The Search Continues for William Niven’s Buried Cities; Part 2

In part 1 it was established that literally thousands of artifacts uncovered by William Niven in Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th century are missing. In November 1974, an official letter from the Mexican government was sent to the Paperback Library publishers. The letter asked for information on how they might contact the author of the Mu books so that they might locate the artifacts that Niven had uncovered. Eventually the letter from Guadalupe Rivera Marin reached Howard Keresy, James’ nephew and inheritor of the rights to James’ books and royalties. The text of the letter held some sense of urgency as barely a month had passed between the first and second letters to Mr. Keresy. Quoting from the first letter (dated February 3rd) to Howard Keresy:

In this regard, (Niven’s discoveries,) we are requesting your invaluable cooperation in order you to furnish us with the data you may have, due to we presume Mr. Churchward knew about the collection of prehispanic pieces Mr. Niven found in Mexico City, so we are very interested in knowing the site where such a collection is an study the possibility to make a visit to.
We want to stress the importance that this information represents for us, so your kind attention will be very high appreciated.

The second letter (dated March 10th) read (in part):

As up to date we have not received your answer, we are sending these few lines to recall to you the importance this information represents for us.

Howard had thankfully written his response to Mr. Marin explaining that he did not have any of the original correspondence between Niven and Churchward, except for a quote from Niven that he included in the return mail.

From the correspondence it is clear that Senor Marin was extremely interested in more information and Howard wrote back at least three times (one undated, April 9th and July 23, 1975) to deliver the message over the next few months. Keresy made clear in his responses that “maybe the relics were being stored at one of the archaeological collections in Mexico City.” Also included in the correspondence was a note bearing the address and telephone number of the Mexican Consulate in New York City. This raised some questions in my mind.

What was so urgent about Niven’s discoveries some 40 to 50 years later?
What was Senor Marin’s motivation to find the relics?
Did Mr. Marin come to speak with Howard Keresy in the US and what did they talk about if he didn’t know anything?

Obviously, a letter to the those in charge in Mexico could clear up the questions, the letters were official and even numbered. In Part 3 we’ll continue the story…

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