Ted the Caver- Have you heard?

reply to post by forsakenwayfarer




Just in case no one else caught it: The address used, 1313 Mockingbird Lane, is the address used by the MUNSTERS tv show!! It is a common JOKE address. It is like seeing this on an envelope as a return address: Dewey, Cheatem and Howe..which was an old Three Stooges joke line.

Obviously the person did not want his real address used, there is NO such address anywhere in this nation such as 1313 Mockingbird Lane, except at Herman Munsters house!!

www.nps.gov...

I googled Dewalt's Dig, and got this. Also mentions Floyd's Tomb. Interstate cave is pretty close to Freway cave.

There may be an element of truth to it. A cave under a freeway would lend to scraping rock noises and screaming noises and strange gusts of wind. Probably a creative elaboration based on exagerated perceptions of a real experience.

If it was real, you can be sure these guys went down and had a rather anti-climactic experience to the whole ordeal. (oh look, here is my camera. Hey, this is all perfectly reasonable.)

Seeing what a wonderful little tale was spun out of unreasoning paranoia, I wouldn't spoil it by posting any sort of buzzkill "we were idiots" follow-up.

Nice work dude. Makes me want to go there and see the hole they chipped away and spent so many hours excavating, only to find a "virgin" passage that had already been surveyed, haha.


Also, is this the Interstate Cave in Utah? If not, what state is it in?


-Ans-

[edit on 23-10-2007 by RustingAngel]

I believe it is. The map was a part of the Timpanogos Cave state park site, but I can find no direct link to the park from that end..yet.

Here is the park site

Interesting to note that it seems this particular cave was not surveyed until 2002.

Well, actually between January 2001 and Feb 2002, puting the events of the story right in the center of all of this.

I would wager the crafter of this tale lies somewhere within the names at the bottom, alive and well? Bud Snedecor ('B' Perhaps?) runs a bed and breakfast near the site, and seems to do a lot of Caving support activities.

Might be interesting to see if the picture on the site of 'B' matches Mr Snedecor.

The first rule of creative fiction is 'Write what you know'

[edit on 23-10-2007 by Tristanus]

Starts to make more sense. Makes sense that someone who was running a bed and breakfast would conjure up a story like this to prod the curiosity of people, like myself, to want and come see this strange, mystical cave and try and solve the open ended mystery the writer(s) left hanging. Even though they didn't make a direct name known, calling that specific part of the cave Floyd's Tomb, then that name also shows up on the newly surveyed map of the cave...it makes sense that the author knew people would investigate and figure it out soon enough, and he also probably took into account people's nosey nature, so saying "I'm not telling ANYONE the name of the this cave, EVER.", just heightens the curiosity and the desire to find the "Mystery". It's all coming together now.

It's also curious to look at the names of some of the other features in that particular part of the cave, "Dewalt's Dig", and "Gypsum Passage", possibly Ted's last name was Dewalt? Since he helped excavate that area, B gave him credit in the naming of the area? "Gypsum Passage", possibly that's referring to the crystals he saw once he exited "The Squeeze"? There are a couple of names which start with a J on that list as well, which could very well be "Joe". Interesting!


-Ans-

[edit on 24-10-2007 by RustingAngel]

One might think that, but Dewalt is a name of a popular brand of drill. Much, I assume, like the one used in the story.

Originally posted by Tristanus
One might think that, but Dewalt is a name of a popular brand of drill. Much, I assume, like the one used in the story.

That too. HAHA. I didn't even think of that angle, very nice!

-Ans-

Seeing as there are you guys as recent posts, I will add my words. I tried to finish the story (in my curiosity) and non eof the links are working anymore. The only thing I kept getting was (Not direct qotes) 'nobody wants to believe that Ted is alive. End of story'

Does anyone have a recent link to the "ending"? It is a very captivating story if nothing else. And, like you said, it would be a very good advertising style. I can't help but wonder "what if" though. Being a partially caving hobbyist, I have been to those areas of caves that you may have absolutely no idea of what is going on around you, or what is just outside of your light. Not to take from the story at hand, but I have experienced some of the "things" that disappear when the light hits. It simply confuses you.

Anyway, hope to hear back from someone and glad to see that the thread has lasted long enough to see if I may get some answers.

-Eagle

Here's the new link.

www.tedthecaver.com...

Thank you. Very good story. You can just see a movie ending with this upscreen shot of the guys rapeling down into the mouth of the cave. As it follows him down just fading to black and credits. This person was (or is) a great writer.

Again, Thank you for the link.

Eagle

reply to post by wings_of_an_eagle


Hint.....try looking into the original writers of the movie `The Descent`
put it this way ...Neil Marshall is creditted with writing it ...but he didnt.

snoopyuk

Good story, but it's not UFO related afaic, more supernatural Blair Witch type thing.

So I did a quick search of this thing before I invested any time in it and I ended up with a forum in Snopes that seems to sum it up as a hoax:
[url=http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=91;t=000886;p=1[/url]
From which I quote:

The story is originally by a very cool short story writer named Thomas Lera. Unfortunately, the only internet copy of it known to me (an old PDF file) is now gone, and I never had the chance to read it. I'm told it was formatted differently in the story itself, and someone happened to like it and did a rough copy of it online, and made it fit the fact that it was on a website.

Bummer, cuz I love a great yarn...

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck



ok here is the original story :

web.archive.org...

this is the guy who originally came up with the plot for movie `the descent `


[edit on 3-12-2007 by snoopyuk]

Originally posted by Lysergic
I don't buy it.

Hi,
please review the T&C and try to keep your post to longer than one line. We find that one line posts are not beneficial to the thread.
Thank you
My opinion.

Sorry to dig this up at such a late date; I read the Ted story a few years ago on the 'net, but hadn't seen this thread until I linked from the Untersburg thread.

I saw the addresses posted for the guy who supposedly wrote this - yeah, the one is fake, but the Canyon Country address is literally within 5 miles of my house. Very strange. Does anyone need any more information about the story? I could drop a note into their postbox.

What confuses me is how Ted the caver got in this forum? It is a cryptozoology case if ever there was one. Why is it here in the Aliens and UFOs forum?

that site no longer hosts that story.
if someone has the story online please post a link to it.
thanks.

reply to post by grey580


Here you go Link
This is a classic urban legend a must read for anyone that enjoys a good story!

reply to post by NephraTari


The original story was written by Thomas Lera - here's a link to the story. It's definitely the same story, just the names changed.

web.archive.org...