This book is a pictorial record of the detective research into prehistoric monuments, early writing forms, and pre-Christian explorers into America.
When a picture is worth a thousand words, you'll find - Warren Wheeler Dexter.
Dexter has made a lasting contribution to historical research by producing and INDEXING ABOUT 28,000 mostly color photographs in 35mm images. It is an amazing collection because of the quality of Warren's work and because some of his photographs record artifacts and ancient sites that no longer exist.
Warren says, "I'm not a verbiage writer but a graphic specialist." Nevertheless, he produced three pictorial history books: Ogam Consaine and Tifinag Alphabets, Ancient Uses in 1984, VERMONT—Wilderness to Statehood 1748-1791, with Barbara C. Hanson in 1989; and America’s Ancient Stone Relics—Vermont's Link to Bronze Age Mariners with Donna Martin in 1995. Most recently Warren co-authored, Contact with Ancient America, with Ida Jane Gallagher in 2004.
After his retirement from General Electric and death of his wife, Ruby in 1974, Dexter enrolled in selected classes at Castleton State College. Dr. Warren Cook's class in Pre-Columbian history was a turning point in his life. With Cook as his mentor, Warren Dexter used his photographic skills to record New England's megalithic structures and inscriptions. Antiquities research was soon a dedicated effort with Dexter and Cook joining forces to become a team of intrepid explorers. They traveled to many parts of the world, together and separately, acquiring research and photographs which that they thought would prove early contact with the Americas. Dexter has acquired research photographs from five continents. While Dexter was researching and collecting images in South Africa, Asia Minor and around the Mediterranean area Dr. Cook was visiting China and following one of his interests, Bigfoot.
Their work has made a significant impact on the early interpretations of early American history. Together they recorded the remnants of the controversial artifact collection of Padre Carlo Crespi in Ecuador and proceeded to Tunisia and Algeria to trace the origin of the King Massinissa Plaque in this collection.
In Spain and Portugal Dexter and Cook visited museums and Bronze Age megalithic tombs that architecturally resemble New England stone chambers. During the last years of Cook's life (1925-1989) he and Dexter studied the Illinois "Burrows Cave" artifacts in an effort to learn whether they were authentic or fabricated—still an unresolved problem in minds of many researchers.
One of Dexter's most important achievements is his photographic record of Credro V. Mutwa's family collection of Ancient ZULU artifacts. Mutwa is a Sanuci healer but due to our ignorance he is often labeled as a Witch Doctor. Not long after Warren photographed what was available of the collection, young Zulu terrorists burned and destroyed the collection, because Mutwa was not sympathetic with their wish for war over Apartheid.
A native of Vermont for 85 years as a resident of Rutland, Warren was active in the United Methodist Church and their son, Robert, is now a North Indiana Conference District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church.
The venerable Dexter, now living near his son in Indiana, has been working to complete this graphic story about Etruscan Explorers, from research that began back in 1982. Computer information and armchair research are Warren’s current focus, but his enthusiasm has not waned. His colleagues and friends can look forward to continued contributions in days ahead.
