The Strangest Places in the U.S.A.

Traveling is oftentimes coupled with good and bad adventures. Sometimes our lives can be in danger if we do not follow the advice of old folks or locales in the place or country we are visiting. It is better to be obedient than being too confident in everything we do . A second opinion will not compromise or hinder our plan.

So are you ready to take a look at the places you want to travel in? These places are not ordinary, so they say. I've been to some states of the United States of America, both in east and west coasts, but my work never permitted me to go ashore for a day or two just to see these so-called strange places. With this hub, let's take a closer look and hear testimonies of the residents from these places.

1. Mount Shasta, Redding, CA

The Cascade Mountain range, 60 miles south of the Oregon border, has long been considered one of the planet’s great “cosmic power spots,” luring everyone from Native Americans to Buddhist monks and hippies.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS: People who have been there experienced: altered states, UFO sightings, face-to-face contacts with Ascended Masters (who are they?) of the legendary Lemurians (people of the sunken continent Lemuria) who lived 12, 000 years ago during the time of Atlantis.. The rumour is that there is an underground military base in that place.

Shasta Valley is also the inspiration of James Hilton, renowned author of Lost Horizon in 1933, when he met a strange group of warm, seemingly enlightened people on that year.

2. Oregon Vortex, Gold Hill, OR

Measuring 165 feet in diameter and known for producing intense feelings of vertigo, this curious site in southern Oregon has attracted visitors since the 1930s. Here, balls roll uphill, brooms stand on end, and people appear to grow and shrink inside its centerpiece, a former gold mining outpost called the House of Mystery.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS: It is also called the FORBIDDEN GROUND by Native Americans. Looking at the picture, the Vortex seemed to have accumulated an immeasurable amount of magnetic field, that your physical shapes will be altered (getting big or thinner). This phenomena is really interesting to me.

Animals, like dogs and cats, are afraid to cross the said place. They have sixth sense that humans ,oftentimes cannot detect dangerous things lurking in a place like this.

3. Coral Castle, Homestead, FL

Made from 1,100 tons of megalithic-style limestone boulders—some heavier than the Pyramids’ and bigger than those at Stonehenge—this unusual structure, located 25 miles south of Miami, was built from 1923 to 1951 by a single man, a diminutive Latvian immigrant named Edward Leedskalnin, as an homage to the love of his life who left him on the eve of their wedding. But how did he do it?

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS:Like Leedskalnin . my grandfather also experienced this kind of phenomena in the Philippines. Have you ever heard of levitating stones or flying books. Too farfetched, huh? That's why people called him insane during those days where people were skeptical about those kind of things.

It is believed that Leedskalnin discovered the secret of Pyramid contruction using no mortar or precision slabs. It's mind-boggling, isn't it. Who knows, we can also discover the secrets of this fabled Coral Castle.

4.Ringing Rocks Park, Bucks County, PA

Deep in the woods in this 128-acre park is a large field of mysterious boulders that, when struck, sound like bells, as if they are hollow and made of metal. Each summer, hundreds of visitors flock here, hammers in hand, to perform their own “rock concerts.”

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS: You can view the actual experiments of locales, tourists and scientists flocking in the park. It really rings and have different sounds!!! Scientists attributed it to the unique properties of volcanic rocks called diabase.

We used to play with the limestones during our childhood days. My brother, friends and I will often perfect throwing stones floating on the surface of the water in the river. But "ringing" stones? It really exist.

5.Michigan, Home to the Lake Michigan Monster

Locals and cryptozoologists have long believed there’s an enormous prehistoric creature living in the second largest of the Great Lakes. Sightings from around its shores—Cross Village, Harbor Springs, Northport—date as far back as 1817 and tell of a 60-foot serpent or “sea panther,” as local Native Americans referred to it (because of its catlike head and lizard body), that likes to emerge at dusk.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS: While the beast, if it truly exists, is thought to be a land-locked plesiosaur. True accounts of seeing this kind of prehistoric animal in the other northernly lakes, including Lake Champlain—home to Champy—and Lake Erie, where proclaimed creationist Carl Baugh discovered a carcass of a three-foot long “baby monster” in the early 1990’s. He had the creature, probably a burbot, stuffed and placed on display at the (now closed) L & D Bait and Tackle shop near Cleveland, Ohio.

I tried looking at Carl Baugh's wikipedia and I found out that his works are being questioned by scientists nowadays that humans and dinosaurs were contemporary. He was featured at The DAILY SHOW in 2001 making the existence of humans like in the cartoon show The Flintstones. Recently, he posted his ideas on the web via ID and Dembski as the founder of intelligent design.

6. Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, CA

People have long scratched their heads over the “Sailing Stones,” which mysteriously move across the sandy playa’s surface on their own, leaving visible tracks in their wake.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS:Given that these rocks chart a new course once every three years, why is it that nobody seen it in motion or in action. Some say that during wintertime, wet clay and strong winds—which can reach speeds of up to 90 mph—are to blame, but no one is 100 percent certain what causes this curious natural (or unnatural?) phenomena.

Group of interested people, whether scientists or enthusiasts are closely monitoring this mysterious movement in the area.

7. Skinwalker Ranch, Uintah Basin, UT

This 480-acre compound in northeastern Utah is the site of many unexplained—and harrowing—incidents: roaring underground noises, the appearance of menacing blue orbs, attacks by shape-shifting beasts, and evidence of animal mutilations.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS:Purchased in 1994 by a couple looking to raise cattle and quickly put on the market two years later, the area—according to local Native American folklore—is legendary for its dark energies. The ranch is now managed by the National Institute for Discovery Sciences, a paranormal research organization.

Dark energies really exist. The belief of shapeshifters are too common here in the Philippines. Too much superstitions are still apparent in the farflung barangays. One example is that pregnant women are often protected against these elements during nighttime because their bodily fragrance are too consuming for the creatures of the night that can harm their unborn children or even their lives.

8.Paulding, MI, Home to the Paulding Light

For more than a century, on clear nights, unidentified spheres of light appear like clockwork on the horizon of this four corners town. To date, there’s no logical explanation for the luminescent red, white, and green balls that dance on the edge of the forest, but they are rumored to be the ghost of a railroad brakeman who met his fate on the tracks.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS:Locals and the curious regularly line up by the dozens for the bizarre light show; the Michigan Forest service has even posted signs guiding sky-gazers to the best viewing spots.

My father used to tell me a story of a "fireball" always lurking in the moonless nights at their place. It was a playful light but when he approached it he was attacked by the fireball. He taught us to distinguish which place can this fireball be apparent. He said after the rain, one can see dancing lights near the mountains. It's the effects to too much phosporus evaporating in the place giving a luminous white lights dancing.It is similar to St. Elmo's fire I've seen way back 2003 when our ship was on voyage at the east coast of United States.

9.Sattva Sanctuary, Trout Lake, WA

At the base of Mount Adams lies an incredible hotbed of UFO activity: a wooded ranch-cum-spiritual retreat owned by James Gilliland. The founder of Enlightened Contact with ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence and the Self-Mastery Earth Institute has been hosting seekers at “the ranch” since 1986. Thanks to so many unexplained light shows, almost no one leaves disappointed.

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS:Countless visitors recount many mind-boggling accounts, including many prominent scientists, report staggering UFO eyewitness accounts: documented sightings, sounds, even alleged contact of the third kind. One wave included as many as 50 unidentified craft.

The curious public is welcome Monday through Thursday to conduct its own sky-watches. (Reservations: 509-395-2092.) Coincidentally, it was after seeing a UFO near Mount Adams in 1947 that pilot Kenneth Arnold first coined the term “flying saucer".

When I was a child, the thing that frightened me was this so-called flying saucer. One night, during my highschool years, I've seen group of round-shaped orange lights flying in the Philippine skies. Sightings of UFOs were being broadcast on the radios, televisions and published in newspapers during the 80s when the planetissimal alignment happened.

10.Mel’s Hole, Manastash Ridge, WA

The nine-foot-wide bottomless hole and former dump site on Mel Waters’s former property near Ellensburg, Washington, is awash in mystery, which includes its professed ability to “reanimate” dead animals. Some speculate the opening is actually a tunnel, giving rise to the “Hollow Earth” theory first proposed by astronomer Edmond Halley (of comet fame) in the 17th century. The most pressing secret: where does the hole lead?

TESTIMONIES & HEARSAYS: Waters have vanished in the hole. If you try sinking fishing lines of ropes inside the Mel's hole, your effort will just be wasted because you will never find any bottom. Try throwing a huge rock. It will never sound 'thud' in the said abyss. He also claimed the abyss would shoot black rays and could bring animals back to life; a neighbor tossed a dead dog into the hole only to have it return, alive, from out of the woods. Some believe the discovery is a blow hole for Mount Rainier.

How about the theory of Hollow Hole by the astronomer Edmond Halley? In 1962, he presented the idea that the Earth consists of these hollow shells about 800 kms (500 miles) thick, two inner concentric shells and innermost cores about the diameter of planets Venus, Mars and Mercury. Atmospheres separate these shells and possess its own magnetic poles. This was publicized by Halley in order to explain erratic compass reading in some parts of the Earth. He also envisioned that the insde parts of these magnetic shells are luminous and the gas escaping from it causes the Aurora Borealis.

The deepest hole drilled to date is SG-3 borehole which is 12.3 km (7.6 miles) deep. part of the Soviet Kola Superdeep Borehole project.

I've compiled these facts (Travel & Leisure) for added knowledge and appreciation of mysteries that surround us here on Earth that can give us benefits or ill-effects as well.

Who knows, maybe there's another mysterious place or thing in your country. You can share it, too, along with this hub to others who are looking for mystery and adventure while travelling.

Share International News are closely monitoring all the unexplained or phenomena from around the world. These are just some of the facts they collated that everyone connected to different religions are experiencing such phenomena.

 1. Image of Virgin Mary two stories high
During three weeks over Christmas 1996, 450,000 people went to view the wall of a black glass building in south Florida where a two-story-high image of the Virgin Mary had appeared. The rainbow-coloured image on the outside of the Seminole Finance building in Clearwater, Florida, is about 50 feet wide and 35 feet tall, and stretches across nine panes of glass. "It’s quite amazing. It’s very spiritual, very peaceful," said Patty Scharn, a receptionist at the building. According to police spokesman Wayne Shelor: "People are making shrines, bringing gifts, candles, flowers, statues. Some have been overwhelmed and fainted. We have the infirm, the disabled in wheelchairs, the blind. They’re coming 500 at a time... But it’s not a carnival atmosphere. There is a sense of awe and wonder."

Later, the rainbow-coloured image recovered from an attack by vandals. In June 1997 someone threw an unknown liquid on the shape, staining it. But following two days of heavy thunderstorms, the blemishes disappeared, and the image looked again as it did in December.

2. Light emanates from Japanese Bodhisattva image
On 4 July 1987, an image of the Bodhisattva, emanating rainbow-coloured light, was discovered on the bathroom window in the house of Mr and Mrs Yajima in Nagano City, Japan. Rainbow colours emanate from the head and body of the 48-cm-high figure on the glass. The image has a patterned, silver-coloured crown on its head. On its neck, there are two strings of prayer beads. The image is standing on a lotus, and is holding a small round-faced girl.

About the same time as the window image was discovered, an image appeared on the wall below the bathroom window. In the beginning, this image looked as if it were just a stain, but as time went by, it became clearer, and the outline darker. The image is approx. 40 cm high, and wears a pointed hat with a rounded middle. It holds a water pot in its hand, and sits on a lotus. The eyes are now clearly visible on the wall.

About a year after the image appeared on the bathroom window, the family demolished their bathroom. In its place, they built a small temple to enshrine the glass of the Bodhisattva. During the construction process, when workers were digging in the ground below where the image appeared, they discovered a ball about 35 cm in diameter. No one could figure out whether the ball was made of wood, stone or iron. The ball emanates a very strong energy. When people place their fingers close to the white walls of the shrine, a rainbow-coloured light appears between the wall and their fingers. This phenomenon can be seen only at the wall, and happens to everyone who tries it. The rainbow colour is most clearly seen when the wall is in the shade.

3. Worldwide Hindu milk miracle
On Thursday 21 September 1995 the news swept around the world of the extraordinary miracles of milk-drinking Hindu statues. Never before in history has a simultaneous miracle occurred on such a global scale. Television, radio and newspapers eagerly covered this unique phenomenon, and even sceptical journalists held their milk-filled spoons to the gods ― and watched, humbled, as the milk disappeared. The media coverage was extensive, and although scientists and 'experts' created theories of "capillary absorption" and "mass hysteria," the overwhelming evidence and conclusion was that an unexplainable miracle had occurred.

It all began at dawn in a temple on the outskirts of Delhi, India, when milk offered to a statue of Ganesh just disappeared into thin air. Word spread so quickly throughout India that soon thousands were offering milk to the gods and watching in amazement as it disappeared. Life in India was brought to a virtual standstill as people rushed to temples to see for themselves the drinking gods. Others claimed that small statues in millions of homes around the country were also drinking the offerings of milk.

Traffic in Delhi was halted as police struggled to control crowds who gathered outside hundreds of temples with jugs and saucepans of milk for the marble statues of Ganesh, the Hindu God of wisdom and learning, and Shiva, his father.

Even the cynical professed amazement. "It's unbelievable. My friends told me about it and I just thought it was rubbish," said a Delhi business woman, Mabati Kasori. "But then I did it myself. I swear that the spoon was drained." Parmeesh Soti, a company executive, was convinced it was a miracle. "It cannot be a hoax. Where would all that milk go to? It just disappeared in front of my eyes." Suzanne Goldenberg, a Delhi-based journalist, reported that: "Inside the darkened shrine, people held stainless steel cups and clay pots to the central figure of the five-headed Shiva, the destroyer of evil, and his snake companion, and watched the milk levels ebb. Although some devotees force-fed the idol enthusiastically, the floor was fairly dry."

India was in pandemonium. The Government shut down for several hours, and trading ground to a halt on stock markets in Bombay and New Delhi as millions in homes and temples around the country offered milk to the gods. Very soon the news spread to Hindu communities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Nepal, Thailand, Dubai, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada. Reports were flooding in from all over the world. In the United Kingdom, Hindus reported miracles taking place in temples and homes around the country. At the Vishwa Temple in Southall, London, 10,000 people in 24 hours witnessed the 40 cm high statue of the bull Nandi and a bronze statue of the cobra Shash Naag drinking milk from cups and spoons.

Many journalists actively participated in these miraculous events. Rebecca Mae, a Daily Express journalist, wrote: "I had a good view from the side and all I can say is that the statue appeared to suck in half a spoonful while it was held level by the worshiper. The rest was sipped reverently by the devotee. A photographer from a national tabloid newspaper was right in front of the statue. And he was convinced it was drinking the milk. He said he could see no mechanism to explain the phenomenon, after scrutinizing it at length." Rikee Verma, a journalist from The Times newspaper, wrote: "Being a religious person, I first went to the upstairs bedroom... and placed a spoonful of milk against a photograph of Ganesh and was astonished to find within seconds that the spoon was half empty. I checked to make sure that the glass frame of the photograph was not wet. It was dry. I could not believe what I was seeing. This was clearly a message from the gods saying: 'We are here, here's the proof.'" At the Southall temple in London the chairman Mr Bharbari offered his explanation. "All I know is that our Holy Book says that wherever evil prevails on earth then some great Soul will descend to remove the bondage of evil so that right shall reign. We believe this miracle, and those happening at other Hindu temples, may be a sign that a great Soul has descended, like Lord Krishna or Jesus Christ." 
(Sources: The Guardian; The Independent; The Times; The Telegraph; The Daily Express; The Daily Mail; UK)

 

4. Muslim miracles

• On 20 January 1996, just before the Feast of Ramadan, a farmer in Taiba-Ndiassana, Senegal, discovered a watermelon on which the name of Allah had appeared. The year before similar signs appeared on the scales of a fish caught near Popenguine, home to the largest Catholic community in Senegal.

• Mrs Ruksana Patel, in Bolton, England, bought an aubergine from a local shop. On slicing the vegetable in half, she saw that the seeds were formed in the Muslim symbol 'Ya-Allah,' meaning 'Allah exists.'

• A Turkish grocer from the Regent Quarter of The Hague, Holland, bought some eggs fresh from the farm and had them on sale in his shop. But two of the eggs seemed slightly strange. "I noticed that the shells were a little misshapen," he said. "Very odd, just like Arab letters. And then suddenly I saw it: ‘Allah.’" He had also bought about five kilos of beans, about 500 grams of which bear the name ‘Allah.’ Out of respect he did not feel he could sell the remaining beans: he decided to give them to the mosque. "About 40 people enjoyed a complete meal from these beans and there was still food left over."
  

5. White image on picture
In 1989, a German woman took a series of photographs in the German city of Essen. Her objective was to depict "the hopelessness and emptiness of a big city." After she developed the photos, something unexpected appeared on one of them. Although she believed that she was alone when she had taken the picture of an empty escalator, a figure in bright white appeared.

6. The mysterious hitchhiker

• Throughout the world stories kept appearing about a mysterious hitchhiker, reported by those who have given him a lift. He tells them that the return of Christ is imminent and then disappears ― from the moving car. The hitchhiker, according to all the stories, is always dressed in white.

• In one month in 1990, a New Zealand newspaper, The Christian Challenge Weekly, received a dozen reports of "angels" taking lifts with Christians and informing them about the imminent return of Christ before mysteriously disappearing from the car. "The bloke they’ve picked up will say something like, ‘did you know the Lord is coming back?’ and that’s the only thing the fellow says," wrote journalist Brian Finn. "Then he vanishes from the speeding car." Two articles in New Truth, a New Zealand newspaper, discussed the hitchhiker among a number of other possible ‘miracles’ signifying the presence of Christ in the world.

• The phenomenon has not been limited to New Zealand. In 1991, while driving in Dallas, USA, two women picked up a hitchhiker who told them that the Christ is in the world. He then disappeared from the back of the car. Seven other similar cases were phoned in to a local radio talk show. Dutch, South African and Australian newspapers published similar reports.

• Swiss newspaper Le Matin, Sunday 18 April 1993. Reporter Philippe Dubath tells of hitchhikers who suddenly disappear: "... In front sit two boys, behind, two girls. At the exit of Palavas the young people notice a lady hitchhiker. She seems about 50 years old, wears a white raincoat and a white scarf around her hair. The driver stops, the woman gets into the car without saying a word, but smiling, and settles down on the back seat between the two girls. A little later, at the beginning of a quite dangerous curve, the hitchhiker shouts: ‘Watch out! The bend!’ The driver slows down and the cry from the two girls on the back seat causes him to turn round, as does the passenger in the front. The woman hitchhiker isn’t there any more."
  

7. Lebanese girl: crystal tears
A Lebanese girl has baffled doctors by producing tiny crystals from her eyes. For several months in 1996, 12-year-old Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani produced tiny crystals. Although the crystals were as sharp as cut glass, Hasnah said she feels no pain.

Share International's correspondent in Lebanon contacted the Meselmani family to find out more about the amazing phenomenon. It all began in March 1996, Hasnah told him. She was at school when she felt something strange in her left eye ― her first piece of crystal. Back home, she told her family what had happened and, while she was doing so, a second piece of crystal appeared in her eye.

"A few days later," she says, "I heard someone tapping at the window. I walked to the window and there I saw a man dressed in white. He was sitting on a white horse, he smiled at me and called me by name. He asked me if I would go outside to talk to him." Hasnah went out through the front door. There stood the "white knight," as she calls him. He was dressed from head to foot in a white tunic, which also covered his head and face. The "white knight" said she needn’t be afraid and he introduced himself to Hasnah as a "messenger from God."

8. Christ’s face on rock
In December 1995, Julian Webb, an Australian wheat-farmer, witnessed the miraculous materialization of Christ’s face on a hard slab of granite rock. The miracle took place at night when Mr Webb was walking on his farm near Beverly, 120 miles east of Perth. He saw a shaft of light illuminate the rock, and watched amazed as the face of Christ slowly appeared from nowhere.

9. Sacred images on rose petals
Since 1991, a young Filipino man, Carmelo Cortez, has had numerous experiences of the Madonna and is able to manifest detailed images of the Christ, Mary, and others onto rose petals.

In June 1991, Cortez, age 21, was living in a squatters’ area in San Francisco Del Monte in Quezon City. He was given a picture of the Madonna, which he placed on an altar. The following night he heard a soft voice and the sound of beautiful music. Cortez followed the voice and found it was emanating from the picture. The Madonna was shedding tears of blood and the baby Jesus in the altar appeared to be catching the tears with one hand. The picture was later placed on a church altar, and a relative of Cortez was healed of a fever.

Two days later, Cortez said he was again awakened by beautiful music, and the Madonna began giving him messages. Since that time, Cortez has seen and talked to the Madonna more than 100 times.

Other miracles have accompanied these manifestations. Columnist Christine Dayrit reported on one particular miracle ― sacred images appearing on rose petals.

"He [Cortez] took a flower from a vase of fresh white roses which we had brought. He then took the petals from the stalk by removing the sepal. One by one, Carmelo placed a petal on our shoulders as we said our prayers ... After a few moments, we were asked to take a look at the petals. To our astonishment, what were originally plain white rose petals had now on them the image of the crucified Christ."

Others present "cried in exultation" as images of the Madonna, the Sacred Heart, Mother and Child, St Joseph and Child, St Francis of Assisi, and many others, appeared on their petals.

10. Weeping Madonna in Toronto
Since early September 1996, an icon of the Virgin Mary has been weeping in a small Greek Orthodox church in Toronto, Canada. This occurrence attracted crowds of people who, drawn by the press coverage, formed long line-ups in the streets.

11. Lebanese statue of Mary sweats oil
Hundreds of Lebanese people have been visiting the Christian cemetery of Tyre, to pray before the statue of the Virgin Mary which, according to many eye-witnesses, is sweating oil. Many reporters and photographers, from Lebanon and abroad, are visiting Tyre to investigate the phenomenon, while the believers collect the blessed oil covering the major part of the statue’s marble surface. 
(Source: l’Orient-Le Jour, Lebanon)

12. Statue in Trinidad weeps tears of blood
A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a Carmelite sisters’ convent in Diego Martin, west Trinidad, is weeping tears of blood. According to the local press, the tears first appeared on 15 February 1996. Professor Courtenay Bartholomew, a local medical consultant who has written a book on Marian apparitions, is said to have tested the blood and found it to be human.

13. White buffalo calf ― a good omen
In 1993, a white buffalo calf was born in Colorado, and in 1994 another one, named Miracle, was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on the ranch of Dave and Valerie Heider. Thousands of people of many different faiths have visited Miracle, testifying that her birth is a call for all races to come together to heal the earth and solve our mutual problems.

On 9 May of this year, a silvery-white buffalo calf named Medicine Wheel was born at the ranch of Joe Merrival on the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota. Another white calf, Rainbow, had been born in the same herd some two weeks earlier, on 27 April. It died 25 hours later of scours, a diarrhea-type condition. The odds of the birth of a white buffalo are estimated as 6-10 million to one.

The birth of a white buffalo calf is seen by the Native Americans as the most significant of prophetic signs, equivalent to the weeping statues, bleeding icons, and crosses of light that are becoming prevalent within the Christian churches. Just as the Christian faithful who attend these signs see them as a renewal of God's ongoing relationship with humanity, so do the Native Americans see the white buffalo calf as a sign to begin to mend life's sacred hoop.

Floyd Hand Looks For Buffalo, an Oglala medicine man, has commented: "… These are omens, and they are happening in the most unexpected place among the poorest people in the country. They are good omens, if we pay attention to them. For us, this would be something like coming to see Jesus lying in the manger."

14. Israel ― red heifer seen as sign (1997)
The birth of a rust-coloured calf in Israel is being hailed as a miraculous sign of the coming of the Messiah. The red heifer, of a variety believed extinct for centuries, was born to a black and white mother and a tan-coloured bull on a northern Israeli farm run by a religious high school for troubled and orphaned students. In ancient times the ashes of a red heifer, butchered in her third year, were mixed with water and used to purify Jews before they could approach Jerusalem's Holy Temple on Temple Mount. Not since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in AD 70 has a red heifer been born in Israel, scholars say.

"Traditionally, there have been only nine such red cows in our history. The first was prepared under the direction of Moses and Aaron in the desert. The second was officiated over by Ezra upon the Jews' return from the Babylonian exile. Seven more were prepared during the period of the Second Temple. According to the 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides, the 10th and final red heifer will be prepared by the Messiah."

A dozen rabbis have examined the calf and said she is the long-awaited ritual heifer, meeting, so far, all the criteria described by the ancients. If the calf lives unblemished for another 18 months, she can theoretically be put to use. "It is written that it is the 10th heifer that the Messiah will discover and here we have the 10th heifer. This is a clear sign that the Messiah is near," said Rabbi Ido Weber Erlich of Jerusalem in an interview on Israel Radio. 
(Sources: Boston Globe; Newsweek Magazine; Washington Jewish Week; USA)