User:Auric/Paxton C. Hayes

Paxton C. Hayes (Paxson Hayes) was an American ethologist who reported finding a lost city in the Sonora region of Mexico.

Ethnology
In 1930, he did work tracing the origins of pictographs of snakes in the black petrified forest, near the Petrified Forest National Park.

In 1931, he approached Laurence M. Klauber for his help in establishing a snake reserve. Klauber turned him down.

In 1932, Paxton and others explored Mexico in search of flying snakes.

In 1937, he visited Washington DC with a colleague to present President Roosevelt with a small collection of Mexican snakes. The snakes were accepted, but moved to the Washington Zoo.

Discoveries
In 1935, he made claims that he had discovered a 'lost Indian city' in the Sonora region. He referred to this city as the 'Lost City of Tall Men', as the remains of the inhabitants were of uncommonly large stature. He brought back samples of preserved Indian corn, although the corn refused to sprout. He also brought back a burial shroud and a head.

He also made sensational claims that the inhabitants of the city were ethnically Mongolian in origin, and had "migrated to America from a continent now sunk beneath the Pacific, possibly 12,000 years ago."

Photos showed the city to be a cliff dwelling, with unique architecture, located "in caves in Sonora, 400 miles from Hermosillo City". Another article identified the caves as being located in the Copper Canyon region.

Later life
He was associated with Herbert C. Holdridge during his political career.