The Cokeville Mystery
The Cokeville Miracle is about an Elementary School hostage crisis that occurred on May 16, 1986, in Cokeville, Wyoming, United States, when former town marshal David Young, and his wife Doris Young, took 167 children and adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. David Young entered the school with his wife transporting a large gasoline-filled device that appeared to be a bomb. At one point Doris Young lifted her arm sharply and the bomb went off prematurely, injuring Doris Young while David Young was out of the room.
Returning to the scene, David Young shot his wife, then himself. All the hostages escaped, though 79 were later hospitalized with burns and injuries. Bomb experts remained baffled as the explosive should have leveled the entire building. The children maintain that they were visited by Angels whom told them to remain calm and that they would be saved.
The Cokeville Miracle is about an Elementary School hostage crisis that occurred on May 16, 1986, in Cokeville, Wyoming, United States, when former town marshal David Young, and his wife Doris Young, took 167 children and adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. David Young entered the school with his wife transporting a large gasoline-filled device that appeared to be a bomb. At one point Doris Young lifted her arm sharply and the bomb went off prematurely, injuring Doris Young while David Young was out of the room.
Returning to the scene, David Young shot his wife, then himself. All the hostages escaped, though 79 were later hospitalized with burns and injuries. Bomb experts remained baffled as the explosive should have leveled the entire building. The children maintain that they were visited by Angels whom told them to remain calm and that they would be saved.The Dyatlov Pass incident
Ten very experienced ski hikers departed on a trip towards Russia's Otorten Mountain. On January 25, 1959, the group reached Ivdel and took a truck north to Vizhai. It was the last time any of them were seen alive.
On the 26th, the rescuers came across the team's abandoned campsite. It was deserted and the tent was badly damaged as if something had ripped through it. Oddly, it appeared not as if something had tried to get into the tent, but rather like someone had ripped their way out. Tracks were found leading away from the camp and, 500 meters away, the found the first two hikers next to the remains of a campfire - both of them were dead, shoeless, and in only their underwear. Between the position of the first bodies, they found three more. The positions of the corpses suggested that they were trying to return to the original camp, but succumbed along the way. It was two months later that the remaining four hikers were found further into the woods.
The four lost skiers — instructor Alexander Zolotaryov, engineer Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel and students Alexander Kolevatov and Ludmila Dubinina — were discovered buried beneath 12-feet of snow and ice. All had apparently succumbed to brutal internal injuries. Unlike their friends who had perished above, these victims were all fully dressed.
Thibeaux -Brignollel’s skull showed evidence of having been struck by a heavy object. Zolotarev and Dubunina’s chests had been crushed inward, shattering several ribs and causing massive internal damage. Strangely there were no indications of what may have caused this severe trauma and, even more bizarrely, the corpses showed no signs of bruising or soft tissue damage.

Doctor Boris Vozrozhdenny, who inspected the bodies, stated that the force with which these corpses were hit exceeded that capable by man and went on to claim that the damage: “…was equal to the effect of a car crash.”
The searchers were startled to observe that Dubinina’s head was tilted back; her stretched mouth wide as if emitting a silent scream. Upon closer inspection the rescuers realized that her tongue had been ripped out by the root.
Ten very experienced ski hikers departed on a trip towards Russia's Otorten Mountain. On January 25, 1959, the group reached Ivdel and took a truck north to Vizhai. It was the last time any of them were seen alive.
On the 26th, the rescuers came across the team's abandoned campsite. It was deserted and the tent was badly damaged as if something had ripped through it. Oddly, it appeared not as if something had tried to get into the tent, but rather like someone had ripped their way out. Tracks were found leading away from the camp and, 500 meters away, the found the first two hikers next to the remains of a campfire - both of them were dead, shoeless, and in only their underwear. Between the position of the first bodies, they found three more. The positions of the corpses suggested that they were trying to return to the original camp, but succumbed along the way. It was two months later that the remaining four hikers were found further into the woods.
The four lost skiers — instructor Alexander Zolotaryov, engineer Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel and students Alexander Kolevatov and Ludmila Dubinina — were discovered buried beneath 12-feet of snow and ice. All had apparently succumbed to brutal internal injuries. Unlike their friends who had perished above, these victims were all fully dressed.
Thibeaux -Brignollel’s skull showed evidence of having been struck by a heavy object. Zolotarev and Dubunina’s chests had been crushed inward, shattering several ribs and causing massive internal damage. Strangely there were no indications of what may have caused this severe trauma and, even more bizarrely, the corpses showed no signs of bruising or soft tissue damage.

Doctor Boris Vozrozhdenny, who inspected the bodies, stated that the force with which these corpses were hit exceeded that capable by man and went on to claim that the damage: “…was equal to the effect of a car crash.”
The searchers were startled to observe that Dubinina’s head was tilted back; her stretched mouth wide as if emitting a silent scream. Upon closer inspection the rescuers realized that her tongue had been ripped out by the root.
The Hammer of Texas
In June 1936 (or 1934 by some accounts), Max Hahn (1897-1989) and his wife Emma were hiking along Red Creek near London, Texas. It was there that they discovered an artifact which seemed completely out of place. What they found was a unique piece of wood protruding from a rock concretion.
When the rock was broken by their son in 1947, it revealed an iron hammer with a wooden handle. it was completely enclosed in limestone. Geologists are certain: The hammer must be of the same age as the rock layer. However, they estimate the age of the rock at 140 million years. Made from 96% iron, 2.6% chlorine, and 0.74% sulfur. There are no bubbles in it at all. The quality of which equals or exceeds the quality of any iron found today. But no human life existed at that time. Or did it?
Skeptics have their own possible solution: The “hammer from Texas” was lost by a mine worker in the 19th century. But nevertheless it is a mystery: How did the hammer become enclosed in sedimentary rock so quickly?
In June 1936 (or 1934 by some accounts), Max Hahn (1897-1989) and his wife Emma were hiking along Red Creek near London, Texas. It was there that they discovered an artifact which seemed completely out of place. What they found was a unique piece of wood protruding from a rock concretion.
When the rock was broken by their son in 1947, it revealed an iron hammer with a wooden handle. it was completely enclosed in limestone. Geologists are certain: The hammer must be of the same age as the rock layer. However, they estimate the age of the rock at 140 million years. Made from 96% iron, 2.6% chlorine, and 0.74% sulfur. There are no bubbles in it at all. The quality of which equals or exceeds the quality of any iron found today. But no human life existed at that time. Or did it?
Skeptics have their own possible solution: The “hammer from Texas” was lost by a mine worker in the 19th century. But nevertheless it is a mystery: How did the hammer become enclosed in sedimentary rock so quickly?
The Men in the Lead Masks
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1966, two strange deaths occurred. Even today the deaths of these two men occurred under what can only be described as unique paranormal circumstances.
The deaths have yet to be explained and it’s unclear whether the men were murdered or the deaths were self-induced. There were several objects found around the men and the case has been called the Lead Masks Case. On August 17th 1966 two electronic technicians, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, told friends and family they were going to buy some supplies for work and buy a car. They were reported to have the money to buy the car already with them. They stopped in a shop to get a bottle of water and a rain coat. The waiter later claimed the two appeared to be in a hurry as one was always checking his watch. The bartender was the last one to see the two men alive.
A young man found the bodies three days later and called the police who began an investigation into the deaths of the men. The police determined the last moments the men were alive and found some items that represented their last moments alive. They were both dressed in suits and they had on waterproof coats. They wore lead eye masks with no holes such as one would wear to protect form radiation. They also found an empty water bottle, a notebook, and two towels. The money they were supposed to be carrying for the purchase of a car wasn’t found.
The notebook caused confusion in the case because in contained these words in Portuguese
“16:30 be at agreed place, 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for mask signal.”
The toxicology report turned up nothing on the capsules because the organs were not preserved. It’s not clear if they took the capsules or not. It appears they were waiting for someone to tell them to put on their masks.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1966, two strange deaths occurred. Even today the deaths of these two men occurred under what can only be described as unique paranormal circumstances.
The deaths have yet to be explained and it’s unclear whether the men were murdered or the deaths were self-induced. There were several objects found around the men and the case has been called the Lead Masks Case. On August 17th 1966 two electronic technicians, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, told friends and family they were going to buy some supplies for work and buy a car. They were reported to have the money to buy the car already with them. They stopped in a shop to get a bottle of water and a rain coat. The waiter later claimed the two appeared to be in a hurry as one was always checking his watch. The bartender was the last one to see the two men alive.
A young man found the bodies three days later and called the police who began an investigation into the deaths of the men. The police determined the last moments the men were alive and found some items that represented their last moments alive. They were both dressed in suits and they had on waterproof coats. They wore lead eye masks with no holes such as one would wear to protect form radiation. They also found an empty water bottle, a notebook, and two towels. The money they were supposed to be carrying for the purchase of a car wasn’t found.
The notebook caused confusion in the case because in contained these words in Portuguese
“16:30 be at agreed place, 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for mask signal.”
The toxicology report turned up nothing on the capsules because the organs were not preserved. It’s not clear if they took the capsules or not. It appears they were waiting for someone to tell them to put on their masks.
The Naga Fireballs
For hundreds of years, villagers in Thailand have believed that a serpent in the Mekong River spits out tens of thousands of egg-sized glowing red orbs to pay homage to Buddha at the end of the Buddhist Lent. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this strange phenomenon happens at the same time every year, and some people say it’s a long-running hoax, but every year people from all over the world gather to watch the Naga fireballs shoot out of the Mekong river and rise hundreds of feet into the sky before disappearing.
Locals deny a possibility of hoax - Naga fireballs often are observed in very secluded places where the putative "organiser" of fireballs has nearly no chances to impress anyone. It is just weird to imagine countless Thai and Laotian people keeping themselves busy by making illuminations in remote lakes and rivers.
In such circumstances the possibility of fraud seems to be quite low - who would manage to organise such illumination without getting caught in the act? Naga fireballs rose from the river during the hostilities between Thailand and Laos: the border was heavily guarded then and it is little likely that somebody would risk his life to organise the fraud.
For hundreds of years, villagers in Thailand have believed that a serpent in the Mekong River spits out tens of thousands of egg-sized glowing red orbs to pay homage to Buddha at the end of the Buddhist Lent. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this strange phenomenon happens at the same time every year, and some people say it’s a long-running hoax, but every year people from all over the world gather to watch the Naga fireballs shoot out of the Mekong river and rise hundreds of feet into the sky before disappearing.
Locals deny a possibility of hoax - Naga fireballs often are observed in very secluded places where the putative "organiser" of fireballs has nearly no chances to impress anyone. It is just weird to imagine countless Thai and Laotian people keeping themselves busy by making illuminations in remote lakes and rivers.
In such circumstances the possibility of fraud seems to be quite low - who would manage to organise such illumination without getting caught in the act? Naga fireballs rose from the river during the hostilities between Thailand and Laos: the border was heavily guarded then and it is little likely that somebody would risk his life to organise the fraud.
The Taman Shud Case
During the early morning of December 1, 1948, the body of a man was discovered on Somerton Beach in Australia. Little did the the authorities on the scene realize that they were about to witness the birth of a very strange mystery. The man discovered that day was in peak physical condition and as dressed very well, but all of the labels on his clothing had been removed. In his pocket was a train ticket for a ride he obviously missed on account of his being dead and all.
Although investigators believed that the man must have been poisoned, no traces of any foreign agent was discovered during an autopsy. Some still maintain that the Somerton Man died of some type of undetectable poisoning because there was no other explanation for his death. A month later police discovered a brown suitcase at Adelaide Railway station that might have belonged to the mysterious Somerton Man. The brown suitcase had its label removed just like the unidentified man’s clothing and inside were clothes that had also had the labels removed. Inside the bag was a stenciling brush, electrician’s screwdriver, and a pair of scissors normally used for stenciling. Unfortunately, the suitcase proved to be another dead end. With all leads non-existent, the months passed by until June of 1949 when investigators had the body reexamined and discovered a secret pocket in the man’s clothing that contained a scrap of paper with the words “Taman Shud” printed on it.
Upon a closer inspection of the paper it was discovered that the scrap came from a collection of poems entitled The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This discovery led to a media blitz in an attempt to find the book the page was torn from. The campaign was successful as a man stepped forward with a rare first edition copy of Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat, which he said he found in the back seat of his car the night before the unidentified man’s body was found. In the back of the book scrawled out faintly in pencil was a strange code. Also written in the book was the phone number of a former nurse who, while serving in World War II, gave a copy of The Rubaiyat to an army officer named Alfred Boxall. Boxall's copy of The Rubaiyat was still intact, though, and both parties denied any connection to the unidentified dead man.
Even now, after over 60 years, the mystery of the Somerton Man remains unsolved. No one knows who he was, what the phrase "Taman Shud" was supposed to mean, or what the mysterious code is supposed to represent. There has been speculation over the years that the man was a spy, but none of it has remotely been proven.
During the early morning of December 1, 1948, the body of a man was discovered on Somerton Beach in Australia. Little did the the authorities on the scene realize that they were about to witness the birth of a very strange mystery. The man discovered that day was in peak physical condition and as dressed very well, but all of the labels on his clothing had been removed. In his pocket was a train ticket for a ride he obviously missed on account of his being dead and all.
Although investigators believed that the man must have been poisoned, no traces of any foreign agent was discovered during an autopsy. Some still maintain that the Somerton Man died of some type of undetectable poisoning because there was no other explanation for his death. A month later police discovered a brown suitcase at Adelaide Railway station that might have belonged to the mysterious Somerton Man. The brown suitcase had its label removed just like the unidentified man’s clothing and inside were clothes that had also had the labels removed. Inside the bag was a stenciling brush, electrician’s screwdriver, and a pair of scissors normally used for stenciling. Unfortunately, the suitcase proved to be another dead end. With all leads non-existent, the months passed by until June of 1949 when investigators had the body reexamined and discovered a secret pocket in the man’s clothing that contained a scrap of paper with the words “Taman Shud” printed on it.
Upon a closer inspection of the paper it was discovered that the scrap came from a collection of poems entitled The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This discovery led to a media blitz in an attempt to find the book the page was torn from. The campaign was successful as a man stepped forward with a rare first edition copy of Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat, which he said he found in the back seat of his car the night before the unidentified man’s body was found. In the back of the book scrawled out faintly in pencil was a strange code. Also written in the book was the phone number of a former nurse who, while serving in World War II, gave a copy of The Rubaiyat to an army officer named Alfred Boxall. Boxall's copy of The Rubaiyat was still intact, though, and both parties denied any connection to the unidentified dead man.
Even now, after over 60 years, the mystery of the Somerton Man remains unsolved. No one knows who he was, what the phrase "Taman Shud" was supposed to mean, or what the mysterious code is supposed to represent. There has been speculation over the years that the man was a spy, but none of it has remotely been proven.The Rock Frogs
This mummified corpse of a frog was found in a hollow flint 'geode' which was cracked open in 1899 by workmen in a quarry in England. There have been many reports of frogs found inside rocks; some still living in a kind of stupor but which revived once exposed to the air. In 1910 a living toad was found when a piece of coal was broken open; another was found in 1906 six feet (2 m) underground in a solid layer of clay. The most commonly found seem to be stuck in limestone. Some frogs have been found with the impression of their bodies so tightly jammed against the rock 'pocket' that even the skin's crackles can be seen imprinted on the sides of their frog-shaped hole --meaning the rock formed around them somehow.
This mummified corpse of a frog was found in a hollow flint 'geode' which was cracked open in 1899 by workmen in a quarry in England. There have been many reports of frogs found inside rocks; some still living in a kind of stupor but which revived once exposed to the air. In 1910 a living toad was found when a piece of coal was broken open; another was found in 1906 six feet (2 m) underground in a solid layer of clay. The most commonly found seem to be stuck in limestone. Some frogs have been found with the impression of their bodies so tightly jammed against the rock 'pocket' that even the skin's crackles can be seen imprinted on the sides of their frog-shaped hole --meaning the rock formed around them somehow.
Earth's Unsolved X-Files - Part 2
The Nomoli Skystones
At 17000 years, this unusual Nomoli figure is also the oldest. A small metal ball was hidden in a hollow space inside it. An analysis showed that it is made from chrome and steel. However, the metal ball was already in the figure when it was found. How did it get there? And much more important - where did the metal come from? - The blue “Skystones” are another mystery. A legend says: The part of the sky in which the Nomoli lived turned to stone. It splintered and fell to Earth as pieces of rock. Scientists found traces of iridium in the “Skystones”.
Iridium is one of the least abundant elements in the Earth's crust, having an average mass fraction of 0.001 ppm in crustal rock; It is thought that the overall concentration of iridium on Earth is much higher than what is observed in crustal rocks, but because of the density and siderophilic ("iron-loving") character of iridium, it descended below the crust and into the Earth's core when the planet was still molten. Iridium is found in meteorites with an abundance much higher than its average abundance in the Earth's crust. For this reason the unusually high abundance of iridium in the clay layer at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary gave rise to the Alvarez hypothesis that the impact of a massive extraterrestrial object caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species 65 million years ago.
When searching for diamonds in West African Sierra Leone, local people made unexpected finds: They repeatedly came across 40 to 70 cm tall stone sculptures. The origin of these so-called Nomoli is uncertain. Some were discovered at depths of 50 metres. This means that they must be about 17,000 years old. A date which does not conform to today’s archaeological knowledge. Where did the Nomoli come from? Were they left by an alien culture which disappeared long ago?
The Canine Suicide Enigma - Overtoun Bridge
The Overtoun Bridge is an arch bridge located near Milton, Dumbarton, Scotland which was built in 1859 and has become famous for the number of unexplained instances in which dogs have apparently committed suicide by leaping off of it.
The incidents were first recorded around the 1950's or 1960's when it was noticed that dogs - usually the long-nosed variety like Collies - would suddenly and unexpectedly leap off the bridge and fall fifty feet to their deaths. In some cases, however, the dogs would survive, recuperate, and then leap off the bridge again.
The locals have a name for these dogs: second-timers. What makes this tragic mystery even more mysterious is that many of the dogs that jump from Overton Bridge jump from the same side and from almost the same spot: between the final two parapets on the right-hand side of the bridge.
Poveglia, Italy
Poveglia Island is one of many island in the lagoons of Venice, Italy but instead of being a place of beauty, the island is a festering blemish in the shimmering sea and is not only regarded as one of the most haunted locations on the planet, but also one of the most evil places in the world. Today no one visits save to harvest the vineyards. Fishermen even steer clear of the island for fear that they will catch human bones in their nets.
The Phaistos Disc
The mystery of the Phaistos Disc is a story that sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Discovered by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, the disc is made of fired clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphics. It is believed that it was designed sometime in the second millennium BC.
Some scholars believe that the hieroglyphs resemble symbols of Linear A and Linear B, scripts once used in ancient Crete. The only problem? Linear A also eludes decipherment.
Today the disc remains one of the most famous puzzles of archaeology.
Rongorongo
Rongorongo is a system of mysterious glyphsdiscovered written on various artifacts on Easter Island. Many believe they represent a lost system of writing or proto-writing and could be one of just three or four independent inventions of writing in human history.
The glyphs remain undecipherable, and their true messages — which some believe could offer hints about the perplexing collapse of the statue-building Easter Island civilization — may be lost forever.
The Russian Ground Anomalies
A strange phenomena is happening in some Russian forests. People are finding strange, deep holes. They appear in the dense forest, in the places you can’t get on the car or truck to bring any device to drill the ground. There is no soil nearby that should be taken from such deep hole. When people are brave enough to venture into the holes, they find that they end abruptly in the darkness. There are no any reasonable ideas on how these holes appear and what they are being used for. No one knows who or what is digging these holes or why.
The Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich manuscript, described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript", is a work which dates to the early 15th century, possibly from northern Italy. It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich, who purchased it in 1912. Some pages are missing, but the current version comprises about 240 vellum pages, most with illustrations.
Much of the manuscript resembles herbal manuscripts of the time period, seeming to present illustrations and information about plants and their possible uses for medical purposes. However, most of the plants do not match known species, and the manuscript's script and language remain unknown and unreadable. Possibly some form of encrypted ciphertext, the Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.
As yet, it has defied all decipherment attempts, becoming a cause célèbre of historical cryptology. The mystery surrounding it has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript a subject of both fanciful theories and novels. None of the many speculative solutions proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.
The Voynich manuscript was donated to Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969, where it is catalogued under call number MS 408 and called a "Cipher Manuscript".
The Wow! Signal
One summer night in 1977, Jerry Ehman, a volunteer for SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, may have become the first man ever to receive an intentional message from an alien world. Ehman was scanning radio waves from deep space, hoping to randomly come across a signal that bore the hallmarks of one that might be sent by intelligent aliens, when he saw his measurements spike.
The signal lasted for 72 seconds, the longest period of time it could possibly be measured by the array that Ehman was using. It was loud and appeared to have been transmitted from a place no human has gone before: in the constellation Sagittarius near a star called Tau Sagittarii, 120 light-years away.
Ehman wrote the words "Wow!" on the original printout of the signal, thus its title as the "Wow! Signal."
All attempts to locate the signal again have failed, leading to much controversy and mystery about its origins and its meaning.
The Ourang Medan
According to widely circulated reports, in June of 1947 — or, according to alternate accounts, February of 1948 — multiple ships traversing the trade routes of the straits of Malacca, which is located between the sun drenched shores of Sumatra and Malaysia, claimed to have picked up a series of SOS distress signals. The unknown ship’s message was as simple as it was disturbing:
“All officers including captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead.” This communication was followed by a burst of indecipherable Morse code, then a final, grim message: “I die.” This cryptic proclamation was followed by tomb-like silence.
A conscripted American merchant ship called the Silver Star was closest to the presumed location of the Ourang Medan. Noting the terrified urgency in the message that came over the airwaves, the Captain and crew wasted no time in changing their course in an effort to assist the apparently incapacitated ship.
As they neared the ill-omened vessel, the crew noticed that there was no sign of life on the deck. The Americans attempted to hail the Dutch crew to no avail. That’s when the Captain decided to assemble a boarding party. As soon as they boarded the Ourang Medan, the men swiftly realized that the distress calls were not an exaggeration. The decks of the vessel were littered with the corpses of the Dutch crew; their eyes wide, their arms grasping at unseen assailants, their faces twisted into revolting visages of agony and horror. Even the ship’s dog was dead; it’s once intimidating snarl frozen into a ghastly grimace.
The boarding party found the Captain’s remains on the bridge, while his officers’ cadavers were strewn about the wheelhouse and chartroom. The communications officer was still at his post, as dead as the rest, his fingertips resting on the telegraph. All of the corpses, according to reports, bore the same terrified, wide-eyed expressions as the crew on deck. Below deck, search party members found cadres of corpses in the boiler room. While the search team could see clear evidence that the crew of the Ourang Medan suffered profoundly at the moment of their deaths, they could find no overt evidence of injury or foul play on the swiftly decaying corpses. Nor could they spy any damage to the ship itself.
The Captain of the Silver Star decided that they would tether themselves to the Ourang Medan and tow it back to port, but as soon as the crew attached the tow line to the Dutch ship they noticed ominous billows of smoke pouring up from the lower decks, in specific the Number 4 hold. The boarding party scarcely had a chance to cut the towline and make it back to the Silver Star before the Ourang Medan exploded with such tremendous force that it “lifted herself from the water and swiftly sank.” The watery grave that claimed the Ourang Medan effectively removed the freighter from the face of the Earth and forced it directly into the realm of myths and legends. This, of course, has made it one of the most enduring and intriguing maritime mysterious of the modern age.
