Latest / Ridiculous History / Philadelphia's Transylvanian Doomsday Cult: The Cave of Kelpius

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Philadelphia's Transylvanian Doomsday Cult: The Cave of Kelpius · Ridiculous History

0:24
Speaker 1: Well, well, well, no ole old friend. Here we are
0:27
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History about too h about to dive into a
0:32
Speaker 1: topic that I find endlessly fascinating. Yeah, we're going to
0:36
Speaker 1: dive into a sea hoole. What is a sea hole
0:38
Speaker 1: like cut cold hole? Yes? Or a cave hole? Right? Yeah?
0:42
Speaker 1: When I say a sea hoole, it's more of a
0:44
Speaker 1: ce rectangle. Really, yeah, because it's a it's a cave,
0:48
Speaker 1: a man made cave with a rectangular door that was
0:52
Speaker 1: one of the first ever homes to America's like original
0:56
Speaker 1: doomsday cult. My name is Ben. Uh. This ridiculous history,
1:01
Speaker 1: as I think I just mentioned, And of course we
1:03
Speaker 1: are joined as always with our superproducer, Casey Pegram. So no,
1:09
Speaker 1: the rumors are true. We're talking about a legitimate doomsday cult.
1:16
Speaker 1: And you know, in another show that you and I
1:19
Speaker 1: do together, we run into cults on a on a
1:22
Speaker 1: like bi monthly basis, semi regular. But in Ridiculous History, man,
1:26
Speaker 1: we don't deal in rumors. What's the brass tacks, my man? Yes,
1:31
Speaker 1: the brass tacks take us to a place very familiar
1:34
Speaker 1: with everyone here, known as Philadelphia. See the Cave of
1:39
Speaker 1: Kelpius is tucked away in a remote section of the
1:44
Speaker 1: modern day Fairmont Park in Philadelphia. But it's it's very old.
1:50
Speaker 1: You could you could walk past it and not really
1:54
Speaker 1: notice the history now unless you went inside, right, that's right.
1:58
Speaker 1: In fact, a lot of places that describe it say,
2:00
Speaker 1: even if you know where you're going, you're probably a
2:03
Speaker 1: lot less likely to find it rather than just stumble
2:06
Speaker 1: upon it, because it is in like a heavily wooded,
2:09
Speaker 1: kind of blair witch kind of environment. Right. Uh, it's
2:13
Speaker 1: along the banks of the Wissahickon Creek. Um. And in
2:17
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety four, a very smart fellow, a scholar, something
2:23
Speaker 1: of a of a New Age mystic type, right by
2:27
Speaker 1: the name of Johannes Kelpius. He brought forty of his followers,
2:32
Speaker 1: all learned men, from their home in Transylvania, to the
2:38
Speaker 1: newly settled Germantown, Pennsylvania, because they were escaping religious persecution,
2:44
Speaker 1: because they were they weren't playing by the book book. Yeah, yeah,
2:49
Speaker 1: they had their own playbook spiritually, and they believed that
2:53
Speaker 1: the end was nigh. Uh. Johannes Kelpius was born Johann
2:59
Speaker 1: kelp in Transylvania, as you said, in sixteen sixty seven,
3:03
Speaker 1: is that nominative determinism. Do you think his family like,
3:06
Speaker 1: we're we're maritime folk. I wonder that's a good question.
3:11
Speaker 1: You know. Also, what I noticed is given the timeline,
3:14
Speaker 1: this is way before Graham Stoker made Transylvania a scary place.
3:18
Speaker 1: That's true. Is that weird? It's going to come up
3:21
Speaker 1: in the next episode. We're gonna do I think, Oh
3:24
Speaker 1: it is it is, stay tuned spoiler alert. But yeah,
3:27
Speaker 1: so he brought these forty they had I think he
3:30
Speaker 1: himself had. Well, what you were starting his chronology? Um,
3:35
Speaker 1: he was he was born, yeah, and then he was educated. Yeah.
3:39
Speaker 1: He completed his education at Bavaria's University of Altdorf, and
3:45
Speaker 1: at the time it was a very respected high flutant
3:49
Speaker 1: institution there in Europe. Uh. And his name change occurred
3:53
Speaker 1: not because of vanity so much as because the common
3:58
Speaker 1: practice for scholars at this day and age was to
4:01
Speaker 1: latinize your name. So kelp became Kelpius. What would mind
4:05
Speaker 1: become brownie us? That's interesting, Millennius Brownius pegrams. That sounds good.
4:15
Speaker 1: So while he's at university, he becomes attracted to, acquainted with,
4:21
Speaker 1: enamored of a religious movement known as Pietism. This was
4:26
Speaker 1: a reaction against the orthodox Lutheranism of the time, and
4:30
Speaker 1: then it later expanded to include beliefs that, you know,
4:34
Speaker 1: as you said, with his followers, beliefs that were considered heretical, strange,
4:39
Speaker 1: forbidden knowledge, possibly a cult. And as he became more
4:45
Speaker 1: and more immersed in this world, he also began to
4:50
Speaker 1: gather different people around him. He was a follower of
4:53
Speaker 1: a guy named Johann Jacob Zimmerman, and Zimmerman formed a
4:58
Speaker 1: small group of like minded pe called the Chapter of Perfection.
5:03
Speaker 1: It's true and actually I saw him described as such
5:05
Speaker 1: as a noted German mathematician, astronomer and defract Lutheran minister.
5:10
Speaker 1: And you know what happens when they defrock you, right,
5:13
Speaker 1: That's like when you pull all the metals off the
5:15
Speaker 1: general's chest, you know, and send him with his tail
5:18
Speaker 1: between his legs. You were no longer allowed to practice
5:22
Speaker 1: the spiritual beliefs or giving me your badge and gun
5:25
Speaker 1: detective exactly. And this group led by Zimmerman that Kelpius
5:31
Speaker 1: as a member of. He right right around this time.
5:34
Speaker 1: He's maybe twenty years old, and most of the people
5:37
Speaker 1: in the group around his age and the group believed
5:40
Speaker 1: that there was a new spiritual age imminent, uh, their
5:45
Speaker 1: version of the one thousand year idea of Christ returning,
5:50
Speaker 1: and that they had to prepare for this. And I
5:53
Speaker 1: love that you mentioned Zimmerman being an astronomer, because that
5:57
Speaker 1: was the quantitative basis for a lot of his arguments.
6:01
Speaker 1: That's right, And I just want to say to Zimmerman
6:02
Speaker 1: was kind of the one who initially, unless I'm reading
6:05
Speaker 1: this increctly, initially put together this expedition. You know, it
6:09
Speaker 1: was like a six month boat trip yea from yeah,
6:14
Speaker 1: from from there from Europe to Germantown or Philadelphia area. Um.
6:18
Speaker 1: But he passed away before it could take off. So
6:22
Speaker 1: Kelpius kind of became the new de facto leader of
6:25
Speaker 1: the group, the neo Zimmerman. Right, Yeah, this is an
6:29
Speaker 1: interesting part of the story that I could not I
6:32
Speaker 1: don't know if you found anything, but I couldn't solve
6:35
Speaker 1: one mystery about this. Estimates say that around this group,
6:39
Speaker 1: the Chapter of Perfection received an offer of free land
6:44
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, in Germantown where you mentioned, and a free
6:47
Speaker 1: boat ride over, but they received it anonymously. Now I
6:51
Speaker 1: had read somewhere that it was from the governor of Pennsylvania,
6:55
Speaker 1: was trying to, you know, encourage new settlers to come in,
6:59
Speaker 1: and offers of religious tolerance was a big part of
7:03
Speaker 1: early Pennsylvania settlements, right, Okay, that makes a lot of
7:06
Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't the government, but I know there definitely
7:08
Speaker 1: was an effort from the powers that be in this
7:11
Speaker 1: particular part of the colonies to attract more religiously freethinking
7:18
Speaker 1: types and to populate the land with Europeans of course too. Yeah,
7:22
Speaker 1: I think you must be spot on, you know. I
7:25
Speaker 1: I love the tantilizing hint of an anonymous person, but
7:29
Speaker 1: I bet you are correct that it was the governing
7:33
Speaker 1: structure of the time. But as you said, Zimmerman ride
7:37
Speaker 1: around the time they're about to leave for what would
7:40
Speaker 1: become the United States. Zimmerman dies in August of six.
7:45
Speaker 1: Kelpius becomes the commander. He leads them. He leads his
7:51
Speaker 1: group of forty people to a ridge there above the
7:55
Speaker 1: Wissahicken Gorge. That's such a fun word to say to uh.
7:59
Speaker 1: And there along the fort parallel, Kelpius builds a forty
8:05
Speaker 1: foot square tabernacle because in their philosophy and their understanding,
8:12
Speaker 1: forty is like the best number. It's the most important
8:16
Speaker 1: magical number. I did just find. It was William Penn
8:19
Speaker 1: who apparently invited the group, and William Penn was the governor,
8:23
Speaker 1: and I think kind of governed Pennsylvania like its own tear,
8:29
Speaker 1: like its own entire autonomous, autonomous thing. Yeah, that's right, Um,
8:33
Speaker 1: so Bendy notte. Millennialism is millennialism, from what I understand,
8:38
Speaker 1: is the belief that the world will expire at a
8:42
Speaker 1: significant date, either either completely end or some great change
8:47
Speaker 1: will occur. As that correct. That it's big time correct,
8:49
Speaker 1: and that is what these folks were all about. Um.
8:53
Speaker 1: You may have seen the Fox television show kind of
8:56
Speaker 1: a bit of an X Files rip off called Millennium,
9:00
Speaker 1: but it was all about like the end times, in
9:01
Speaker 1: the end of days and stuff. But there's a couple
9:03
Speaker 1: of different interpretations of millennialism, and I'm taking this from
9:07
Speaker 1: the New World Encyclopedia. Um. One of them is this
9:10
Speaker 1: notion that Christ will come back to Earth and establish
9:14
Speaker 1: himself an entire new kingdom and rule for one thousand years,
9:19
Speaker 1: at which point will come the reckoning, you know, or
9:21
Speaker 1: some kind of calling of those that deserve to stick
9:23
Speaker 1: around and those that have to go. Then there's another
9:27
Speaker 1: version of it where the second Coming occurs with an
9:31
Speaker 1: immediate culling of the wicked through some sort of cataclysmic
9:36
Speaker 1: event to you know, trigger a new world order kind
9:39
Speaker 1: of thing. But whichever one they believed in, the fact is,
9:43
Speaker 1: there was a very specific part of the Bible that
9:47
Speaker 1: was a foundation of this belief system in general, and
9:50
Speaker 1: it's obviously the Book of Revelations UM. And there's a
9:53
Speaker 1: particular passage that gave this group one of their many monikers.
9:58
Speaker 1: They had a handful UM and the passages called the
10:01
Speaker 1: Woman and the Dragon, and it's from Revelations twelve through sixteens.
10:04
Speaker 1: Gonna read you a little bit of it. A great
10:06
Speaker 1: sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun,
10:09
Speaker 1: with the moon under her feet and a crown of
10:11
Speaker 1: twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried
10:14
Speaker 1: out in pain as she was about to give birth.
10:17
Speaker 1: Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon
10:20
Speaker 1: with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on
10:25
Speaker 1: its head. Skip a little bit. Then war broke out
10:28
Speaker 1: in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon
10:31
Speaker 1: and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he
10:34
Speaker 1: was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
10:36
Speaker 1: The great Dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called
10:39
Speaker 1: the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.
10:42
Speaker 1: He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.
10:45
Speaker 1: So it's this idea of hell on earth kind of
10:48
Speaker 1: And what was What were some of the names of
10:49
Speaker 1: their group, starting with the one that was taken from
10:51
Speaker 1: this passage that they so held so dear. They were
10:55
Speaker 1: collectively known by several names. The weirdest one was the
10:58
Speaker 1: Woman of the Wilderness. Forty guys calling themselves the Woman
11:03
Speaker 1: of the wildern. It wasn't even like the women collective
11:06
Speaker 1: of the Woman of the Wilderness, society of the just
11:09
Speaker 1: the woman. Yeah, that's the weird That's the weird thing
11:12
Speaker 1: about it is history doesn't seem to completely agree. Some
11:15
Speaker 1: people will tell you they were just collectively called the
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Speaker 1: Woman in the Wilderness, and then you'll find a couple
11:20
Speaker 1: of other places where they say they were the Society
11:23
Speaker 1: of the Woman of the Wilderness, which makes more sense.
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Speaker 1: But my favorite though, is that they were the Hermits
11:28
Speaker 1: of the Ridge. Yeah, it's like a the name of
11:33
Speaker 1: a D and D party, you know, or the name
11:36
Speaker 1: of the name of like a good old folksy prairie
11:40
Speaker 1: home companion story. That's true, the old Hermit of the Ridge,
11:43
Speaker 1: because the place we're talking about today the Cave of Kelpius.
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Speaker 1: Folks in Philadelphia area just call it the Hermit's Cave, Yeah, yep.
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Speaker 1: And the legend has it that Kelpius lived and meditated
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Speaker 1: in this cave built in the hillside of the ravine,
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Speaker 1: and that it was you'll hear some people say that
12:06
Speaker 1: it was just an old spring house where occasionally Kelpius
12:10
Speaker 1: where some other person would spend the night, yeah, and
12:13
Speaker 1: then he would return to his summer house, you know,
12:15
Speaker 1: in warmer No, I'm kidding, the springhouse like a well
12:19
Speaker 1: house or something like some sort of enclosure where there
12:22
Speaker 1: would be a well and a source of fresh water, right, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
12:26
Speaker 1: So while they established themselves and what became known as
12:31
Speaker 1: Hermit's Glenn or the Hermit's Cave and the Hermit's Glen,
12:35
Speaker 1: they also made an impression on the town. There's a
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Speaker 1: nearby road you can find today, we believe, called Hermit Lane.
12:42
Speaker 1: So this is established. It's not very well known i'd
12:45
Speaker 1: say outside of Philadelphia, but it has left a physical
12:50
Speaker 1: trace on the on the city, that's right. And there's
12:53
Speaker 1: actually a fantastic article from out with Thiss Obscura called
12:55
Speaker 1: Cave of Kelpius where America's first doomsday called awaited the
12:58
Speaker 1: End of the World, and there's a little um sidebar
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Speaker 1: on it that has the uh coordinates of the cave
13:05
Speaker 1: because it's not exactly something you can Google map too,
13:07
Speaker 1: because again, like we said, you kind of just have
13:09
Speaker 1: to wander around and find it yourself. But it is
13:12
Speaker 1: technically on Hermit Lane. Yeah, yeah, it's you'll have a
13:16
Speaker 1: hard time getting mail sent there, but you can find
13:19
Speaker 1: it with the coordinates and the space from what we understand,
13:24
Speaker 1: the meeting space of the hermits, or the society or
13:27
Speaker 1: the just the woman in the Wilder of the Wilderness
13:30
Speaker 1: included the following things. At a rudimentary observatory where the
13:35
Speaker 1: monks would practice astronomy, and this is thought to be
13:38
Speaker 1: the first observatory built in the New World, the quote
13:43
Speaker 1: unquote New World. Yeah, and astronomy was a huge deal
13:46
Speaker 1: for these folks, and there's a there's a sense that
13:49
Speaker 1: it was because they were on the lookout for I'm
13:53
Speaker 1: gonna call them extraterrestrials, but I almost want to say
13:55
Speaker 1: like heavenly like angels or something. Signs and wonder same
14:00
Speaker 1: signs in wonders, because they really did believe that, you know,
14:02
Speaker 1: like that passes that maybe the devils were going to
14:05
Speaker 1: come flying down from the sky. What's that? What's that line?
14:09
Speaker 1: And uh, I think it's Batman v. Superman where it
14:11
Speaker 1: says turns out the devils don't come from below, they
14:14
Speaker 1: come from above. Yeah, you know, he seemed to have
14:18
Speaker 1: that in mind when he was looking, and it was
14:19
Speaker 1: a very for the time advanced telescope, right, absolutely, Yeah,
14:23
Speaker 1: they were able to have um a very clear view
14:28
Speaker 1: because we have we have to remember, it's very easy
14:31
Speaker 1: for us nowadays as a species to see a mystical
14:36
Speaker 1: belief that one group or person has and take that
14:40
Speaker 1: to mean that we should dismiss their scientific beliefs. It's
14:44
Speaker 1: not the case. These things exist hand in hand, and
14:47
Speaker 1: to these people, they were not contradictory, sort of the
14:50
Speaker 1: same way that Isaac Newton had some really out there
14:53
Speaker 1: esoteric beliefs, yeah, or that Redyard Kipling was kind of
14:55
Speaker 1: a racist. I was absolutely right. Oh god, what a
15:00
Speaker 1: terrible person. The interesting thing too about Kelpius is that
15:10
Speaker 1: we don't know. We don't have a lot of primary
15:12
Speaker 1: sources on him, so there's a lot of conjecture. And
15:16
Speaker 1: when you go to the cave of Kelpius, it's there's
15:18
Speaker 1: no artifacts left behind, there's no furniture, it's just out there.
15:22
Speaker 1: There is a marker, right, I was put there by
15:26
Speaker 1: a little society. We know a bit about their philosophy,
15:29
Speaker 1: don't we been the Rosicruction in the Order of the
15:31
Speaker 1: Rosicrucians for the Rose Cross. That's right, and all the
15:34
Speaker 1: Order of the Rosy Cross built a marker for this.
15:38
Speaker 1: And you know, if you went back in the forties,
15:40
Speaker 1: you would see some stuff in the cave, Like you'd
15:42
Speaker 1: see a chimney that was there for a while, and
15:45
Speaker 1: I think it got vandalized or damage beyond repair, and
15:49
Speaker 1: so they moved it. But um, I saw this cool
15:51
Speaker 1: video that it was cool for a minute and then
15:53
Speaker 1: it started to lean a little heavily into some not
15:56
Speaker 1: true stuff. But it did have a really cool walk
16:00
Speaker 1: through of the cave. And I don't know if this
16:02
Speaker 1: was added later. I mean, I it's certainly possible, but
16:05
Speaker 1: there's a there's a cross and then an upside down
16:08
Speaker 1: cross right next to it, and the idea being that,
16:10
Speaker 1: like you know, one is a sign of Christ, the
16:12
Speaker 1: other is the sign of the devil. And then throughout
16:15
Speaker 1: the space there are some other kind of strange coded messages.
16:19
Speaker 1: But one thing we do know um is real and
16:23
Speaker 1: not just you know, passers by having a laugh. Is
16:26
Speaker 1: this Rosicrucian marker that identifies Kelpius as being the first
16:31
Speaker 1: Rosicrucian in the New World. Yeah, it's it's legit, and
16:36
Speaker 1: the chronology works out. The thing about these semi secret orders,
16:41
Speaker 1: these mysterious esoteric groups, is that they can often just
16:47
Speaker 1: appoint themselves in you know, a point authority to themselves.
16:52
Speaker 1: But according to the tradition, he's not only the first
16:56
Speaker 1: ruse Crucian, he's the first rouse Crucian master. Right. Uh,
17:00
Speaker 1: there's there's some neat articles about this, Like you can
17:04
Speaker 1: find a lot of local Pennsylvania history places. I really
17:09
Speaker 1: enjoyed the explore p a history dot com story about
17:13
Speaker 1: the marker, and you can read both the modern marker
17:17
Speaker 1: that is in place that tells you about the Kelpist
17:19
Speaker 1: community that's the newer one, and then you can see
17:23
Speaker 1: the the other older stuff that's also spread around there.
17:27
Speaker 1: It's a shame about the vandalism, you know what I mean,
17:29
Speaker 1: that really that really broke my heart. But we forgot
17:32
Speaker 1: to we forgot to mention. Okay, so they are millennials, milleniarians.
17:38
Speaker 1: Here we go, and uh, they had a very specific
17:43
Speaker 1: time frame for this last judgment, and it was six four,
17:48
Speaker 1: the year that they all got together in this area, right,
17:53
Speaker 1: or when they really doubled down. But that time came
17:56
Speaker 1: and went. See, that's the problem with a lot of
17:59
Speaker 1: doomsday cults. They'll predict something and then that moment will
18:05
Speaker 1: pass and the world will spin on as as it will,
18:08
Speaker 1: and then they have to find a new way to
18:11
Speaker 1: understand this. So, according to the Chestnut Hill Local with
18:16
Speaker 1: the title the Rapture that Never Came, the story of
18:19
Speaker 1: the Hermits of the Whissa Hicken. According to them, when
18:22
Speaker 1: six came and went without a last judgment, Kelpius and
18:27
Speaker 1: the society said, you know what, we're gonna look towards
18:30
Speaker 1: the year seventeen hundred. Certainly the advent of this new
18:34
Speaker 1: century will bring about the end of mankind and the
18:39
Speaker 1: return of Jesus Christ. Got to hope you know, hope
18:43
Speaker 1: for something better, right, and the year arrived there was not,
18:47
Speaker 1: from their perspective, a return of a Messiah. And then
18:52
Speaker 1: they started to, I don't know, the members began to
18:57
Speaker 1: get tired of these continue whole claims. Well, if you
19:01
Speaker 1: hear the Church of the SubGenius ben, yes, it's sort
19:04
Speaker 1: of a joke cult kind of. I mean, yes, I'm
19:08
Speaker 1: gonna leave it that it's it's sort of a joke
19:09
Speaker 1: call where they worship supposedly this like fifties clip art
19:13
Speaker 1: like Dad looking Ahead and with the pipe called j
19:16
Speaker 1: Reverend Jr. Bob dobbs uh. And the fundamental concept of
19:22
Speaker 1: Um SubGenius is slack. But a big part of them
19:26
Speaker 1: is they have this thing called X Day, or supposedly
19:28
Speaker 1: these aliens are gonna come and do very much a
19:30
Speaker 1: thing that I think the the order of the Hermits
19:33
Speaker 1: or whenever you want to call them, we're hoping for.
19:35
Speaker 1: But they got the day wrong because they looked at
19:37
Speaker 1: it upside down, the big dummies, you know. And that's
19:40
Speaker 1: just sort of like a little bit thumbing of the
19:41
Speaker 1: nose that a lot of these death cults where they
19:44
Speaker 1: always get something a little off and then you know, oh,
19:47
Speaker 1: it'll be next time. Just keep keep stick with us,
19:50
Speaker 1: you know. And again in in the defense of this
19:54
Speaker 1: group of Kelpius community, they were not super aggressive, crazy, vile,
20:00
Speaker 1: lent agro people like you said. The community even kind
20:02
Speaker 1: of enjoyed their presence, very gentle types. It would seem, yeah,
20:07
Speaker 1: it would seem so. And then as they began to
20:10
Speaker 1: as enthusiasm at least began to taper off, they saw
20:14
Speaker 1: the end of the cult becoming more and more immediate.
20:19
Speaker 1: Because Kelpius, it turns out that living in caves with
20:24
Speaker 1: uh with crushing low temperatures, especially in the winter months,
20:29
Speaker 1: it turns out it's not good for you, even no
20:31
Speaker 1: matter how well informed you are, and no matter how
20:34
Speaker 1: talented of an astronomer you are. That's the fun that
20:37
Speaker 1: a lot of times people that are like really driven
20:39
Speaker 1: and obsessed with the quest for knowledge sometimes don't take
20:43
Speaker 1: the best care of their physical vessels because they're so
20:46
Speaker 1: busy doing all the maths and stuff, you know, that
20:49
Speaker 1: they just got time to eat or you know, put
20:51
Speaker 1: on a blanket. And Kelpius became ill with tuberculosis. It's
20:56
Speaker 1: around seventeen o five. He had to go away from
20:59
Speaker 1: the tavern actal area and move into the home of
21:02
Speaker 1: a former member who had already left the organization in
21:06
Speaker 1: Germantown proper. And he lived, Uh, he lived for about
21:11
Speaker 1: three more years. I believe he was early forties when
21:14
Speaker 1: he passed away. Seems seemed quite quite unfortunate and young. Yeah. Yeah,
21:19
Speaker 1: he never really recovered from that bout of tuberculosis, and
21:24
Speaker 1: he died in seventeen o eight. His followers returned. They
21:28
Speaker 1: took his body to the tabernacle. They buried him in
21:31
Speaker 1: the garden, and they had a ceremony where they released
21:35
Speaker 1: a dove as they were lowering him into the ground.
21:37
Speaker 1: The society itself survive for about another ten years or so,
21:42
Speaker 1: but without the same drive or enthusiasm it was. At
21:47
Speaker 1: some point it got down to just six hardcore believers.
21:50
Speaker 1: But here we end some of the facts and we
21:54
Speaker 1: get to some of the real juicy stuff, the legends.
21:56
Speaker 1: Oh man, this is fun stuff. This is much more
21:58
Speaker 1: in the realm of our other pro him stuff. They
22:01
Speaker 1: don't want you to know, but it is just uh
22:04
Speaker 1: so much fun, so great so. One of Kelpius's most
22:09
Speaker 1: trusted confidants and followers was a guy by the name
22:12
Speaker 1: of Geisler was his first name, Daniel Daniel Geisler, and
22:17
Speaker 1: he was kind of trying to adhere to the mystical
22:22
Speaker 1: guru's last wishes as he was on his deathbed, right
22:27
Speaker 1: because Kelpius gave Geisler a very particular artifact. It was
22:36
Speaker 1: a box, but it was locked. Yeah. I like to
22:39
Speaker 1: refer to it as this the mystery box. I think
22:41
Speaker 1: of that thing in Mulholland Drive, you know, where they
22:44
Speaker 1: pull out the box and the cameras zoom is in
22:46
Speaker 1: and then everything gets real weird. It's like that, you know, um,
22:51
Speaker 1: no one knows what's in the box, but there's a
22:53
Speaker 1: fantastic article from the Voice, The Philly Voice in fact,
22:56
Speaker 1: called did with a Hicken hermit have fabled Philosopher's Stone?
23:02
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, Ben, remind us what's the philosopher's stone? Yes? Well,
23:07
Speaker 1: in the the most common way to put it without
23:11
Speaker 1: making it a crazy metaphor for something, is that it's
23:15
Speaker 1: a legendary substance that you hear a lot about an
23:18
Speaker 1: alchemical writings that can turn things into other things. It
23:23
Speaker 1: can transmute substances, so you'll hear stuff like turning lead
23:26
Speaker 1: into gold, for instance, Right, that sounds cool. Yeah, it
23:29
Speaker 1: sounds like a great stone to have, right. It may
23:32
Speaker 1: not be a physical stone, and all the stories. Sometimes
23:35
Speaker 1: it's just the substance, and sometimes it's thought to be
23:39
Speaker 1: more of a symbol of a mystical term for the
23:46
Speaker 1: great work in every effort by alchemist too discover this
23:51
Speaker 1: substance or created or reproduce it, where those efforts were
23:56
Speaker 1: collectively known as the great Work. So the idea that
24:02
Speaker 1: a mystic like Kelpius would possess this philosopher's stone is
24:09
Speaker 1: amazing and astonishing to anybody who was still searching for it. No,
24:12
Speaker 1: we have to keep in mind. You know, this is
24:15
Speaker 1: the early early eighteen century, so belief in alchemy is still,
24:20
Speaker 1: you know, much more widespread than it is in I
24:24
Speaker 1: would say. So Kelpius is on his deathbed um in
24:27
Speaker 1: the throes of the dreaded tuberculosis. This is the early
24:31
Speaker 1: seven sev sev eight, and his confidante there Geisler geislers Is.
24:37
Speaker 1: I'm just paying a picture here kneeling by his bedside
24:40
Speaker 1: and say, masta, masta, what can I do for you too?
24:44
Speaker 1: Easier suffering anything? This is totally how it went down,
24:47
Speaker 1: and to that Kelpius says, well, there is one thing,
24:50
Speaker 1: my son, Come closer. You know how they always do
24:52
Speaker 1: that when they're dead. Then come closer. I don't have
24:55
Speaker 1: this straight. I'm closer. I want you to take hence
24:59
Speaker 1: this box, my arcanum, and I want you to throw
25:04
Speaker 1: it in the river, the the sho Kill river. Would
25:08
Speaker 1: you say that schwi kill? Yeah, I want you to
25:11
Speaker 1: throw it in the watery depths of the showy Kill.
25:15
Speaker 1: And you know, to this um our boy Geestler, he
25:19
Speaker 1: said sure, yeah, well of course and then and then
25:23
Speaker 1: promptly didn't didn't didn't do it. And the the great
25:26
Speaker 1: part of that legend is um when when he comes
25:30
Speaker 1: back and he's like all done, Boss Kelpius, he says,
25:34
Speaker 1: come closer. Yeah. He raises himself up and he expands
25:39
Speaker 1: what little energy as pointed him and say, Daniel, thou
25:43
Speaker 1: hast not done as I bid thee. Nor hast thou
25:46
Speaker 1: cast the casket into the river, but hast he diden
25:49
Speaker 1: it near the shore. And then he was like, oh
25:54
Speaker 1: you got me, boss, I was gonna try to pick
25:57
Speaker 1: that lock. And so now he's convinced that his mass her. Yeah,
26:00
Speaker 1: he's definitely, he's definitely convinced, and so he you know,
26:03
Speaker 1: he finally does it, and what a disappointment though he
26:06
Speaker 1: this guy was, Yeah, what kind of follow are you
26:09
Speaker 1: if you can't just follow simple instructions of a dying mystic?
26:13
Speaker 1: Is a dying wish? Seriously, So what happens when he
26:16
Speaker 1: actually does throw it away? Well, according to this account,
26:21
Speaker 1: which was given by Geisler to a guy by the
26:26
Speaker 1: name of Henry Muhlenberg, who in the Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
26:34
Speaker 1: um was named after. And also he I think he's
26:38
Speaker 1: he started the North American Lutheran Church or he was
26:41
Speaker 1: a big force and establishing the North American Lutheran Church.
26:44
Speaker 1: This is again from this Philly Voice article. It's a
26:47
Speaker 1: very uh fabulous account because he says, and this is
26:52
Speaker 1: this is all you know written down that as soon
26:55
Speaker 1: as he threw it in the river exploded. Yes, yeah,
27:01
Speaker 1: like is it so help help we get this street?
27:04
Speaker 1: Did it explode? Was it a flash of lightning? Did
27:07
Speaker 1: it come from the box? That's what it almost sounds like, Yeah,
27:11
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a little weird, um it it's
27:14
Speaker 1: it's it's written as though it produced some kind of
27:19
Speaker 1: alchemical reaction, some sort of elemental that's the way I'm
27:23
Speaker 1: looking for reaction. Because it's described as producing quote producing
27:28
Speaker 1: flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. It made me
27:32
Speaker 1: think when we first were reading about this of Indiana
27:34
Speaker 1: Jones and the readers of the Lost Arc, remember where
27:37
Speaker 1: they find somebody ignores the advice and they open the
27:41
Speaker 1: arc and people melt and it's all this strange at
27:46
Speaker 1: the time, amazing special effects. It's it's also been um
27:49
Speaker 1: forever memorialized in an amazing gift that you can drop
27:52
Speaker 1: whenever someone says something crazy. That third down the one
27:57
Speaker 1: of the Nazis face melting off and its eyes bugging out.
28:00
Speaker 1: There we go this account. We should also mention I'm
28:03
Speaker 1: glad you brought up Henry Muhlenberg because Geisler didn't tell
28:07
Speaker 1: the pastor about this immediately after, right, it was a
28:10
Speaker 1: number of years. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um. But this,
28:13
Speaker 1: this Philly Voice article does a really good job of
28:16
Speaker 1: pointing out how this sounds a whole lot more like
28:19
Speaker 1: a kind of literary device rather than an actual account.
28:25
Speaker 1: You know. They compare it to um King Arthur asking
28:30
Speaker 1: his follower to throw excalibur into the lake and then
28:34
Speaker 1: the lady of the lake reaches aloft and grabs Excalibur.
28:38
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Like they would have known
28:40
Speaker 1: about those stories. Yeah, but it's like, it's it's very
28:44
Speaker 1: odd that that he would tell this very specific and
28:47
Speaker 1: quite incredible account that to what end, to help spread
28:52
Speaker 1: the mythos of of of this this mystic. Yeah, that's
28:57
Speaker 1: that's the interesting question. Because of as Lee, they would
29:01
Speaker 1: have they were quite educated for the time, they were
29:04
Speaker 1: aware of folklore. They would understand the connections. Oh, and
29:08
Speaker 1: I can't believe we forgot the fun fact there. These
29:12
Speaker 1: guys are famous for another reason because Christopher wit in
29:17
Speaker 1: Seive painted Kelpius. It is believed to be the oldest
29:21
Speaker 1: oil painting in the US. Oh, I didn't catch that.
29:25
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with magic or allegations thereof Now,
29:28
Speaker 1: art art is its own kind of magic and its
29:30
Speaker 1: own reward. That's awesome. That's a good way to look
29:33
Speaker 1: at it. So this account maybe fictitious, It may be
29:41
Speaker 1: solely a legend. Yeah. And this this speculation is coming
29:44
Speaker 1: from a historian from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by
29:48
Speaker 1: the name of Dan Roth, who was interviewed for this
29:51
Speaker 1: piece on Philly Voice dot com that was written by
29:55
Speaker 1: John Copp was a staff writer for Philly Voice. So
29:58
Speaker 1: where does that leave us today? Um? Oh, I do
30:00
Speaker 1: have one of the things I did see this video
30:03
Speaker 1: that I was talking about earlier, that it's kind of
30:05
Speaker 1: cool for a for a point and then it really
30:07
Speaker 1: starts to get into like and he was totally looking
30:10
Speaker 1: for aliens and Ben Franklin like it was believed in
30:14
Speaker 1: aliens too, and Ben Franklin supposedly got possession of all
30:19
Speaker 1: of the relics and remaining materials that were ever in
30:22
Speaker 1: this cave. But I found no mention of that anywhere
30:26
Speaker 1: with any connection between Ben Franklin, other than the fact
30:29
Speaker 1: that the Um American Philosophical Society, which was founded by
30:34
Speaker 1: Ben Franklin, does have two books of Kelpius is in
30:39
Speaker 1: in their library. One of them is the Diar Rheum
30:42
Speaker 1: of Magister Johannes Kelpius Um, and that is from nineteen
30:49
Speaker 1: seventeen reprinted, so it's not even an original. And then
30:52
Speaker 1: they also have the Journal of Johannes's Kelpius, Magister of
30:55
Speaker 1: the Hermits on the Ridge in Pennsylvania seven or eight.
30:59
Speaker 1: So those two I think are the only surviving um
31:03
Speaker 1: actual accounts from Kelpius himself. Yeah, a lot of them.
31:07
Speaker 1: There maybe was another correspondence or something like that, but
31:10
Speaker 1: it was not a whole lot. None of his actual
31:13
Speaker 1: philosophy is codified in any kind of like expansive works,
31:18
Speaker 1: you know, right right, it's those. Those are the two
31:21
Speaker 1: books that we're aware of. There is one other, I thought,
31:25
Speaker 1: fascinating paranormal story if we want to continue getting works. Okay,
31:31
Speaker 1: so we said that after his death, the Brotherhood, the
31:36
Speaker 1: society dwindles down. At one point, they're just six let's
31:40
Speaker 1: call him hardcore monks, zealots, ardent believers, and they were
31:44
Speaker 1: led by a guy named Conrad Mathi. Mathi, let's go
31:49
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, like my Thi. There we go perfect.
31:52
Speaker 1: But eventually the group starts breaking down further and further
31:57
Speaker 1: and further. And that guy we mentioned and Christopher Witt
32:01
Speaker 1: who moved to Germantown, he also quit the the group,
32:06
Speaker 1: but he continued a lot of his hobbies that he
32:08
Speaker 1: had from his time in the group, and he did
32:11
Speaker 1: pretty well. By seventeen eighteen, he was a wealthy man.
32:15
Speaker 1: He had bought over a d twenty acres of land,
32:18
Speaker 1: but he was always under suspicion in town of being
32:22
Speaker 1: get this knoll hexan meister. Is it like a witchy dude? Yeah?
32:28
Speaker 1: Uh so. People thought he was maybe using his magic.
32:34
Speaker 1: His magical abilities were his esoteric wisdom to get ahead
32:37
Speaker 1: in the secular world, and they also continued to provide
32:42
Speaker 1: services of a paranormal or spiritual type to the community.
32:47
Speaker 1: This guy I just mentioned, Conrad Matthai cast horoscopes, he
32:52
Speaker 1: performed exorcisms. He said he could travel outside of his
32:55
Speaker 1: own body. There was a book called The Pietists of
32:58
Speaker 1: Provincial Pennsylvania written yes, written by a guy named Julius
33:05
Speaker 1: Sach who says the following about Conrad. A captain's wife
33:10
Speaker 1: allegedly asked Conrad in seventeen forty when he could expect
33:15
Speaker 1: her husband's ship to return. So the guy goes into
33:19
Speaker 1: his chamber, lays down in a trance for an hour,
33:22
Speaker 1: then he wakes up. He comes back in and he
33:24
Speaker 1: tells this lady her husband is at a London coffee
33:28
Speaker 1: house and he's preparing to set sail for the New World.
33:32
Speaker 1: And when the captain returns, you know, several months later
33:36
Speaker 1: whatever he meets Conrad, and then the first thing he says, again,
33:40
Speaker 1: according to this story, is that he was in a
33:42
Speaker 1: London coffee house and saw the dude Conrad himself, staring
33:47
Speaker 1: at him, and he said he remembered the encounter because
33:51
Speaker 1: apparently the old man Conrad had come up and yelled
33:54
Speaker 1: to him about not writing to his wife. That's got
33:57
Speaker 1: to be total malarkey, rude. But what a G eight story. Yeah,
34:01
Speaker 1: that's a good one. Good way to cap this one off.
34:03
Speaker 1: Do you got anything else? You know what? I think
34:05
Speaker 1: we can call it? Oh? No, do you hear that?
34:08
Speaker 1: It's really Oh man, it's been so long. We had
34:11
Speaker 1: such a street guy. It's strick. It's been so long.
34:19
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. The question you've been working on that laugh,
34:25
Speaker 1: I've been celebrating, gentlemen. Missing seven. It's weird. It's like
34:29
Speaker 1: the way you miss a like a sharp pain. It
34:34
Speaker 1: was suddenly you wake up one morning and you think
34:36
Speaker 1: that's different. Yeah, I kind of miss it now. That's
34:39
Speaker 1: very sweet of you. Day after the chiropractor kind of longing. Well,
34:44
Speaker 1: just consider me your spinal adjustment of love. Here. I
34:46
Speaker 1: am all right to give you yet another a bilexing scenario,
34:52
Speaker 1: whereupon you must decide whether or not in this truth
34:55
Speaker 1: or fiction within the span of thirty minutes. You know,
34:57
Speaker 1: I put forth a perplexing scenario or a notion that
35:01
Speaker 1: my theory is that you we haven't seen you for
35:04
Speaker 1: so long because you're going around and messing with other
35:06
Speaker 1: podcasts that we don't know about. That true. I can
35:10
Speaker 1: neither confirm nor deny have you been podcast cheating on us? Man?
35:14
Speaker 1: I listen, Ben, listen, listen, Hey, listen Ben. Things are
35:21
Speaker 1: complicated right now. Check my Facebook status. O. Man. It's
35:25
Speaker 1: just you never know when someone needs to be, you know,
35:29
Speaker 1: shown up by wow, having to prove their ability. I
35:35
Speaker 1: had proposed strength. I have defended you on this show. Listen, Ben,
35:40
Speaker 1: listen listen. Mortgages don't pay themselves, Ben Alquist, Caves don't
35:48
Speaker 1: come cheat the most. It's the most cringe worthy segmented
35:51
Speaker 1: all the podcasting. Yet again, and of course here we
35:53
Speaker 1: have recently celebrated the fourth of July. That is true,
35:59
Speaker 1: that is in fact today is the fifth of July,
36:03
Speaker 1: in fact, as we record this in July. And so
36:06
Speaker 1: the question today, our scenario today has to do with
36:10
Speaker 1: someone who was very much connected to the declaration of independence,
36:18
Speaker 1: and so you'll you will get your scenario the time
36:21
Speaker 1: I will start a three minutes. You will, of course
36:23
Speaker 1: have to ask questions of me, and I just confused
36:27
Speaker 1: that one with the constitution. Is that going to be
36:28
Speaker 1: a problem We will see. But in order in order
36:32
Speaker 1: to ask a question this time, I always give you
36:34
Speaker 1: an arbitrary rule this time, if you wish to ask
36:37
Speaker 1: a question me, you must first say, sit down, John
36:42
Speaker 1: alright reference to a musical called seventeen seventy six. Go
36:46
Speaker 1: watch it. Nor alright. Here, here's your scenario. Prepare yourself
36:51
Speaker 1: and start the time or when I am done, let
36:53
Speaker 1: me warm up, because as long time listeners know, I
36:56
Speaker 1: have to get a running start to jump and hit
36:58
Speaker 1: the hit the second. And this Grandfather clock we spent
37:01
Speaker 1: so much money on. If you could get the touch
37:03
Speaker 1: screen on that Grandfather clock activated and just unlock it
37:07
Speaker 1: now so that you can type in the numb here
37:10
Speaker 1: we go. We're working live Man. Along with doctor Lyman
37:14
Speaker 1: Hall and George Walton Button, Gwynnette signed the Declaration of
37:19
Speaker 1: Independence representing the colony of Georgia. He would return to
37:24
Speaker 1: Georgia to serve as president. He also maintained a rivalry
37:28
Speaker 1: with Lachlan Macintosh, a Scotsman who served in the American
37:33
Speaker 1: Army as a brigadier general, which was a position that
37:35
Speaker 1: Gwynette had coveted. Gwinnette commanded McIntosh to conduct an invasion
37:40
Speaker 1: of East Florida during the Revolution. The invasion was a
37:44
Speaker 1: terrible failure. The two men blamed one another for the fiasco,
37:48
Speaker 1: and it all resulted in a duel. However, on the
37:52
Speaker 1: morning the duel was to take place in southern Georgia,
37:56
Speaker 1: near the border of Florida. As Button Gwinnette walked his
38:00
Speaker 1: way to Lachlan Macintosh, he was bitten by a venomous
38:04
Speaker 1: snake suspected by historians to be a coral snake. And
38:07
Speaker 1: while the bite itself might not have been fatal, the
38:10
Speaker 1: medical attention that was given to him certainly was, and
38:13
Speaker 1: he died of infection a week and a half later.
38:17
Speaker 1: Start the clock, all right, we are start giving running
38:21
Speaker 1: start boom. Okay, sit down, John y R. Could you
38:27
Speaker 1: tell us again where this duel allegedly took place. Southern
38:31
Speaker 1: Georgia's too far from the border of Florida. Okay, you
38:35
Speaker 1: know what is now known as Fort McIntosh as a
38:38
Speaker 1: As it turns out, and Button Gwynette. So we know
38:41
Speaker 1: there's a Gwynette county. We know about Button. I remember
38:43
Speaker 1: him from Georgia history as a lay you know, and uh,
38:48
Speaker 1: Macintosh is a is a common name for institutions here
38:51
Speaker 1: in Georgia. Was confused Button Gwynette with Oglethorpe though, just
38:55
Speaker 1: like I do, the declaration of independs with the Constitution.
38:57
Speaker 1: I am a really bad historian. You know. We're not bad. No,
39:01
Speaker 1: we're ridiculous. That's our whole So uh yeah. One thing
39:05
Speaker 1: I don't remember from Georgia history is hearing anything about
39:08
Speaker 1: a snake bitten but also coral snakes. That's standing out
39:13
Speaker 1: to me. I am very tempted to just go false. Yeah,
39:16
Speaker 1: you just well, do we sit down? John is the
39:22
Speaker 1: is the kicker that he died from poor medical like
39:25
Speaker 1: we we are, we've it's been so long. Are we
39:28
Speaker 1: trying to discern if like any detail of the story
39:30
Speaker 1: is true, the whole thing is not true. If if
39:33
Speaker 1: if you're saying he died from poor medical attention, but
39:36
Speaker 1: then there was a detail in there that wasn't any
39:39
Speaker 1: one detail there could make this statement that's false that works.
39:44
Speaker 1: So so it is either all true or all false
39:49
Speaker 1: or there's some falsehood in it. But if there's just
39:51
Speaker 1: some falsehood in it, it's still inherently it is inherently okay,
39:56
Speaker 1: all unlocking in false babies. Alright me personally, I'm I'm
39:59
Speaker 1: looking you did. Let's yeah, yeah, let's let's count it
40:02
Speaker 1: down and make it official. Grow three do what false gentlemen?
40:08
Speaker 1: You have defeated me. Finally, I believe now I'm only
40:17
Speaker 1: three ahead, you know, one day at a time. Man. Yeah, Hey,
40:20
Speaker 1: Casey que place of victory, music naked nake it a dirge,
40:24
Speaker 1: Casey dirge. So they here here are the actual Yes,
40:29
Speaker 1: there was a duel. There was a duel. I remember that.
40:31
Speaker 1: Button Gwinnette did wish to be brigadier general at the
40:34
Speaker 1: American Revolutionary War. Lachlan Macintosh, his political rival, got that,
40:39
Speaker 1: and then when he returned to Georgia, he was first
40:42
Speaker 1: elected Speaker of the House of Georgia as well as
40:45
Speaker 1: a Commander in chief of the of the Georgia Forces,
40:48
Speaker 1: and he did in fact order McIntosh to invade East Florida,
40:53
Speaker 1: British colony. It did not go well because McIntosh did
40:58
Speaker 1: not have the resources needed. He returned to Georgia and
41:01
Speaker 1: then he proceeded to bad mouth Button Gwynette in front
41:04
Speaker 1: of the Georgia Assembly. You go bad mouth and Button
41:06
Speaker 1: in front of an assembly man. A duel was arranged.
41:10
Speaker 1: McIntosh totally shot Button Gwynette, and Button Gwynette died about
41:15
Speaker 1: three days later on May nineteenth, seventeen seventy seven, a
41:19
Speaker 1: signer of the Declaration of Independence shot by a soldier
41:24
Speaker 1: who served in the Revolutionary Army. So no, no coral snakes,
41:30
Speaker 1: No coral snakes. He was not bitten by a snake.
41:33
Speaker 1: He was merely shot by a Scotsman. Shot by a Scotsman,
41:36
Speaker 1: just as fatal as it turns out, Maybe I missed this.
41:40
Speaker 1: How did the scotsman end up fighting for the American cause?
41:43
Speaker 1: He was? He was given the position of brigadier general,
41:47
Speaker 1: so they were both up for consideration for brigadier general,
41:51
Speaker 1: and Button Gwynette was passed over. Button Gwynette's closest ally
41:55
Speaker 1: was Dr Lyman Hall. And as you mentioned, we have
41:57
Speaker 1: a Gwynette County, we also have a whole count Yeah, yeah,
42:00
Speaker 1: that is where I am from, Hall County. Okay. Getting
42:04
Speaker 1: to know you, is that where your layer is in
42:06
Speaker 1: Hall County? Heavens no are you have an old fourth
42:10
Speaker 1: ward man? Now? Well, Jonathan, what a tremendous pleasure to
42:17
Speaker 1: have finally started winning some of these, right, noll. I know,
42:19
Speaker 1: but I'm not I'm not getting enough remorse from you.
42:23
Speaker 1: I'm not seen something still three ahead. Well, I know,
42:26
Speaker 1: but I almost feel like you threw us a little
42:27
Speaker 1: bit of a softball with this one. And while I
42:29
Speaker 1: appreciate it, I also somewhat resent it. So then I'll
42:34
Speaker 1: come at you extra hard next time. So what will
42:38
Speaker 1: happen next, ridiculous historians? Will the tension continue to simmer?
42:42
Speaker 1: Will we get closer and closer to an even score?
42:46
Speaker 1: Or fall further into the hole. There's only one way
42:49
Speaker 1: to find out. Well, there are several, but there's one
42:51
Speaker 1: way we would like you to find out. You know,
42:53
Speaker 1: listen to the show, continue to subscribe to my Twitter feed.
42:56
Speaker 1: You'll find out about Hey. Now, yeah, hey, what's this
42:59
Speaker 1: other show? I'm not at liberty to say, no, what's
43:03
Speaker 1: the other show? I have no idea. Oh, you guys
43:06
Speaker 1: making me so paranoid. That's fine, that's part of the
43:09
Speaker 1: whole interaction. Here's paranoia. But seriously, thank you for coming again.
43:12
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, The devious quister. We appreciate it, Slash resent
43:18
Speaker 1: it heavily. Thanks for helping us learn stuff man, that's
43:22
Speaker 1: true love YouTube, and thank you folks for tuning into
43:24
Speaker 1: the show. We hope you'll join us next time where
43:27
Speaker 1: we talk about a bunch of states that never were
43:31
Speaker 1: that that have a lot of fun names and stories
43:34
Speaker 1: and just just listen to the episode will be good.
43:36
Speaker 1: In the meantime, you can write to us at Ridiculous
43:38
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. You can check us
43:41
Speaker 1: out on the typical social media channels. UM are preferred
43:44
Speaker 1: method of communication with our ridiculous historian communities through our
43:48
Speaker 1: Facebook group of that very name, Ridiculous Historians, And we
43:52
Speaker 1: actually just come out with an episode that featured some
43:55
Speaker 1: stuff from that very community and we had a really
43:57
Speaker 1: good time doing it and we'll probably do it again.
43:59
Speaker 1: So check that out and UM drop some memes or
44:02
Speaker 1: stories or questions or ideas on there. You might hear
44:05
Speaker 1: it in an episode, yes, and you may well hear
44:08
Speaker 1: from us from Casey Nolan myself. A big thanks of course,
44:12
Speaker 1: as always too super producer Casey Pegro, big thanks to
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Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed the track. You know what, big
44:18
Speaker 1: thanks to everybody except Jonathan. Thanks to Christopher hassi Otis. Jonathan,
44:23
Speaker 1: You've got You're making a stink face with I love
44:26
Speaker 1: you do know, guys, I'm feeling the emanations of affection here.
44:31
Speaker 1: That is, is what you're feeling. Well, the course of
44:34
Speaker 1: true love never did run smoothly. Thanks for tuning in everyone. Goodbye,