You Got to Love a Good Mystery - and Plenty of Them Remain

A PERSON has to love a good mystery. I'm thinking about such things because of recent news that investigators may have solved one - the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Apparently she may have died a slow death on a deserted island during her attempt to fly around the world in 1937.

The discovery of artifacts on the deserted island of Nikumaroro has some thinking Earhart came to her end on the small island in the South Pacific. Plans call for searching water near the island for remains of her airplane. If it is found, one of the more interesting of all unanswered mysteries may be solved.

I wonder about other good mysteries that have been with us for a while that remain to be solved. As we continue to learn more and more, are we someday going to find answers for them as well? 

Pause from the daily grind for a moment and ponder. Here are a few other mysteries that make make wonder ... at least until they are solved. 

• The Taos Hum - What's that sound? I'm sure you've heard about it, that sound there doesn't seem to be any reason for. The sound got its name because of its persistence around Taos, NM. Other low-frequency hums also have been reported in places as far away as England. For decades, researchers have tried to find the source of the noise - so far with no success. Apparently, it kind of sounds like a far away diesel engine, some people hear it, other people don't. In fact it is so distinct for some people, they complain of the noise causing headaches. Hmmm ...
• The Money Pit of Oak Island - What's so special about this deep hole in the ground? That's the deal - no one knows for sure. This much is for sure - over the past several centuries people have died trying to find out. So far, after digging more than 200 feed, after floods, accidents and perhaps a boobytrap or two, no one has come up with a definitive answer for what waits at the bottom. Pirate treasure? Maybe, the pit is on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. I just find it interesting that in these modern times, we haven't gotten to the bottom of this one.

These next two top my Missings Persons list:

• Where is Jimmy Hoffa buried? I suspect that by now, many of the stories about Hoffa are correct - he's buried somewhere. After all, he'd be 99 if still alive. This we know for sure about Hoffa: In 1975, the former controversial president of the Teamsters Union abruptly disappeared and people have been looking for him ever since.
• Did D.B. Cooper really get away with it? This we know: In 1971 Cooper successfully hijacked a plane between Portland and Seattle, then disappeared with $200,000 when he parachuted out of it over the pacific Northwest. While some of his money has turned up, Cooper remains "at large." Theories abound but so far, no one has been arrested for the crime and the bulk of the money remains unaccounted for.

And finally, where, I wonder, would this be found:

• The Lost Dutchman Mine. Imagine, the richest gold mine in the Americas discovered once, waiting to be discovered again. So where is the Lost Dutchman Mine? Well, it's in California's Superstition Mountains. The problem is that mountain range covers 160,000 rugged, desolate acres. Apparently the gold was discovered the first time in 1876 and that it held gold worth more than $200 million by today's prices. The problem is that the miner who found it, cleverly concealed its opening and then proceeded to die - without passing on a map with its location to anyone.

Well, I hope this offers a few minutes of diversion from the rest of the day and I suppose now we should get back to it. Wait! Did you hear that?