A closer look
John Cleves Symmes Jr. passionately campaigned in the early nineteenth century for the Hollow Earth theory, claiming the planet was a series of concentric spheres with mystical openings at the North and South poles; he actually petitioned the United States Congress in 1822 to fund an arctic expedition to find the northern hole, convinced they would discover lush continents inhabited by subterranean civilizations, and Symmes was so relentless in his public lectures that he gained a massive cult following, despite having absolutely zero scientific evidence beyond his own wild imagination, making him the guy who successfully lobbied the federal government to finance a multi-million-dollar boat trip just because he had a really vivid dream about mole people
