Mysterious and Amazing History

Quite Puzzling: One of the greatest sea-faring mysteries is that of the Mary Celeste. On December 4, 1872, the Mary Celeste was found abandoned, floating in pristine condition except for a few things, the chronometer was missing, the ship's papers were missing, and not a soul was on board. There are many theories as to what happened to her crew and passengers, but considering the lack of any real evidence and the condition of the ship with her cargo of liquor and wine still on board, as well as the money box, they remain just theories. So what happened? Unfortunately, the few who really know are long gone...

Two of the deepest points on Earth, the Puerto Rico Trench, and the Mariana Trench, are almost exactly opposite each other on the Earth. They are also found in two of the most mysterious places on
Earth: the Bermuda Triangle and the Dragon's Triangle, where many ships and planes have mysteriously disappeared. Some physicists speculate the two trenches are perhaps separated by a "wormhole".

On mountaintops in the western United States grow the Bristlecone Pine Trees, the Earth's oldest living inhabitants. Many of these trees were seedlings during the construction of the ancient pyramids. The oldest living tree is aptly named 'Methuselah', and is now 4,770 years old. It's exact location is unnamed to protect it from the threat of vandalism. They are found high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and are a threatened species, despite their longevity. The Bristlecone Pine was catagorized as Vulnerable and added to the Red List in 2007. There is a large amount of information about the Bristlecone Pine at ARKIVE.

The image to the right is NOT the Methuselah tree!

In Boston, in 1919, a tank holding 2 million gallons of molasses bursted and poured the molasses into the streets moving at 35 mph. The huge 'blob' rolled over vehicles, animals, people, and even knocked some buildings from their foundations. It tore the supports from an elevated train track, destroyed the Publics Works building, and collapsed an apartment building. Sadly, it left 21 people dead and 150 injured. The clean-up crew pumped water from the harbor into the streets, but the molasses didn't mix well with saltwater, and a brown foam was created instead. It took several months before the streets of Boston were somewhat molasses free again.

If you happen to visit Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar's Village), which is 16 miles south of the center of St. Petersburg, Russia, perhaps you would be lucky enough to see the rebuilt Amber Room which is located in Catherine Palace. The original Amber Room is the subject of a great vanishing act. Given as a gift to Peter the Great by the son of the King of Prussia, the Amber Room consisted of thousands of pieces of amber assembled into intricate mosaics, ornaments, figures and patterns.

In 1941, the Nazis disassembled the room and took it to the German city of Königsberg, now known as Kaliningrad, Russia. In 1945, the Soviets captured Königsberg and packed the Amber Room into 27 crates. The original room hasn't been seen since. The hunt continues for the whereabouts of the Amber Room, or proof of its destruction, but nothing has come to fruition. There have been a few pieces of the room discovered, but they do not explain the mystery of its disappearance. There are several theories, some claiming the room was burned when the Nazi's set fire to the palace, but proof is hard to come by.

Opening in 2003, the Amber Room is alive again, having been reconstructed by photographs and memory. Expert craftsmen spent more than 20 years painstakingly carving and rebuilding the beautiful room that had been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World. The Russian government relied on donations to help bankroll the enormous cost of the room's reconstruction, including
a massive donation by the German company Rhurgas.

There have been several claims that the Amber Room has been found, some as recent as 2008, but nothing has yet been presented to the German or Russian governments as proof.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, well kown for his Sherlock Holmes novels, is believed, by some, to have murdered his friend, Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
Fletcher Robinson died at the age of 36 of Typhoid, or at least that was listed as the cause of death, but there are those who say he may have been poisoned by his wife, Gladys.
Where does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fit in? Consider the following:

It has been alleged that the Hound of the Baskerville's was a story stolen from Fletcher Robinson, and Arthur Conan Doyle had Gladys poison Fletcher, with or without her knowledge, to cover it up.

Arthur Conan Doyle was having an affair with Fletcher Robinson's wife.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a qualified doctor with the knowledge poisons and their effect on the body.

Laudanum poising has many of the same side effects as typhoid.

Fletcher Robinson never saw a doctor until the day of his death.

Typhoid is extremely contagious, but no one close to Fletcher Robinson caught the disease.

Fletcher Robinson's body was transported on a crowded train from London to his home of Devon to be buried.

Most victims of typhoid are cremated to discourage the spread of the disease.

There are plans by a team of investigators to ask the Diocese of Exeter and the Home Office for permission to dig up the body of Bertram Fletcher Robinson to look for evidence of laudanum poisoning.
If no laudanum is found, perhaps these allegations will be put to rest. If it is found, then the plot thickens.

UPDATE: The Exeter Diocese Consistory Court has blocked the exhumation of the body of Bertram Fletcher Robinson, so this will remain a mystery.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1876.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both presidents were shot on Friday.
Both were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southeners.
Both were succeeded by a southener named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are comprised of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at a theater named Ford.
Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln made by Ford.

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.



Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland had been producing salt for as long as 700 years until it was opened to tourism in 1996. This incredible salt mine has intricate sculptures and astounding carvings and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its "outstanding universal value to mankind".

The carvings of the Wieliczka Salt Mine include historic figures, mythic creatures, large carved chambers and chapels. The mine even boasts an underground lake which lights up with the placement of colored lights. Ornate salt-crystal chandeliers hang from the ceilings of the larger parts of the mine. Amazingly, many of sculptures seen here were carved by the miners themselves.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is 9 levels deep and contains more than 2,000 chambers. Visitors to the underground cathedral have ranged from Copernicus to Pope John Paul II. Unfortunately, many of the sculptures and carvings close to the entrance have been damaged or completely destroyed by humidity. This has spurred a group of scientists and engineers to come up with inventive preservation improvements and they have dramatically reduced the humidity in the salt mine. Because of their work, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was the first site to be removed from the endangered list.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is a testament to the creative and artistic capabilities in all of us. If ordinary men, miners, are capable of producing such beauty from caverns of salt, then maybe those of us who are considered just 'ordinary' have something of worth to contribute to society. We just need to embrace it.

Santa Fe, New Mexico is home to the famous spiral staircase built of wood. In 1878, the architect of Chapel of Our Lady of Light died, leaving them with a choir loft, but no access to it. The chapel was visited by architect, craftsmen, and carpenters, but none could come up with a way to build a staircase with remodeling the interior of the chapel and taking up valuable space. So the nuns began to pray for an answer.

Here begins the mystery...after eight days of prayer, an elderly man with a mule showed up at the door with a box of simple tools. He took one look, and said he'd build them their staircase. Alone, the man started working on the staircase using no nails or screws. After some time, the staircase was complete. A work of art without central support. The carpenter quietly left without payment. The nuns planned a great feast, but no one knew what happened to the elderly man. No one knew where he stayed, and the local lumberyard had no record of the purchase of wood. With the mysterious disappearance of the humble carpenter, the nuns began to wonder it was St. Joseph himself, the earthly father of Jesus, who was sent to build their staircase. When they counted the stairs, they found there were 33, the number of years Jesus was on Earth before ascending to heaven.

There have been some who claim to know who may have built the spiral staircase of Loretto Chapel. Some say it was Johann Hadwiger, a master carpenter. After his death, his grandson found a sketch of a spiral staircase with 33 steps in his old toolbox. Perhaps it was Francois-Jean Rochas, whose obituary in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper read "an expert worker in wood who built the staircase in the Loretto chapel".

So who built the mysterious spiral staircase? Man or Saint? Perhaps the better question is, if it were a mere mortal man, does it really matter? Five nuns, in 1878 Santa Fe, prayed for someone to do what no other craftsman, architect, engineer,or carpenter who visited the chapel before-hand could do, and many visiting master carpenters and architects to this day stand in awe of. They prayed for a miracle, a master carpenter, and he came. An elderly man with his mule, his simple tools, and his humility.

In 1914, the Hudson Bay Company built an icebreaker ship sturdy enough to withstand the treacherous waters and crushing ice packs of the Canadian waters. They called the ship the Baychimo, and she was to deliver supplies to the Eskimo villages in exchange for pelts, thus pioneering the fur trade in the area.

The Baychimo had made several relatively uneventful trips until 1931, when she set off in July on her usual route towards the Victoria coast. On the return trip, the ice became so packed around the Baychimo that she stalled and was stuck tight. Luckily, the ship was close enough to a small Alaskan village that the captain and crew walked on the ice and sought shelter with the Eskimos there.

Two days later, the ice began to melt around the ship, and the captain and crew set off. Three hours later, the ship became impacted again, and the captain sent out an SOS. The date was October 8, and it wasn't until October 15 that the men were rescued by air. Fifteen men opted to stay behind to guide the ship home after she became free.

The ice was so thick, that the men built a shelter of wood on the ice, and hunkered down for a long, dangerous winter. A great blizzard blew in on November 24, and the men huddled in the wooden shelter. The storm over, the men emerged to find the Baychimo gone. Disheartened, the men made their way inland on the ice.

Now here is where the story gets amazing!

A few days later, the ship was found 45 miles south of where she was lost, but was again ice-packed.

After several months, she was spotted again but about 300 miles to the east.

In March 1932 of the following year, she was seen floating peacefully near the shore by a man travelling to Nome with his dog-sled team.

A few months after that, she was seen by a company of prospectors.

March of 1933, she was found by a group of Eskimos who boarded her and was trapped on-board for 10 days by a freak storm.

August 1933, the Hudson Bay Co heard she was still afloat, but was too far a-sea to salvage.

July 1934, she was boarded by a group of explorers on a schooner.

September 1935, she was seen off the Alaskan coast.

November 1939, She was boarded by Captain Hugh Polson, wishing to salvage her, but the creeping ice floes intervened and the captain had to abandon her.

After 1939, she was seen floating alone and crewless numerous times, but always eluded capture.

March of 1962, she was seen sailing along the Beaufort Sea coast by a group of Eskimos.

She was found frozen in an ice pack in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned, and this is the last recording sighting of the ghostly Baychimo.

In 2006, the Alaskan government began work on a project to solve the mystery of "the ghost ship of the arctic" and locate the Baychimo, whether still afloat or on the ocean floor. As of yet, she has not been found.

On December 5, 1945, five Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers left Ft Lauderdale Florida on a training mission. They were to fly to several points in the Atlantic and return to the base in Florida, covering a distance of 320 miles. Radio conversations between the pilots were detectable by base and other aircraft in the area. It was known that the practice bombing operation was completed successfully. The first sign of trouble came with the transmission, "I don't know where we are. We must have got lost after that last turn." The transmission was heard by another flight instructor, Lieutenant Robert F. Fox in FT-74, who tried to help the lost flight regain their bearings. Lieutenant Charles Carroll Taylor, the flight leader of the lost squadron, transmitted, "Both of my compasses are out and I am trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am over land but it's broken. I am sure I'm in the Keys but I don't know how far down and I don't know how to get to Fort Lauderdale." Lt. Fox then advised them to put the sun on his port wing and fly north up the coast to Fort Lauderdale. Several transmissions were passed back and forth between the flight leader and the other four bombers. They headed one way, and then the next, trying to find anything familiar, any place to land. The last transmission heard from Lt. Taylor was "All planes close up tight . . .we'll have to ditch unless landfall . . .when the first plane drops below 10 gallons, we all go down together." It soon became apparent that Lt. Taylor, for some unknown reason, turned his command over to another pilot who anxiously transmits: "We can't tell where we are . . .everything is . . .can't make out anything. We think we may be about 225 miles northeast of base . . ." For a few moments the pilot rambles incoherently before saying the last words ever heard from Flight 19: "It looks like we are entering white water . . .We're completely lost." The 5 Naval bombers were never seen again.

Minutes after the last transmission, a Mariner flying boat with rescue equipment is sent towards the area of Flight 19's transmission. Ten minutes after take-off, the pilot of the Mariner checks in with the tower and is never heard from again. The Coast Guard, Navy ships and aircraft search 250,000 square miles for the next 5 days, hoping to find some sign of the 5 Avengers or the Mariner, but saw neither oil slick nor wreckage.

In 1990, wreckage of an Avenger was raised from the ocean floor, but could not be positively identified as one of the missing planes.

A curious footnote to this story is that one of the planes of Flight 19 was missing a crew member. Marine Corporal Allan Kosner was given special permission to stay on land that day because he had an unshakeable premonition of danger.

Several hours after the disappearance of Flight 19, two search and rescue planes, Training 49 and Training 32, were sent on a limited search for the missing squadron. The search was limited because not only had night fallen, but also because of increasing winds and isolated rain showers. Visibility would be poor at best. At 7:29, the two rescue planes, both PBM Mariners, set out. Training 49 was to search the area of Flight 19's last radio fix, and Training 32 was to head straight out into the Atlantic. Soon after take-off, Training 49 and Training 32 check in with the tower. All is well. Training 49 reports in for the second time, and Training 32 is never heard from again.

At 9:12, the base tower receives a report that at 7:50, the freighter Gaines Mill saw a huge fireball explosion in the night sky in the same area Training 32 would have been in. At this report, Training 49 was diverted to search for Training 32. At 10:45, Training 49 arrived at the area of the explosion and saw no sign of wreckage or debris. Amazingly, the Gaines Mill, already in the area of the explosion, also found no sign of debris. The Gaines Mill further reported there were no rain showers or lightning at the time of the explosion. The Solomons, a carrier, had also reported a blip that disappeared at the time and location of the explosion.

There was no doubt that the explosion was Training 32, but what caused the explosion and where was the debris? Mariners underwent rigorous preflight checks by a ground technician and then by the plane captain, the machinist always flew on his assigned plane, so these guys made darn sure these planes were ready to fly.

There have been reports of strange auroras, green colored glowing balls, and other strange lights of unknown origin in the Atlantic. These strange lights were reported by observers on and off the coast of Florida near the area where the Mariner exploded.

So why did the Mariner, called a flying gas tank, explode? Was it equipment failure? Someone lighting a cigarette, which was strictly prohibited? Pilot error? Or was the explosion caused by one of these light anomalies? Whatever the reason, there seems to be no explanation for the absence of debris, wreckage, or oil slick on the water. That is the real mystery.

Who was the real Shakespeare? Who wrote the 38 plays, two long poems, and 154 sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare. I will give you the details, but the conclusion is up to you.

The Stratford merchant baptized Gulielmus Shakspere:
In the 1780's Rev. James Wilmot spent four years trying to link William Shakespeare to the literary works.

Skeptics about Gulielmus Shakspere being the true bard range from Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Henry James, Orson Welles, and John Gielgud to current entertainment luminaries such as leading Shakespearean actors Michael York, Kenneth Branagh, and Derek Jacobi.

Shakspere had a grammar school education and was not known to have traveled further than London and Stratford, which is significant because a great knowledge of several disciplines, court life, and foreign countries, especially Italy, would be necessary.

Shakspere was known to have acted in William Shakespeare's plays.

There isn't even the slightest piece of documentation that Shakspere, the merchant, ever wrote anything in his life. No scratches of poems or diary and no mention of poems or sonnets in his will.

Eighteen years after Shakspere's death, an engraved monument in a Stratford church show Shakspere holding what looked like a sack of grain, a full century later, it was changed to a pen and paper.

Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford:
The Earl of Burford, a direct decendant of Edward de Vere, believed his ancestor wrote the plays under the hyphenated pseudonym "William Shake-speare.

Six years after the death of Shakspere, The Compleat Gentleman was published, listing the Elizabethan era's greatest poets and first on the list was Edward de Vere. In this edition and the next three, there is no mention of Shakespere, Shakespeare, or anything close to this name.

Edward de Vere died in 1604, before one-third of the plays were published.

Edward de Vere earned two masters degrees, studied law for three years, traveled throughout Italy, and had first-hand experience with court life and politics.

The Edward de Vere was a playwright and stopped using his own name the same year that Shake-speare's name began to appear, which is probably a pseudonym since hyphens were rarely used.

The de Vere family crest was of a lion shaking a spear and Edward de Vere was known as spear shaker in the courts.

A pseudonym was commonly used because playwrights could be imprisoned for going against the norm, being too radical, and not conforming to the political and religious practices of the day.

In 1999, an eight year study was completed on the Geneva Bible, owned by de Vere. Many phrases were highlighted and more than a fourth of them were in the writings of William Shakespeare. Also, William Shakespeare has 66 allusions to biblical stories, 29 of which were found highlighted in the Geneva Bible.

Now comparing the facts above, who do you think was the real William Shakespeare? While it may not be known for sure, that takes nothing away from his brilliant writings. No, on the contrary, this debate just adds to the mystique of our beloved William Shakespeare.

The Naval career of Raphael Semmes is one of the most amazing stories of the American Civil War history. Born on September 27, 1809 in Maryland, Raphael Semmes began his Naval career as a midshipman in 1806. In June 1861, he commanded the USS Sumter and thus began his career as one of the most successful raiders of commerce in Naval history, putting a 6 million dollar dent in Federal shipping.

In January 1862, Semmes sailed the USS Sumter to Gibraltar to for some much needed repairs but lost her to enemy warships. He was in command of the USS Sumter for only 6 months, but in that short time, he was responsible for the capture of 18 merchant ships. His tactic was to fly a neutral, or sometimes even Union flag upon approach, and then hastily run up the Confederate flag and capture a ship before they had time to react with any real force. While this tactic was against 'the rules of war', it kept casualties on both sides at a minimum. Raphael Semmes was fast becoming well known to both sides of the Civil War. He was branded a dreaded "pirate" to the Union, and a beloved "hero" to the Confederates; however, he was also known for his fair treatment and decency towards those he took prisoner. Semmes had a great regard for life and took every precaution to spare the lives of the merchant captain and crew. He never allowed mistreatment of the officers, crews or passengers of his captive vessels or their personal effects, and demanded his crew treat the captives with the utmost kindness and respect. He also treated his own crew as members of his own family, and mourned the loss of any of them.

After the loss of the USS Sumter, Semmes and his crew escaped to England where he was promoted to Captain. Captain Semmes acquired a commercial vessel in Madiera, an Island belonging to Portugal, and converted her to the famous warship, the USS Alabama. Semmes was in command of the USS Alabama for 2 years and in that time, he was responsible for the capture of 69 merchant ships and the destruction of one warship. He had, between the Sumter and the Alabama, more than 500 men under his command and had held at one time or another, a total of around 2,000 prisoners, but never lost a single one to disease.

One of the most valuable captures of Captain Semmes is that of the Vanderbilt Liner, the Ariel. Captain Semmes was lying in wait for an incoming ship, hoping to replenish his treasury with the gold that usually constituted part of the cargo of the ships coming to port. Disappointingly, an outbound ship, the Ariel, was the first to come in sight, and had her decks crowded with passengers. When the passengers saw they were to be captured by the hated "pirate", they started hiding their valuables and became agitated and fearful. Captain Semmes then sent a handsome young Lieutenant and a midshipman to charm the ladies and allay their fears. When the young Confederate officer and midshipman boarded the Ariel, they assured they were not there to make war on women and children, and that none of their personal belongings would be stolen. The two made such an impression on the women passengers, that they returned aboard the Alabama with their brass buttons and gold lace missing from their uniforms, having been appropriated by the women as keepsakes of their encounter with the dashing Southern Raider.

When the Alabama made port in France, she was blockaded by the USS Kearsarge. On June 19, 1864, the Alabama and the Kearsarge met in one of the most famous sea battles of the Civil War. Draping the Kearsarge with chains, Captain John Winslow turned the warship into an ironclad and therefore was able to withstand the bombardments from the Alabama. The USS Alabama took heavy damage and Captain Semmes ordered his crew to abandon ship. Many of the crew was rescued by the Deerhound, an English yacht. Captain Semmes, injured in battle, recovered in England. Raphael Semmes himself recounted: "My officers and crew formed a great military family, every face of which was familiar to me; and when I looked upon my gory deck, toward the close of the action, and saw so many manly forms stretched upon it, with the glazed eye of death, or agonizing with terrible wounds, I felt as a father feels who has lost his children--his children who had followed him to the uttermost ends of the earth, in sunshine and storm, and been always true to him."

In February 1865, Captain Semmes was promoted to Rear Admiral. In April of the same year he was made Brigadier General and in December became a prisoner of war. On the 15th of December he was arrested for treason. His captors tried in vain to find anyone who would speak against Raphael Semmes. They wrote letters requesting help from former merchant captains and crew of the ships he had captured, but could not find a single former prisoner who had experienced maltreatment from Raphael Semmes or his crew. Semmes was released April 7, 1866, for lack of evidence.

After his release, Raphael Semmes worked as a professor of philosophy and literature at what is now LSU, as a newspaper editor, and a judge. He moved to Mobile, Alabama and there lived out his life. Semmes died in 1877 and is buried in the Mobile Catholic Cemetery. A statue stands in his honor on government Street in downtown Mobile, Alabama, and in 1953, was inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame.

The actions and conduct of Raphael Semmes stands as a model for all those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves engaged in combat.

One of the many stories of missing art is the story of Dr. Gachet. Painted by Vincent Van Gogh, he said of the painting in a letter to his brother: "I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it. . . . Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done."

In 1868, Van Gogh's sister-in-law sold the painting for 300 francs. The painting was sold several more times until it ended up on display in Frankfurt's Städtische Galerie. With the rise of Hitler in 1933, the museum director took Dr. Gachet and several other Impressionist paintings and locked them in a hidden room. The museum director's actions may have saved the paintings, because soon after, the Nazis condemned many works of "degenerate art" and sought to confiscate them. In 1937, the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda found Dr. Gachet. Hermann Goering, then sold the painting in order to buy more politically correct hunting tapestries. Eventually, the painting ended up with the Kramarsky family in Amsterdam, who brought it to New York when they fled the Nazi occupation. In 1990, the Kramarsky family put the painting up for auction at Christie's New York.
The bidding started at $20 million and was sold for the record topping price of $82.5 million to an anonymous buyer. The painting was sent in a heavily padded crate to a storeroom somewhere in Tokyo. The new owner, 75 year old Ryoei Saito, spent a few hours admiring his purchase, and then locked it in a climate controlled vault. It stayed there for seven years.

By 1993, Saito was struggling financially, and to add to his woes, he was charged with trying to bribe officials. He pleaded guilty and was given three years probation. He was now broke, in a wheelchair, and bitter. He said he wanted the Portrait of Dr. Gachet cremated with his remains and buried with him, although he stated later that he was joking.

In 1996, Ryoei Saito died, and there was a scramble to find who the new owner of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet was. Did it belong to Saito's heirs? His creditors? His company? More importantly, did anyone know where Dr. Gachet was? Saito's company claimed they knew where it was, but was extremely secretive about the whereabouts of the famous painting. Museum curators, auction houses, and private individuals tried to locate Dr. Gachet or find out who now owned the painting, but to no avail. The painting just disappeared without a trace.

Even today, more than a decade after it's disappearance, people are looking for the missing Dr. Gachet. People from Cynthia Saltzman, author of a book on the mystery: Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece, Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss, to George Shackelford, chair of Art of Europe at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, have tried to locate the painting. They, along with others, have followed lead after lead, but unfortunately have found nothing but dead ends. Sjraar van Heugten, head of collections at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, said of Van Gogh, "He was trying to make a new kind of portrait, which would give a feeling of eternity to the person portrayed. These thoughts come together in Gachet." Many art authorities wish the current owner would come forward, not only because of it's high price, but also because they believe such works of art should have the chance to be admired by humanity. It is the least we can do to repay these amazing artists for sharing their soul with us. While Dr. Gachet may not be able to heal the wounds of the world, perhaps it can help make the scars a little less noticeable.

In June of 2006, the Portrait of Dr. Gachet dropped to second place in the list of most expensive paintings sold to date. First place now belongs to The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which sold to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie in New York City for $135 million.

Photo of the reconstructed London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Taken by Aran Johnson, Nov. 3, 2003.

Want to walk across the London Bridge without going to England? Robert McCulloch did, and in 1962 he bought the original London Bridge for $2,460,000, which was put up for sale by England because it was sinking into the Thames and a new bridge was needed to handle the increased flow of traffic. Of course, people thought Robert was nuts, but he did it. He had the stones numbered and shipped to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, and then reassembled stone by stone, with the Lord Mayor of London arriving in Arizona to lay the cornerstone. Robert Berensfornd, a civil engineer from England, was in charge of the reconstruction. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was opened, and Robert McCulloch's dream was realized. Yes, it was a wild dream, but he went for it. Not willy-nilly, but with forethought and careful planning. His accomplishment is proof that with the same forethought and careful planning, perhaps we can also make our dreams come true. Maybe not to such a grand scale, but seriously, how many of us have dreamt of moving the London Bridge!

I know what you're thinking, he was a millionaire! But how many other millionaires have moved national landmarks? Not only move it, but make it accessible to the public without direct monetary benefit?

In 1513, Piri Re'is, an admiral in the Turkish Navy, drew a map outlining the western coast of Africa, eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. This map was discovered in 1929, drawn on a piece of gazelle hide. Now, finding a map that old is remarkable indeed, but finding one so detailed became a bit of a puzzle.

Being an admiral in the navy, Piri Re'is was able to pursue his passion; cartography, but that does not explain how he was able to map the Antarctic coast with such detail. Especially since the coastline was covered in ice at that time and had been for ages! Of course, there was another advantage to being able to sail the seas for Piri Re'is, and that was that he had access to many of the maps that were drawn before his, and it has been determined that he got much of his information from comparing and confirming the details in those maps. So, one would assume that he got many of the details of the Antarctic coast from maps charted before his, but there is a problem with that assumption, that part of the Antarctic has been determined by scientific studies to have been covered by ice for roughly 6,000 years! So what advanced civilization was around 6,000 years ago with the technology to not only provide these accurate details, but make a map of some kind from which to copy?

During the Middle Ages, there were a compilation of maps called "portolani", which showed the popular sailing routes. These were of great use to the sailors of the early times. But there were also maps of less known routes and coasts. These maps were well guarded by those who possessed them. Christopher Columbus was said to own a few of these rare maps. The Library of Alexandria was also known to have accurate maps of these lesser known routes, drawn from the stories and experiences of ancient voyages passed down from generation to generation by a number of the earliest civilizations.

In 1204, some of these rare maps were also found in Constantinople, and were being used by European sailors. It became clear that voyages were made from pole to pole by ancient mariners, and that some of these ancient peoples sailed before the antarctic was covered by ice. Not only this, but they had extremely accurate instruments of navigation and could plot lines of longitude and latitude more accurately than the European sailors of the day.

In 1953, the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Bureau evaluated the Piri Re'is map and concluded that such accuracy could only be drawn by way of aerial surveillance, and as if that weren't amazing enough, the Hydrographic Bureau even found mistakes in some of the maps of the present day, and used the Piri Re'is map to make corrections! Okay, so who flew 6,000 years ago?

Dr. Charles Hapgood, author of "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings", sent a collection of ancient maps to be studied by Richard Strachan of Massachusettes Institute of Technology. Mr. Strachan concluded that a knowledge of spheroid trigonometry, the curvature of the earth, and methods of projection had to have been known by the cartographers who drew these maps.

A theory presented by Dr. Hapgood is that there was a polar shift, which was enthusiastically embraced by Albert Einstein, and therefore, this part of the Antarctic was not covered by ice as far back as previously assumed. This, theory however, does not diminish the fact that perfect lines of longitude and latitude were made not only on this map, but many other ancient maps from these extremely early periods in our history, that the mathematical knowledge used by these early sailors was astounding, that these people knew they wouldn't fall off the end of the Earth, and that they actually had ships that could survive these treacherous waters.

It is rather vain of us to think that the reason we are so advanced is because we are more intelligent than our ancestors. What knowledge we have and what technology we enjoy is nothing different than what great individuals have done through the ages, and that is to build upon the experiences and wisdom of those before them. Bravery, intellect, curiosity, and innovation existed thousands of years before us, by civilizations we may not even be aware of, and while it is good and right of us to honor their accomplishments with awe, it is better of us to build on the knowledge they have passed down to us, and use it as a positive influence for all people.

Other great and mysteriously accurate maps are:

"Dulcert's Portolano", 1339, drawn with perfect latitude lines of Europe and North Africa, and longitude lines of the Mediterranean and Black Sea that are off by merely half a degree.

A map drawn by Turkish Hadji Ahmed, 1559, that shows a strip of land joining Siberia and Alaska.

A map drawn by Oronteus Fineus, who also drew the accurate coast of Antarctica, and also showed Greenland as two separate islands, which has been recently proven by a French polar expedition.

The "Zeno's chart", 1380, showing a large area including Greenland, whose precision is uncanny.

A map copied by a carving on a large rock column in China, 1137, with so many common points found on western maps that one might assume they came from a common source.

The "Hamy-King Chart", 1502, while containing a few errors that were probably a result of the compilation of several maps using different styles, it is impressive as a world map showing the whole of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

You join the Army in 1868, and are sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Afterwards you become a member of the 7th Calvary under the command of Captain Keogh. You are wounded by an arrow during a battle with the local Indians, but you valiantly continue on. As your military career continues, you are wounded in battle several more times, and yet you still fight, time and again proving yourself in battle. In June of 1876, you are a battle-hardened soldier and find yourself in the middle of the worst and most disastrous battle of your life, the Battle of Little Bighorn led by Colonel Custer. It was horrid, gruesome, and chaotic. Your entire detachment was killed save yourself and some horses. You are badly wounded and feel completely alone. You wander aimlessly hour after hour, trying in vain to find relief for your pain and those darn flies that keep feeding on your wounds, no matter how many times you swat them away. As darkness falls, you wonder if anyone is looking for you. Does anyone know what has happened? You spend a sleepless night, wracked with pain and becoming increasingly weak. The day breaks, and this day is no better than the last. Now, the pain from your wounds is almost equaled by the ache in your stomach. Every hour that goes by, you become weaker and even more hungry. You have been roaming for two days now, trying to remember how to get back to safety, but your head is so foggy... It looks like you will die here with the images of war still replaying in your head. You may never know peace again, it seems, until the angels come to take you home.

Just when you thought you couldn't hold on any longer, you are found. The details are scattered, but you find yourself on a steamboat heading to Fort Lincoln, where you are nursed back to health. Because of your bravery in battle, you are promoted to the rank of Second Commanding Officer of the 7th Calvary. It is also decided that you have been through enough, and you are retired and given a place of your own. You have all your needs met, everything from food, to shelter, to free beer! (Which you have a bit of a liking for). You never have to work again.

In 1890, you leave this world for what rewards wait for you in the afterlife. You are buried with full military honors. Your name goes down in history and your bravery becomes legend.

Amazingly, you still can be seen today day, standing behind climate-controlled glass at the University of Kansas. You are, after all, the horse...Comanche.