The good people Los Angeles awoke to a strange article in the Times on January 26th, 1934. It Seems a mining engineer named W. Warren Shufelt had it on good authority that a race of lizard like humanoids lived in caverns under present day Downtown Los Angeles thousands of years ago. 

The good authority was a Hopi Chief named Little Green Leaf. According to Chief Green Leaf, there once was a whole civilization of reptile like humanoids that lived in a sophisticated city around the Los Angeles area. In preparation of a meteor shower, they dug caves tunnels and chambers under the hilly area starting at Chavez ravine and extending down to what is now under the Central Library with ventilation shafts extending all the way to the ocean. 

What got Shufelt interested was that race was keen on gold and rumors of stores of treasure rooms was too much to pass up. He invented this gizmo called a “radio X-ray” which has been speculated to being everything from an electric dousing rod, to an early predecessor to ground penetrating radar. He was able to map out an extensive network of tunnels and rooms roughly in the shape of a lizard stretching from Chavez ravine to 7th and Fig. He convinced the city to let him dig in an area he thought would give him the best chance to find a tunnel or gold chamber. 

With the LA Times reporter at the scene, he explored the shaft. They hit a water table and the shaft flooded. Shortly after the story ran Shufelt vanished and the story was disregarded as a hoax. Other than a crazy article that's all to the story right?

This is just my own speculation. But after shortly after Shufelt, the city made massive public works projects in the area. The area in the immediate vicinity of Shufelt’s original dig, was dug up and transformed. 

The name sake hill of Hill street which had two tunnels running through it was completely leveled off. The New Civic Center began to take shape with scores of city and government buildings all with rumored underground facilities and tunnels. 

Within a few years, the Hollywood freeway cut through and massive projects to level and dig up the hills of Chavez Ravine to build what would become Dodger Stadium. All along the path of the supposed reptile shaped underground city.

Why did Shufelt disappear? Did he give up or find something? Was it a coincidence that the city of Los Angeles gave him permission for this scheme and then begun to dig up the entire area over the next few years under the guise of public works? 

Probably. I think a large find of gold is unlikely. But strange tunnels have been discovered throughout the area over the years have been attributed to smugglers or shady doings. It's possible more were found and were kept secret. 

Not because they contained gold, but they made good starting points and connectors for the basements and bomb shelters for the modern city taking shape above. That's just my strange theory though. 

The thought of ancient reptile people leaving tunnels under Los Angeles is a story too good to pass up. Just like it was for Shufelt and the city in the 1930’s. Next time you are looking for parking deep beneath Downtown LA take a moment to pause and wonder of the drab concrete garage you're in, was once part of a great hall in the City of the Reptile people. 

Thanks for reading this one!

Sources: The LA Times, "Weird California" by Mark Sceurman. 

-Mike