My Search Timeline
A personal chronicle of one researcher's ongoing investigation into the Moonshaft legend. This timeline documents fieldwork, discoveries, and analysis as they occur.
One of Many Investigations
This timeline represents one individual's search efforts. Multiple researchers, speleological groups, and independent investigators have pursued the Moonshaft mystery over decades. This is not a comprehensive record of all search efforts—see the Search Efforts page for broader context.
The Search Begins
After encountering the Moonshaft legend, I committed to a systematic, multi-year investigation — gathering Antonín Horák's NSS News account, the secondary literature, and the records of earlier searches to understand what had already been tried.
Field Searches & the Pavliš Collaboration
Connected with veteran speleologist Walter Pavliš and began repeated field reconnaissance in the mountain ranges he had long surveyed. Documented cave entrances and vertical shafts and chased period leads, including a 1975 Fate magazine reprint and a cave reportedly found years earlier alongside Ted Phillips.
Filing the Records Requests
Inspired by open-records researchers, I filed freedom-of-information requests with US agencies seeking any file on Horák, and supported The Black Vault's archive. These began long, slow correspondence threads that are still open.
Slovak Archive Inquiries
Queried Slovak institutional archives for any wartime correspondence involving Horák and his Vienna contact. No records surfaced — a recurring pattern, as much of the relevant paperwork seems never to have existed or did not survive.
Tracing Primary Sources & Petr Sittek
Located and contacted Petr Sittek, the archivist behind the original moonshaft.net, who generously shared rare primary documents. A parallel inquiry to CUFOS for Phillips–Hynek correspondence on the Moonshaft came back empty — another dead end ruled out.
Connecting the Research Community
Began coordinating with Czech researcher Jaroslav Mareš, who was preparing a broader summarizing project. Comparing notes across the community helped separate decades of accumulated noise from the threads worth pursuing.
Winter Reconnaissance with Thermal Imaging
With Horák's note that the entrance was masked with stones in mind, a winter trip used a thermal-imaging camera to look for warm air escaping hidden voids, when snow and bare vegetation make features easiest to read. A promising candidate was logged for a return visit.
Surveying Ground Anomalies
With a small local team, checked a cluster of curious ground depressions and openings reported in the field. Several were documented and ruled out; the effort refined the search grid even where nothing matched the Moonshaft.
An Unconventional Approach: Remote Viewing
Explored remote viewing as an independent way to triangulate the entrance, working with a practitioner from the original Stargate program. Treated strictly as one more hypothesis-generator to cross-check against the map, not as proof.
Learn moreSatellite Radar for Subsurface Detection
Reached out to a synthetic-aperture-radar specialist about whether modern satellite techniques could flag large subterranean structures from orbit — a potential way to scan candidate areas without disturbing protected terrain.
Learn moreArchive Breakthroughs & FOIA Follow-up
A productive run of archival work: Horák's own newspaper classified ads surfaced via genealogical records, a 50-plus-page US file on his wife Anna was requested, and a chronological biography was compiled from primary sources. The long-pending US FOIA request received a status follow-up — still in process.
Nízke Tatry (Lower Tatras)
Field reconnaissance across the Nízke Tatry (Lower Tatras), surveying candidate karst sites whose topography matches Horák's descriptions.
Tichý Potok
Field survey at Tichý Potok — one of the areas where Ted Phillips' team had also searched.
Levoča Mountains
More field research trips in the Levoča Mountains. Based on recent findings, the probability of the Moonshaft lying within a 10-mile radius of Tichý Potok has increased.