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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for August 18, 1999: Coral Castle - Richard C. Hoagland

August 18, 1999: Coral Castle - Richard C. Hoagland

Aug 18, 1999
2h 40m
0:00 / 0:00
Richard C. Hoagland joins Art Bell to connect Coral Castle GPS anomalies with a wider investigation of NASA eclipse footage, Comet Encke, the Beta Taurid stream, and Lloyd Albright's reported meteor fears after the August 11 solar eclipse. Art presents an unverified Associated Press story about Lloyd Albright, a NASA Kennedy Space Center computer programmer found hiding in an Ohio cave with 16 guns, 200 pounds of wheat, and camping supplies, claiming a meteor would strike the Atlantic and generate a massive tidal wave.

Hoagland analyzes NASA video from Turkey showing three bright objects visible near the sun during totality. He argues these objects align precisely with the orbital path of Comet Encke and the Beta Taurid meteor stream, suggesting a potential collision scenario in November. He theorizes that exotic spacecraft visible in prior NASA footage may be monitoring the situation. Charlie Plyler also calls in to describe ultra-low frequency signals he has been tracking that peak when the sun is overhead.

In a surprising turn, Art reaches Albright by phone. The NASA contractor attributes his flight to marital stress and psychic correspondence with a woman in Ohio, downplaying any connection to secret NASA data. Hoagland remains skeptical of the cover story, noting inconsistencies with the original reporting. Late in the program, Hoagland says GPS tests at Coral Castle produced unusual location and altitude readings, but he holds back fuller claims pending more documentation.

Key Moments

  1. Kennedy Space Center programmer hides in Ohio cave: Art reads the unconfirmed wire story that Lloyd Albright, a Kennedy Space Center computer programmer, was found in a southeast Ohio cave with 16 guns and dried food, convinced a meteor would hit the Atlantic and drive a 200-foot tidal wave up Florida.

  2. Eclipse objects sit on Comet Encke's orbit: Hoagland describes plotting the orbit of Comet Encke and the Beta Taurid stream against the NASA Ankara eclipse video and finding the anomalous objects sitting exactly on Encke's orbital track at noon, August 11, 1999.

  3. Train-at-the-crossing analogy: November 5-15 impact window: Hoagland uses a train-at-a-crossing analogy to argue that, eyeballing the orbital geometry, Earth and the cometary debris in Encke's stream will meet at the crossing between November 5th and 15th, 1999.

  4. Plyler is hearing the engines of electrogravitic ships: Hoagland reinterprets Plyler's ELF deceleration signals as the side-effect signature of electrogravitic engines on craft like the one seen over Phoenix, citing rapid acceleration and deceleration as proof the source is artificial, not natural.

  5. Art reaches Lloyd Albright by phone: Art unexpectedly gets the supposed cave-dweller, NASA subcontractor Lloyd Albright, on the line. Albright says he was actually outside the cave and that the trip was driven by marital stress and an impending divorce, not the apocalypse.