Just a few of my findings from my 1909 Grand Canyon Research. Kincaid coincidence?

To be fair, my other update did little to explain anything. I was trying to give a bunch of information late at night and that didn't go well.
At all.

Mainly the reason for that is, there was simply too much information.

(And yes, any of what I've found, it can be explained away, I don't argue that. What I'm doing is looking at the people and institutions around that area when the article came out)

My findings are just put out in the open. Whatever you conclude from them, is all you.

Quick recap for anyone new:

In 1909, the Arizona Gazette published an article claiming a Smithsonian-backed expedition had discovered an ancient Egyptian-style cave complex beneath the Grand Canyon. The Smithsonian has since stated (around 2001 from an email) that it has no record of the expedition, the explorer, or the lead archaeologist ever existing in its files.

At risk of repeating myself, my research doesn't try to prove or disprove whether the cave is real. It asks a different question- were the institutions and people who were operating in and around the Grand Canyon in 1909, even capable of independently verifying something like this ever happened?

Here's SOME of what's new:

By 1909, William Randolph Hearst was the most powerful media figure in America. He owned the Los angeles examiner, the San Francisco examiner, and a growing chain of papers that reached across the country. Controlling nearly 14 percent of total U.S. daily newspaper circulation at his peak. In 1909, the same year the Arizona Gazette cave article ran, he founded the International News Service- a wire service that fed stories to papers nationwide. He didn't own the Arizona Gazette specifically. But he dominated the information infrastructure of the entire region.

Federal records show he also owned private land at Grandview Point (land he had to give up but re-aquired land right near it in the 40s or 50s and has held that sense, land that include inner grand canyon land) Which Grandview was one of the primary tourist access points on the South Rim at the time.

Internal government correspondence (documents on my website) shows NPS officials actively managing their relationship with him, strategizing around his land holdings and his attorney. This was a man with enormous political and media reach, and the federal government knew it.

But, the Hearst connection goes deeper than land and newspapers. I had read and come across that his mother was quite the philanthropist. So, I looked into her.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst. William's mother — personally funded a major Egyptian archaeological expedition beginning in 1899. Known as the Hearst Expedition, it ran from 1899 to 1905 and excavated multiple sites including Giza, producing approximately 17,000 catalogued Egyptian artifacts.

She personally founded and bankrolled the museum of anthropology at UC Berkeley that still bears her name today. William Randolph Hearst (son) himself even traveled to Egypt with her on some occasions, purchased artifacts, and donated them to the museum.

The family weren't casual observers of Egyptology at the time ( and that's not a claim, their funded expeditions are documented) They were among its most significant institutional sponsors.

And it doesn't end in 1909. The Hearst family still owns and controls their media empire today through a private family trust. William Randolph Hearst III currently chairs the board for their empire of hundreds of news and magazine networks around the world.

–disclaimer here: I'm not saying the Hearst family had or has anything to do with the 1909 cave story in any aspect. That's not what my research does. What it does is look at who was present, who had influence, and what the institutional record actually shows. Im documenting who shows up.

Anyways, by 1901 (eight years before the cave article) the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway had completed the only rail line to the South Rim.

They built the hotels, the depot, the restaurants, the infrastructure. They controlled who got in, how they got there, and what they experienced when they arrived. Combined with Hearst's private land at Grandview Point and federal agencies actively (at the time) managing relationships with both, what emerges is a picture of a canyon with very few independent actors and very controlled access.

Its an interesting point worth noting at the very least.

So, as many of you may know, the article names the expedition's explorer as "G.E. Kincaid" and his Smithsonian-affiliated fieldwork.

I have NOT found any record of a GE Kincaid, in any record , so far, that matches this description. It's of my own belief, that the guy (GE) simply doesn't exist in that spelling or association.

However:

Trevor Kincaid – He was a University of Washington zoologist and USDA Special Agent with Smithsonian connections going back to the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition – where he worked alongside David Starr Jordan, the same man whose name appears in the article as "S.A. Jordan." (only theorized SA is DS)

Here's where it gets interesting, if it hasn't already,

Kincaid spent the summer of 1908 in Japan on a USDA assignment and was confirmed back in Seattle by autumn 1908.

The article places G.E. Kincaid departing Green River, Wyoming in October 1908 – right in that window. His USDA credential authorizing his next assignment is dated April 7, 1909 – two days after the Arizona Gazette article published. He was stateside, signing federal paperwork, at the exact moment the story ran and when the river runners would have happened.

Disclaimer again;

His initials don't match and nothing i have found , yet, puts him at the Grand Canyon directly. Nothing. I'm not drawing a conclusion lol, just saying I found someone with at least, the same last name who did work for the Smithsonian back then.

Ill be honest guys, this is only a tad of the information I've found so far. If you'd like to see the connections, I'd recommend my website. It has an interactive 3D spider graph that maps all the connections across documents, people, and institutions so the relationships and connections become visible rather than buried in records.

You can literally see my claims.

Every node links directly to its primary source claim.

However, information is only updated once a week. So, this new timeline for T. Kincaid isnt fully updated but his connections and everything else is there.

-pictures uploaded are of T. Kincaid paperwork and my website.

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Research Website:

Grand Canyon — 1909 Kincaid Research Project https://share.google/gexDPjcmfidgaDOdB

Trevor Kincaid timeline proof:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/131843#page/9/mode/1up

Phoebe Hearst:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_A._Hearst_Museum_of_Anthropology