My-Mu Blog

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…

When William Niven closed up shop of his archaeological discoveries in Mexico City to move back to the United States, the entire contents of his store was carefully placed in wooden boxes for the trip. Niven had excavated in Guerrero and the Valley of Mexico for three decades and been allowed to keep duplicates of everything he had found. Literally thousands of relics were found by Niven, including the 2600 tablets that were made famous through James Churchward’s books.

According to Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods, William Niven’s biography, he had an arrangement with the Mexican government that he would give them the best example of any relic, but he was permitted to keep duplicates. Niven donated thousands of relics to the National Museum and rightly felt that he was entitled to maintain possession of his collection. Referencing Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods again, Ramon Mena, head of the archaeological division at the National Museum, estimated that Niven had excavated 40,000 tons of earth and donated more than $10,000 worth of material to the Museum at no cost to the Mexican government. In addition to the material donated to the Mexican National Museum, he also contributed items to the Peabody Museum. These artifacts are known, however the whereabouts of his collection from his Mexico City storefront remains a mystery.

In the past decade, fellow researchers have approached various Texas institutes of higher learning about his discoveries to no avail. Needless to mention is that they were not the first to search for the artifacts. In Part 2, we’ll examine one such earlier attempt.