The Amazing Stonehenge Disapearance.

i found this article:
The mysterious standing stones of Stonehenge in England was the site of an amazing disappearance in August, 1971. At this time Stonehenge was not yet protected from the public, and on this particular night, a group of "hippies" decided to pitch tents in the center of the circle and spend the night. They built a campfire, lit several joints of pot and sat around smoking and signing. Their campout was abruptly interrupted at about 2 a.m. by a severe thunder storm that quickly blew in over Salisbury Plain. Bright bolts of lightning crashed down on the area, striking area trees and even the standing stones themselves. Two witnesses, a farmer and a policeman, said that the stones of the ancient monument lit up with an eerie blue light that was so intense that they had to avert their eyes. They heard screams from the campers and the two witnesses rushed to the scene expecting to find injured - or even dead - campers. To their surprise, they found no one. All that remained within the circle of stones were several smoldering tent pegs and the drowned remains of a campfire. The hippies themselves were gone without a trace.


my guess is that stonehenge was actually a place where the druids would sacrifice things like sheep and stuff to the gods, and that maybe the hippes sacrificed themselves

or maybe an ancient teleportation device?? what do you all think?

Sounds to me as an urban legend, but what do I know?

Could you provide me with some links to the story?

// k

No one really knows if the stones are even in the correct arrangement now.. It was in the early 1900s I believe that they were 'restored' to the way they are now. I don't believe it is particularly common knowledge, though I remember seeing an old b&w video showing it happening on a documentry once, looking at the history of the stones.

Interesting story though.

sounds like an urban legend but who knows.

Sounds like a B grade plot for a movie.

I would give it 0 out of 10 for vailidity. If a "bunch of hippies" did disappear, there would certinaly be so much furore we would have learned about it well before now.

As you say you found it but didn't link to it, was it something you wrote in a creative writing class?

[edit on 2-9-2004 by Netchicken]

cool, anyone want to try it with me?

I'm up for it!! Only live 30 miles away too.....wonder what will happen if it is true...a strange new world? God? Or extreme pain as we are elctrified and cooked in our body fat before we vaporise into the air....... either way, sounds like fun!

Originally posted by stumason
I'm up for it!! Only live 30 miles away too.....wonder what will happen if it is true...a strange new world? God? Or extreme pain as we are elctrified and cooked in our body fat before we vaporise into the air....... either way, sounds like fun!

indeed!

Originally posted by DanTodd

Originally posted by stumason
I'm up for it!! Only live 30 miles away too.....wonder what will happen if it is true...a strange new world? God? Or extreme pain as we are elctrified and cooked in our body fat before we vaporise into the air....... either way, sounds like fun!

indeed!

sign me up


This whole thing sounds a bit made up...There hasn't even been a small bit of evidence to support this, so I can't even say i'm on the fence

So the final verdict?

If you guys are smoking up in Stonehenge, I'm tagging along...

if they dissapeard how did it majically reappear again?

If you guys are smoking up in Stonehenge, I'm tagging along...

Could be arrnged, but not on ATS.... we get told off, naughty us!!

Count me in , we could throw an OddDanToddoddtodd bangers and mashed festival . Also dig for hippie remains while we're there ...

Sounds like we have a party planned, all we need now is some lightning, and we'll be off to wherever it is those funky chickens flashed off to....


maybe its like a stargate, and the lightning provided the power..... you never know

Most people do not realize that Stonehenge has been "remolded"

FOR decades the official Stonehenge guidebooks have been full of fascinating facts and figures and theories surrounding the world's greatest prehistoric monument.

What the glossy brochures do not mention, however, is the systematic rebuilding of the 4,000 year old stone circle throughout the 20th Century.

A million visitors a year are awe-struck as they look back in time into another age and marvel at the primitive technology and muscle-power which must have been employed transporting the huge monoliths and raising them on Salisbury Plain.

They gasp as they are told about this strangely spiritual site . . . . mankind's first computer, its standing stones and precise lintels, lining up magically and mysteriously with the heavens above and the solstice suns.

But now, as if to head off a potential great archaeological controversy - and following interest displayed by historical researcher Brian Edwards and the Western Daily Press - the brochures will be rewritten, to include the "forgotten years."

The years when teams of navvies sat aboard the greatest cranes in the British Empire to hoist stones upright; drag leaning trilithons into position, replace fallen lintels which once sat atop the huge sarsens.

As Mr Edwards - the erstwhile enfant terrible of British archaeology following his revelations that nearby Avebury was a total 20s and 30s rebuild by marmalade millionaire Alexander Keiller - says:

"What we have been looking at is a 20th Century landscape, which is reminiscent of what Stonehenge MIGHT have been like thousands of years ago.

"It has been created by the heritage industry and is NOT the creation of prehistoric peoples.

"What we saw at the Millennium is less than 50 years old."

In archaeological terms the re-writing of the guidebooks is dynamite.

English Heritage run Stonehenge on behalf of the nation, and an English Heritage insider revealed: "Dark forces were at work in the 70s , when a decision was taken to drop the information about the restorations. Now that is about to change."

Mr Edwards said: "Let's face it, Stonehenge was historically cleansed. And the true history was hidden away.

"There should be no shame about the series of restorations.

That's what happened . . . and is a fascinating part of the Stonehenge story which should be told.

"I think it is absolutely brilliant that the guidebook is going to be re-drawn. It is a remarkable achievement, and I believe the Western Daily Press is central to the rethink."

The first restoration of Stonehenge was launched 100 years ago this year.And, in 1901, as the builders went to work, The Times letters column was full of bucolic missives of complaint.

But the first stage of "restoration" thundered ahead regardless and the style guru of the day, John Ruskin, released the maxim which was to outlive him . . . ."Restoration is a lie, " he stormed.

Nevertheless the Stonehenge makeover was to gather momentum and more work was carried out in 1919, 1920,1958, 1959 and 1964.

Christopher Chippindale, curator at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and author of Stonehenge Complete, admits:

"Nearly all the stones have been moved in some way and are standing in concrete."

The guide book Stonehenge and Neighbouring Monuments, and the audio tour of the Henge omit any comprehensive mention of the rebuilding in the 20th Century.

Only on page 18 is there a slight reference . . . . "A number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re-erected."

But even that official guide book does contain clues to the large scale restoration, which was not deemed worth a full entry.

Why does John Constable's 1835 painting of the Henge on pages 18 and 19 look so vastly different from the latter-day pristine photograph across pages 28 and 29?

Reason: A lot of restoration work had taken place in between the two images being recorded.

And, during long hot summers it would be possible - if one could get near to the stones - to see the turf peeling back to reveal the concrete boots into which the majority of the stones are now set. A dead give-away, but difficult to spot now as proximity to the henge is limited.

During one of the phases of work a Bostonian professor had the temerity to ask a senior member of the restoration team how they knew exactly where to place the fallen stones. He was sent swiftly on his way with a flea in his ear.

But the siting of the restored stones remains a haunting question.

Our pictures clearly show the rebuilding in progress. Some were discovered by Mr Chippindale and were used in a revised edition of his book. Many of those have since been lost.

Others were found by Mr Edwards who unearthed guide books from the time when Stonehenge was not ashamed of its past and featured photographs and stories of the restorations.

But the historic dark ages are over for Stonehenge, said English Heritage's Senior Archaeologist Dave Batchelor, who said the guidebook was to be revised - and he was the person tasked to do it.

"I first became involved with Stonehenge in 1993. The decision not to cover the work in any detail was taken before my time, " he said.

"The work is a very important part of the history of Stonehenge and when people are told about it they are fascinated. The information was dropped in the 1970s, but we are moving to remedy that."

"The news is sensational, " said Mr Edwards a doctorate student at the University of the West of England. "Once I realised how much work had been carried out, I was amazed to discover that practically no-one outside of the henge knew of its reconstruction in the last 100 years. I have always thought that if people are bothering to make a trip to Stonehenge, from home or abroad, then the least they should expect is a true story."

When we visited the site recently hundreds of visitors from all over the world were pouring into Stonehenge. Some 700,000 visit the world heritage site every year. Millions more see it from the adjoining roads.

On the Stonehenge bus returning to Salisbury, laden with international tourists, none of the several questioned had any idea that what they had seen had undergone a complete facelift. They thought it had been standing like that for 4,000 years.

There was another clue to be found in the recently released text book, Seeing History: Public History in Britain Now, which asks:

"And what of the not-so-ancient place Stonehenge? It has not escaped the attentions of the heritage industry: A stone was straightened and set in concrete in 1901, six further stones in 1919 and 1920, three more in 1959 and four in 1964.

"There was also the excavation of the Altar stone and re-erection of the Trilithon in 1958."

Now English Heritage has a "masterplan" to build a tunnel and put the landscape back to 'how it was'.

The author, Mr Edwards, continues: " Such has been the impact on the landscape that the monuments at Avebury and Stonehenge which future generations will inherit are neither the creation of prehistoric peoples nor of the communities who have occupied these lands during history.

"The future will instead inherit something constructed by the heritage industry.

"The instigators of the English heritage landscape were essentially amateurs, working by trial and error.

"Yet their landscape is endorsed and promoted as our collective cultural heritage by the custodians of our past who omit the extent of modern interference and reconstruction from their guides and museum displays."

Elspeth Henderson, spokesperson for English Heritage and Stonehenge, agreed much work had been carried out on the monument which the public was not aware of.

But she said English Heritage had been involved in telling the full story in an academic book, Stonehenge: A Monument In Its Landscape. It was also covered in a more popular publication, Stonehenge - Mysteries of the Stones and Landscape.

"We are fully aware of what is being claimed and you will find it dealt with in the larger books on Stonehenge, " she said. " You are right that quite a lot of people don't know what went on in the 20th Century.

"I don't think we have deliberately sought not to talk about the reconstruction. It depends what you focus on, and we think most people are interested in why it was built and the different elements of its development." ]/i]