. There have been a number of strange occurrences here, but I'll just give a few of the highlights.
Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, a gruesome murder took place on the third floor. Although details are sketchy, the story is that a jail trustee who worked in the kitchen found out that his wife was cheating on him. During their next scheduled visitation, he stabbed her to death with a butcher knife he had stolen from the kitchen.
After a new jail was constructed, but before the newer Courthouse Annex was built, the county administrative and financial offices were moved to the third floor. But employees learned to avoid this area after hours. One night, the County Finance Director, who I'll call Jody Cracker, was meeting with state auditors from Santa Fe in the third floor conference room. For safety reasons, the noisy old hydraulic elevator could be set to "hold" on the 3rd floor so that no one could access the offices after hours. The fire exit stairs were open for those going down, but locked to anyone coming up.
It was late at night and the elevator was locked open on the third floor. Suddenly, the doors closed. The elevator ground its way down to the first floor and stopped. It paused a few minutes, then slowly returned to the third floor. The doors opened and out stepped... no one.
Jody and the auditors decided to call it a night and left – by the stairs.
Employees have claimed that elevator often behaved strangely. It never got stuck but it seemed to have a mind of its own. It sometimes went to the basement for no apparent reason, and stopped on floors where it shouldn't have. It was incredibly slow -- someone in good shape could have climbed or descended the stairs and beaten it.
A number of other employees have heard or seen strange things in the Old Ccourthouse. The County Clerk at the time -- I'll call her Karen Slade -- was standing with her assistant in the lobby one night. They saw a thin young man approach the double glass doors at the back entrance and walk right through them. He disappeared before reaching the second set of doors. They checked the locks, and as was customary at the time, the outside doors were locked with a chain and padlock.
There have been a number of other paranormal events. Once, when taking a publicity photo of the courthouse, Safety Director Tom Sparks captured a demonic figure standing at the window of the Treasurer's Office window. Unfortunately, his computer crashed soon afterwards, and he lost the picture.
The Old Courthouse still stands next to the New Courthouse. Most of the employees have moved, but as for the ghosts? Who knows.
Thanks to David Hoes for forwarding this original article
Ghost To Coast Tours and Haunted Places
The Haunters & The Haunted: Ghost Stories and Tales of the Supernatural
The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories
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Maya Archaeologists Unearth New 2012 Monument With 'End Date' of Dec. 21, 2012
Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300-year-old-year Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called "end date" of the Maya calendar, December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic finds in decades, was announced June 28 at the National Palace in Guatemala.
"This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," says Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at La Corona.
Since 2008, Canuto and Tomás Barrientos of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala have directed excavations at La Corona, a site previously ravaged by looters.
"Last year, we realized that looters of a particular building had discarded some carved stones because they were too eroded to sell on the antiquities black market," said Barrientos, "so we knew they found something important, but we also thought they might have missed something."
What Canuto and Barrientos found was the longest text ever discovered in Guatemala. Carved on staircase steps, it records 200 years of La Corona history, states David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at The University of Texas at Austin, who was part of a 1997 expedition that first explored the site.
While deciphering these new finds in May, Stuart recognized the 2012 reference on a stairway block bearing 56 delicately carved hieroglyphs. It commemorated a royal visit to La Corona in AD 696 by the most powerful Maya ruler of that time, Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, only a few months after his defeat by long-standing rival Tikal in AD 695. Thought by scholars to have been killed in this battle, this ruler was visiting allies and allaying their fears after his defeat.
"This was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012," says Stuart.
So, rather than prophesy, the 2012 reference places this king's troubled reign and accomplishments into a larger cosmological framework.
"In times of crisis, the ancient Maya used their calendar to promote continuity and stability rather than predict apocalypse," says Canuto. - sciencedaily
12/21/2012: A Prophecy
The Day After 2012
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Alien following a skunk
Yadkinville, NC - 6/29/2012 - unedited: The dog was barking more than usual and I was having trouble sleeping. I saw a thin grey looking alien shape shadow walking down the road behind a skunk. Watch for about 30 to 35 secs then it just disappeared. Watched for another 30 minutes and nothing. I have never seen anything like this before and was a little startled by saying I even saw this, but I know it was about 3-4 feet tall and thin, just following a skunk. - MUFON CMS
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Two-Thirds of Americans Think Barack Obama Is Better Suited to Handle an Alien Invasion Than Mitt Romney
According to a new U.S. extraterrestrial survey from National Geographic Channel (NGC), more than 80 million Americans are certain that UFOs exist. In fact, many believe in tangible proof that aliens have landed on Earth and think that government officials are involved in covering up paranormal activities. Moreover, most citizens would not mind a minor alien invasion, because they expect these space-age visitors to be friendly--like the lovable character depicted in Steven Spielberg's popular film "E.T."
Survey results also reveal that more than one-third (36%) of Americans believe UFOs exist. More than one in 10 (11%) are confident that they have spotted a UFO, and one in five (20%) know someone who claims to have seen one.
- Despite the popularity of "Avengers" and "Twilight," more than seven in 10 (71%) Americans think that aliens are more likely to exist than are superheroes, vampires and zombies. Furthermore, if aliens attacked our planet, more than one in five (21%) would most likely call on the Hulk to deal with the havoc. Far fewer would most trust Batman (12%) or Spiderman (8%) to step in.
- In regards to national security, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans think Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion. In fact, more than two in three (68%) women say that Obama would be more adept at dealing with an alien invasion than Romney, vs. 61 percent of men. And more younger citizens, ages 18 to 64 years, than those aged 65+ (68% vs. 50%) think Romney would not be as well-suited as Obama to handle an alien invasion.
Tech Supervisor Erin Ryder and UFOlogist James Fox from NGC's new series "Chasing UFOs," believe the survey results are in line with the interviews and research they found in field operations taping the show. Viewers who watch the series' back-to-back premieres on Friday, June 29, at 9 & 10 p.m. ET/PT, will witness over 30 Texas residents who swear they saw an unidentified flying object in 2008 and Colorado towns folk share their encounters with the team about speeding saucers and green lights that often are spotted in the night sky.
About the Survey
NatGeo's "Aliens Among Us" survey polled a random nationwide sample of 1,114 Americans, May 21-29, 2012. The poll was conducted by Kelton Research, which used e-mail invitations and online surveys. Quotas were set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population, ages 18 and older. The margin of error is +/-2.9 percent. - spaceref
Alien Invasion: The Ultimate Survival Guide for the Ultimate Attack
The Alien Invasion Survival Handbook: A Defense Manual for the Coming Extraterrestrial Apocalypse
The Harvesting
