Lizard Surveys and Moving...again

I'd much rather define "moving" as: persuading or emotionally pushing you to tears with the strength and beauty of my prose. But alas, when I refer to moving today I mean that all my worldly possessions have been packed into boxes and moved into a condo that was not quite ready to be inhabited.

Ah, well. Let's move on to lizards.
The Los Angeles Times of March 13, 2010 reports that the Natural History Museum is gearing up to survey the lizards of Los Angeles County. The LLOLA project (Lost Lizards of Los Angeles) will call on locals to document the presence of lizards in L.A. neighborhoods in late spring.

What caught my attention is that a similar project was launched in 1934.

The article referenced above gave some of the details. Apparently, one G. Warren Shufelt posited (in 1934) a catacomb city under L.A. with golden tablets hidden 5000 years ago. Somehow, this was tied to Hopi mythology and involved a super-advanced society of Lizard People. Yup. The Fort Moore hill was one site mentioned, but excavations since 1934 have not revealed any hidden chambers or catacombs.

The online article has a Proquest link. I had to go look it up, and here we are:

A front page headline of January 29, 1934:

Lizard People's Catacomb City Hunted

Engineer Sinks Shaft Under Fort Moore Hill to Find Maze of Tunnels and Priceless Treasures of Legendary Inhabitants

OMG...the guy was serious!  He had a staff of assistants! He drove a shaft 250 feet deep "on the old Banning property on North Hill Street overlooking Sunset Boulevard, Spring Street, and North Broadway." He had developed a radio xray machine that led him to believe there were catacombs under LA, from the 5th St. library to the Southwest Museum. What could they be? Well, listen up.

"Then Shufelt was taken to Little Chief Greenleaf of the medicine lodge of the Hopi Indians in Arizona, whose English name is L. Macklin. The Indian provided the engineer with a legend which, according to both me, dovetails exactly with what Shufelt says he found."

Quick, fill in the blank: A ___ is born every minute!

There's a map and everything. Just do a search on Shufelt. Three magical lost cities dug under the ground 5000 years ago, after a tongue of fire swept across the Southwest, threatening to devour all life. So the clever lizard people burrowed underground and deposited their golden tablets inscribed with all their records...including the history of the human race!

Itself?

Itself.

But what has any of that to do with the Museum of Natural History?