Changes

I had a birthday a couple of months ago so I had to change the top to 7 instead of 6. Bye!

The Hall of the White Giant

When we got to Carlsbad Caverns, we started asking questions. Since John's dad was a Park Ranger, we figured we would start there. Ranger Daniel Rogers told us that Ranger John Hatch worked at Carlsbad Caverns for 2 years and then was transferred to a park in Colorado. I told him about John's journal that I found, and about the drawings of the Golden Wing. Ranger Rogers said that John spent a lot of his time in the Hall of the White Giant. It is a remote part of the Cavern that you have to do some crawling to get to. Ranger Rogers said, "One time, I asked John what he does in there. He said that he liked to draw and write stories." I asked, "Can we go there with you?" He said, "That's okay, but you have to be brave." "I'm brave," I said, "the only thing I'm afraid of is the dark." "Well, the cave is dark, ya know," said the Ranger. I said, "Yes sir, but we have flashlights." And then I said, "Wait! Are there any ghosts in there? I'm also afraid of ghosts." And he said, "There is no such thing as ghosts." I said, "I know, I was just kiddin' ya." So, off we went to the Hall of the White Giant. We had to do a lot of crawling. One time, my hand slipped and then my feet did. So, I was hanging on with one hand. The Ranger said, "Roy, put your feet down, you can touch the bottom." "Oh," I said, and then I said, "I didn't know that." I stood up and put my feet on the floor. Dad said, "Come on, Roy, get up here. All of us are at the top except you."
I said, "Dad, I see something. Can I crawl over to the side to get a better look." Dad said, "Yes." I carefully climbed over there. I took a look and found a loose rock. It almost squashed my finger. "I found a loosed rock," I yelled up to everyone. I gently pulled it out so I wouldn't squash my finger. There was a piece of paper back behind it. I said, "Ranger Rogers, can you hand me the flashlight, please?" He said, "Okay." Mom and Dad followed him down to me. I flashlighted on the paper. I saw a plane of some kind. The battery was almost dead on the flashlight, so I couldn't see real good. Dad said, "Here, I've got a little pocket light in my pocket." "Okay, thanks," I said, "I think I see some gold, I do see some gold. Just like the picture in John's Journal. Probably the same crayon or pencil." We all looked around to see if we could find something else. We found another loose rock, but there was only a small rock behind it. We went a little closer. I said, "I hope there aren't any trap doors ." Right then my foot fell a little through the floor. That piece of the floor was lower than the rest of the floor. Just then, I looked up. I saw a giant block open up. I jumped over to the side and rolled through a door. A secret door. "I never knew that was there. I looked for secret doors, but I never looked down by the floor. I never thought there would be one there," said Ranger Rogers. He said, "I thought I looked right there yesterday." I said, "Probably you were in another area." Ranger Rogers said, "Oh yeah, it wasn't this area it was in the Spider Cave." I said, "I thought it would be another place. Can you hand me the flashlight, please? Gotta take a closer look. Do you have any binoculars?" Dad said, "I don't think I have any." I had to reach my arm in there. Something bit me. I looked closer and it was a bat. I took my arm out of there, took my whip out and cracked it. The sound scared the bat and it flew away. I put my arm back in and it got bit again. This time it was a lizard. I cracked my whip once, but the lizard didn't leave. I tried again, it still didn't leave, so I jumped up and cracked it at the same time and finally the lizard got scared and left. I shined the flashlight to make sure there was no more animals. There wasn't so, I reached my arm in there and pulled out another piece of paper. It read, "Dad just told me that he is getting transferred to..." I had to try to figure out what state it was by the clues. The first clue was that the first rodeo was held in Deer Trail on July 4, 1869. That didn't help me. The second clue was Mike the headless chicken day. That's wierd. Celebrating a headless chicken? That is very weird. Because... It's just hard to explain it. Okay I'll try. There was a man that had a chicken. He cut off the chicken's head and the chicken lived for four more years. The last clue said that this state's name means colored red and it is the Centennial State. Mom said, "When I was a kid, my family went to Colorado and we met the farmer that cut off Mike's head." Then I said, "That explains everything. Wait...Ranger Rogers said earlier that John and his parents had been transferred to Colorado. Why did I forget that? We should have left earlier." I sighed. So off to Colorado we went. To be continued...

On the way to Carlsbad

Sorry it's been so long. I got in trouble and mom and dad took my blog away for a week. Learned my lesson there. Then we went to visit some family and friends for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I'm back now. On the way to Carlsbad, New Mexico, mom told me the story about how one of my ancestors almost discovered Carlsbad Caverns. She said that my great, great, great grandfather, Ben Nichols, who was a cattle drover, was with a man named Jim White in the late 1800's. As they were pushing cattle through New Mexico, they came up on a big hole in the ground. Mr. White wanted to go down into it and explore. But, Grandpa Nichols said that he didn't come all this way to die in a hole in the ground. They rode off, but later Mr. White came back. In 1915, Mr. White took Roy Davis with him. Mr. Davis took some pictures and put them up for people to see in the town of Carlsbad. So then, people wanted to see it. They were lowered 170 feet down into the cave by a big bucket. In 1923, it became a National Monument and in 1930 it became Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Just thought this was an interesting story about how we were almost rich and famous. Wait 'til next time for the rest of the story about our trip to Carlsbad. It won't be long.

John's Journal

While we were at the library, I asked the librarian if she had heard of the Golden Wing. She said, "I don't know what the Golden Wing is." I said to her, "I found a book in a library in Oklahoma, that's where I live, that talks about treasures. One of the stories was about a plane that crashed and it was called The Golden Wing." The librarian said, "I think I've seen airplane crashes on TV, but I don't remember one called The Golden Wing." I asked, "Has there ever been a plane crash in this area?" She said, "Not that I know of, but there was a little boy, long ago, that was from Abernathy. He grew up to be a pilot. I heard that his plane crashed, but it was never found." I asked, "Did you ever talk to him?" She replied back, "We met in college. You know what, he said that when he was done with college he wanted to get a gold airplane." I asked, "Do you know his name?" She said, "I haven't thought about it in years. Let's see, it was John something. Let me think a second. John Hill...or Hitch. Hatch, that's what it was. John Hatch." Mom asked her, "Does he have family that still lives here in Abernathy?" The librarian said, "Not that I know of. When we met at college I said that I was from Abernathy and he told me he used to live here." I asked, "Is his house still here?" She said, "Yes, no one has lived there since they left. It's west of town." She wrote down the directions of how to get there.

Dad, mom and I got in the truck and followed the directions to a house that was in bad shape. Part of it was falling down. We carefully started to walk through the house when all of the sudden, I fell through a door that was on the floor. While I was falling down the steps, mom was screaming. She thought it killed me. I said, "I'm okay," when I got to the bottom. Mom said, "Whew!" I landed right next to a book. I picked it up. It was dusty so I blowed on it. It had written on the front, "John's Journal." I yelled, "I found a book down here. It's John's journal." Then I heard a noise. It sounded like a "ssss." I gasped there for a second. I've seen all four Indiana Jones movies. And in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Indy escaped that snake pit. So, I knew what to do. I remembered that scene when he landed by that cobra. When I was watching it, mom said, "When it moves, he has to move fast." So, I knew just what to do. Move fast! I got up and moved fast back up the stairs. I told mom and dad, "A snake almost got me down there. I had to move fast." Dad said, "You really scared us, son." I said, "It scared me, too. Look what I found." We started looking through the journal. There were stories and pictures. One page had a picture of an airplane that he had colored gold. We looked around at little bit more and then headed back to town. We went back to the library to ask more questions.

When we walked in, the librarian said, "I've got someone that you would like to meet." I said, "Oh, who's that?" She replied, "Her name is Ms. Allison. She was a high school teacher back when John Hatch was in school. I thought she might be able to tell you something about him." We walked over to this older lady. The librarian said to the women, "Ms. Allison, this is the young man I was telling you about. He was needing some information on John Hatch." Ms. Allison said, "Hello. What is your name?" I said, "I'm Roy Parks and this is my mom and dad. We were just out at John's old house. I was walking and fell through a door in the floor. It really scared me." Mom said, "Me, too!" Ms. Allison said, "That must have been a sight." I said, "Yes ma'am, I'm sure it was. I was okay, but I still hurt myself a little. I found John's Journal down there. In it, we found a picture of an airplane that was colored gold. Do you know anything about it?" Ms. Allison told us, "I remember John. He was a very smart, very polite young man. He was always drawing on something. He was very creative. He brought me a picture that he drew. It was a dinosaur, a dragon and a truck that was all the same thing. I think I still have that picture somewhere." We showed her the journal. She said, "This is John's Journal alright. He carried it with him every day just to keep track of his ideas and drawings. His family moved when he was in the 10th grade. They went to Carlsbad, New Mexico. His dad took a job as a Park Ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We heard years later that John died in a plane crash, but has never been found." I said, "That might be what we're looking for." I told her about the treasure book. She said, "His parents were John, Sr. and Emma Hatch. So, John, the pilot, was actually John, Jr. Last I knew, his mom and dad still lived in Carlsbad." I said, "Looks like we're headed to New Mexico. Thank you, Ms. Allison, for all your help." Ms. Allison said, "You are a very polite young man. You remind me of John. Well, good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for."

We thanked the librarian, and left to pack up. Same thing I said last time. We found something interesting, but the search continues for The Golden Wing.

The Meteor and a Boy in a Batman Suit

After we drove to Abernathy, we found a nice little place to pitch our tent and set up camp for the night. Early the next morning, a kid ran by wearing a Batman costume. He stopped and said, "I'm just on my way to get gas for my bat car." I said, "Your...your bat car?" He said, "Do you have a bat car, too?" I said,"No, we don't have a bat car." The boy said, "Why don't you?" I said, "There's no such thing as a bat car." "I have a bat car and it's little and it's blue," the boy said. I said, "Well, I'm here to search for a treasure. Do you want to come?" "No thanks," he said. Then I said, "Why not? It's full of adventure." He said, "But, I've got bad guys to fight, so I better get that gas now." And that was the last I saw of the boy in the Batman suit.

Dad cooked us breakfast over the campfire and then we were off to look around and see what we could find. Mom and I drove north of the town. When we got five miles north, we went east a little bit and then I saw a hole in the ground. I said, "Stop the truck! I see a hole." Mom stopped the truck and we ran to this spot where something had obviously crashed there a while back. "Mom, do you think this is the spot where the Golden Wing crashed?" She said, "It sure looks like it. Let's see if we can find any pieces of the plane." I hadn't been looking for too long when I found something. "Mom, come look at this. I found a strange looking rock." Mom ran over to me. She looked at it and said, "I don't think this is a rock. I think this is a piece of a meteor." "Oh," I said. "That would explain this big hole in the ground." Mom suggested we go back to town and see if we could find someone that might know something about it.

We got back to the tent and showed dad. He said, "I bet someone at the courthouse can give us some information." So, we went to the courthouse and a nice lady told us to go talk to the librarian. The librarian found us a newspaper article that told the story of when a meteor landed there in 1882. It said that one night some Quakers were going home from church and saw a bright flash in the sky. But, they never found anything. About a year later, a cowboy found a huge meteor, broken in two pieces, about a foot from the hole. So, it must have hit and then bounced. No one moved it until 1892, when Mr. R.A. McWhorter moved to the area and moved it by wagon to his dugout. He used it for a washstand. Mom said that is a place where they put water, soap and a towel so you could wash your hands and face before you went in the house. A few years later, Mr. McWhorter sent a little piece of it to a museum in Washington to see if they would buy it from him. They wrote him a letter and told him to wrap the meteor in two sacks and write "iron ore" on the sack. They sent him $500 for it! A friend of his went to the museum a few years later and there was the meteor with Mr. McWhorter's name on it.

So, we didn't find the Golden Wing yet, but we did read a really interesting story about a meteor. The search continues.

Clue #1 - Go to a state

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Roy Parks, the Archaeologist Kid, from Oklahoma. After I snuck out I realized I can't do this by myself and asked mom and dad for help. The book gave me a clue of how to find the Golden Wing. It said I have to go to the land that became a state on December 29, 1845. I asked mom and she said, "I don't know, but we can look it up on the computer." So we did. And it said the state was Texas. And then I gasped. That state has snakes in it. Also, the book said I have to go to a cave on the West side of the state. I looked on the map and it's on the left side of Texas. But how do I know what town to go to? So I looked in the book, but it still didn't say the town. It did say the town that was formed in 1909 by moving ten buildings from another town by tractor. Hmmm. That's interesting! Since my MaMaw is from Texas, I decided to call and ask her. She had to look her big book about Texas. She said it was Abernathy, Texas. We only had two weeks until the book was due back at the library, so we had to get goin'. To be continued....

The Search for the Golden Wing

Last week me and mom went to the Library and I found an amazing book that had a treasure on the front. So, I looked at it and I found a page that was colored in and it was a big airplane that had a golden wing. I wondered where it crashed at. It was already in the ground in the picture. But, every time someone looked for it, one of the traps always got them. So, on the way, there were lots of skulls, 'cause they got caught by the traps. I told mom, "I'm ready to go home to find the treasure." And then, she said, "Don't!" She was afraid I would be caught by a trap. I read a few more books, and then, I was ready to go home. When we got home, I snuck into my room, got my favorite archaeologist stuff, including my whip and hat. Off I went on the greatest adventure, like the book said.