I recently wrote about the legend of the Oak Island Money Pit for Popular Mechanics (in the May/June issue) and the lore that has sustained the search for treasure for more than 200 years. (The complete article can be found here if you are having paywall issues.) I didn’t intend to write a debunking articleContinue reading “The Oak Island Money Pit – legend, hoax, or reality?”
Author Archives: Dylan Taylor-Lehman
The Mexican Mountain Town Feeding the International Crystal Market
My latest for Atlas Obscura explores the crystal trade going on in Piedra Parada, a tiny mountain town in Veracruz, Mexico. The local men have been mining amethyst from the surrounding mountains, a beautiful gem that is known around the world for its purple hues. The men face dangerous conditions and the occasional rip-off fromContinue reading “The Mexican Mountain Town Feeding the International Crystal Market”
Three articles for New Noise Magazine
Long time no update! One of my longtime loves is extremely noisy and fast death metal and grindcore, and I semi-recently had the opportunity to write about some obscure but really interesting aspects of the extreme punk and metal underground for New Noise Magazine, as well as an article about an incredibly weird but deeplyContinue reading “Three articles for New Noise Magazine”
Outrageous story about a legendary private eye with hooks for hands and the hunt for an American killer in Thailand
I’m very pleased to see my latest story for Narratively go live, and that’s because it is definitely a wild ride. Living in El Paso, I befriended a legendary private eye named Jay J. Armes, who recently turned 88 years old. He lost both of his hands in a childhood accident but used the metalContinue reading “Outrageous story about a legendary private eye with hooks for hands and the hunt for an American killer in Thailand”
MY BOOK ABOUT THE PRINCIPALITY OF SEALAND IS OUT NOW!!!!!!!!
Finally, the day has arrived! My second book “Sealand: the True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation and Its Eccentric Royal Family” is now officially out! The book chronicles the remarkable history of the Principality of Sealand, a self-declared country built on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea. Sealand hasContinue reading “MY BOOK ABOUT THE PRINCIPALITY OF SEALAND IS OUT NOW!!!!!!!!”
The Pirates of the Highways – a look into the world of American semi-truck thievery
My latest for Narratively takes a look into the world of semi-truck thievery across the good ole’ USA. Though I of course can’t comprehensively explore every aspect of this kind of crime, I was able to go into some depth about the surprising cargo that is often stolen and how some of these thieves goContinue reading “The Pirates of the Highways – a look into the world of American semi-truck thievery”
On covering my first homicide
A UK-based true crime magazine called Foul Play debuted a few years ago and was described “zine seeks to satiate our fascination with real-life murders without resorting to sensationalism.” Foul Play was edited, designed, and published by Emma Hardy and Grace Harrison, and the pair put out three issues before apparently closing shop. I hadContinue reading “On covering my first homicide”
The World is Studded with Artificial Mountains
A few years ago, I traveled to Kingsport, Tennessee and came across a strange geologic feature in the middle of the city. It was Cement Hill, an angular hill covered in scraggly grass and gnarly thorns and inaccessible to pedestrians. I was taken by the surreal sight and was told it got its name becauseContinue reading “The World is Studded with Artificial Mountains”
The Greatest Political Shitshow That Ever Was
My latest piece for Narratively explores the wild circumstances of the Florida Supreme Court in the 1970s, in which five of the seven justices were facing some kind of intense legal pressure, impeachment, and disbarment. One had to take a sanity test to prove he was competent enough to keep his position and another laterContinue reading “The Greatest Political Shitshow That Ever Was”
A retrospective on the time a mountaintop solar observatory was mysteriously closed by the FBI
A year ago I was working as a reporter for the Alamogordo Daily News and we got a call that a remote mountaintop observatory had suddenly been evacuated, apparently by the FBI. I went up there to try to figure out what was going on, and by the time I came back down, the internetContinue reading “A retrospective on the time a mountaintop solar observatory was mysteriously closed by the FBI”