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by D.V. Pyle, Washington, Ind., July 16, 1997

In southern Indiana there is an area which some researchers of the paranormal claim is a focal point for paranormal activity, and as such the area known as Lucky Point has become a focal point of investigations by members of the Unexplained Phenomena Research Organization. The swampy wooded area is located in rural Knox County near the town of Monroe City. According to some, strange occurrences have happened there over the years. The Unexplained Phenomena Research Organization (U.P.R.O.) is a national group dedicated to investigating unexplained supernatural mysteries. The Indiana chapter of the group is headed by Jerry Sievers out of his home in Vincennes, Indiana. "We have had reports of things from U.F.O.'s, Sasquatch sightings, spook lights and ghosts in this area," Sievers commented. One prominent mystery involves two utility poles buried in concrete, which some witnesses have claimed to observe shaking. Sievers said the poles seem to make a rattling sound sometimes. Additionally the ground has been reported as shaking at a rate of 50-feet an hour.

"They are two sets of double polls buried in concrete with a road running between them," Sievers said. "People up at Lucky Point watching for U.F.O.s have reported hearing the poles rattle." REMC, the utility company responsible for maintaining the poles, has denied there is any problem with the poles. However, Sievers claims company representatives know about the polls, but have told him they cannot determine the reason for the rattling poles. Another problem which Sievers says accompanies the rattling is that such items as camcorders mysteriously stop working in the area of the poles. Sievers said it can take five visits to Lucky Point before one is able to hear the mysterious rattling noise. "Witnesses who have heard the noise and reported it to us have said it could not be the electricity. Sometimes the vibrations are so extreme that the insulators holding the wire will jar and rattle," Sievers said...

© CRYSTALINKS

The precise origin of the Dogon, like those of many other ancient cultures, is undetermined. Their civilization emerged, in much the same manner as ancient Sumer, both sharing tales of their creation by gods who came from the sky in space ships, who allegedly will return one day. The early histories are informed by oral traditions that differ according to the Dogon clan being consulted and archaeological excavation much more of which needs to be conducted. Because of these inexact and incomplete sources, there are a number of different versions of the Dogon's origin myths as well as differing accounts of how they got from their ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara region. The people call themselves 'Dogon' or 'Dogom', but in the older literature they are most often called 'Habe', a Fulbe word meaning 'stranger' or 'pagan'. Certain theories suggest the tribe to be of ancient Egyptian descent - the Dogon next migrating to the region now called Libya, then moving on to somewhere in the regions of Guinea or Mauritania.

Around 1490 AD, fleeing invaders and/or drought, they migrated to the Bandiagara cliffs of central Mali. Carbon-14 dating techniques used on excavated remains found in the cliffs indicate that there were inhabitants in the region before the arrival of the Dogon. They were the Toloy culture of the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, and the Tellem culture of the 11th to 15th centuries AD. The religious beliefs of the Dogon are enormously complex and knowledge of them varies greatly within Dogon society. Dogon religion is defined primarily through the worship of the ancestors and the spirits whom they encountered as they slowly migrated from their obscure ancestral homelands to the Bandiagara cliffs. They were called the 'Nommo' There are three principal cults among the Dogon; the Awa, Lebe and Binu. The Awa is a cult of the dead, whose purpose is to reorder the spiritual forces disturbed by the death of Nommo, a mythological ancestor of great importance to the Dogon...

USS Niña: Niña, a 4th rate iron screw steamer, was laid down by Reaney, Son, and Archbold, Chester, Pa., in 1864; launched 27 May 1865; delivered at New York Navy Yard 26 September 1865; and placed in service as a yard tug at the Washington Navy Yard 6 January 1866, Ensign F. C., Hall commanding that ship and sister tugs Primrose and Rescue. Niña operated as a yard tug for the Washington Naval Gun Factory through May 1869 and was then converted to a torpedo boat. She commissioned 31 March 1870, LT. Godfrey Hunter in command, and then sailed for Newport R.I., arriving at the Naval Station 14 April. The ship served as a torpedo boat at Newport through 1883, refitting in May 1884 for special service, and next operated from August to October salvaging the wreck of sidewheel gunboat Tallapoosa sunk in Martha's Vineyard Sound. From 1885 to 1889 Niña served in various capacities at New York navy Yard, and then returned to Newport from 1890 to 1891.

The converted tugboat returned to New York Navy Yard in 1892 to resume her original duties, continuing her yard work and towing services there for a decade. On 8 October 1902, she commissioned as tender and supply vessel to the Torpedo Boat Flotilla during winter maneuvers in the Caribbean. The ship returned to New York 15 March 1903 and decommissioned 6 days later, once again taking up her yard towing chores. Niña was next loaned to the Lighthouse Department to verify aids to navigation near Puerto Rican waters to protect the Fleet conducting Winter maneuvers from October 1903 to April 1904. She recommissioned 9 September 1905 for special service with the Board of Inspection and Survey, Rockland, Me. Niña was ordered converted into a submarine tender on 28 December 1905. On 25 May 1906, she arrived at the Newport Naval Torpedo Station, and following a year's service, was assigned as tender for the 1st Torpedo Flotilla. For the next four years, she served with the Atlantic Fleet's infant submarine force in its pioneer coastal operations form Newport to Annapolis and Norfolk...

By Steven A. Culbreath

More than nine hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles, and scholars estimate that twice that number may originally have been built. These megalithic structures should be referred to as rings rather than circles since only 2 percent of the structures are in the shape of true circles; the other 98 percent are constructed in a variety of elliptical shapes. Stonehenge, however, is roughly circular. It is nearly impossible to precisely date the stone rings because of the scarcity of datable remains associated with them, but it is known that they were constructed during the Neolithic period. In southern England, the Neolithic period dates from the development of the first farming communities around 4000 BC to the development of bronze technology around 2000 BC, when the construction of the megalithic monuments was mostly over. Because of the scantiness of the archaeological record at the stone rings, any attempts to explain the functions of the structures are interpretive. Most such attempts have tended to reflect the cultural biases of their times.

In the seventeenth century, well before the development of archaeological dating methods and accurate historical research, the antiquarian John Aubrey surmised that the Druids constructed Stonehenge and other megalithic structures. While this idea (and a whole collection of related fanciful notions) has become deeply ingrained in the uneducated minds of popular culture from the seventeenth century to the present age, it is a matter of certain knowledge that the Druids had nothing whatsoever to do with the construction of the stone rings. The Celtic society in which the Druid priesthood flourished came into existence in Britain only after 300 BC, more than 1500 years after the last stone rings were constructed. Furthermore, no evidence suggests that the Druids, upon finding the stone rings situated across the countryside, ever used them for ritual purposes; they are known to have conducted their ritual activities in sacred forest groves...