Mysterious Stone Chambers: Did Freemasons Or Ancient Irish Build Them?

As you can see, the opening is not too big. You know, seriously, this is a crazy, weird chamber, and it is in the middle of nowhere. These things are big. They're approximately 30 inches wide and at least 3 feet long. What in the hell is this? This is crazy. The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong. My name is Scott Wolter, and I'm a forensic geologist. There's a hidden history that nobody knows about. There are pyramids, chambers, tombs, inscriptions. They're all over the world. We're going to investigate these artifacts and sites, and we're going to get to the truth. Sometimes history isn't what we've been told. Scott, my buddy Chad and I discovered something weird in the woods near our homes in western Pennsylvania. It's a hidden stone chamber built into the side of a hill. Looks like somebody went to quite a bit of trouble to build it and to block it off. Once we crawled into the small entrance, we walked for several feet until the entry opened up to a bigger space. There we found a natural stream running into a basin on the ground. Like I said, it's really strange, and I can't imagine what it was used for. It doesn't seem to fit. It seems old, too. We know you investigate unusual places, and we thought you should know about this one. I've attached some pictures and also shot some video. If you've got any questions or want to come see it yourself, call me. Hello? Ryan, this is Scott Wolter. I just got your e-mail, and those pictures of the chamber are amazing. You must be Scott. Hey, guys. Chad? Chad Snyder. Nice to meet you, sir. Ryan? Nice to meet you, Scott. I'm anxious to hear more about this interesting chamber, this strange site you found. We have no idea what this underground chamber could be. We kind of figured you were probably the man to talk to. We've heard that you spend your life cruising around looking for intriguing sites, and I think that's what we've come across. I tell you what, as I look around here, what a beautiful area, but it's awful remote. How did you guys find this site? We were small game hunting, and we ended up coming across the entrance to this chamber. It was kind of half hidden, but it was exposed enough that you could see. It was definitely a void. Wow. That must have been pretty surprising, huh? It was. Not as surprising as climbing back in there. Well, I saw some of the pictures that you sent, and it looks really intriguing. We actually took some more pictures for you. Oh, yeah. I wanted to see what you thought of these. Is this as you're coming in the entrance here? This is coming in the passageway on the way in, which is about 24 inches wide. This is the first thing you come into before you get into the chamber. This is where the spring comes out of the hillside, Scott. Okay. It snakes around and falls into that basin. So it sort of curves a little here. Is the water flowing constantly? Yes, it is. Okay, so it is a natural spring. There are certain people who have a reverence for ritual bathing. Many religious groups and secret societies have rituals involving sites like this. Christians practice ritual bathing. It's baptism. Jewish people also practice it, cleansing impurities from their bodies and souls in baths called mikvahs. Secret societies like the Knights Templar and the Freemasons would use ritual bathing as part of spiritual ceremonies, and that means they could have a connection to this chamber. You mentioned that you also took some video. Were you able to get some? Yes. All right, so this is the entrance here? Yes, this is the hallway that heads back to the main chamber part. It's a good probably 20, 24 feet back in there before you hit the actual face of the basin, and the basin represents the beginning of the chamber. It's big. It's not small. No, there's plenty of room to be comfortable in there. I mean, those stones are huge. Well, I tell you what, the stonework here is absolutely beautiful. I mean, whoever did this was very skilled. That's why we wanted you to see this and get your opinion on it because it's just, we've never seen anything like that in construction. Does anybody have any idea what this could be? Are there any local legends or anything like that? We've heard everything from it could have been tied into the Underground Railroad to bootleggers could have used it. We have no idea. Okay. We also thought it might be a root cellar, but with the water coming in, it doesn't seem to make any sense. You know, there are over 800 stone sites in the northeast part of North America. These sites stretch from Maine to Virginia, and people have reported finding them since colonial times. That suggests at least some of them were here even before Christopher Columbus, and Native Americans weren't known to build structures like this. I've never seen anything that looks like this. I mean, the stonework is such a high level. It's very meticulous. The workmanship is really excellent, and whoever did this had a purpose, and they spent a lot of time. Well, Scott, how would you carve something like that? It'd take forever, wouldn't it? Well, actually, it depends on the rock type. Now, this looks like sandstone, and the chamber is relatively nearby, right? It is. If you guys are interested, I did bring my tools along. I could show you how they do this. I'd absolutely love to see it. Lead the way, guys. Well, we're looking for sandstone. Well, that rock is good. This one here is excellent. You know those lintel stones on the entrance? Right. These slabs here would be perfect for that. I'm going to see if I can split off a piece of the rock, and what I'm going to do is follow the natural fracturing or parting planes in the rock. And this would have been basically the same tool kit that was used back a thousand years ago. Pretty tough, isn't it? All right, guys. There you go. Work the edges, you know, to get a nice clean edge. This piece here could have been used right in that wall. You can see that there's a lot of work that goes into this. Now, whoever made this chamber put a lot of time. This wasn't days. This was weeks or months, probably at least two or three stonemasons working on this. And I tell you what. I'm dying to take a look at it, so what do you say we head out? We'd love to be able to take you up there, but we've been informed the landowner does not want you on their property. Me specifically? Yes. Really? What the hell is that? They allow public hunting, but they didn't want to give permission to you. You know, this kind of ----'s happened to me before. And the fact that they won't let me on means either they're hiding something or they're afraid to know what the truth is. And, you know, it's really disappointing. God damn it. You know, places like this, they need to be studied, not hidden away. And I'll tell you what. If I can't do it, would you mind going back in there and doing some work? No. I'll tell you exactly what I need to know so that I can get to the bottom of this thing, so I can tell you who built it, when they built it, and why. There are 800 mysterious stone sites throughout the Northeast, but the one I'm investigating in Pennsylvania is one of the most meticulously crafted ones I've ever seen. The masonry suggests it was built by expert stonemasons. And the ritual bath basin tells me this chamber had a mystical, spiritual purpose. I have a hunch there's something unique that connects all the chambers in the Northeast. One way or another, I'm going to get what I need to figure out if I'm right. We'd love to take you there, but there's a problem with the landowner over there. They allow public hunting, but they didn't want to give permission to you. Me specifically? Yes. Really? Well, this is more bullshit. You know, I've been through this crap before, and you go in. And once I get that information, I'll tell you who built this thing, when they built it, and why. All right. Ready to roll, huh? Yes, sir. Well, this might not be the type of hunting that you expected, but this is really going to be important stuff you're going to do here. I need for you to go in and get some really precise dimensions. This is really important. This is a Brunton compass. It's a very special kind of compass used by geologists. The most critical measurement right now for me is going to be the orientation. In other words, the long axis of the entrance. See that little bubble right there? You want to get that in the middle right down that number. So that's the number I need. That's your orientation. That's an important number. That's a very important number. The other thing I need is I want the angle of the hill where the chamber is. If my hunch is right and the measurements that Chad is getting line up, I'll be able to see if this water basin feature was used for some sort of ritual on a specific day of the year and if this site is connected to hundreds of other stone sites in the U.S. and even around the world. You know what my thinking is here? This could potentially be a really important pre-Columbian site. That ritual bathing aspect of that basin really intrigues me. The other possibility, to be quite honest with you, is it may be modern, but the only people that could possibly be associated with something like that in my opinion, and that's some sect of Freemasons. Probably in the late 1700s. Freemasonry is a fraternal invite-only society that many people believe evolved from the Knights Templar after the church abolished the order. The two groups share the same symbols, like the Cross of Lorraine and the Hooked X. They also share ideologies like dualism, a belief that unions like male and female and heaven and earth have spiritual importance. It's up to you next, pal. All right. And here's your Brunton. Don't lose this. Brunton compass, check. It doesn't look cheap. All right. Tape measure? Tape measure, check. Good luck, Chad. Scott, I sure wish you could, you know, see this thing. It's really disappointing. I've had things like this happen before, and, you know, we had a situation down in Georgia where I wanted to go visit this site that was on federal land, and they wouldn't let me in. But you know what, Ryan? We actually used a plane, and we're able to use LiDAR technology to get the information we needed. This is just another way to get the information that we have to have to figure out what's going on here. I just don't understand why people don't want to know the truth. Well, there's a lot of reasons why people feel that way. Some people just want to maintain the status quo. Some people are protecting things. The key thing that really intrigues me about this chamber is this basin. Why would they want to build up this water, this spring water, coming out of Mother Earth, and what were they doing with it? To me, the only thing I can think of is some type of ritual bathing. And if that's going on, that absolutely points to specific groups throughout history. Hey, Chad. Hey, guys. How are you? How'd it go? It went great. So do you have the notebook? I got your measurements for you, bud. All right. Here you go. This is the magic number right here, 300 degrees. That's perfect. That's absolutely perfect. Do you know why? Have you guys ever heard of archaeoastronomy? No. Okay, well, archaeoastronomy is something that ancient cultures have been doing for thousands of years. Basically, what they would do is align the structures that they built to align in various ways to capture either the light of the sun, the moon, or the planet Venus. It was very sacred to these ancient cultures, and this use of archaeoastronomy has gone all the way through time into modern Freemasonry. I didn't want to say it before because I wanted to wait and see the numbers, but this 300 degrees is going to be about 30 degrees north of west when the sun sets on the summer solstice. And if I'm right, that long entrance into the chamber will allow the setting sun on the solstice, the summer solstice, to come all the way through into that chamber. We have to find out if that light does come through that chamber because it's critical. So what we need to do is I have to replicate and have somebody build a chamber using your dimensions. And these numbers look really good. I think you got everything, didn't you? I got everything you asked for. We are in great shape. I wish I could have done it myself. I wish you could have, too. More than one way to skin a cat, and we're going to skin it. There's a mysterious stone chamber built into the side of a hill in western Pennsylvania. There's one feature that strikes me, a basin that could be used for some sort of bathing ritual, but the owners refuse to let me see it. I believe it could be part of a network of 800 stone sites across the U.S., some off-limits to the public. I sent someone else in to get measurements to test a theory I have. I think the chamber might light up on the summer solstice, evidence of some group's advanced understanding of archaeoastronomy and the movement of the sun across the sky. If I'm right, the secret chamber could connect us to other early civilizations, and I've got a plan to test my theory. Hey, Carrie, this is Scott Walter. I just found out about a mysterious underground stone chamber in Pennsylvania, and I'm wondering if you could help me out by building a model. I wasn't able to go in there and look at it myself, but I do have pictures, I've got some video, and I have dimensions that were sketched out. I also think that there might be a solar illumination going on inside there, and that's why your model will really come in handy. If we can prove that, we've really got something. So are you up to the task? Yes, definitely. While Carrie gets to work on the model of the Pennsylvania chamber, I'm going to check out one of the other 800 mysterious stone sites in the Northeast, looking for connections. Unlike the stone chamber in Pennsylvania, the owner of this site isn't denying me access. Hey. Scott, how you doing? Good, Steve. So I'm really excited to take a look at this site today. Well, there's about 800 different mysterious sites in New England, and this is one of the finest examples with stone walls and standing stones and megalithic chambers. I was here a couple years ago. Unfortunately, it was pouring, and we got chased out by the weather, and so I was really anxious to come back. Okay, great. Let's get started. Okay. Gungewamp is a site with 21 stone structures, some dating back to 2000 B.C., long before the first colonists were here. Some of the structures align with the sun on important days of the year, but no one knows who built them. Well, who do you think was here? Very possibly early Irish sailors, later Irish Vikings. They all knew about the area. Okay, so you're saying that this secret land was known within certain groups, and over time, different groups came over here, just one after the other. Exactly. Within a larger group, there's always a certain amount of people that were the initiate, and these are the people that kind of passed the knowledge from one group to another. The calendar chamber is just ahead. Gungewamp is well-known for its calendar chamber. It's a working calendar, like similar structures found all over the world. Whether they're temples, standing stones, or chambers, these calendars were used by ancient people to track important astronomical days of the year. This is it. This is the calendar chamber. They call it that because twice a year, it measures the equinox, once in the spring and once in the fall. You can see way in the back there, there's a hole emitting light, and this light box reflects onto a wall down here. So the light would come in here on the equinox in the fall and the spring, which would be an important time to document planting in the spring, harvest in the fall. So certainly that would be important, if not sacred. How big is this thing? The chamber is about 18 feet long, about 5 1⁄2 feet high. Once you crawl through there, you can actually sit up. Let's take a look. That light probably comes in and hits this wall right here. So there's something going on in here. Boy, that's a big stone there. And that's probably about 3 1⁄2, 4 feet. You could easily sit in there. Let's come out of here. Have you ever seen this alignment here? I haven't seen the alignment. You have to be here for the equinox to see that. I tell you what. Do you think we could recreate it? All we need is a flashlight. I think we could do it. What I think might happen in the chamber is the sun's light will shine through the opening directly into the niche. Ancient alignments were about marking things like the planting season but were also spiritual in nature. Maybe the collection of the sun in this niche is symbolic of fertilization, meant to usher in a prosperous growing season. So we need to set up an east-west line for our equinox line. Boy, that's east-west right on. I think this is a good line right here. I think you're going to have to hold it up and angle it down there. If you stay lined up with those lines and keep it low, I think it should be good right about there. Give it the okay in just a sec. Okay. If the beam of light at a precise angle hits some sort of stone chamber marker, then we know it was probably built with some calendar purpose. All right, Steve, go ahead and turn it on. Here it goes. Oh, holy s***. Look at that. It works, Scott. It works. We definitely have the east-west equinox alignment. No question about it. We know it's certainly a calendar chamber. My number one suspect is that the Irish built it. The Irish have been building monuments from 3500 B.C. The greatest one is still in Ireland, Newgrange. Newgrange features one of the greatest solar illuminations and examples of archaeoastronomy in the world. The white quartz structure has a lightbox over a strategically placed doorway. When the sun shines through the lightbox on December 21st, the winter solstice, it casts a beam of light 90 feet into the structure, illuminating the chamber. So you think those people may have come over here and built this? I definitely do. I definitely think there's an unbroken stream of knowledge that was passed down from 3500 B.C. all the way to say the Irish monks that came over around 500, 600, 700 A.D. I've heard of the legend of the famous Irish monk St. Brendan the Navigator. The story goes that he sailed to the Island of the Blessed, what some people think is America in the 6th century. Well, I tell you what, if there is an Irish connection that dates back that far, here. This is huge. I'm not convinced the Pennsylvania and the Gungiwam Chambers were built by the same people. I need to do more research. Since the early Irish are candidates for construction, I need to learn more about two things, St. Brendan and Newgrange. Learning more about both will help me determine whether America's mysterious stone sites in the Northeast are connected to each other, to the Irish, or to someone else. I also need to see the Pennsylvania Chamber model my friend Carrie is making. What matters about this model isn't the size, it's what the angles reveal. And thanks to Chad, I have those exact measurements. It will help me figure out if the secret room does indeed have a summer solstice illumination, and a connection to archaeoastronomy, like some of these other chamber sites. My theory is coming together. I think these sites are connected. I think I know who might have built them, and even how they did it. I still can't explain the ritual basin in the Pennsylvania Chamber, but I know where I might find the answers I need. Ireland. I'm trying to figure out who built what looks like a ritual bath chamber in the middle of the Pennsylvania woods. This site is actually just one of about 800 mysterious stone sites hidden throughout the Northeast. I think there's a solar alignment incorporated into the Pennsylvania Chamber on the summer solstice. And I'm having a model built to prove it. The use of archaeoastronomy would be similar to what I saw in a chamber in Groton, Connecticut, which people like Steve Sora connect to the Irish. The ancient Irish were masters of solar alignments, but they weren't the only ones. If the Irish did come to the New World, and help build a network of stone calendar chambers, there's one man who can tell me how the hell they may have gotten there. Tim. Scott Walter. Tim Severin is an adventure and expert on ancient nautical voyages. I thought, why not recreate the sort of boat at the time using the right materials and just see if it could be done because we were trying to test whether Irish monks had actually been able to get to North America. We have hundreds of stone sites in the Northeast part of North America that many people believe were built by the Irish. Could this St. Brendan and the legend of him be somehow connected to those chambers? There was this notion grew up that St. Brendan and his monks had visited the blessed land in the West. I thought, let's put this to a practical test and see if the voyage could have been made. Build a boat to the specifications set out. More than three decades ago, Tim Severin sailed from Ireland to the New World the way people would have done it in the 6th century. St. Brendan's story got written down in a Latin text called the Navigatio, the voyage of St. Brendan. It really talks about a voyage or voyages taking part in the 500s. He's the hero figure and the patron saint of navigators. You know, Tim, in my research into these mysterious artifacts and sites, one of the things I hear all the time from the skeptics is, well, they couldn't have got here. There's a stepping stone route. Start from the west coast of Ireland, islands of Scotland, Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and you land in Newfoundland. These people, they weren't stupid. They were as clever and as innovative as yourself or myself. The boats can make it, they don't fall apart. That is what we conclusively showed. I thought you might like to see what the conditions were like. This gives you some idea how unstable the boat was. It's just rocking back and forth. All the water that's flying in the whole time. These ropes, what are the ropes doing? They are acting as brakes because when you're in very bad weather, you have to just run downwind and if you're at the same speed as a wave, it'll pitchpole you. It'll make a somersault. So at the end of the day, you made it. We did. And what this tells me is that the early Irish could also have made it. Absolutely no doubt that they had the technical ability to get there. They had the sea skills and they had the technical skills in that they built boats fully capable of that journey. Tim Severin's leather boat isn't proof St. Brendan and his crew made it to America, but it's evidence that they could have. And if they made it, the Irish could be responsible for the stone chambers I'm investigating. I'm hoping there are more clues at the ancient stone site called Newgrange. Newgrange is a lot bigger than the single stone chamber in Pennsylvania or the structures at Gungewon. But one thing all three places have in common, unique construction to showcase important days of the year. I'm meeting up with Alan Butler, an old friend and colleague of mine. Well, stranger. How are you doing, mate? Good to see you, Alan. Trying to get to the bottom of who built these 800 mysterious stone sites in the northeast part of North America. And I think there's a possibility the Irish could be involved, so that's why I'm here at Newgrange. This place dates back to 3,200 BC, which is nearly a thousand years before the pyramids. What do you think was its purpose? Why did they build Newgrange? Well, it's actually called a passage grave or a passage tomb by archaeologists, but I don't really think to call it a tomb of any kind does it justice. I think it would be more likely termed a temple. So, Alan, who built Newgrange? Oh, it's quite naturally accepted that this place was built by ordinary Irish farmers, very clever ones, but that's what they were back in the late Stone Age. So, is there anybody who thinks that this could be connected to the legend of St. Brendan the Navigator? Well, there's a big gap in time between the 6th century A.D. and 3,200 B.C., so at first sight, no, but yet there is a connection because Brendan is famous for his oceanic and sea navigation. The people who built this place back in the New Stone Age were great sailors as well. All the rocks we see around here, big as some of them are, were brought here by water. Look at those spirals. I've seen those before, both in Arizona and Georgia. I saw spirals exactly like that carved on rock and one of them was in fact a mound that was shaped like a spiral and we know that they did it at those sites incorporating archaeoastronomy. There's got to be a connection here as well. Whoever made them had a really good understanding of geometry. Most experts are pretty sure that spirals have something to do with their comprehension of the passage of time. We know now that they measured it by the moving planets and stars, so it amounts to the same thing. The passage of time, mathematics, and all of this is all tied together. The early Irish people's understanding of the universe as demonstrated by these spirals is important. It's what could connect this sacred place to Gungiwamp, to the Pennsylvania Chamber, and to other forbidden stone sites in the United States. And the illumination that takes place here on an important day of the year, the winter solstice, fascinates not just me, but tens of thousands of people. It's of such massive interest that at least 35,000 people each year would like to view it, so they have a lottery and the 100 winning people get to see it. So only 100 out of 35,000? I'm afraid so. After walking through the site with Alan, I learned that on the winter solstice, the rising sun enters a lightbox over a doorway at Newgrange. Its beam of light runs down a passage and eventually illuminates the floor of the chamber. This solstice event is incredibly precise. Today, the light enters at 4 minutes after sunrise. 5,000 years ago, the light would have entered exactly at sunrise. It's the same kind of archaeoastronomy I think might be in play in Pennsylvania. I didn't see it myself, but there's a chamber in Pennsylvania that some friends of mine have documented all the dimensions, all the parameters of it in detail, and I'm going to recreate that chamber. The way it's oriented, it looks like to me we may have a similar event that happens there on the summer solstice as the sun sets in the west. I'm wondering if there could be a connection between this tradition of building these chambers, these ancient sacred sites, with the people that built this mysterious chamber in Pennsylvania. I came to Ireland to find out if Irish monks could have built some of the 800 mysterious stone sites in the northeastern corner of the United States. After seeing Tim Severin's boat and learning about the illumination at Newgrange, I have no doubt the early Irish could have made it to America and brought their knowledge of archaeoastronomy with them and perhaps could be responsible for the chamber I'm investigating in Pennsylvania or some of the other mysterious stone sites dotting the northeast. Carrie's done with the Pennsylvania chamber model. I think it's going to get me one step closer to figuring out who built that site in the woods and if one or more than one ancient culture with an advanced understanding of the sun and stars are responsible for America's network of mysterious stone chamber sites. What do you think? Based on the pictures that I've seen and the dimensions, everything looks great. This is amazing. Well I just got back from Newgrange in Ireland and it was fantastic. This illumination event on the solstice and of course that makes me frustrated all over again that I wasn't allowed to go on the property to see the underground chamber in Pennsylvania but since hunting is allowed, our friend Chad told us about the underground chamber. He went back, got the dimensions and all the data for us, how'd that work out for you? Yeah, it worked great. This gives you a good idea of a cross section of the hill and what that looks like. Yes, it's beautiful. Look at that. And then I also built this piece so it comes off so you can get a little bit more of the upper structure. I took your photos and the specs you gave me and kind of pieced it all together. Based on the pictures that I've seen and the dimensions, everything looks great. How long did this take you? Probably took like a week. It looks beautiful. There's over 800 mysterious stone sites in the northeast part of the country. Many people believe that these things might be connected and I'm investigating whether they could be connected, who built them, and of course why. And a lot of people are thinking that the Irish could be involved in these and the Irish do make sense in places like Gungewon. This doesn't seem to be Irish to me. Because of the involvement of the water, I think maybe the Knights Templar would build something like this. They were into ritual bathing. Or it could be somebody more modern. Somebody like a secret society, maybe a Freemason group that was into this ritual bathing type of thing. You know, the water's the wild card with a chamber like this. Well, speaking of the water, check this out. Look at that. The water's coming down and it's flowing into the basin. That's going to fill up and it's going to overflow. Chad said it just flows into the ground and then comes out in a ravine farther down the hill. I tell you what, I'm impressed. Well, Carrie, this looks great, but there's one more piece. We need to see if the light comes through into the chamber and goes back there, because I think it just might. What we are going to do is position the light so it exactly matches where the sun would be in the sky outside the chamber on the summer solstice. Then, we're going to move the light to replicate the sun's movement across the sky to see if it illuminates the spring. The sun's position is well documented thanks to Chad's precise measurements. I know it lines up with the chamber. All right. So, okay, stop right there. There's a beam of light right here. So, keep going. Keep going and set it into place so it's moving along the back wall here. Based on Chad's measurements, like the 300-degree orientation he found, it's exactly what I expected. It goes all the way to the back. And it goes back. That's where the water comes out of the crack in the ground, the spring. The light goes all the way back there. That's incredible. To me, what's going on in the chamber is a clear example of dualism. And that's the biggest clue to who may have built this particular chamber. It's a concept embraced by both the Knights Templar and the Freemasons to represent the spiritual and physical importance of the union of opposites. Male-female, good-evil, heaven and earth. In this case, we have the sunbeam, an ancient allegorical symbol of the fertilization by the male. It pierces Mother Earth, the crevice in the earth where the spring flows from. Together, this union of the sun and earth produces something beautiful and sacred to the ancient architects of this chamber. Knowing the type of masonry used to build it, and figuring in the ritual bathing components, I have to think the Freemasons were involved in this chamber, which probably dates back to colonial times. Even though we weren't inside the Pennsylvania Chamber on the summer solstice, it doesn't matter. With your model here and this demonstration, we've proven what happens on that day. I told Chad and Ryan that I believe the model worked, and I told them to go back to the chamber on the summer solstice and to document what they saw. Just like our model, the sun's light goes deep into the chamber, illuminating the exact spot where the water enters. There are 800 mysterious stone sites in the northeast. Early Irish may have built some of them, and we know they could have made it here long before Columbus. As for the secret site hidden in the Pennsylvania hillside, I believe Freemasons deserve credit for that, because of the style of masonry and incorporation of dualism into its design. Archeoastronomy ties many cultures together throughout history. People like the Mayans, the Celts, the Irish, the Templars, and the Freemasons all have mysteries of their own, which I'm just now starting to unravel.