Legend of the Waubansee Stone
Some are now saying that this purposeful suppression was due to Manifest Destiny. Thanks to Manifest Destiny, there was a huge conspiracy put in place to conceal the true origins of the Native Americans in order to characterize them as sub-evolved savages and deny them constitutional rights. Native Americans were classified as subhuman in order to appear to legally claim American soil by new European settlers. Hiding the true origins of the Native Americans would also served to discredit the Book of Mormon.
Contradicting Stories About The Waubansee Stone
According to the official version, the four-inch-deep basin was used by Native Americans for grinding grain. In the early 1800s a soldier stationed at Fort Dearborn chiseled the face in the likeness of friendly Potawatomi chief Waubansee.
However, nothing more was heard about the stone until it a prominent Chicago family put it on display in their front yard in the 1860s. The family gave the stone to the museum in 1914.
The Chicago Museum cut the stone and used it as a drinking fountain for 18 years.
The two holes on either side of the Waubansee Stone have also intrigued many researchers. Were the holes bored?
In the 1881 book Chicago Antiquities by Henry H. Hurlbut, a member of the Chicago and Wisconsin historical societies admitted it’s unknown how the holes were created and because there is no information that could cast more light on the mystery. “Its prehistoric record, of course, is not very clear to us,” Hurlbut wrote.
Could This Be The Stone Of Sacrifice And Death?
Some historians have speculated that the face was carved on the rock long before the arrival of explorers and settlers, even the Potawatomi.
In The Story of Chicago (1892), Joseph Kirkland writes: “Many persons have looked on it as a relic of prehistoric art–the sacrificial stone of an Aztec teocalli perhaps.”
If the boulder was the Stone of Death and Sacrifice, it means that the face depicts god or a spirit to whom indigenous Americans like the Mound Builders, or perhaps ancient overseas voyagers, offered their victims.
However, this doesn’t explain how the Waubansee Stone ended up in Chicago.
Was The Waubansee Stone Created By The Phoenicians?
Frank Joseph, alternative history researcher and author of several books think the stone was made by the Phoenicians, a Semitic people closely related to the Hebrews. The Phoenicians called themselves Canaanites, and modern researchers believe they were the descendants of two groups, the early Canaanites, who inhabited the coast of present-day Lebanon, and seafarers.
The Phoenicians established several colonies throughout the Mediterranean. including Carthage, their greatest city, in North Africa that became a dominant power in the Western Mediterranean.
Mainstream historians have rejected the possibility that the Phoenicians visited North America before Columbus’ arrival. Some alternative history researchers such as Dr. Barry Fell (1917-1994), who became famous for his controversial work in New World epigraphy, argued that various inscriptions in the Americas are best explained by extensive pre-Columbian contact with Old World civilizations.
Some alternative ancient history researchers have suggested the Waubansee Stone was created by the Phoenicians.
In one of his books, America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World, Dr. Fell offers many examples of Old World civilizations left behind symbols and messages all over America.
According to Frank Joseph, there are parallels between the Waubansee Stone and other artifacts. “One thing, the Carthaginians sculpted disembodied faces face-on. The other thing, they sculpted people with closed eyes,” which signified death. They also wore chin beards, he notes.
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Frank Joseph also rejects the idea the Waubansee Stone was a corn mortar. It points to a tophet,” he says, naming the outdoor stone altars upon which Carthaginians were known to sacrifice children to appease the gods.
Why Hasn’t The Museum Examined The Waubansee Stone?
Ascertaining the legitimacy of a historic object is by no means easy. There are many reasons why experts prefer not to examine an artifact. Some objects kept at a museum can be fakes, but is it really up to the visitors to decide what is real and not?
“We give them the options of deciding if the artifacts are real, fake or maybe. The ‘maybe’ answer isn’t a cop-out on our part. Some objects you just can’t tell if they are real or not. There might be physical tests we could do on the object to help us find the truth, but in many cases the objects are so rare and delicate, it is not worth damaging them to find out,” curator Peter Alter said.
Journalist Jeff Huebner who writes for the Chicago Reader investigated the controversial history of the Waubansee Stone.
“Has the Chicago Historical Society ever had the Waubansee Stone examined by geologists, archaeologists, metallurgists, or art historians?” Huebner asks.
Is the Puzzling Waubansee Stone a precious, neglected Pre-Columbian artifact? Image credit: Office of the Cultural Historian of the City of Chicago
In an interview with Ralph Pugh, a 19-year society historian Huebner was told the museum never bothered to examine the boulder.
“You know, I can reveal that in terms of analysis of the stone and other clues, we can say we haven’t looked into those claims.” Pugh thinks the alternative theories “seem fanciful,” rooted in how 19th-century Chicagoans yearned to view their young, fast-growing city as having an antiquated and folkloric past. “The stone caught a lot of people’s imaginations, and that accounts for a lot of the overimagination.”
Yet he admits, “Science could help us discount some speculations.” So, what should we think of the puzzling Waubansee Stone?
Is it a piece of prehistoric art, was it made in modern times or is it the work of Mother Nature? Without proper examination, it’s impossible to determine who carved the face on the rock.
If the Waubansee Stone was really made by an Old World civilization, the rock could easily re-write the history of North America.
Needless to say that the Waubansee Stone is one of many mysterious ancient rocks and stones discovered in North America.
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Who Carved the Waubansee Stone?
Just like the Rock Wall in Texas, when we began shooting this episode I was a little surprised I had never before heard of the Waubansee Stone. In fact, there is sparse information about it on the Internet or in books. It’s one of those artifacts that slipped through the cracks of history and its origin truly is a mystery. As we pursued the investigation, it quickly became clear to me this was not the creation of a bored soldier at Fort Dearborn 200 years ago, who carved the face on this stone that at one time was originally eight feet long. I also read where the local native tribes reported the stone was upright with one end three feet in the ground like a megalithic standing stone. It might have been erected to mark the important, and very ancient, portage route to the Mississippi River from Lake Michigan. It seems perfectly logical to speculate the standing stone could date back thousands of years as an important marker for the ancient Copper Culture, both from Europe and for indigenous people to have used this portage to transport their valuable cargo.
It’s difficult for people to imagine these days, but the landscape of the Great Lakes region in the post-glacial period two to five millennia ago looked much different than it does today. In fact, at one point of what is now the Chicago River that flows into Lake Michigan, the river likely flowed directly out of the lake to the Mississippi. As the continental ice sheets melted back, lake levels were constantly changing. Isostatic rebound of the earth’s crust from the removal of the immense weight of the ice also created dramatic changes in lake levels and the flow of rivers and streams over the past five thousand years. Remember, because of differences in water levels in the past, there almost certainly were easier travel routes for larger vessels between the individual Great Lakes than they would be now. Excluding of course, modern canals and locks.
In any case, the most likely scenario for me is the Phoenicians, and/or whichever ancient cultures in the America’s that were involved in the early mining of copper in the Lake Superior region. I’m certainly open to other possibilities, such as the Mayans, Aztecs, or some other early Native American group as the carvers of the mysterious face, but I’m not at all receptive to the notion that a soldier with the advanced skills, appropriate tools, and time on his hands at Fort Dearborn had anything to do with it. Therefore, this makes the Waubansee Stone one the most historically important and valuable artifacts in North America. In my opinion, it should be front page news and I’m hopeful that it will soon be prominently displayed for the American public to see and ponder.
Posted by Scott Wolter
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