The Lizard People of Los Angeles: A Mining Engineer, an X-Ray Machine, and 5,000-Year-Old Tunnels Beneath the City (1934)

The January 1934 Los Angeles Times Story

On January 29, 1934, the Los Angeles Times published a front-page feature beneath the headline: "Lizard People's Catacomb City Hunted." The story described the quest of G. Warren Shufelt, a geophysicist and mining engineer, who claimed he had mapped an elaborate subterranean city beneath downtown Los Angeles using a device of his own invention — a "radio X-ray" machine he described as capable of detecting underground voids and mineral concentrations. The story ran nationally via the Associated Press and was followed as an engineering saga by a Depression-era public hungry for wonder.

The Legend of the Lizard People

Shufelt claimed that in 1933, a Hopi tribesman known as Little Chief Greenleaf had shared with him an ancient legend of a race of people who had built underground cities along the entire length of the West Coast approximately 5,000 years ago, following a catastrophic firestorm that had swept across the American Southwest. These people — referred to in the legend as the "Lizard People" — did not resemble reptiles; the lizard was simply a symbol of longevity in their culture. Using chemical compounds, they had bored a network of at least 285 tunnels through the bedrock beneath what is now the Los Angeles Basin. The tunnels were laid out in the shape of a lizard, with the tail running beneath what is now the Main Library at Fifth and Hope Street, and the head beneath a location near North Broadway. Within these tunnels, according to the legend, the Lizard People stored massive quantities of gold tablets inscribed with their civilization's complete knowledge.

The Radio X-Ray Machine

Shufelt claimed his device — a metal radio attached to a glass cylinder containing a copper wire — could tune to the frequency of any material and locate it underground. He claimed to have detected not just tunnels, but 16 specific deposits of gold and a "Key Room" beneath Fort Moore Hill, where he believed the civilization's 37 gold tablets were stored. He stated he had photographed these tablets using his machine. Despite widespread skepticism from professional engineers and scientists, Shufelt attracted backers and petitioned the City of Los Angeles for permission to dig.

The Dig

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved Shufelt's proposal in early 1934, and he struck an agreement with the county for a 50-50 split of any gold found. The dig began on North Hill Street, overlooking Sunset, Spring, and North Broadway. Dense boulders and groundwater complicated the excavation. Shufelt reached approximately 250 feet. On March 5, 1934, the shafts were filled in and the contract was quietly canceled. No gold, no tunnels, no tablets were found.

Strange Corroboration and Lasting Questions

A curious footnote appeared in September 1934, when a Miss Edith Elden Robinson of Pico Rivera sent a letter to the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research describing a vision she had experienced — independently and, she said, prior to any newspaper coverage — of an ancient submerged civilization beneath Los Angeles, with tunnels extending toward the sea. Her friends witnessed the vision and attested she had experienced it before the Times story ran. Shufelt himself remained in Los Angeles after the dig, living quietly in North Hollywood until his death in November 1957. What began the legend of Little Chief Greenleaf is unknown; there is no historical record of such a person or the legend he described. Whether Shufelt believed what he claimed, fabricated it to secure digging rights in search of real gold, or was himself deceived, remains unresolved.

The Real Tunnels

Ironically, there are real tunnels beneath downtown Los Angeles — a network of underground passages that were genuinely used during Prohibition as speakeasies and for transporting alcohol. These tunnels have been partially mapped and are referenced by historians and urban explorers. They are not 5,000 years old, do not contain gold tablets, and were built by human beings for the distinctly American purpose of avoiding federal liquor laws.