You’ve probably seen the headlines or the late-night forum posts. Sometimes the internet gets obsessed with a very specific kind of weirdness, and few things hit that mark quite like the land of the lost lizard people. It sounds like the plot of a B-movie from the fifties. Or maybe a creepypasta. But the reality is actually rooted in a very specific, very strange moment in Los Angeles history that involves a mining engineer, a radio X-ray, and a whole lot of digging under Fort Moore Hill.
The year was 1934. Los Angeles was already a city built on dreams and, frankly, some pretty weird schemes. But when G. Warren Shufelt told the Los Angeles Times that he had found an ancient subterranean city built by a race of "Lizard People," the city stopped and stared. He wasn't some random guy shouting on a street corner. He was a respected engineer with a fancy new piece of tech.
People love a good conspiracy. They always have.
The Man Behind the Machine
Shufelt’s whole claim rested on a device he called a "radio X-ray." Honestly, it sounds like something out of a steampunk novel. He claimed this invention could "see" through solid rock to reveal the treasures hidden deep beneath the California soil. It wasn't just gold he was looking for, though. He told reporters he had mapped a sprawling network of tunnels that looked like a giant lizard.
According to Shufelt, these tunnels weren't just random caves. He believed they were the remnants of a highly advanced civilization. He claimed to have been tipped off by a Hopi chief named Little Chief Iron Wing. The story went that thousands of years ago, a "Lizard People" race fled a massive fire and built three underground cities along the Pacific Coast. The Los Angeles site was supposedly the headquarters.
It’s easy to laugh now. We have LIDAR and advanced geological imaging. But in the 1930s, the idea that a "radio X-ray" could find a lost civilization felt just plausible enough to get the city's permission to start digging.
Why We Are Still Talking About It
So, why does the land of the lost lizard people still pop up in our feeds?
It’s mostly because of how specific Shufelt was. He didn't just say there were tunnels; he drew a map. He claimed there were "gold tablets" down there that contained the history of the human race. He even claimed the tunnels were ventilated by large shafts that opened up into the Pacific Ocean.
The digging started in a vacant lot on North Hill Street. Shufelt and his team went down nearly 300 feet. They hit water. They hit mud. They hit more rock. But they never hit a lizard person. They never found a single gold tablet. The project was eventually abandoned when the money ran out and the city got tired of the hole in the ground.
🔗 Read more: Dating for 5 Years: Why the Five-Year Itch is Real (and How to Fix It)
- The map showed the "head" of the lizard city near the present-day Central Library.
- Shufelt claimed the tunnels were reinforced with a mysterious cement that was harder than anything modern humans could make.
- He believed the population was roughly 5,000, all living in temperature-controlled chambers.
This isn't just about lizards. It's about our obsession with the "city beneath the city." From the catacombs of Paris to the supposed tunnels under the Vegas Strip, humans have always been fascinated by what’s hiding right under our feet. The land of the lost lizard people just happens to be the most colorful version of that trope.
The Hopi Legend vs. The Newspaper Hype
It is worth noting that the "Little Chief Iron Wing" part of the story is highly controversial. Many historians and Hopi tribal members have pointed out that the story Shufelt told doesn't actually align with traditional Hopi cosmology. While Hopi traditions do speak of "Ant People" who helped humanity survive world-ending disasters, the "Lizard People" narrative seems to be a weird mashup created by Shufelt or his sources to sell a mining venture.
Cultural appropriation in the 1930s was rampant. This story is a prime example. Shufelt took a fragment of indigenous oral history and twisted it into a treasure hunt. It's a pattern we see over and over in early American "archaeology."
The media at the time didn't help. The Los Angeles Times ran a massive feature on January 29, 1934, with the headline: "Legendary Lizard Peoples’ City Hunted." This gave the whole thing a veneer of legitimacy. If the paper of record was covering it, surely there was something to it?
Geologic Reality Under Los Angeles
If you look at the actual geology of downtown Los Angeles, the idea of a massive, interconnected tunnel system becomes even more improbable. The area is a nightmare of seismic faults and soft sedimentary rock.
Building a 1,900-mile tunnel network in that environment—as Shufelt claimed existed—would require engineering far beyond what he described. Modern subway construction in LA is a multi-billion dollar headache precisely because the ground is so unstable. The "mysterious cement" Shufelt talked about was likely just natural calcium deposits or hard-packed clay that his drill struggled to penetrate.
Yet, the legend persists. People still go to the site of the old Fort Moore Hill to look for "clues."
Modern Pop Culture and the "Lizard" Legacy
The land of the lost lizard people didn't die in 1934. It just evolved. You can see its fingerprints everywhere in entertainment. Shows like Land of the Lost (the 70s series and the 2009 movie) play on the idea of reptilian humanoids living in a subterranean or parallel world.
💡 You might also like: Creative and Meaningful Will You Be My Maid of Honour Ideas That Actually Feel Personal
In gaming, the "Lizardman" trope is a staple. From Dungeons & Dragons to The Elder Scrolls, we are constantly fighting or befriending reptilian races that live in hidden places. Shufelt’s story provided a "real-world" anchor for these fantasies. It gave people a reason to look at a manhole cover and wonder if something was staring back.
What Actually Happened to the Tunnels?
Nothing. Because they weren't there.
Well, that's not entirely true. There are tunnels under Los Angeles. During Prohibition, a network of service tunnels was used by bootleggers to move booze under the city streets to various speakeasies. There are also decommissioned subway tunnels and utility corridors.
But none of them were built by ancient lizard kings.
Shufelt eventually faded into obscurity. He died in 1957, still largely convinced that he was just a few feet away from the greatest discovery in human history. His story serves as a cautionary tale about "confirmation bias." If you want to find lizards under the ground badly enough, you’ll start seeing lizard-shaped tunnels in every geological anomaly.
Understanding the Psychology of the Underground
Why do we want this to be true? Honestly, it’s probably because the world feels a lot more exciting if there are hidden empires beneath our office buildings. It turns a boring commute into a trek over a secret kingdom.
The land of the lost lizard people legend fulfills a basic human need for mystery. We’ve mapped almost every inch of the Earth’s surface with satellites. The "underground" is the last frontier that feels accessible. You can’t fly to Mars, but you can imagine what’s under your basement.
Sorting Fact from Folklore
To wrap your head around this, you have to separate the three distinct layers of the story.
📖 Related: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Waldorf: What Most People Get Wrong About This Local Staple
First, there is the genuine indigenous folklore of the Southwest, which is rich and complex but rarely involves "gold tablets" or "lizard kings" in the way Shufelt described. Second, there is the 1930s pseudoscience, where men with "black boxes" promised to find oil and gold using "vibrations." Finally, there is the modern internet conspiracy culture that takes these old stories and turns them into "evidence" of reptilian overlords.
If you’re looking for a hidden world, you’re better off looking at the very real, very strange history of the LA subway system or the ruins of the Belmont Tunnel. Those are places you can actually visit, and the history there is just as weird as anything Shufelt dreamed up.
Actionable Insights for History Enthusiasts
If you want to explore the history of the land of the lost lizard people without falling down a rabbit hole of misinformation, here is how to do it right.
Start by visiting the Los Angeles Public Library’s digital archives. Search for "G. Warren Shufelt" or "Lizard People 1934." You can see the original newspaper clippings and the map he drew. It is a masterclass in how media can amplify a fringe theory.
Next, look into the actual geology of the Los Angeles Basin. The California Geological Survey has incredible maps that show exactly what is under the city. Understanding the silt, clay, and fault lines makes you realize just how impossible a "lizard city" would be.
Finally, support legitimate indigenous storytelling. Instead of the twisted versions of "Little Chief Iron Wing," look into the actual histories and cosmologies of the Hopi and Tongva peoples. Their real stories are far more interesting than the 1930s treasure-hunting version.
The legend of the lizard people isn't really about lizards at all. It’s about a man with a machine, a city that wanted to believe in magic, and a hole in the ground that turned into a myth. It’s a piece of California history that reminds us to always bring a flashlight—and a healthy dose of skepticism—whenever we go looking for secrets in the dark.