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considered to be his final word on the topic. But though Burrows often claimed to have lost interest in his discovery (largely due to the difficult people he had to deal with), he still returned to it, like to an old flame. The fact that he could not let go, even though there was nothing in it for him any more, should perhaps be seen as the best evidence _ that Burrows had indeed made a legitimate discovery. For if this discovery had started as a money- Another example of how the cave became a hostage in other people's battles is the story of Richard Flavin, who used the cave to persecute Frank Joseph. For more than 15 years, Joseph had nothing to do with the story until, in his position as a writer for The Ancient American magazine, he became interested and eventually wrote a book about it (The Lost Treasure of King Juba; Bear & Co., 2003). But Flavin instead focused on Joseph's past as a neo- Nazi (dating back to the early 1970s) and uses this as ammunition to "prove" that making scheme in 1982, anyone suggesting the cave Gold artefact from the cave, clearly showing Egyptian or Egyptian-inspired by 1992 he had long could be real is hence a neo- marks on the gold. © Russell Burrows abandoned such hope. Nazi. Flavin met Burrows But the story did not on a few occasions, but his interpretation of events is spurious at —_ die. In 1993, diffusionist thinkers now had a new magazine to best and his account reads more like that of a Christian turn to, The Ancient American, which over the course of the missionary in the lands of the "primitives" or a communist witch- subsequent decade continued to follow the story of the cave. In hunter of the 1950s than a scientific approach to the subject (see 1999, the magazine's founder/publisher Wayne May decided that http://www.flavinscorner.com/falling.htm). if no one else could bring about a change in the situation, he In the final analysis, the story of the Burrows Cave is typical would do so himself. for a finding of this nature. Just look at i ri other similar discoveries and replace the names; the general storyline would hardly alter. The same basic stand-off is here, with the scientific experts quick to condemn the artefacts they were shown as "obvious forgeries". By default, the artefacts could not be genuine, for we all "know" that Columbus was the first to reach America. When it came to the amateurs, Burrows was unprepared for and unaware of the amount of in-fighting and controversy that exists in most amateur organisations—though communities such as those interested in UFOs, the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and crop circles have so far easily outperformed anything that the "diffusionists" (those researching anomalous evidence in the New World, suggestive of transoceanic contacts) have been capable of. Burrows had thrown out a giant bone and the dogs were fighting over it. In the process, he was eaten—and so was his story. Having reported on the subject for the previous six years, spoken to the man and heard him out, May got Burrows to sign a contract and to disclose and show him the location of the cave—despite his initial belief that Burrows had lied about the location and had actually laid a false trail. I have to say that, from my personal dealings with Burrows in 1992 and 1993, I found him to be a man of honour. If he promised something, he would do it (cue or the critics to laugh at what they will see is my "obvious" gullibility). And that, it seems, is what May felt as well. So, despite his initial reluctance to elieve, May finally knew the location and persevered with his investigations. His ground-penetrating radar indicated that "a cave" was indeed there. The roblem was how to get in, considering that Burrows's explosion a decade earlier ad destroyed the entrance. Unfortunately, it soon became evident that the explosion had not only blocked the entrance but had also damaged the Stone found outside the Burrows Cave, showing an apparently African face. © Russell Burrows Af tha tunnal interior of the tunnel. During May's various attempts to gain access, each time he stumbled upon huge quantities of water. This seemed to indicate that the explosion had diverted the flow of an underground river and as a result had caused water to gush into the underground complex. It therefore looked like salvaging anything from the underground complex would be terribly complex—and largely outside May's capabilities. Ground-Penetrating Radar Tests Unfortunately, Russell Burrows's personal disillusionment led him to dynamite the entrance to the cave. He reportedly did this in 1989, three years before his co-written book The Mystery Cave of Many Faces was published (with Fred Rydholm; Marquette, 1992). It's an extremely level-headed account of his discovery of the cave and the artefacts inside—and something that he NEXUS +59 Stone found outside the Burrows Cave, showing an apparently African face. © Russell Burrows AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com