BACKGROUND: Admiral E. Byrd USN died in Dec 1956, just after he
finished his private diary about which he was sworn to secrecy by the
USN. The notes in that diary indicated that his seaplane exploratory
journey to the north pole went off-course and entered a cavity in the
Earth at the north Pole. This diary has been added to and re-published
by Abelard Productions in 1990. It has no stated editor.
The information about a "hollow earth" is staggering if true, it is
just a question of whether we can "trust the messenger".

QUESTION: How reliable is the document and was it a Benificiary to
Byrd's Will who authorised its publication?.

---

Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 29 Dec 2003 03:01 PST

It seems this supposed diary of Byrd is available on the Net. I've
seen it, but determining its authenticity and reliability is a very
difficult exercise. Firstly, it is a supposed document to support a
most astonishing and criticized theory, that of a hollow earth. It is
in the same status as the Piri Reis map, which has been used to prove
that Atlantis or such an equivalent ancient civilization did exist.
But even this map's reliability is disputable. Same with the 'secret
diary', people will continue to argue on whether it is reliable or
not, and I doubt there will be a resolution to it.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 30 Dec 2003 20:15 PST

Hello docsyd-ga,

I've been researching this a bit, and I'm struck by how many newspaper
articles there are about the hollow earth idea, one as recent as the
1940's (though it didn't take it very seriously).

For instance, a 1913 Washington Post article has a large illustration
of the hollow earth --complete with openings at the poles --  and
reports in detail on the theory of Marshall Gardner:

=====

Marshall B. Gardner, of Aurora, the
scientist in question, does not Say in so
many words that people live in the middle 
of the world. But he makes a circumstantial 
case to that effect. It is his
belief that there is a big sun in the
earth's interior, that there are immense
holes where the poles are supposed to be,
and that the phenomenon of the aurora
borealls and the aurora australis are the
result of the interior sun shining out
through the polar holes.

The Aurora man, who has spent 20
years in studying out his theory, asserts
that the earth's Interior, instead Of being
a molten mass of lava, as has been
claimed by scientists for ages, is hollow
and contains a central nucleus or material 
sun of about 900 miles in diameter...

=====

Other newspaper accounts focused on the ideas of Colonel Symmes and
his son, who planned an expedition to the North Pole in the late
1800's.

It certainly seems plausible that the ideas/words being attributed to
Byrd actually stemmed from these other researchers and explorers.  I
would strongly suggest that a search of old newspapers might prove
rather enlightening in this respect.

Have fun.

For one thing, the North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
For another, the real diary that Byrd made on the flight is among his
papers given to the Ohio State University.

The only controversy concerning the flight was whether he and Bennett
actually reached the Pole or missed it and falsely claimed the
achievement.

http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/00/pr0017.htm
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/Archival/Diary.html

hlabadie-ga

Another problem with the "diary" is that it has Byrd flying around in
an airplane at the North Pole in February 1947, a time when he was
known to be "Officer in Charge" of a Naval operation in Antarctica
(i.e., the other pole).

Do a search for "Admiral Byrd" in the New York Times archive for February 1947:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/advancedsearch.html

(1) Thanks for your observations tektor-ga. Is it possible to search
the US court records for details of Byrds Will and the names of
Benificiaries? I would like to track down who released it (the
'private diary') to public scrutiny.

(2) It seems that the only controversy you mention, hlabadie-ga, is
not the one to which I referred. It is alleged that 2 diaries exist,
one in Ohio State, the other alleged one (by The International Society
for a Complete Earth (ISCE)was private until his death, after which an
'expanded' version was published by ISCE in 1996.That is the document
I am questioning and the one that is creating the controversy.

(3) You helped a lot juggler-ga, by suggesting a search of the NYT
Archives, I established that Byrd did not go to Antarctica until 1930,
4 years after his North Pole expedition and I have compiled a lot of
data on him now. You would need to read the weird private diary to
appreciate its implications.

Hi docsyd,

I'm glad to hear that the N.Y. Times archive helped.

I can't vouch for the credibility of this web site, but you might find
this article interesting, as it's one of the few on the internet that
discusses the source of the "diary" (i.e., a person named "Captain
Tawani Wakawa Shoush"):

"The Missing Secret Diary of Admiral Byrd: Fact or Fiction?"
http://thehollowearthinsider.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=6

-juggler