Hillbilly Zombies Linked To Ancient Ruins
In an unexpected collision between architectural history and presumed science fiction, a strange Southern Appalachian mystery has apparently been solved. The answer was in a four century old book.
Since the 1960s residents and vacationers in the mountains of Georgia have intermittently made frantic 911 calls to sheriff’s departments concerning the appearance of zombies walking past their tents, cabins or farmhouses at night. Terrified callers described young men or women, appearing out of nowhere in the wee hours of the morning, who were oblivious to flashlights, shouts and dogs. None were armed. None spoke or threatened the callers in any way. All merely appeared out of the darkness with blank faces and then walked back into the darkness, as if lost in time and space.
The response of law enforcement agencies has varied. If the callers were long time residents of the county, patrol cars were usually dispatched to search for prowlers. The dispatch was typically recorded as “prowler reported,” not “a zombie” reported. If the 911 call came from an out of town cellular phone at a camp site in the Chattahoochee National Forest, the callers were assumed to be silly city folks, who saw a bear or perhaps were delusional because of the unaccustomed darkness. Calls from vacationers staying in rental cabins were only taken slightly more seriously. As often as not, either the callers or the “zombies” were presumed to be high on drugs.
Detractors of the credibility of "hillbilly zombies" usually blamed the sightings on hysterical vacationers or use of various hallucinogenic drugs. It was noted that the sightings began in the 1960s at about the same time that the movie, Night of the Living Dead, drew crowds to theaters around the nation.
Because there is no official crime known as “being a zombie,” there are no accurate records of “hillbilly zombie” crime reports. The accounts of zombies usually stay in the domain of muffled giggles from rural mountain residents. The general public is only aware of the zombie activities when a rash of 911 calls catches the attention of the media.
A few “zombies” were arrested by law enforcement. They were charged with trespassing and use of controlled substances. The only trouble was that the “controlled substances” could not be identified. The detainees would awake in their jail cells, not having any explanation of where they had been or why they couldn’t remember the previous few days. They were typically assigned to a psychiatrist for examination, then released.
The most recent flurry of hillbilly zombie sightings occurred between 2008 and 2010. They were concentrated in the Cherry Log Community of Gilmer County, GA, but also occurred in neighboring Union and Fannin Counties. Cherry Log was made famous in the 1960s by a poem written by James Dickey, author of Deliverance. The hillbilly zombies had their “15 minute moment of fame” nationally as jokes on the Paul Harvey News, Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live and several syndicated conservative talk shows. However, rumors of such sightings have continued to the present.
The ancient city of “Great Copal”
The announcement of the Track Rock Terrace Complex in December of 2011 has caused renewed interest in the Native American history of the Southeast. See links to related articles below. In 2012 several more Native American terrace sites have been discovered in Georgia and Virginia. Whether or not they believe that the ruins were built by Maya Commoner refugees, scholars, architects, historians, botanists and anthropologists all ponder why the 200+ stone-walled terraces were built. At the same time the terraces were built (c.900-1250 AD) broad expanses of fertile riverine bottom lands were being farmed nearby. In an hour’s walking distance from Track Rock Gap are the sites of conventional Native American towns with ceremonial mounds.
Michael Jacobs is a senior planner with Native American heritage at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission in Waycross, GA. Waycross is adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp. In earlier years, Michael was a historic preservation planner, but now, like of the rest of his colleagues at this award-winning agency, he is working long hours bringing additional economic development to their service area.
Michael’s great passion is American history. He has an extensive historical research library in his home. In his few available hours of free time between work and family obligations, he pours through centuries old colonial archives. He has an innate knack of making major discoveries in this endeavor.
On August 21, 2012 Jacobs was reading a new acquisition to his library, a copy of a multiple volume book written by sixteenth century English explorer and author, Richard Hakluyt. In addition to describing adventures by Englishmen, the book’s volumes included English translations of books by foreign explorers. That particular day, Jacobs was reading the translation of “Relacion de Pedro Moreles.”
During the late 1500s Moreles lived in the Spanish colonial town Santa Elena, which was located on Parris Island, SC. He participated in several journeys up the Savannah River to the Georgia Mountains to prospect for gold and visit the capital of the Apalachee Indians living there. The capital was named by the Spanish, Grande Copal (Great Copal.) The Spaniard’s description of this large city on a mountain side matches in many ways the appearance of the Track Rock archaeological zone.
Great Copal city got its name from the copal bushes cultivated there. Copal was used by the Mayas as incense and as a psychotropic drug. The Aztecs used higher doses of copal, mixed withpulque beer, to induce a “zombie” effect on victims destined for having their hearts cut out. The drug shuts down the front part of the brain where thinking and feeling occur, but victims were able to move normally and climb the tall temple steps to their doom. They were essentially turned into living robots, who obeyed orders without question.
That evening, Jacobs excitedly contacted the Examiner. The following evening, he was interviewed. The discovery of an obscure 16th century document that apparently confirmed the existence of the Track Rock ruins as a city with a Maya name was important. This eyewitness account substantially reinforced evidence of an Itza Maya migration to North America. The cultivation in the Georgia Mountains of a tropical plant used for incense and mind control initially appeared problematic.
Follow-up research quickly confirmed the probable veracity of Pedro Moreles’ book. Copal is the hardened sap made from some species of the bursera plant family. Several species of this bush grow in the Georgia Mountains. They were made into medicinal teas by Native Americans and early European settlers. Very weak solutions of some species were used for pain killers. Other species were anti-inflammatory medicines that gave relief to arthritis, bruises and joint injuries. One species of the plant in the Georgia Mountains, Bursera hindsiana, is similar to the species of Bursera used in Mexico to produce copal. It both produces a sap that hardens into an amber-like substance that can be used as incense, and has psychotropic effects on humans.
Early frontiersmen knew only to give weak solutions of Bursera hindsiana tea. Somewhat stronger solutions would cause the victims to appear mentally retarded or afflicted with dementia. Very strong doses, especially when mixed with alcohol, caused catatonic states that could last for days.
A catatonic state is the scientific way of describing a zombie. Apparently, some folks in the Georgia Mountains have been tampering with old home remedies to the point where they can knock folks for a wallop. Beware when someone there tells you that they no longer drink tea, but they made some special tea for you!
The plot of the original Night of the Living Dead movie, directed by George Romero, was remarkably similar to the incidents in the Georgia Mountains. Five people are spending the weekend at a rural Pennsylvania mountain farmhouse, when the farm is assaulted by waves of zombies.
~examiner.com
No comments:
Post a Comment