In 1823, Captain John Cleves Symmes, a war hero, went to talk to the members of the U. S. Congress.
He asked them to give him a ship and a few brave scientists for a journey to the center of the earth. He planned to sail there by going down a hole he believed existed at the North Pole.
He was convinced that the earth was hollow beneath its solid surface, and he wanted to reach “the warm, rich land stocked with leafy vegetables and animals, if not man.”
Many people believed his ideas, and one congressman, Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, (who later became vice president) tried to help him get the money he needed.
Congress finally said no.Then John R. Renoldo talked the secretary of the navy into outfitting three ships for the voyage.
Before they could set sail, Andrew Jackson was elected president, and he stopped the attempt. John Symmes was one of the most famous of the early Hollow Earth believers.
