32: Great Balls of Fire

Some lost treasures are legendary because of what is hidden. Some are legendary because of who did the hiding. Both types of captivating tales are found in the book Coronado’s Children. Published in 1930 and written by Texas folklorist and author J. Frank Dobie, Coronado’s Children is an enthralling collection of stories about buried treasure, Old West capers, and the often dangerous quest for a fleeting fortune by adventurous characters. Usually a blend of documented events and dubious oral history, these stories are not merely Tall Tales but testaments of a pioneering spirit that furthered the exploration of the American southwest and was foundational to the United States as a country. One such account that stood out to us was the legend of Jean Laffite and his brother Pierre. Spelled “Laffite” by the brothers themselves, but recorded in contemporary official US documents as “Lafitte,” theirs is a chronicle that begins and ends in mystery and everything in-between became firmly entrenched in the early history of Louisiana and Texas, from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Arriving in New Orleans around the time of the Louisana Purchase in 1803 from debated origins, the Laffite brothers soon established a blacksmith shop in the French Quarter, which still stands today. Not long after, they realized the real profit would come from using the shop to “fence” pirated goods stolen by the privateers who preyed on Spanish merchant ships in Barataria Bay. Using their natural business acumen, the Laffites would expand their criminal enterprises enough to make themselves some of the richest and most powerful men in the region. Even when their flagrant operations had threatened the sovereignty of the US government, Jean Laffite was able to gain at least temporary pardon and acclaim by greatly aiding then General Andrew Jackson to victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans. In a career of contradictions and double-dealings, Jean Laffite would enjoy such occupations as a prominent businessman, smuggler, military hero, spy, slave trader, and criminal mastermind, but popular opinion regards him most generally as a pirate, a moniker he detested. Whatever his actual life story is and the fate of his amassed fortune, his legacy is perhaps best described by J. Frank Dobie as, “Legend, Paradox, Mystery.” For more information on this episode visit our website!

20 Huhti 20201h 50min

We’re all sequestered in our respective locations these Strange Days, with many of us using teleconferencing applications to connect with co-workers, friends, and family. It’s a tool we use in our regular production of the podcast since we’ve been separated by a continent. But now we thought it was time to put it to even better use to check in with our good friends Rich Hatem and Rob Kristoffersen. We first met Rob in 2016 when he graciously helped us research UFO subjects. He has since gone on to produce his own podcast, Our Strange Skies, a captivating and in-depth program on the phenomenon. Rich was introduced to us through a mutual friend when an uncanny discovery occurred. He was not only the screenwriter of The Mothman Prophecies, a film we often discussed, but he also had a vast knowledge of, and a shared passion for the paranormal. We’ve had both fine gentlemen on past episodes separately, but never with all of us on together. Tonight’s show will be a free-wheeling, casual conversation covering such topics as Charles Hoy Fort, the namesake of paranormal phenomena dubbed “Forteana,” recent developments at Skinwalker Ranch, and even our setups for podcast recording and teleconferencing at home. We hope you’ll find tonight’s episode to be in the same spirit that our show is meant to be for all of our audience. That is, an engaging discussion and enduring camaraderie no matter how strange things get. For more information on this episode visit our website!

12 Huhti 20201h 54min

Astonishing Legends presents the premiere of Season 2 of our additional show, The Midnight Library. The remaining 12 episodes can be found, dropping weekly on Sundays, on The Midnight Library's own feed. Please find and subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts! Welcome back, Dear Guests! - Goddess Tree, Witch Tree, Bearer of a Gift Tree; Tonight we gather to learn what ancient magical powers can be found in a Rowan tree. Infused with myths, imbued with luck, and sacred to this day, the Rowan tree may be just the thing to bring joy to your garden, or it may even save your life! For more information on this episode visit our website!

5 Huhti 202019min

Valid hypotheses about the Lost Colony of 1587 on Roanoke Island have existed since the settlers' disappearance.   In 1603, Bartholomew Gilbert attempted the last contemporary expedition to locate the colonists, but his search ended with the death of himself and four crewmen at the hands of Algonquian natives.  John Smith, an influential leader of the Jamestown Colony of 1607, had heard stories from Native American chiefs about villages where some of the men wore European-style clothing.  His search efforts would come up empty-handed, except for producing a map showing the locations of the suspected communities with walled housing.  It wasn't until 1701 with John Lawson's expedition to the then Province of Carolina that a European exploration would again check the Roanoke site along with the Croatoan area, which became Hatteras Island.  Lawson's examination of Roanoke yielded few clues except for the ruins of a fort and some English items.  His meeting with the Hatteras natives, however, provided a curious revelation: some of the Hatteras tribal members had gray eyes and claimed a few of their ancestors were white.  After Lawson's search, with inconclusive evidence and no forensic methodology at the time, interest in the Lost Colony's fate faded over the decades.  In the 430 years since the colonist's disappearance, hypotheses ranging from massacre and conspiracy to assimilation have remained unprovable.  Even with tantalizing finds through recent archaeology and DNA research, we are still one conclusive discovery away from declaring the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a "Mystery Solved!" For more information on this episode visit our website!

22 Maalis 20202h 18min

Few realize or remember that the very beginnings of English colonization in North America were fraught with tremendous hardship, peril, and connected to an enduring mystery.  A charter was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1584 to explore and colonize lands unclaimed by Christian kingdoms, south of Newfoundland, and north of Spanish Florida.  With hopes of finding vast riches as the Spanish Empire had done in Central and South America and a possible Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, Raleigh had initiated two attempts at establishing an English settlement along the coast of present-day North Carolina.  The first colony was set up by Governor Ralph Lane in 1585 on Roanoke Island, located in the Outer Banks.  This enterprise would end in failure and evacuation from scare resources and hostile relations with the local Native American tribes.  A second attempt at a colony came in 1587 with Governor John White and around 115 men, women, and children who had agreed to settle in this wondrous but challenging new country.  Unfortunately, a curious order left these hapless planters on Roanoke Island, which had now become dangerous from the actions of the former colony.  The colonists persuaded White to return to England to plead for help, but due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances, he was not able to return to Roanoke until 1590.  When White and the relief mission finally made their way to their last known location, the settlers had vanished, including White's daughter and his infant granddaughter.  White's granddaughter Virginia Dare would be known as the first English child born in a New World English possession, but what happened to her remains unknown.  The only clue as to their whereabouts were the letters "CRO" carved into a tree and the word "CROATOAN" carved into the fort's palisade.  These enigmatic carvings and the strange disappearance of the Lost Colony at Roanoke would ensure that their fate would become one of the first and lasting mysteries of the English occupation in the New World. For more information on this episode visit our website!

15 Maalis 20201h 52min

On November 29, 1925, the tramp steamer SS Cotopaxi left port at Charleston, South Carolina, under the command of Captain William Meyer loaded with her usual cargo of coal, and headed for Havana, Cuba. The voyage was routine until the ship ran into a fierce tropical storm off the eastern coast of Florida near Jacksonville. On December 1, the Cotopaxi sent out a distress call saying it was taking on water and listing badly. A thorough search of the area found no trace of the vessel or its thirty-two crew members, and the Cotopaxi would become another entry in the long record of seafaring mysteries, with many believing it had also become a victim of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Although a notable tragedy in its day, the story of the Cotopaxi would fade from the public's memory, that is until it made a surprising cameo in Steven Spielberg's 1977 motion picture, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. What would later become even more surprising was the discovery of a shipwreck matching the Cotopaxi's description sometime in the decade following the film. However, due to the sunken ship's concealment in ocean sands, no one would realize the similarity at the time. Laying in about 100 feet of water and 35 nautical miles east of the coast of the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida, the site became popularly known as the "Bear Wreck," an assumption of its association with another lost ship. It would take a nagging hunch and nearly 15 years of diving on the wreck for marine biologist and underwater explorer Michael Barnette to finally have enough of the puzzle pieces to make a solid connection to the Cotopaxi. While the wreck's dimensions, various recovered parts, and a position correlated with newly discovered insurance records make this site a strong candidate for the Cotopaxi, there is still a missing clue that could positively identify the doomed steamer. Please join us for a more casual conversation about the recent news that may be a rare occasion where the headline is earned, "Mystery Solved!" For more information on this episode visit our website!

8 Maalis 20201h 30min

As with any mysterious event, it’s often said that we should look to the simplest solution as being most likely the right one.  The idea that when presented with competing hypotheses that make the same predictions, the solution with the fewest assumptions should be chosen is usually attributed to the principle of “Occam’s razor.”  But what happens if we try to apply this cure-all of an axiom to explain a medieval legend that has few clues associated with it?  In Part Two of our series on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, we’ll explore several of the leading hypotheses on this bizarre event such as the plague and Murine Typhus, forced emigration, the “Dancing Madness” and ergotism, slavery, the Crusades and even alien abduction.  And if we return to applying “Occam’s razor” to this mystery from the Middle Ages and accept the contemporary accounts?  Then what remains is the disturbing thought that somehow, a nefarious charmer simply used a flute to tragically persuade a large group of children to follow him into oblivion.  They may be lost and their names are forgotten, but they and their Piper shall be forever remembered as one of the most famous legends of all time. For more information on this episode visit our website!

23 Helmi 20201h 53min

In the year 1284 CE, a remarkable and colorfully dressed young man came to the town of Hamelin in Lower Saxony, Germany.  There are two documentations of this wanderer’s visit, the originals of which have since been lost.  According to the contemporary Hamelin chronicle and a depiction in a stained glass window in a local church, this handsome stranger began to play his flute through the streets.  Enchanted by the notes, 130 children from the town followed him into the woods, never to be seen again.  In the hundreds of years since the supposedly real event occurred, the most significant addition to the story would be the reason for the mass kidnapping.  After successfully ridding the town of a plague of rats using his musical pipe, the payment the piper was promised was withheld by the mayor and the town leaders.  Furious at his being cheated, the magical visitor took their children as his payment.  This later variation of the narrative we have all come to know as “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Today, we may think of this story as a children’s Fairly Tale.  But as the Brothers Grimm had noted themselves, and who are partly responsible for making it known to the world, this is a legend and not a Fairy Tale.  The difference is that legends are considered to be based on actual events, people, and places.  In relation, it’s also said that there is a kernel of truth to every legend.  If that is accurate, then the real Pied Piper event may be far more mysterious and tragic than we could have imagined, either as children or adults.  For more information on this episode visit our website!

16 Helmi 202057min