The Key

fields where cattle graze, and dramatic limestone cliffs. The road itself is frequently broken, with deep ruts and occasional washouts, slow traffic to a crawl. They're in the remote misty heighth giants dominate the landscape, massive stone vessels that give the plateau its name, the plane of jars. These vessels are not modest, some rising up to three meters in height, but some weighing up to thirty tons. Their shapes vary nearly as much as their sizes. Some cylinders, some with

their large stone lids resembling mushrooms. Many are cracked and worn. Their surfaces, ground down over time by the wind and the weather. The jars are spread out over a massive territory. Some stand alone as watchful sentinels, while others are densely clustered together as strange stone forests. In the late nineteen twenties, French geologist and archaeologist Madeline Kolani traveled to Laos to

conduct the first comprehensive study of these jars. She spent months on sites, mapping each jar with meticulous care, sketching configurations, and conducting excavations. She also spent time listening to the storytelling of locals, taking into account their understanding of the place. While earlier scholars assumed the vessels were mere storage for grain or water, she came to believe that they held

a deeper ritual purpose. The discovery of charred human remains in nearby caves suggested that the jars played a role in the funerary rituals rather than the mundane storage of these peoples. The caves, she suggested, were used to cremate bodies, which would then be interred in the jars. She used these discoveries to publish a two volume study of the area,

which laid the foundation for scholarship on the subject. Kolani continued to conduct field studies of the jars until her death in nineteen forty three, but it would be many decades before new researchers brought modern technology to the mystery. In nineteen ninety four, for example, researchers used modern GPS enabled mapping of site I, documenting the exact location of

each jar and the surrounding burial pits. This helped establish a more clear relationship between the two since advances, including the technique called optically stimulated luminescence or OSL, have further clarified the chronology of the vessels, showing them to be relics of the Iron Age, with some of the jars

dating back three thousand years. Carbon dating of the remains, however, have shown that their period of usage extended to around seven hundred years ago, suggesting and enduring ritual significance to the sites leading well into the medieval era. All put together, it seems that while scholars may disagree on the finer details, the modern consensus now is that Kolani was correct. Now, the extensive travel required to witness the plane of jars

makes it an unlikely tourist destination. But there's another reason that the sites are sparsely visited. A single wrong step could be fatal. You see, when northern Laos was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, tens of millions of unexploded cluster munitions were left hidden in the soil. It's estimated that it will take nearly a century to remove all the unexploded bombs. Today, hey, the Jara Plains is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its archaeological and cultural significance.

Local authorities have created walking paths, signage, and small visitor centers to educate travelers while also protecting the ancient stones. Guided tours, as you'd imagine, are very limited, but a slow stream of international travelers do make their journey each year, drawn by both the mystery and the majesty of the landscape. Visiting the Plane of Jars is indeed a journey through time where the ancient rituals of past civilizations is on

full display. These stone vessels stand as silent witnesses to centuries of life, death and resilience, a reminder that history can be both unusual and very curious. Doug was worried, worried about something most of us probably would never even think about. He was worried about elk, more specifically, too many elk, because Yellowstone National Park, home to nearly four hundred species of animals and spanning three mountain states, was

in danger of ecological collapse. You see, Yellowstone was missing one very important creature that brought balance to the whole ecosystem, what is often called a keystone species, the North American gray wolf, which had been completely absent from the park for fifty years. But why. The story begins all the way back in eighteen seventy four, when President Ulyssess Grant designated Yellowstone as protected land and made it the very

first national park. Grant was moved after seeing photographs taken by Ferdinand Hayden. One look at the roaming bison, swimming bears, wide canyons, alpine rivers, and enormous blue sky was enough to convince him this place was special. But just because the land was protected didn't mean the wildlife were. In fact, many visitors came to the park for the purpose of

hunting bison, antelope, and even predator species. Gray Wolves were especially sought after for their pelts and because they frightened the tourists, occasionally the wolves even attacked local cattle herds

on nearby farms. All this meant that by nineteen twenty six, there were no wolves left in Yellowstone, and this was the problem that had Doug Smith so worried to fully understand it, though, you have to think about this as dominoes all lined up in a neat row ready to fall, with the first hitting the second, and the third and so on. The absence of wolves in the park was a problem because without wolves, the elk population had grown

out of control. The plants that they ate, especially aspen and cottonwood trees, were now in danger of being overgrazed. And since the elk had no predators to fear, they also spent longer and longer way out in the open grazing beside the river bank. And because there were too many elk, the plants along the river that cleaned the

river died off and the river became cloudy. And because the river was cloudy, many fish didn't survive well in that cloudy water, which meant fewer food for bears, otters, and birds of prey, And with a vegetation gone from the riverbank beavers also had nothing to build their dams with, and the creatures dependent on a wetland environment that was created by those dams had nowhere to go. You can see how one problem trickled down to all the other systems.

The solution here might seem obvious. It certainly did to Doug Smith and the conservationists who were working with him. If wolves were reintroduced into the park, this time with protections in place to keep them from being hunted, the rest might fall into place. As it turns out, that was easier said than done. One big issue, well, that

would be the nearby ranchers. Yellowstone is situated between three states, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, and in all three states there were farmers and ranchers who felt worried about the plan to reintroduce the wolves. Make sure the wolves would be in the park and not on the ranchers land, But what was to stop them from hunting down helpless livestock on nearby farms. It wasn't as if the wolves could read or understand a you are leaving Yellowstone sign. Then even fences weren't

enough to deter them. And this wasn't the first time that the park's conservation efforts had actually impacted these farmers' ways of life. Bison ate up all the grass that the farmers wanted to graze their own cowson, and then as more and more visitors came to Yellowstone, the National Park Service needed to expand They paid the farmers well for their land, but many were sorry to leave their homes. Eventually,

the conservationists and the ranchers settled on a compromise. Wolves that wandered out of the park and onto private land were fair game for farmers and ranchers to kill. As long as wolves stayed in the park, however, they would be safe and protected by the law. In January of nineteen ninety five, wildlife officials captured fourteen Canadian wolves in northern Alberta. These wolves, while not the same species as the original Yellowstone wolves, were similar enough that they would

take the same role in the ecosystem. The conservationists even made sure to pull wolves from different packs so that they'd be able to breed and continue growing the population. Once they were inside Yellowstone, and for months, the wolves stayed in small acclamation pens within the park to get comfortable with their new environment. Doug Smith was among the researchers stationed to care for and observe the wolves to

see if they be ready for release. In March of nineteen ninety five, the gates were opened and the fourteen Canadian wolves stepped hesitantly into the snow to investigate their new homes. Less than a year later, seventeen more joined Yellowstone's wolf population. As for the predictions of Doug Smith

and other conservationists, they all came true. Within months of the wolves being reintroduced, Yellowstone went from an ecosystem teetering on the edge of collapse to a thriving, flourishing environment, receiving more than four million visitors every year, most of them probably I have no idea that the lush forests, the clean rivers, and the huge range of species that they see are all thanks to one heroic creature, the Big Bad Wolf. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour

through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an

ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com, slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious, m