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21 January 2025
HISTORIAN TED FAYE, SPECIAL GUEST AT HSUMD JANUARY MEETING.
Welcome to 2025! For the first meeting of the year, the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert will present a video about Death Valley’s Ancient Underground by historian and film maker Ted Faye. The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21 at 7:00 pm at the Historic USO Building, 230 W. Ridgecrest Blvd.
The video opens with an amazing announcement: on August 5, 1947, Dr. F. Bruce Russell, a retired physician from Cincinnati, found a cave in Death Valley with the mummified remains of giants and artifacts from a lost civilization.
As it turns out, fifteen years earlier, a miner broke through a mine shaft and into a tunnel of caverns, which, according to him, led to more remains of an ancient people. And preceding that event, one of the men working on the wagons hauling borax, stumbled into a cavern with remnants of a forgotten race. The Paiute tribe espoused legends of a war against cannibalistic giants who lived in a cave. Even Death Valley Scotty and Bob Eichbaum, entrepreneur of Stovepipe Wells, joined in the pursuit of Lost Civilizations in Death Valley.
In true Ted Faye “Weird Tales” style, the audience will learn much history and lore about treasures and lost civilizations in caves beneath Death Valley, the early history of Stovepipe Wells and the tunnels under Scotty’s Castle. Hidden gold or ancient mummies may not be discovered in any of these caverns in Death Valley, but it will be fascinating to explore!
Ted Faye’s first documentary, “Death Velley Memories” was produced in 1994, The video featured an introduction by Ronald Reagan and narrated by actor Eddie Albert, and was sponsored in part by US Borax. Following the film’s premier in 1994, the company engaged Ted as their history consultant for the next 5 years. During that time, he was able to work with all the company’s artifacts and materials, many of which dated from the time they used the 20 Mule Teams to take borax from Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley to the railroad in Mojave.
Faye has been producing documentary films as well as historical and informational videos and tour guides since 1997. His interest in Death Valley has led to many productions involving mule teams, prospectors, railroads, pioneers and even ghosts, and he has led many trips to Ridgecrest to show and talk about his videos.
The HSUMD meets on the third Tuesday of most months. Each meeting features a presentation on some aspect of local history. Meetings are free, and all are welcome to attend. For more information on this or future meetings, call 760-375-8456 during Book/Gift Shop hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.
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