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I did not see the original premiere of the series, but as a young girl in the 1970′s, I watched reruns. The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Science Fiction Theatre were favorites of mine and “new” to me. Tucson summers were way too hot to go play outside, so I started watching these shows instead.

It was exciting to hear “The Control Voice” at the beginning of The Outer Limits: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical…”

It was originally to be called Please Stand By, but ABC rejected the title. The show would end up influencing Star Trek in many ways. First, monsters used on The Outer Limits were recycled and used on Star Trek. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan had appeared in episodes before winning their starring roles in Star Trek. Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek, hired several former Outer Limits staff members to work on the show.

This show influenced the science fiction genre in other ways, too. Much later, a writer named Harlan Ellison, who wrote for The Outer Limits, filed a lawsuit against James Cameron. Ellison contended that Cameron used his work from the show to inspire Terminator. Ellison was awarded money with the ending credits of The Terminator acknowledging “the works of Harlan Ellison”.

Reruns of these shows paved the way for my interest in a 1970′s television series starring Leonard Nimoy, called “In Search of…”, which i credit for actually igniting my interest in the paranormal. However, that’s another post for another time.

All 49 original episodes of The Outer Limits are available on Hulu, along with the revived, newer, episodes of the series. Perhaps if you have nothing else to do tonight, you can watch the premiere episode from 1963: “The Galaxy Being”.

Here’s the famous intro from that show:

I posted the one reader submitted photo on my blog and dismissed it as a cloud.

Rarely will I post photographs into my articles. Photographs can be easily manipulated. I do sometimes post photos to showcase locations that I write about. Sometimes, I post them as examples rather than evidence.  On occasion, I will provide a link to readers to view a photo on another website.

To be fair, I am not a meteorologist, so my assessment of the object as a cloud or sun dog is only the evaluation of an amateur. Also, I am not a photographic expert, though I see what I see and form my own opinion as a result.

While mulling over the decision over whether to post reader submitted items, I had to ask myself if I actually know what a UFO from somewhere in outer space looks like. No, I don’t. I do know what Hollywood’s various representations of a UFO looks like. During a recent debate on the subject, I asserted that if extraterrestrials exist and if they are so technologically advanced to travel here, they could make their airship resemble an airplane to stay under the radar, so to speak. On the other hand, maybe they are really tiny and their craft is no bigger than a shoebox.

To be fair, most, if not all of us, really have no clue what a UFO from outer space might look like.

Last night, a reader in Malaysia contacted me and provided four items: a blog post, a Borneo Post article, a clearer photo of the Malaysia UFO and a zoomed in version of the object in question. Rather than incorporate those items into an article, I decided to publish reader submitted evidence in another location on my blog.

On the upper left side of your screen is a new section within Paranormal Old Pueblo: Reader Submissions. A link under this heading reads: “July 2010“.

I will do my best to keep this section updated for those who wish to submit photos or other evidence. I don’t guarantee that I will devote an article to the evidence submitted, however.

You can submit whatever you would like related to the paranormal: UFOs, Ghosts, Cryptozoology, Psychic Phenomena, Lost Treasure, etc.

To submit any evidence you would like to share with your fellow readers, feel free to email me.

They article states:

If you’re Malaysian, rejoice! We haven’t escaped the notice of suspected extraterrestials. We’ll let you decide if the following is a precursor to a full-scale invasion or a routine sampling of our country’s famously varied food.

Is Malaysia hurting for tourists or was something really seen at the beach resort?

The article reports several witnesses for the event this past Saturday. One of whom, Jemas Dungil, said he saw a round, blue floating object that turned green in seconds before disappearing. The other Tuaran Beach Resort staff members and guests who witnessed the phenomena have reportedly substantiated this claim by Dungil.

Do they have proof?

Despite claims of some cell phones mysteriously going dead when trying to snap a photo, some witnesses stated that they successfully captured an image of the object. MSN didn’t offer photos, so perhaps photographic evidence from this event might turn up eventually.

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Sheriff Arpaio says, “We are the leading search and rescue agency in the state and our experience is leading us to believe that these men succumbed to the summer heat.”

For the last seven days, 311 volunteers and 40 sheriff’s deputies combed the Superstition Mountains in search of the three men.. They covered approximately 96 square miles searching for Curtis Meriworth, Ardean Charles and Malcom Meeks.

The three men had ventured into the mountains in search of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine.

According to legend, the Lost Dutchman is a very rich gold mine located near Apache Junction, about 40 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona. The lore that surrounds the mine lures treasure hunters from around the world. It is said that the mine is cursed, while other stories tell of a ghostly miner who guards the mine against discovery. The lost mine has drawn prospectors searching for the mother lode for over a hundred years.

It is estimated that as many as 8,000 people a year make some sort of effort to locate the legendary lost mine.

Today, the focus is a creepy cave.

Student Raymond Gardner wrote:

There is a cave on the side of the road that goes to the Duquesne Camp. In the past years they claim that a woman comes out of the cave at midnight. If somebody was passing she would not let him pass until he gave her five cents, Mexican money. If one didn’t give her the five cents, she would throw some cotton at him and in the cotton there would be a poison dart.

My dad took a picture of the cave yesterday. He didn’t tell me what he saw in the photo. I won’t tell you what I see in it either. If you would like to increase the zoom on your page, hold down your “CTRL” button on your keyboard and hit the “+” (plus) sign on your keypad until you enlarge your page to your liking. To zoom back down, hit the “-” (minus) symbol on your keypad. Then, read on below the photo.

Creepy Cave / Photo by Joseph Gardner

If you see what I think you see, this is a good example of Matrixing. Matrixing is a term used to describe the mind’s tendency to find familiar shapes in more complex shapes or colors. Most commonly, the shape would be a human face.

I’m not planning on going to the cave at midnight to see if anything emerges from it. The photo was interesting enough to share.

Of course, I do have a couple theories about the tale.

It could have been created by parents to keep their children out of dangerous caves.

The second theory I have about the tale is a little offbeat, but I’ll share what I think anyway. I think that this story could have developed in the mid to late 1800′s, when mining started to boom in the area. Perhaps a “woman of the night” took advantage of the close proximity of the cave to the mines in the area. Any women or children in the area would have been told this tale to keep them away from the cave. It could also explain matters if money was missing from their pay.

Maybe, maybe not, but that is the first thing I thought of when I read this account of the creepy cave.

It is way too early to start calling this event a conspiracy. It is also inappropriate.

The facts: Xiaoshan Airport was shut down on July 7, 2010 due to the sighting of an object in the sky. The object is currently unidentified (as far as we know) and it was flying or floating along in the sky. This qualifies the object as a UFO, yet a UFO does not automatically mean that it came from outer space.

Here is my opinion of why we should wait for news to surface directly from China, based on one undisputed fact:

China has earthly things to worry about at the moment.

OIL & WATER

Two oil pipes exploded last week at Dalian’s Xingang Harbor in northeast China. There have been five more explosions since then. At this writing, 24 oil cleaning vessels and more than 800 fishing boats are cleaning up the mess. According to this Xinhua News article, top leaders in China have turned their focus toward this matter of oil and water.

China is in the midst of typhoon season. Torrential rain and devastating floods are impacting the lives of millions of people, including in the Chongqing Municipality where the second UFO was said to be sighted. When the news of the second UFO sighting was released, this region in China began to brace for typhoon Conson.

Since the beginning of July, torrential rains and severe flooding have claimed the lives of 146 people. At last report 40 are missing. Rescue efforts are still underway. Flooding, rains, and typhoon Conson forced the evacuation of more than 1.3 million people in 11 provinces, mostly along the Yangtze River, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Fears of additional flooding, dams breaking and mudslides are at the forefront at the moment. Check out the Xinhua News 2010 Flood Coverage.

Like oil and water, unfounded speculation and cold hard facts should not be mixed together. Leave it to the experts to separate fact from fiction. This separation takes time. We will be told something about the UFO eventually.

Wait for the facts to surface.

The description of the video posted earlier this week states that the footage is from a surveillance video at a gas station in Bulgaria. You be the judge whether there is probable paranormal activity caught on tape.

Fake or real, it’s pretty creepy.

Ghost in a gas station in Bulgaria on You Tube

The resulting treasure trove of tales from 61 years ago contains many gems worth reading. The Patagonia area is rich in history and folk tales alike. Many of those tales originate in the ghost towns of Mowry, Harshaw, Lochiel, Duquesne and Washington Camp in the Patagonia Mountains.

Kansas Mine/Photo by C. Strong

Today, we’ll explore the Kansas Mine near Washington Camp.You can see the chute on a drive down Duquesne Road, while driving through a narrow mountain pass toward Nogales.

Still perched on the side of the mountain on a dirt road, the mine has a story to tell. We’ll dig into this story to see what parts of the story can be substantiated.

Student Luz Rivera contributed this tale of the haunted Kansas Mine:

The Kansas Mine is a mine on the Nogales and Washington Camp road. It is about half a mile from the Camp. This mine has killed more men than any other mine in the camp. It has killed forty-eight men in eighteen years. The last man killed Mr. Tony Rivera of Nogales, Arizona.

The reason this mine kills so many men is because it does not want to be worked because it is believed that it has a large amount of buried treasure either in ore, zinc or lead. This mine was closed for a period of nine months because the miners stated that it was haunted by a young man who was drowned in it just before the last man was killed. – Folk Tales from the Patagonia Area, The University of Arizona Press, 1949.

A search through Arizona Genealogy records reveals that Antonio ‘Tony” Rivera was killed at the mine on January 28, 1941, eight years prior to the story being published by The University of Arizona Press. Rivera’s death certificate online states the manner of death as a disturbing one. His head was crushed by a falling rock. It had been only his fifth day working at the mine.

It is unclear while researching this story whether the student, Luz Rivera, was related to Tony Rivera.

Kansas Mine remnants/Photo by C. Strong

The number of men killed at the mine was not verified via research. Searching through Mine Inspector records and death certificates did not support that many deaths. However, we can’t depend solely on records of the time. Records have been known to be lost or misplaced, or simply not recorded, especially as we research further back in time.

There was also no record of death by drowning in the years before Mr. Tony Rivera was killed. However, this doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. Records reveal that there was a mine explosion that killed two men eleven months prior to Mr. Rivera’s death.

Pedro Camez, 23, and Robert Landers, 48, were killed in an explosion at the mine on February 21, 1940. It is possible that the manner of death nine years later was mistaken by the informant of the tale. It is also possible that someone did drown at the mine, as reported, but there is no record of the victim. The young man haunting the mine could have been Camez, if the story of the haunting is true.

more Kansas Mine remnants/Photo by C. Strong

The nine month closure of the mine could have been caused by the explosion. It was also not uncommon for mining to cease operation periodically for various reasons.

If it was closed for nine months due to a haunting, there would be no record to substantiate that claim, there is only oral history to consider.

Doris Siebold asked her students to name the informant of each story submitted to the book. This story is attributed to “Many Informants”, which does lend some credibility to the lore.

Whether the mine is haunted or not, this story and others are fascinating.

The Patagonia Union High School and the entire community is fortunate to have had a teacher like Doris Siebold. She had the foresight to preserve the area’s rich history and folklore for many generations to come.

* Correction: The date that the folk tale collection project began was 1946, instead of the 1949 date posted in the original version of this post. The University of Arizona Press published the collection in 1949.

In other cases, people swear that their deceased pet has paid them a visit from the other side.

One famous example of such a ghostly pet resides at The Whaley House Museum in San Diego, CA. The museum has a resident ghostly terrier named Dolly Varden. She was a pet of the Whaley family in the late 1800′s.  Dolly is not alone. Most members of the Whaley family are said to still haunt their home-turned-museum. The ghost dog is frequently spotted running through the house, surprising museum docents and tourists alike.

There are personal accounts from around the world experienced by ordinary people who claim haunting activity caused by deceased pets. A pet that haunts.

Living pets are sometimes involved in accounts of ghostly activity. A pet that is haunted.

There are ghostly animal tails…er, tales like these, reported from coast to coast, but what about stories from Arizona?

The producers of Animal Planet’s weekly series The Haunted are particularly interested in accounts from Arizona to feature in a future segment of the weekly series.

The ghostly activity doesn’t have to involve a dog or a cat. Any animal involved in paranormal phenomena; horses, chickens, pigs, etc., qualifies for consideration.

Remember, just because the pet is seeing things doesn’t mean that it would make a good story to showcase on the show. There should be human witnesses to the claims of paranormal activity.

Submitting your story for consideration is easy. Simply visit the Animal Planet submission page and fill out a questionnaire. Producers will contact you if they are interested in including your story in a future episode.

For now, stories are currently being filmed for new episodes. Fans can look forward to another suspenseful season of The Haunted.