My-Mu Blog

The conclusion of the examination of the Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone that appears on page 230 of the 1932 Sacred Symbols of Mu by my great-grandfather, James Churchward, continues with the response I received from the National Park Service.

From Sacred Symbols of Mu
A Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone Found in the Ouachita River, Hot Springs, Arkansas
From Col. J. R. Fordyce, Little Rock, Arkansas

Again I must reiterate that Tom Hill, Curator of the Hot Springs National Park, was extremely helpful and provided some excellent references about the artifact in question. Some of the references were discussed in Part 5.

Additionally, Mr Hill pointed me to the book Didn’t All the Indians Come Here: Separating Fact from Fiction at Hot Springs National Park by Mark Blaeuer. The book contains a copy of a photograph of the artifact and devotes a few pages to the discussion of the item.

In Mr. Blaeuer’s book, the artifact is known as the Arkansas Calendar Stone and the text mentions that no one has reliably recorded when the object was “found.” (quotes from original) Other facts gleamed from the book include that the stone may have been made of quartzite and that Fordyce may have had two such stones in his collection. The one ‘almost perfectly round’ found it’s way into the storage area for the Arkansas Museum of Science and History in Little Rock and the other ‘pear-shaped’ stone was sold to a lady in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Blaeuer also specifically addresses James Churchward’s use of the stone, labeling his books as ‘thoroughly unscientific’ and the artifact as ‘of dubious authenticity.’ Additionally, he also mentions speculation about the stone on the internet, such as the Manataka version (discussed here,) and other links that I did not find in my search, such as

Another website’s article contains a sequence of diagrams purporting to show the connection of the stone to “The Great Pyramid of Giza,” “The Light Cones of Relativity,” “The Great Pyramid’s ‘invisible’ twin created by the full extension of the of the Pi dimension”, and “The completed ‘hourglass’ of Orion’s Belt.” Both articles reproduce what appears to be Churchward’s drawing of the pear-shaped stone.

The bottom line about the stone is in this quote from Samuel Dickenson, who knew Fordyce personally and would have had ample opportunity to examine the stone:

Yes, your photograph is of the fake calendar stone which so intrigued Colonel Fordyce and numerous other people. The interest that the New York Times article excited shows how eager people are to believe the irrational. The stone itself looked newly carved.”

So, whether it is called the “Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone,” “Washita Calendar Stone,” “Manataka Stone,” or the “Arkansas Calendar Stone,” apparently quite a few folks have been been led down a path of fraud and deception. This does not mean that any of these people were involved in creating the fraudulent artifact, however, one must suspect their interpretations since the item was manufactured in the late 19th or early 20th century and was not, as they previously believed, an ancient artifact.

Have a great day.

Our examination of the Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone that appears on page 230 of the 1932 Sacred Symbols of Mu by my great-grandfather, James Churchward, continues with the response I received from the National Park Service.

From Sacred Symbols of Mu
A Mound Builder’s Calendar Stone Found in the Ouachita River, Hot Springs, Arkansas
From Col. J. R. Fordyce, Little Rock, Arkansas

Nobody has to twist my arm to make me admit that my email to Tom Hill, Curator of the Hot Springs National Park was not only answered in a timely manner, but extremely thorough as well. My sincere thanks go out to Mr. Hill who went above and beyond the call of duty in his response to my request for information. Not only did he provide references to the ‘Calendar Stone’ in print, but also consulted with knowledgeable individuals and provided other links to real information about the genuine article. Until now in this examination of the Calendar Stone, it has relied on accounts by people that have never actually seen the original article.
One such reference is a description from the Newby Collection from Purdue University on the Arkansas Calendar Stone (thanks to again to Tom Hill and Meeks Etchieson, archaeologist with the United States Forest Service at the Ouachita National Forest):

Stone Calendar: Arkansas, USA 500 ad. – 1000ad.
approx. 15″ long x 12″ wide x 3″ thick,

Dark basalt in a tear shape form. Along the outer edge of the stone there are nine figures placed around thirteen rectangles that contains geometric designs. In the center there is a smooth flat plain with a shallow hole in the center. Ettween the point of the tear and the rectangles there are five phases of the moon in bas-relief and above the moons there is a design in the form of a mound that contains a dimond with a circle in its center.

Another reference provided by Mr. Hill (after contacting Dr. Dawn Bringelson at the NPS Midwest Archeological Center in Lincoln, NE) concerned an Aztec Calendar stone. This Calendar stone from the collection of the Peabody Museum of Yale University has no resemblance to the one contained in Sacred Symbols of Mu, but the photographs provided in the pdf downloaded from this link clearly show what an Aztec calendar stone looks like (as opposed to what some people claim.)
Due to copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce any images from the downloaded pdf.

Additionally, from Mr. Hill’s email:

So I contacted Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt, archeologist at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, AR, and Dr. Ann M. Early, head of the Arkansas Archeological Survey at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and State Archeologist for Arkansas. Dr. Trubitt had no information, but Dr. Early said she did not recall finding the calendar stone when she inventoried the Fordyce collection that the University received from the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock a few years ago.  However, she did say that she knows about the stone.  She explained that the Fordyce family collection kicked around in Hot Springs for many years before it was sold to the MacArthur Park Museum/Museum of Discovery, and it resided there mostly in storerooms (at least the stone artifacts did) for 50 years after that…

Dr. Early added that Sam Dickinson acquired John Fordyce’s archeological and historical files, and he eventually placed them along with his own in the Cammie Henry Research Center in the Watson Library at Northwestern State University, in Natchitoches, LA.  One can see a box inventory list of the Dickinson collection on their web page. There is one box labeled “calendar stone,” and it had a proviso that it was not to be opened till after Sam’s death. Sam has passed away, and when Dr. Early was in the center about 4 years ago, looking through the Fordyce papers, she took a quick glance in that box. The stone is not there, as she recalls. There were only some newspaper clippings and a few other documents, and photos, in the box.  There are a great many files in the Fordyce portion of the Dickinson collection, but Dr. Early only got to go very rapidly through about half of them.  She did not find a file of information about where Fordyce got the relics that he purchased.  She explained that Fordyce acquired pots, thousands of lithic artifacts, and many plains Indian ethnographic items.  Anyway, she says the stone itself has been around since the 1930s, but is clearly not an ancient artifact. Dr. Early is not sure where it is though, or if it still exists.

The final part of the examination of the ‘Mound-builder’s Calendar Stone’ covers a book that shows a photograph of the artifact and devotes a few pages to it.

Have a great day.