Monday, May 15, 2006
The Seven Wonders of the United States!
Almost everyone can name at least one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—the Pyramids. Controversy still rages over how the pyramids were constructed. At least one person insists that one of the pyramids was a hydrogen power plant. Pyramids are even reputed to have all sorts of mystical powers. Some people put seeds underneath plastic ones to ensure that the plants will be full of vigor. Others lay claim to special mental powers if one sleeps underneath one. I once entered a drug store and saw to my amazement hundreds and hundreds of red plastic pyramids piled from the floor to the ceiling. The owner had bought a truckload lot hoping to turn a quick profit. Having sold only two or three after three or four weeks he decided it was time to admit defeat and have a gigantic clearance sale on pyramids. He offered me one for $2.99. Out of curiosity and friendship I briefly glanced over the accompanying instructions. Forty or fifty possible benefits were described—including souped-up special powers for sleeping under one. It would have fit only over my nose and mouth. I thought immediately of the consequences of oxygen deprivation and decided to pass on a “real bargain.” Even at $2.99 there is a limit as to how far friendship will go.
Pyramids have burst back into the news. Semir Osmanagic, an amateur archeologist, claims to have discovered three pyramids in Bosnia. Historians and professional archeologists outside Bosnia claim that they are only hills. They say there is no record of anyone in the area who possibly could have built pyramids. He is unswayed by their arguments. The “hills” are oriented towards the cardinals points. He has started a five-year project to dig the “pyramids” out from underneath tons and tons of dirt. Most of the work is being done with pickaxes and shovels. Meanwhile the community of Visoko is raking in the tourist money. The Hollywood Hotel has been renamed the Motel Bosnian Sun Pyramid. Restaurant meals are being served on triangular plates. Every conceivable trinket incorporates a pyramid in its design. One souvenir hawker has proclaimed, “This could be our oil well!” Sure! Some day you just might find some ocean front property in Arizona.
Speaking of pyramids, did I mention the most famous pyramid in the United Stares? No, not the one on the dollar bills. The one in Rock Lake, Wisconsin. Hundreds of research papers have been written about it; actually copied or, uh, “plagiarized.” It has its own web site. Thousands of librarians reference it constantly. They used it as an example of what one can find on the web. Pure fantasy! But that has hardly made a dent in the research papers. Hope springs eternally for students needing a quick research paper—even if it is someone else’s and pure fantasy.
But the United States really does have its own pyramid. Well, sort of. Thanks to William Hope Harvey. Harvey served as advisor to William Jennings Bryan in 1896. In 1932 he ran for President in his own right. He got 54,000 votes. While helping Bryan in his campaign he came to Rogers, Ark. (the general area where Wal-Mart is headquartered). He liked the area and decided to build his own resort, which he named Monte Ne, which means Mountain Water. Amazingly, he did not consider the name Wal-Mart. But then who could have known Wal-Mart would attract tens of million people everyday. Convinced that civilization was on the verge of collapse (the Great Depression was only a few years away), he set out to build a structure that would house all the useful knowledge of his age: a collection of books mainly his own, an automobile, a safety pin and assorted miscellaneous paraphernalia. A pyramid or obelisk was to house his historical artifacts. People from throughout the United States flocked to Monte Ne where the “train meets the gondola”—real Venetian gondolas no less. After the local railroad ceased operation, Harvey became the primary spokesman for the Ozark Trail Association which campaigned to build a regional highway from St. Louis to Monte Ne, and from there on to Roswell and Las Vegas, New Mexico. Much of this route would later become the famed Route 66. Alas, his budding empire began to self-destruct with the 1929 Wall Street collapse. Only the base of the pyramid was ever constructed. Monte Ne disappeared completely with the creation of Beaver Lake in 1966, four years after Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart.
Only a smattering of Harvey’s ideas have survived. There was Route 66 and a series of little miniature concrete pyramids that lined the highway. Today only seven of them survive. The wonder is that any of them still survive
Almost everyone can name at least one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—the Pyramids. Controversy still rages over how the pyramids were constructed. At least one person insists that one of the pyramids was a hydrogen power plant. Pyramids are even reputed to have all sorts of mystical powers. Some people put seeds underneath plastic ones to ensure that the plants will be full of vigor. Others lay claim to special mental powers if one sleeps underneath one. I once entered a drug store and saw to my amazement hundreds and hundreds of red plastic pyramids piled from the floor to the ceiling. The owner had bought a truckload lot hoping to turn a quick profit. Having sold only two or three after three or four weeks he decided it was time to admit defeat and have a gigantic clearance sale on pyramids. He offered me one for $2.99. Out of curiosity and friendship I briefly glanced over the accompanying instructions. Forty or fifty possible benefits were described—including souped-up special powers for sleeping under one. It would have fit only over my nose and mouth. I thought immediately of the consequences of oxygen deprivation and decided to pass on a “real bargain.” Even at $2.99 there is a limit as to how far friendship will go.
Pyramids have burst back into the news. Semir Osmanagic, an amateur archeologist, claims to have discovered three pyramids in Bosnia. Historians and professional archeologists outside Bosnia claim that they are only hills. They say there is no record of anyone in the area who possibly could have built pyramids. He is unswayed by their arguments. The “hills” are oriented towards the cardinals points. He has started a five-year project to dig the “pyramids” out from underneath tons and tons of dirt. Most of the work is being done with pickaxes and shovels. Meanwhile the community of Visoko is raking in the tourist money. The Hollywood Hotel has been renamed the Motel Bosnian Sun Pyramid. Restaurant meals are being served on triangular plates. Every conceivable trinket incorporates a pyramid in its design. One souvenir hawker has proclaimed, “This could be our oil well!” Sure! Some day you just might find some ocean front property in Arizona.
Speaking of pyramids, did I mention the most famous pyramid in the United Stares? No, not the one on the dollar bills. The one in Rock Lake, Wisconsin. Hundreds of research papers have been written about it; actually copied or, uh, “plagiarized.” It has its own web site. Thousands of librarians reference it constantly. They used it as an example of what one can find on the web. Pure fantasy! But that has hardly made a dent in the research papers. Hope springs eternally for students needing a quick research paper—even if it is someone else’s and pure fantasy.
But the United States really does have its own pyramid. Well, sort of. Thanks to William Hope Harvey. Harvey served as advisor to William Jennings Bryan in 1896. In 1932 he ran for President in his own right. He got 54,000 votes. While helping Bryan in his campaign he came to Rogers, Ark. (the general area where Wal-Mart is headquartered). He liked the area and decided to build his own resort, which he named Monte Ne, which means Mountain Water. Amazingly, he did not consider the name Wal-Mart. But then who could have known Wal-Mart would attract tens of million people everyday. Convinced that civilization was on the verge of collapse (the Great Depression was only a few years away), he set out to build a structure that would house all the useful knowledge of his age: a collection of books mainly his own, an automobile, a safety pin and assorted miscellaneous paraphernalia. A pyramid or obelisk was to house his historical artifacts. People from throughout the United States flocked to Monte Ne where the “train meets the gondola”—real Venetian gondolas no less. After the local railroad ceased operation, Harvey became the primary spokesman for the Ozark Trail Association which campaigned to build a regional highway from St. Louis to Monte Ne, and from there on to Roswell and Las Vegas, New Mexico. Much of this route would later become the famed Route 66. Alas, his budding empire began to self-destruct with the 1929 Wall Street collapse. Only the base of the pyramid was ever constructed. Monte Ne disappeared completely with the creation of Beaver Lake in 1966, four years after Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart.
Only a smattering of Harvey’s ideas have survived. There was Route 66 and a series of little miniature concrete pyramids that lined the highway. Today only seven of them survive. The wonder is that any of them still survive
