The Shenandoah Chronicles

PREFACE

When the devil came down to Jawja back in 2012, one of the many prevarications that he put into the mouths of an occult cartel, known as “Maya-Myth-Busting-In-The-Mountains, was that I was the arch-enemy of archaeologists.?It was a time when about 85% of the anthropology graduates in the Southeast did not have a job in their profession.?That situation really hasn’t changed much.?

Several unemployed archaeologists set up websites, whose sole purpose was to slander me.?Their basic premise was that I was the most evil and ignorant of all villains . . . a 21st century Atilla the Hun. The truth is that throughout the 1980s and 1990s, some of my closest friends were very famous archaeologists and historians in the Washington, DC area . . . but that is how the Shenandoah Chronicles begin . . . not in Virginia, but in the Reems Creek Valley of western North Carolina on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

Snookered by two National Geo archaeologists

I had known George Stuart for over three years.?In our first meeting, he presented himself as "a nature photographer for National Geographic" and never mentioned the Maya Civilization.?While staying at his vacation home on the other side of the mountain, he had driven over to our farm to make photographs and interview us for a book about the Appalachian Mountains. That’s why we first met.

Even though, I had prominently on display in my living room, several Mesoamerican artifacts,?George never mentioned that he was an archaeologist and an expert on the Mayas in any of the visits to my farm up to October 1986. In fact, the magnificent feature articles that he wrote on the Maya Civilization in the 1960s and 1970s are some of my most treasured possessions . . . but it never dawned on me to look who wrote those articles!

On a beautiful Saturday in October 1986,?George dropped by to introduce his wife, Gene. He casually mentioned that Gene had become interested in archaeology, while teaching school in Cartersville, GA near Etowah Mounds.?She had then attended the University of Georgia’s, Department of Anthropology, but didn’t graduate.?

George also wanted to meet 17-year-old, Norwegian exchange student,?Gert Erik Engelien. Gert was staying with us for a year. Gene wanted to buy some goat cheese. They ended up staying until evening.?We picked apples in my orchard then pressed them in my big cider press. We then set up lawn chairs in the front lawn, sipped fresh cider, enjoyed the magnificent view that you see above and discussed a wide range of topics.?Late in the afternoon we barbecued ribs.?A good time was had by all . . . but in the process my life would be radically changed forever.

I complained to George that the closest retail outlet for our cheeses was Chapel Hill, NC . . . 220 miles away. None of the cheese shops in Asheville would carry our cheese, yet we were selling well in New York City, Washington, Richmond and Charlottesville.?Our of our profits were going to pay for shipping. He suggested that we consider moving to the Shenandoah Valley, where there was an ideal soil for dairy animals.?He also felt that my talents in downtown revitalization, planning and historic preservation would be far more appreciated in Virginia.?

He was right.?George soon put me in contact with a friend, who was an agricultural scientist, to help me decide where to relocate our dairy. After I moved to Virginia, he also put me in contact with his friends at National Geo, the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress, who became the core of my architecture practice there.

Our conversation soon shifted George and Gene’s son, David.?He was a student at Princeton University, but the previous year, he had become the youngest person ever to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.??George also casually mentioned that his son was working with a young woman in Mobile, Alabama, who had first met at Palenque 15 years ago, when she was an art teacher. The next summer, she attended a workshop in Palenque that he was directing.?She now had a PhD in Anthropology and was working with her son on translating the Maya writing system.?George and Gene thought that they were going to be the ones, who would finally do it.

The keywords, Linda, Mobile and Palenque created a neural connection to memories that had been archived for 15 years.??I asked George,?“Is Linda’s husband named David and is he an architecture professor at the University of South Alabama??In 1970, did he get a grant to photograph Maya cities?”??

George responded, “Yes . . . David and Linda Schele . . . How did you know that?”

I told him, “Well, I didn’t remember their last name, but did remember ‘David and Linda from Mobile.’ Were you skinnier and have black hair and a black mustache in 1970?”??George laughed and said, “Yes!”

George, do you remember a somewhat younger guy, who was with David and Linda?

He thought a bit then said, “Vaguely,?I remember they said that they were the only Southerners here and so buddied up.”

I smiled, “And then you said that you were an archaeologist from South Carolina, so we could all buddy up.?George . . . I was the younger guy with David and Linda! You never told us that you worked for the National Geographic Society.”

Confession time

George and Gene were totally confused.?What was I doing in Palenque in 1970??I had to explain that I had eight years of college and had received the first Barrett Fellowship to study in Mexico.?The famous archaeologist, Román Pi?a Chán and his staff at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia coordinated my travels and studies.

George displayed a look of astonishment, “You know Román Pi?a Chán??I have always wanted to meet him.”

I answered, “Yep, I was in his office several times and once went to lunch with him and his wife, Beatriz.?My favorite time was the last time after he had been fired by the new Mexican president.?He took me and his favorite female graduate assistant to a posh restaurant on the Paseo de la Reforma. We stayed there for about seven hours talking about everything, you could imagine.”

George apologized profusely.?He had assumed that since I lived on a goat farm in the remote head of a North Carolina Mountain valley, I was not interested in intellectual matters and would know nothing about Mesoamerican civilizations.?That is the reason that he only talked about farming and nature with me.?After then he and Gene treated me as an equal . . . directly resulting in me being invited to numerous parties in Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Arlington and Alexandria.?Life is stranger than fiction.

The unknown future

Gene Strickland Stuart, 62, managing editor of National Geographic Society books and an expert on the Maya civilization of Central America, died of cancer August 8, 1993 at her home in Silver Spring. She was the author or co-author of several books on Mesoamerican Civilizations.?At the time, I was undergoing intensive treatment in Atlanta after being poisoned by my estranged wife on August 3rd.??I couldn’t go to the funeral.

Linda Schele, a onetime studio art teacher, who made a fateful vacation visit to Mexico in 1970 that turned her life upside down and helped revolutionize Mayan scholarship, died of pancreatic cancer on April 18, 1998 at a hospital near her home in Austin, Texas. She was 55 and widely known for her pioneering work in decoding inscriptions on Mayan monuments. She received a BA in Art Education from the University of Cincinnati in 1964. She was awarded a Doctorate in Latin American studies by the University of Texas in 1980.

George E. Stuart III, a staff archaeologist at the National Geographic Society, the senior editor of ?National Geographic Magazine and an authority on several Mesoamerican sites, died of cancer June 11, 2014 at his home in Barnardsville, N.C. He was 79.?Stuart was a 1956 graduate of the University of South Carolina held a doctorate degree in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina (1975). He wrote numerous articles on the Maya civilization and authored four books. ?I could have easily driven up to Barnardsville to attend his funeral, but didn’t know of his illness or death until after the funeral.

Gert Erik Engelien at age 17 wanted to become a sports journalist.?Instead, he has had a very successful career with Securitas, AB one the world’s largest, if not the largest, security agencies.?Until recently, he was president of the company’s new office in Australia, but has been promoted to be head of Human Resources for Securitas, Norway . . . where the company originally began.?It is now headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

The National Geographic TV Channel was the first organization to contact me about shooting a TV program on the Track Rock Terrace Complex and the Maya immigration to Georgia.?That was in January 2012.?However, the young woman, who called me was so low on the totem pole that she did not know who George and Gene Stuart were.?

The US Forest Service refused to issue them a filming permit then some Cherokee tribal officials made threatening phone calls . . . claiming that the stone terrace walls were the burial places of great Cherokee chiefs.?I told the girl that the Cherokees were nowhere around when the Track Rock Complex was built a thousand years ago.?She didn’t believe me and so National Geo walked away from the project.

The History Channel said "to heck with you" when the US Forest Service told them they couldn't film the Track Rock Terrace Complex in Georgia, because the Cherokees in North Carolina objected. Geologists and archaeologists at the University of Georgia refused to cooperate with the History Channel. In October 2012, scientists at the University of Minnesota found a 100% match between attapulgite mined in Georgia and the Maya Blue stucco at Palenque! The program about the immigration of Maya commoners to Georgia premiered on December 21, 2012. It has become the most watched one hour program ever on the History Channel, since being posted on Youtube.

A state-of-the-art computer

Shortly after relocating to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1987, I purchased what was then a state-of-the-art, “tower-type”, Leading Edge business computer. Until then, most personal computers did not even have a hard drive, just two floppy disk drives containing 250k bytes of memory storage. The new Leading Edge tower contained a whopping 30 mb hard drive, plus the new-fangled data input device called a mouse.

From the second day, I owned the Leading Edge computer, I kept a journal of life on the farm . . . first describing progress on the renovation of his 1770 farmhouse then construction of the cheese creamery then daily operation of the farm and architecture practice.?By early 1990, I realized that my marriage had been a lie from the start. Beginning in mid-December 1990, cryptic comments about love coming into my life were mixed in with status reports on cheese production and sales.?However, five months later, the farm began experiencing increasingly devastating night time attacks by para-military personal that I called ninja-nerds. Then the entries in the journal began to sound more and more like the daily reports of a US Army company commander in Vietnam.

That daily journal became the starting point for the book you are about to read . . . the Shenandoah Chronicles.

The Shenandoah Chronicles begin!

1 - Introduction: Part One - Mysterious Sub-Tropical Forest in the Shenandoah Valley

Four hundred years ago, when the English were finally beginning to secure the colony of Virginia, the vegetation and landscape of the Shenandoah Valley was entirely different than today. A species of tree, associated with the Southern Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains was the dominant species in the stream bottoms of valley, while hemlocks covered the much of the mountainsides. Otherwise, the valley was a rolling prairie.

2 - Introduction: Part Two: The Ancient Roots of the Shenandoah Valley

Humans have lived in the Shenandoah Valley since the end of the last Ice Age, perhaps earlier. This chapter discusses the controversial and surprising evidence of who these earliest settlers might be. By 8000 BC there was a large village over over 1000 people, located on the Shenandoah River!

3 - Introduction: Part Three: Indian Wars and Settlers on the Appalachian Frontier

This chapter is a discussion of how the French and Indian War, Dunmore's War, American Revolution and Chickamauga Cherokee War affected the Tipton family. It follows with an overview of the Anglo-Cherokee War, the Revolutionary War and Chickamauga Cherokee War in the Southern Appalachians and the Georgia Piedmont.

4 - Introduction - Part Four: The Tipton-Thornton House and Farm

The house and farm is a key property in the Shenandoah Battlefields National Historical Park. The article contains a concise account of the farm's architecture and cultural history. The property contains an Adena Culture village site, a Hopewell Culture village site, a French and Indian War fortification site, the location of an explosion during the American Revolution and the site of one of the largest cavalry battles in the American Civil War.

5 - Introduction: Part Five Restoring a 250 Year Old House and Farm in the Shenandoah Valley

This article is a photographic essay, showing the before, during and after images of a dilapidated house's restoration.

6 - Introduction: Part Six - Shenandoah County and Toms Brook, Virginia during the Civil War

This is an overview of the military campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley with a more detailed description of the Battle of Toms Creek, which was fought on the Tipton-Thornton Farm.

7 - Introduction: Part Seven - The Federal Agent from Tennessee and the Goat Herd from North Carolina

On October 21, 1987, two men of identical age traveled northward on Interstate 81 to join their wives on farms in the Shenandoah Valley. Remarkably, they were also the same height, build, hair color and eye color. Both had substantial Native American heritage, although one was Creek and the other Cherokee. Both men were entering the Twilight Zone, but the newcomer from North Carolina was the first to know this.

8 - Introduction: Part Eight - Before and After the Move to Virginia

This chapter describes the original founding of a licensed goat cheese creamery in western North Carolina and why it was relocated to the Shenandoah Valley. It is also an overview of events leading up to the first chapter of the core of the book, "A French Courtesan comes in from the cold."

Video: A Tour of the Thornton Home and Farm

A professional videographer takes the visitor on a tour of the completely restored house.

Video: NBC news report on Shenandoah Chevre and Thornton Farm . . . broadcast on September 21, 1991

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mXy4MtTM0

The reporters provided viewers an intimate view of this historic farm in the Shenandoah Valley, plus cheesemaking, the goats.

10 - Chapter One: The French Courtesan, who came in from the cold

Our traditional Creek Indian fireside story begins on December 15, 1990 at a posh Christmas party in Alexandria, VA. The guests include the upper tier professional staff of the Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society. Attending the party were some of the world's leading experts on Maya Civilization, including one member of the team, which cracked the Maya Writing System. One of the Maya experts worked at the excavation of Etowah Mounds in Georgia as a teenager. (This E-book ends at Etowah Mounds.)

The official reason for my invitation was to present my goat cheeses to Washington society. However, the hostess has a secret match-making agenda. She has invited twelve attractive, single, professional women in Washington in order for them to meet this architect-goat cheese maker. Also, there is a 27 year old French actress, named Vivi, who came as an escort to French Ambassador Jacques Andreani.

11 - Chapter Two: The French Courtesan samples goat cheese and the goatherd's lips

The beautiful, young French lady grabbed my hand and pulled me into the living room, where in one corner a cheese and wine sampling table had been set up in front of a love seat. As she drank more and more glasses of wine, she began displaying more and more public affection. It got to the point, where our activities were attracting the attention of the other party guests. The hostess suggested that we retire to the guest quarters to continue getting to know each other.

12 - Chapter Three: The French Courtesan confesses and is forgiven

Whether it was the wine or the fact that she has never felt such an attraction to an espionage target, it is not known. However, she suddenly began confessing to many things that she had done in her life, which she was ashamed of.

13 - Chapter Four: Some enchanted evening

For three years my wife had tried to manipulate me into having an affair, so she could tell friends that "I was a bad guy." For ten years before then she had unilaterally been involved with a series of flings, while telling friends and acquaintances that we had an open marriage. Now, for the first time, I found myself unexpectantly about to embark on a one night tryst.

14 - Chapter Five: Soulmates wake up to Sunday's snow

A surrealistic day . . . I woke up to see bright sunshine sparkling through the ice-covered windows and Vivi scurrying around the Guest Quarters. Soon, while still laying in bed, I talked to a security man at the French embassy and the French ambassador. An hour later, Vivi and my mother were wishing each other a Happy Birthday. Late in the afternoon, I arrived back at the farm, wondering if it had all been a dream.

15 - Chapter Six: A winter's day in the Shenandoah Valley

Tom's Brook Farm got a surprise visitor this morning. Very soon thereafter, Vivi asked to wash every square centimeter of her body to symbolize her departure from her old life. I spent the rest of the day with her.

16 - Chapter Seven: The first instant messenger romance

Vivi and a French electronics engineer designed a secure means for Vivi and I to communicate across the Atlantic Ocean in real time. Seven years later, American On Line (AOL) would introduce a similar program and call it AIM or AOL Instant Messaging.

17 - Chapter Eight: Apocalypse . . . fighting domestic terrorism

Beginning in April 1991, night time visitors began killing our goats and vandalizing our farm.

18 - Chapter Nine: A French courtesan in the National Capitol

During June 1991, Vivi assisted me in sampling cheese to members of Congress and their staffs. This was followed by a guided tour of the National Capitol.

19 - Chapter Ten: A Swedish Shield Maiden declares war on Satan

I am asked to ferry information from honest citizens in Shenandoah County to the FBI field office in Winchester, VA. This does not work out. I am then introduced to the only female FBI agent in Northern Virginia, who is neither married nor has a boyfriend. We are asked to work out an alternative solution.

20 - Chapter Eleven: For God and Country

The situation in the Valley is getting more and more dangerous, but Susan and I continue our work.

21 - Chapter Twelve: True stories for the X-files

These are events I experienced, while living in the Shenandoah Valley, which became inspirations for the X-files TV series or should have been!

22 - Chapter Thirteen: How technology has changed the relationships between men and women

There were radical changes in communication technology from when I first went to Mexico and the 1990s. However, the pace of technological change accelerated during the 1990s.

23 - Chapter Fourteen: Three soulmates for eternity

Three very different people bond together and find a way to make it work.

24 - Chapter Fifteen: The Georgetown Hearings and the Summer of Love in 1992

The crime witnesses in the Shenandoah Valley furnish depositions to a committee of lawmen, law professors and journalists. Vivi spends a period of time on Tom's Brook Farm.

25. Chapter Sixteen: Ghosts, soulmates and demons on the Tipton-Thornton Farm in the Shenandoah Valley

I didn't believe in ghosts before moving to the Shenandoah Valley, but I certainly do now!

26 - Chapter Seventeen: Who is "They?"

What was supposed to be a standard interview by the wealthy client turns into a very dangerous interrogation. One wrong word and I will be dead that night.

27 - Chapter Eighteen: Apocalypse . . . the last days in Virginia

In quick succession, everything falls apart and I am financially destroyed.

28. Chapter Nineteen: Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter

By chance I meet a vibrant young woman on the streets of Old Town Winchester, who first came to my farm in early 1988, when she was 20.

29. Epilogue for Chapter Nineteen: Saving the life of an innocent Virginia Belle

Susan gives me the tapes and photographs that will get Cindy released from prison.

30. Chapter Twenty: Triple betrayal . . . some governments become organized crime machines

This last and very long chapter covers the first six years, when I was living back in Georgia. There are many surprises.

31. Post Script: Understanding the patterns of history

You will learn the names of the people, who betrayed me.