Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley by Richard Schwartz

The test consisted of sticking up a pole in the ground at sundown and following the shadow as a base line for observations. Towards the close of the day Voyle led his disciples back to the university grounds, where he proceeded to make a test that he said proved conclusively that the seat of learning of California today was the prized resort of sun worshipers ages ago. The ambition of the collectors of antiquities seemed to have been attained when a row of ordinary everyday rocks was reached and made by the fertile brains of the searchers to resemble the walls of a prehistoric North Hall. Voyle claimed to have seen similar markings all across the American continent, from Oregon to Florida. He believed the smaller grids were privately owned by members of the ancient society. The grid under the UC campus, he said, was the only one that was subdivided into 120-foot square plots, making it, according to his thinking, a ceremonial site used during a certain time of year. He claimed that this grid, measuring 1,200 feet in each direction, was one of a system of grids established around Berkeley. Voyle said that he had discovered a buried grid of an ancient habitation or ceremonial site, claiming that he and his students had used psychic magnetic compasses, or divining rods, to probe the invisible force fields of attractive matter under the ground. Most UC Berkeley professors considered the society’s claims to be a little too fanciful-and totally unsubstantiated. Indeed, many artifacts were found and graves uncovered during the construction of buildings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it is certain that Native Americans lived on and around the UC Berkeley campus. Here, they would have enjoyed the commanding view of the Bay and Golden Gate, the mild weather, and the abundance of all forms of food. It seemed perfectly logical to them that ancient people would have chosen to honor this place where Strawberry Creek was cloaked by bay, alder, sycamore, and oak trees, its lower banks shrouded in strawberry and watercress plants, where the ancient coast live oaks extended their gnarled limbs over the campus beneath the sheltering hills. The members of the society were confident in their conclusions. On June 21, 1908, the society announced that Voyle had discovered a huge prehistoric ceremonial site buried on the UC Berkeley campus. Their president, Professor Joseph Voyle, and other officers were very sure. The members of the Berkeley Society for Psychical Research were sure. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series featuring stories of forgotten Berkeley history excerpted from Richard Schwartz’s book Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley.

Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley by Richard Schwartz