Congress Once Funded an Expedition To Determine if the Earth Was Hollow December 31, 2010

Harper's Weekly 1882 Symmes Hole Illustration

What Seems Idiotic Today Was Considered Fact in the Past

On This Date in History:   17th Century astronomer Edmund Halley  is more famous for the comet that bears his name but it is less well-known that he also suggested that the earth had four concentric spheres and that there was a hollow area in the center with small entrances at each pole. Inside the hollow earth, Halley said there was life and there was illumination. He thought that the aurora was caused by gasses being released from the openings at the poles. Well, this guy John Symmes carried on that idea and began a series of lectures designed to gain financial support for an expedition. He said, “I ask 100 brave companions…to start from Siberia…I engage we find a warm and rich land, stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals…northward of latitude 82.” He wanted to sail over the curved rim of a polar hole into a hollow earth. Symmes must have been very convincing because after speeches given in Rossville and Hamilton, Ohio on this date (Dec 30) in 1823, the two towns passed resolutions the following day stating that the earth was hollow.  Later, Hamilton built a monument to their native son hollow earther Symmes, who not only convinced the people of the Ohio towns, but also some Congressmen who tried to get public funding for the expeditions. A hollow earth fellow traveler and newspaperman, Jeremiah N. Reynolds, joined the chorus by stressing the commercial potential of the eccentric expedition. Today, Congress might hide an earmark for the funding but in 1823, it showed fiscal restraint.

Reed's Version of Symmes Hole

However, that restraint didn’t last too long because, 15 years later, the Congress actually appropriated $30,000 for Charles Wilkes to sail to Antarctica. In 1838, Wilkes set sail with 6 wooden ships to check out the South Pole. He first tried to nose in but was rebuffed when amidst strong winds, high seas and pack ice; one of his ships sunk taking the full crew with it. So, he decided on a different route, venturing into the South Pacific and charting Hawaii, Tahiti and Samoa. Sounds like Uncle Sam funded a nice vacation in island paradises to me. However, unlike Fletcher Christian, Wilkes did not get so enamoured by Tahiti and he sailed to Australia and then to the South Pole. He actually ended up making a pretty decent map of the frozen continent and today there is a 1500 mile stretch of coastline in Antarctica named Wilke’s Land.

John C Symmes II

None of that would have happened without the outlandish claims of Symmes and Reynolds, who planted the seed for Congress to fund an expedition to Antarctica to find the hole in the earth. Now, when Admiral Byrd flew over the poles(1926 and 1929), it should have put to rest the rumors of a hollow earth. But, like those who want to chase Chemtrails, hollow earth proponents refused to accept the facts and instead claim that Byrd actually entered “Symmes Hole” because Byrd had referred to Antarctica as the “Land of Everlasting Mystery” and said, “I’d like to see the land beyond the pole. That area beyond the pole is the center of the great unknown.” In 1906, William Reed took a different tact and said there was no north and south pole but instead there were entrances to the center of the earth and in 1913, Marshall Gardiner went so far as to say that there was sun 600 miles in diameter in the center of the earth. Of course, no one has reported any holes but…the claim was that the government was covering up the truth!  So, there you have it…it can’t be any more clear…Admiral Byrd has gone into the hollowed out earth and there is a government conspiracy to prevent anyone from finding out…I told you that it sounded like Chemtrails.  It’s a weird story from the past but perhaps its a good reminder that throughout history today’s facts of science sometimes become tomorrow’s silly stories.  Then again, there are those today who still believe the earth is hollow or that there is no proof one way or another regarding the center of the earth.

The Baron of Landgrabs; Still No Furnace January 19, 2009

Reavis So Unsettling He was Portrayed by Vincent Price in 1950

 

On This Date in History: I think everyone has heard of the Red Baron.  But have you  heard of the Baron of Arizona?  For ten years James Addison Reavis had a personal claim of some 17,000 square miles of present day New Mexico and Arizona.  Now, if you’re a regular reader, you know that this can’t be a square deal and it’s not.  See, Reavis’ days in the Confederate Army helped him to perfect the art of forging officers’ signatures on passes.  After the war, Reavis put his war skills to good use by forging real-estate deeds in St. Louis.  So, Reavis was primed when another scalawag schemer, Dr. George M. Willing, Jr, approached him with a huge swindle in 1871.  Willing died three years later.  Speculation is that Willing was poisoned to death.  It doesn’t take Columbo to figure out who the prime suspect would be when one considers that Reavis went ahead with Willing’s plan after Willing’s death.  Wonder if he said to himself, “George would have wanted it that way.”

James Addison Reavis...Nice Sideburns

Anyway, Reavis goes and gets a job in the federal land records office in Santa Fe.  What a great place for a master forger.  He did his homework as he spent several years doing his job  and simply studying the treaties between Mexico and the United States.  What caught his eye was the Gadsden Purchase, part of which featured a clause that the United States would recognize Spanish land grants.  He studied the writing styles and syntacs of Spanish writing used in 18th century documents.  So, he goes to Mexico and perhaps even Spain to forge new names on old documents.  Sometimes, he even inserted entire new pages.  He had Mexican officials notarize the phony papers.

The "Baroness" in the 1880's

In 1883, he filed his first claim based on a whopper of a tale. He claimed that in 1748, Don Miguel de Paralta de la Cordoba received 1.3 million acres of land in the Colorados from the king of Spain for services rendered.  That made Don Miguel the Baron of Colorados.  The second baron was childless and deeded the land to George M. Willing, who conveniently died.  Reavis claimed that Willing’s widow sold it to him.  Suddenly, there was a new baron in town, Peralta-Reavis.  The Southern Pacific Railroad paid Reavis $50,000 for the right of way.  The Silver King Mine had to pay him $25,000 to secure its right to stay open.   Thousands of businesses and ranchers had to pay toll to the troll (Reavis) to gain quitclaims.  Reavis was quite the love-muffin too.  He found an innocent girl whom he “groomed” to take the job as heiress and he married her.  Somehow, the marriage more than doubled his claim.

Looks Like a Great Flick

Now, I bash the press regularly for being know-nothings on this here blog, but here is an instance in which a newshound did some good.  Seems a newspaper publisher got suspicious when he noticed a bit of information on one of the documents that was of recent origin and the watermark on a page from a Wisconsin paper mill.  I don’t think Spain or Mexico ever controlled Wisconsin.  State Department officials got on the case and went to Mexico and Spain.  Now, by this time we’re getting to the turn of the century and scientific methodology was coming to crime investigations…call it an early version of CSI.  They used chemical tests and microscopic evidence and determined that the final pages of the Peralta grants were written on 10 year old parchment and used the wrong kind of ink.  Case closed.  On this date in 1896, Reavis was cooling his heels in jail after being indicted on 42 counts of fraud.  Later in the year, he was convicted and died a pauper in 1908. 

If that’s not a big enough land grab…how about this one?  Charles Wilkes (I wrote about this before..click here)  first spotted Antarctica on this date in 1840…and claimed the entire continent for the United States.  Pretty bold considering he just saw it.  Didn’t even step foot on it.  I guess he thought that finders keepers prevailed.  But, you can claim all you want as yours but if you can’t defend it, then its not really yours.  Obviously Wilkes never played Risk.

Weather Bottom Line:  The light snow we had on Sunday didn’t do much except provide a conversation piece.  Generally, it was around 33 degrees and nothing stuck for long. The snow on Sunday night was our first real accumulation of the year and was quite pretty.  Too bad I have no furnace because Snow White and I love to go out and walk about in the snow at night, but coming home to a cold house isn’t much fun. Our house is colder than the inside of the refrigerator which was a good excuse to go to church.  Then Snow White and I went to a Louisville Rowing Club meeting.  Fortunately, both locations had heat.  Now, I’m back at home looking at high temperatures for the next two days in the upper 20′s and low 30′s with snow showers or flurries off and on.  Then we move to the 40′s for Wednesday or Thursday.  I better get a new furnace on Monday.  My hands are very cold right now.

Government Conspiracy: The Earth is Hollow! Snow Friday? December 30, 2008

A little Flu Update:  If you’ve been a regular visitor to this here blog, then you can recall the information that I set forth about the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918.  That pandemic killed 50 million around the world and it has been a mystery as to how that strain of flu got so tough.  Well, researchers may have found an answer.  Somehow these guys have managed to find three genes that were specific to the 1918 bug that caused the flu to cause extreme pneumonia.  What seems scary to me is that they have recreated the virus or at least have that virus.  Maybe I’ve seen too many movies but let us hope that someone doesn’t swipe the virus or it doesn’t inadvertantly get released.  Here’s the story of the latest discovery.

Harper's Weekly 1882 Symmes Hole Illustration

On This date in History:  This one is pretty odd.  On This date in 1823, the citizens of Hamilton and Rossville

John C Symmes II

Ohio heard a lecture by John Symmes and the following day the two towns passed resolutions that the earth was hollow!

In the late 17th Century, astronomer Edmund Halley suggested that the earth had four concentric spheres and that there was a hollow area in the center with small entrances at each pole.  Inside the hollow area, Halley said there was life and there was illumination.  He thought that the auroa was caused by gasses being released from the openings at the poles.  Well, this guy John Symmes carried on that idea and began a series of lectures designed to gain financial support for an expedition.  He said, “I ask 100 brave companions…to start from Siberia…I engage we find a warm and rich land, stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals…northward of latitude 82.”  He wanted to sail over curved rim of a polar hole into a hollow earth.  Believe it or not, Symmes not only convinced the people of the Ohio towns, but also  some Congressmen who tried to get public funding for the expeditions.  A hollow earth fellow traveler, Jeremiah Reynolds, joined the chorus by stressing the commercial potential of the eccentric expedition.  Today, Congress might hide an earmark for the funding but in 1823, it showed fiscal restraint.

Reed's Version of Symmes Hole

However, that restraint didn’t last too long because, 15 years later, the Congress actually appropriated $30,000 for Charles Wilkes to sail to Antarctica.  In 1838, Wilkes set sail with 6 wooden ships to check out the South Pole.  He first tried to nose in but was rebuffed when amidst strong winds, high seas and pack ice, one of his ships sunk taking the full crew with it.  So, he decided on a different route, venturing into the South Pacific and charting Hawaii, Tahiti and Samoa.  Sounds like the government funded a nice vacation in island paradises to me.  However, unlike Fletcher Christian, Wilkes did not get so enamoured by Tahiti and he sailed to Australia and then to the South Pole.  He actually ended up making a pretty decent map of the frozen continent and today there is a 1500 mile stretch of coastline in Antarctica named Wilke’s Land.

None of that would have happened without the outlandish claims of Symmes and Reynolds, who planted the seed for Congress to fund an expedition to Antarctica to find the hole in the earth.  Now, when Admiral Byrd flew over the poles(1926 and 1929), it should have put to rest the rumors of a hollow earth.  But, like those who want to chase Chemtrails, hollow earth proponents refused to  accept the facts and instead claim that Byrd actually entered “Symmes Hole” because Byrd had referred to Antarctica as the “Land of Everlasting Mystery” and said, “I’d like to see the land beyond the pole.  That area beyond the pole is the center of the great unknown.”   In 1906, William Reed took a different tact and said there was no north and south pole but instead there were entrances to the center of the earth and in 1913, Marshall Gardiner went so far as to say that there was sun 600 miles in diameter in the center of the earth.  Of course, no one has reported any holes but…the claim was it was a government cover-up!!   So, there you have it…it can’t be any more clear…Admiral Byrd has gone into the hollowed out earth and there is a government conspiracy to prevent anyone from finding out…I told you that it sounded  like Chemtrails. 

GFS Snow Accumulation Friday Evening

GFS Precipitation Friday

Weather Bottom Line:

We have a system that will drop down on Friday.  If you look at the GFS critical thickness,

GFS Critical Thickness Friday

all lines are south of our region.  However, it would appear that moisture is limited with this scenario and the GFS tosses out numerically less than a quarter  inch of snow.  That’s it.  Now, just because the GFS has all of the critical lines south, it does not mean that will necessarily  come to bear.  Instead, it would be possible that what precipitation does occur could very well do so during a time of transition and so some of the critical thickness lines may indeed not be so neatly lined up and instead there could be air at the surface that is slightly above freezing or perhaps even some layers in between the bottom and top of the atmosphere that is above freezing as it is precipitating.  So, this bottom line at this time would be perhaps a little nuisance snow at best with a real possibility that we have a mixed bag of stuff that will not bring joy to anyone.  It’ll be fun to watch and see how it shakes out but I wouldn’t break out the snow shoes just yet.  I’m really getting tired of us being cold but not getting any action.  Quite boring.  Snow White and I spent Christmas in Houston where it was in the mid to upper 70s most of the time and if we can’t have snow, then I’d rather have that than this boring, cold stuff.  But alas…in the words of US Grant..”man proposes, God disposes.”