Moonshaft
Moonshaft or Mooncave is a large object described in a published diary excerpt of Antonín Horák, claimed to exist somewhere in an unspecified mountain range in Slovakia. Moonshaft was allegedly discovered in 1944 during the Slovak National Uprising by military commander Antonín Horák who later emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the United States via France and changed his name to Tony Horak. In 1965, Horak published an excerpt from his diary in the National Speleological Society News. In 1972, French author Jacques Bergier included Moonshaft in his book Le Livre de l'inexplicable calling it one of the biggest mysteries ever. Due to the political situation in Czechoslovakia after 1968, the first attempts to find Moonshaft took place as late as in 1980. The Moonshaft, if it exists, has been speculated to be many things, some of which include a geological anomaly, an ancient copper mine, an entrance to an underground city, or an extraterrestrial spaceship. The story remains very popular among speleologists, paranormal investigators and others, who try to explore auspicious locations in Slovakia as well as learn more about Horak and the events from his diary.[1][2]
Diary
On 27 October Horak and Jurek met Slávek for the last time. Jurek, already able to walk longer distances, proposed to Hana and she accepted. Horak also wrote Martin's death certificate and paid Slávek to raise a wooden cross in his memory when possible. They then carried Martin's body to the original trench where he had suffered the fatal wound. Both men then continued walking to Košice. They later met a partisan group and decided to join them. At the end of the diary, Horak recalls his last visit to the place at the end of the war when he tried to find an alternative entrance to the shaft and also planned to visit Slávek. He learned that Jurek and Hana had moved to Bratislava and Slávek lived in a village called Ždiar. Horak expresses his wish that the Moonshaft is carefully studied by scientists and never becomes a tourist attraction.[3] The diary also contains specific coordinates (49.2 N and 20.7 E) that were most likely added by the publisher to help American readers locate the Tatra mountains.[2]
Further investigations
The diary mentions villages Zdar, Lubocna and Plavnica; the first two do not exist in Slovakia, but the names are reminiscent of the actual villages Ždiar, Ľubochňa and Plavnica. The main problem preventing any serious research was the political situation in former Czechoslovakia that was out of limits for explorers from the United States who were the only ones to discuss the subject directly with Horak. Ted Phillips and Dr. J. Allen Hynek (Project Blue Book) visited Horak in his home in Pueblo, Colorado in 1970. Horak showed them photos he took during his last trip to the site and provided them with some additional information about the location of the cave. Ted Phillips started project "Tatra" which was expected to result in an expedition to Czechoslovakia, but the plans were halted due to safety concerns. In 1975, one year before his death, Horak met researcher Andre Estival and allegedly gave him important materials, but this has never been confirmed. The first field research was carried out by Czech explorers Ivan Mackerle and Michal Brumlík in 1980. In 1982 an official research was performed by the local Museum of Slovak Karst. Both groups failed to find any reliable information about herder Slávek and his daughters. The details of the military operations that Horak described in his diary also seemed rather inaccurate. The first snow in Tatras in 1944 fell in November although Horak mentions avalanches and snowdrifts already in October. Mackerle believed that all these inaccuracies were included on purpose to mislead people looking for sensations. Before his death, Ivan Mackerle passed his materials to other researchers.[4][1]
The first popular scientific article about the Moonshaft was published in 1990 by Czech geologist Václav Cílek. In 1994 another Czech geologist Walter Pavliš visited several unexplored caves in the Tatra mountains. In one of them he found letters H.A. (Horák Antonín), number 23 (23 October) and 6 crossed lines (6 days in cave) carved into the stone. But this cave had no opening in the rear wall. Walter Pavliš was also able to find many information about the life and family of Tony Horak.[4] In 1999 Ted Phillips finally visited Slovakia and explored some of the caves Horak told him about in 1970. Phillips later admitted he was not able to reach the Moonshaft due to a partial collapse of the cave. In his presentation during a MUFON conference in 2015, Phillips showed images of various places in Belianske Tatry and High Tatras claiming to be taken from around the cave's entrance.[2]
Slovak authors Robert K. Lesniakiewicz and Miloš Jesenský (pseudonym Manfred Jensen) published their own discoveries in Poland (in Tajemnica Księżycowej Jaskini (2006) and Powrót do Księżycowej Jaskini (2010)) and later in the United States (The Mooncave Mystery (2020)). They believe the Moonshaft to be a section of an underground network of tunnels related to the mysterious glass tunnels in Babia Góra in Poland. Czech author Martin Lavay performed his own excessive research and discovered that fights similar to those described in Horak's diary occurred in Low Tatras close to villages Telgárt and Vernár. Together with author Jaroslav Mareš and researcher Erik Vojtek, they found an extraordinary rock formation they called "rock eye" near mountain Kráľova hoľa. However, due to the national park rules, they were not allowed to go any near the object. Lavay published the results of his research in his book Měsíční jeskyně (2019) and on Youtube channel záhady.info. Jaroslav Mareš shot a segment for his project badatele.net. In 2019 Slovak web portal Cez Okno received an information, that one of their followers identified a place in a small mountain range Baruchňa where vegetation grew in a shape of a crest. He believed the Moonshaft to be a slickenside – two enormous blocks of sandstone moved in opposite directions which resulted in smoothing and darkening of their surfaces. Natural geological processes caused the gap between the two blocks to grow bigger which created the unusual cavity. However, no proof that the place in Baruchňa is a Moonshaft was presented.[5] The same year, explorer Erik Batysta visited a cave in Belianské Tatry. He found a fireplace, letters written on one of its walls and a pile of stones that looked like a grave. The cave had an opening in the rear wall but seemed to be too unstable to be explored safely. Part of the cave collapsed later that year.[2]
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Slovenská republika :: Ivan Mackerle". www.mackerle.cz. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lavay, Martin (2019). Měsíční šachta. XYZ. Search this book on
- ↑ T. Horak, Antonin (March 1965). "The Moonshaft". National Speleological Society News. 23: 30–34.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Za tajemstvím Měsíční šachty". www.novakoviny.eu. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ↑ "MESAČNÁ ŠACHTA KONEČNE LOKALIZOVANÁ? II. (Geologická štúdia) | CEZ OKNO". www.cez-okno.net. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020. Unknown parameter
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