Gag Order on Miners Raises Questions

After 33 miners were rescued from being trapped in an underground mine shaft for almost three months the world exhaled finally a sigh of relief.  But what came next has a few people asking questions about whether or not the miners could have found something.  As they came out of the mine they were all told to sign contracts suppressing their ability to tell of any of the events that transpired during their first seventeen days.  A fair enough question has to be raised: why?

Speculation is already rippling through the reports on why the miners were told not to talk about any of the events that happened during their first 17 days underground.  And if the idea of something unusual happening somewhere beneath the Earth, it may be pertinent to share a few of the more unusual events that have happened within the Earth alongside a few others shared by Phil Umbrass in an interesting post from the Uncanny Investigator.  And even if there’s nothing more to this gag order, it should illustrate the long history of strange stories coming from within the Earth.

During the first seventeen days before they were contacted, the miners were in complete isolation.  We do not know anything about what happened during this time.  And we may never know if the miners hold up to their agreement not to talk about this time.

In 1945 a special issue of Amazing Stories magazine shared an account of a retired army captain who had taken refuge in an underground cavern.  The tunnel led into a mountain near the Kabakorum foothills.  As he and his companion entered, they were attacked by an unknown force that dug into their arms with burning claws.  The scars they had after the experience were large enough to require medical attention.  Medics declared they had seen nothing like the wounds before.  The wounds were cauterized as soon as they were inflicted.

Likewise there are the legends of the underground race of beings known as the Deros, also chronicled by Amazing Stories.  These creatures were rumored to exist in a vast underground civilization and capture and torture or kill humans if they dared too close to an entrance to the Dero’s terrifying world.

And there are of course the countless stories of underground military bases and installations that are rumored to spread like a subterranean spider’s web across vast portions of the globe.  With installations said to belong to any number of three letter government agencies or the United Nations, you would think such an establishment would not be located near a mine.

So what is the official explanation?  Officially it’s supposedly because the miners, upon thinking they were going to die in the first seventeen days of their isolation, revealed several personal details about themselves to one another including illegitimate children and second wives.  But why would the company owning the mine care about that?  Additionally, why would the mine care about an encounter with the Deros or any number of other mysterious happenings?  While the reason for the gag order may turn out to be nothing more than a simple legal precaution, it will inevitably raise questions and serve as fuel to tell these legends once again.