Introduction to Finding the Lost City

Finding the Lost City;

The Story of "Carlos" Frey in Mexico

by Dwayne Shreve

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Carlos Frey was an American adventurer and a dreamer who loved Mexico and eventually chose to live there. Although he tried to settle down, he felt drawn to the nearby Lacandón jungle area of Chiapas. The evidence strongly indicates that he was the first of record to see and report the ruins at Bonampák. However, because he did not find the now famous murals and the credit for finding the ruins themselves went to another person. What might seem to us now to be a tempest in a teapot was big news in Mexico in 1946-49. The attempt to be recognized for finding the site by Carlos Frey ended with his mysterious death on his last expedition in 1949. The story is now on the web. The picture shows Carlos eating the arm of a howler monkey in the mid 1940's.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4,

Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10,

Epilogue, Bibliography

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See below for chapter synopses. Click on the link to see the chapter.

Introduction. How did I get started finding out about Carlos Frey?
Chapter 1. As a young man with wanderlust and an eye for the ladies, among his travels Frey fell in love with a Mexican girl and her country. Although the romance did not go well, his love of Mexico flourished.
Chapter 2. Frey began his wanderings further into Mexico and found himself up in Chiapas, where he became interested in the Maya. Here he traveled alone and occasionally with fellow travelers through the Lacandón jungle. Often walking, at times on mule or horseback or a dugout canoe, he made it into Tabasco and by train into Mérida.
Chapter 3. Once rested and supplied with additional money, Frey went by train, on foot and by boat through the unfriendly prior Caste War area to the border with British Honduras, now Belize, and entered. In difficulties with the law there, he boarded a boat to Cozumel. When he resolved his sudden problems with Mexican immigration, he returned to Mérida and, from there, back to Tabasco.
Chapter 4. Despite being told not to do it during the rainy season, Frey traveled up the Usumacinta River to see the Ruins of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilán. After a grueling trip, he returned to Tenosique to rest up for his next adventure. This involved mostly hiking to the Palenque ruins, then heading further into the Lacandón Jungle and finally going to Guatemala. Following this, he returned to the Lacandón area and tried to settle down and farm.
Chapter 5. His attempt at farming was interrupted by an expedition that he undertook with the archaeologist, Frans Blom, which I call "The Expedition from Hell." It wasn't entirely bad, however, because Trudi Duby followed the group into the brush and joined them. After all the difficulties, she later married Frans.
Chapter 6. Still on the farm, Frey tried marriage. At times, as a guide he also took various people into the Lacandón Jungle. During this period, he also led Giles Healey, a photographer with the United Fruit Company, into the Lacandón area. Following a disagreement, he returned home with one of Healey's companions to plan a new expedition.
Chapter 7. The actual discovery of Bonampák. This also describes the controversy in Mexico between Healy and Frey as to the actual discoverer. Frey reported it first, but Healy and his United Fruit Company sponsors reported it to the news media first.
Chapter 8. The beginning of Frey's final expedition. A group of well known men who are novices to jungle life make up most of the group. They believed in bringing a lot of equipment.

Chapter 9. After some difficulties, the expedition arrived at Bonampák. There was a lack of mules for transporting food, luggage and all the supplies. Carlos and two others go on a fateful canoe trip to bring the generator from where it was left. Only one returned and it wasn't Frey.
Chapter 10. The aftermath. Carlos' brother and his wife went to Mexico to find out what happened. There is an analysis of what really happened and of whom I believe caused Carlos' death.
Epilogue. I took a trip through many of the Chiapas areas that Frey journeyed through, though I went mostly by bus. I found it most poignant to be safely riding through the area where he was unwittingly used as bait in case the bandidos were about.
Bibliography. Most of this was background, but there were a surprising number of books written in Mexico, which included note of Frey and his efforts.

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Introduction

I did not intend to write about Carlos Frey, but I kept running across his name in my readings about the Maya. The first place I saw the name was in a puzzling and allegedly non-fiction book, Quest for the Lost City, by Dana and Ginger Lamb, where the authors told of meeting Frey and strongly hinted that he had been later murdered by a particular Lacandón Indian.

I did not think much more about it until I ran across the name Carlos Frey several more times, particular in regard to the Lacandón jungle area. At that point, I decided to see what I could find out about the fellow.

This effort began well before I had access to a computer, but a diligent search done through the help of my local library came up with the name in connection with a letter to the editor from his brother, Gilbert Frey. This was from the early 1950's and was in a national magazine defending his brother Herman "Carlos" Frey as being the first outsider to find the Maya ruins at Bonampák.

Directory Assistance showed Mr. Frey still at an address in that city and it gave me a telephone number. However, being not a pushy soul, especially among those I do not know, I chose to send a letter to him and he responded enthusiastically. He wrote correctly of two boxes full of letters that his brother sent home while. Although Gilbert Frey was ill with cancer, he was still active with crossbow tournaments, and for a while it looked as if I would not get to meet him on one of his good days.

Finally I was visiting in-laws the next city over from his home and decided to chance a telephone call. When he heard how close I was, he immediately invited me over. I spent much of that day and part of the next looking over and copying the many letters of Carlos Frey. I was fortunate that Mr. Frey had a photocopier. Later he told me that he had been about to send me a letter telling me not to bother coming.

I found some of the letters in envelopes with postmarks and some without. I noticed that some of the postmark dates could not have been with the particular letter. I also noticed that most of the letters were not dated. Some were even on onion skin paper where the ink had bled to the other side, making reading those photocopies particularly difficult.

Carlos Frey's letters told his accounts of many adventures. Though his grammar and spelling left something to be desired, he was very enthusiastic about what he saw and did. At some points, I had my doubts of his accuracy, such as obscure place names, but I have found everything he wrote that I was able to compare elsewhere to be true.

Eventually I managed to put the sequence of his life in Mexico in order and to write about it. Once done, there was no wild, or even tepid enthusiasm from publishers or agents for the book, so this has been languishing for a while.

However, I think that the story of Carlos Frey should be told. It is clear to me that he was shown to the ruins at Bonampák months before Giles Healey was, giving him more claim to finding the site, but it is equally certain that Healey was the first to see and report the famous murals there. It is most likely that Frey's death was manslaughter and I believe that I can show who the killer was.