The Mysterious Journey of Mr. & Mrs. Wheeler

submitted by William Posey IV

Linn & Johnson: Does another dimension exist within our own; one that obeys different spatial and temporal laws? Ask Fritz and Carol Wheeler, a farming couple from the very outskirts of eastern Iowa City.

     On Christmas Eve of 1995, the modestly successful soy farmers had plans to visit their son, Donald, in Lindon, a small town in Linn County. According to the couple, they had packed all their gifts into Fritz's Buick Skylark, along with a casserole and a veritable mountain of cookies, fudge and other sweets, and had headed north at about 6:00 pm. Says Carol, "Donald and [Donald's wife] Lisa weren't expecting us until seven, but we like to be a little early for these things. Now, were they surprised at when we actually did show up!"

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A French aqua-tint of a Haidena Warrior (c.1712).
     What should have been a forty-minute drive became a bizarre, three-hour journey.

     Donald Wheeler, Lindon's only professional architect, says that he was worried when his parents failed to arrive on time. "They're incredibly punctual," he notes, "and we've learned to expect this. When they came nearly three hours late, I of course asked them what took so long and told them I was afraid they might have run off the road and gotten into an accident somehow. You know how highway traffic can be around the holidays."

     But Carol and Fritz didn't take I-380, opting instead for the country road to the east, Balfour Road, running roughly parallel to the interstate highway. Fritz admits preferring the country roads in Iowa for their relative lack of traffic and the quiet scenery. Given that the couple took Balfour, the trip may have potentially been lengthened to fifty minutes maximum. Still, why did the trip take so long? Both Carol and Fritz claim that the trip took about three quarters of an hour and that traffic was sparse with clear driving conditions. In fact, they were shocked to discover the time that had elapsed on the journey when they arrived in Lindon.

     Fritz comments, "I don't understand how we could have lost three hours. We drove straight without taking any breaks. I just don't get it." The nature of the time loss remained a complete mystery until the 27th, when the mystery became an enigma. Says Fritz, "I remember a couple of days after Christmas looking at the Buick's odometer. Now I swear on Jesus' name that I only had 50,000 miles on that car. But the mileage read 301,882! I suppose somebody could've gotten in there and jury-rigged the thing, but I don't think so. And why would they, anyways? The only thing Carol and I can think is that it must have had something to do with our drive on Christmas Eve."

     So what did happen that night? Research in association with the Johnson County Geographical Survey has revealed that early French colonists and missionaries knew of an isolated band of Native Americans called the Haidená who constructed a long but well maintained clay-packed path almost along the same route Balfour Road now follows. It is said that last of them left the area by 1746. The Haidená were a small group of subsistence farmers and hunters in the Mississippi River Valley, and the clay-path construction seems singular to their culture. Especially odd is that while modern archaeology has indicated that the Haidená seemed to shun heavy trade, it hasn't been able to determine that distinct groups of Haidená were settled at either end of their "path." Vita Monroe-Lessel, member and vice-president of the Geographical Survey, has found even more evidence to puzzle over. When asked about the old path, Monroe-Lessel added, "Now this is still kind of controversial in anthropological circles, but some believe the Haidená traveled as far as what is now southern Alaska as well as to Nova Scotia. Oddly, although artifacts which are almost clearly of Haidená design have been found at these and other locations, there is no evidence of their travel. That is, no artifacts of this make have been found between the Mississippi River valley and these remote shores. Surely they would have left some evidence of their passing along the way."

     Perhaps the most tantalizing piece of the mystery comes from Assistant Professor of Archaeology Jameson Verítas of the University of Emmetsburg, who hints that Haidená artifacts, or at least something similar, have been unearthed near Bang Gao, along the Yangtze in China. Verítas suspects a hoax at this time, but further research should provide more illumination.

     In the meantime, one may wonder; did the Haidená have a system of travel that defied the laws of time and space? Does Balfour Road lie along such a gate to far-away places? If so, how does it work? Certainly Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler would like to know what happened to them on Christmas Eve, 1995. Let us hope further archaeological research is fruitful.





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