I was pretty sure it was an "urban" legend, and have passed it along
myself as such.  I can remember being told, quite seriously, about signs
for either marijuana cultivation or an active moonshine still (working
in the southeast, though I understand stills are not unknown in the
west), and to abandon the survey area, in greatest haste, if these signs
were present.  Then, this was followed with:  "You see, out in
Oregon/Washington/northern California a few years ago, these two techs
were.........., and, then they threw both bodies into the river."  "The
river" almost always closes the story, giving some consistency to the
folktale.

I've seen site files describing moonshine stills, and remember one in a
national forest, near Columbia, S.C., marked on the surface by a big,
steel tank, either one tank in several pieces, or the flattened remains
of 2/3 tanks.  The still in question had been dynamited (the tanks were
ruptured, with the steel bent outward) by revenue agents in the 1950s;
will stand corrected on the dates, particulars of this site.  Yeah, give
it 50 years, perhaps less, and we'll be reporting marijuana farms, pot
drops, and meth labs as sites.  They do fit all the criteria, and will
probably be one of the few remains of such clandestine activities.

D. Babson.


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ron
May
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 11:50 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Hail of Gunfire!


D.B,

Dunno about the myth of the dead technicians, but wire booby-traps are
very real and have been found here in the Cleveland National Forest. I
once heard a myth that marijuana farmers planted crops down old logging
roads because the mature old growth forest protected detection from
overhead helicopters. I personally have come across drug drop sites
littered with plastic sheet ripped off tons of pot or coke by the
recipients, which for all the world looked like the kind of site an
archaeology survey would record if it were fifty years old. Perhaps the
most intriguing tale is of the house shells allegedly built by drug
manufacturers to camoflauge their chemistry labs, in which the entire
house is an empty shell on bare earth once you walk inside the doors.
But really, these tales are blown out of proportion because they occur
once a year or so and over the course of my 24-year career I have a
handful of tales to share.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.