Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Scientists will tell you that it was George le Metra
Speaker 1: who first coined the idea of an expanding universe originating
Speaker 1: at a single point, a point he referred to as
Speaker 1: the primeval atom. This theory came about in the year
Speaker 1: and just two years later Edwin Hubbell confirmed that the
Speaker 1: universe and the galaxies within were indeed drifting apart. But
Speaker 1: what if I were to tell you that le Metra
Speaker 1: was not the first to propose such a theory, or
Speaker 1: that the first person to do so was actually better known,
Speaker 1: someone perhaps a little more grounded in science than we
Speaker 1: might think, known far and wide as one of the
Speaker 1: greatest writers to have ever lived. This poet and storyteller
Speaker 1: also dabbled in the sciences, and it's within that world,
Speaker 1: rather than literature, that we can find one of his
Speaker 1: lesser known works. He himself categorized it as a prose poem,
Speaker 1: but it has more or less confounded people for years.
Speaker 1: He called it Eureka, after the legendary exclamation uttered by
Speaker 1: Greek inventor Archimedes after he discovered a method for testing
Speaker 1: the purity of gold. This work of nonfiction clocks in
Speaker 1: at a healthy forty thousand words, and it was actually
Speaker 1: the last bit of writing this man composed just before
Speaker 1: his untimely death. After spending years composing it, he ended
Speaker 1: up delivering it as a speech on a blusty winter
Speaker 1: night in front of an audience of about sixty people.
Speaker 1: Yet it remains one of the most curious works of
Speaker 1: an already curious writer, given the incredible scientific merit found
Speaker 1: within it, despite its sheer lack of scientific proof. Among
Speaker 1: the massive theories contained within this work of genius are
Speaker 1: theories of what happens to the soul after the body dies,
Speaker 1: and how all things are composed of the same materials,
Speaker 1: the body, the spirit, and even the cosmos, and that
Speaker 1: at the end of everything, all consciousness will collapse into
Speaker 1: a singular mass. Now, if that sounds in any way
Speaker 1: convoluted or out there, rest assured that it has been
Speaker 1: analyzed and cross analyzed in the years since his death.
Speaker 1: And let's say that there is much more merit in
Speaker 1: this fantastical work then you might expect. All throughout his life,
Speaker 1: this writer explored the ideas of life after death, so
Speaker 1: it's not all that outlandish to think that he explored
Speaker 1: them in a more scientific capacity as well. Oh and
Speaker 1: there was one other major theme that he explored in
Speaker 1: his final piece, a theme that George le Metra got
Speaker 1: it for coining in ven You see, it was in
Speaker 1: Eureka that we first hear about the possibility of an
Speaker 1: expanding universe, a theory that's, according to modern science, didn't
Speaker 1: exist until yet here. It was written out on the
Speaker 1: page eighty years earlier in eighteen forty eight. And he
Speaker 1: saw beyond just the expansion as well, proposing that the
Speaker 1: universe expanded and contracted like massive eternal heartbeats, something that
Speaker 1: science has found evidence of in the decades since. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this particular man is rarely mentioned in many conversations about
Speaker 1: the cosmos. Critics of Eureka have complained that while he
Speaker 1: did touch on many scientific ideas that are all but
Speaker 1: accepted today, he did so without any scientific backing whatsoever,
Speaker 1: no proof which apparently discredits all of those truths entirely.
Speaker 1: But while many questioned the scientific merit of his piece,
Speaker 1: the author himself never did. He referred to it as
Speaker 1: his greatest work, and rather modestly said that his proposal
Speaker 1: was more important than the discovery of gravity. In fact,
Speaker 1: upon completing it, he told his mother in law, I
Speaker 1: have no desire to live since I have done Eureka.
Speaker 1: I could accomplish nothing more, And true to form, he
Speaker 1: died the following year, barely forty years old. Whatever the case,
Speaker 1: even if he hadn't already proven himself something of a
Speaker 1: genius for his groundbreaking writings in the world of horror
Speaker 1: and the macabre, this crowning exploration of the universe sets
Speaker 1: him apart from his contemporaries forevermore. And the name of
Speaker 1: this writer turned man of science, Edgar Allan Poe. Conservation
Speaker 1: is so important to the survival of our planet, from
Speaker 1: preserving our natural resources to rescuing the animal kingdom, we
Speaker 1: need to do all we can to save what remains
Speaker 1: after generations have lost. Deforestation, climate change, and the industrial
Speaker 1: revolution have all decimated countless acres of land, spewed smog
Speaker 1: and chemicals into our air and forced thousands of species
Speaker 1: to go extinct. Many of the animals that have survived, though,
Speaker 1: have done so by adapting. After World War Two, for example,
Speaker 1: American soldiers returning home, we're getting married and moving out
Speaker 1: of the city to raise their families. Mass housing was
Speaker 1: being built in previously undeveloped areas, along with shopping centers
Speaker 1: and highways. In other words, the end of World War
Speaker 1: Two led to the beginning of the era of the suburb,
Speaker 1: and with it came the destruction of millions of habitats
Speaker 1: across the United States, which either pushed out or wiped
Speaker 1: out the animal populations that once lived there. But one
Speaker 1: of the most prominent areas where development affected the local
Speaker 1: animal population happened to be McCall, Idaho. McCall had been
Speaker 1: established in eighteen eighty nine by Thomas and Louisa McCall.
Speaker 1: For over fifty years, it was home to a few
Speaker 1: major industries, including lumber and mining. Over that time, McCall
Speaker 1: drew all kinds of people to work and play there.
Speaker 1: Recreational sailors enjoyed taking their boats out on the lake,
Speaker 1: and the turn of the century saw an explosion of
Speaker 1: tourism brought on by new hotels and resorts. But after
Speaker 1: World War Two, McCall became a hot destination for married
Speaker 1: couples and entrepreneurs looking to settle down. Newlywed's flocked there
Speaker 1: to build homes and start families, while business owners from
Speaker 1: the northern town of Lewiston came to open lodges, doctors, offices,
Speaker 1: and social clubs. Now while all of this expansion brought
Speaker 1: a lot of money to the town, those who were
Speaker 1: already living there weren't very happy about it. New construction
Speaker 1: had infringed on the habitats of McCall's native beaver population.
Speaker 1: With nowhere else to go and maybe a bit of resentment,
Speaker 1: the beavers began taking their anger out on their new neighbors.
Speaker 1: They started cutting down trees with their sharp teeth, not
Speaker 1: carrying where those trees fell. The damns they built wound up,
Speaker 1: flooding yards and destroying crops. After all, just because humans
Speaker 1: have moved into their territory didn't mean the beavers were
Speaker 1: going to stop being beavers. Naturally, the new homeowners and
Speaker 1: business owners wanted them gone. Idaho's Fish and Game Department
Speaker 1: took up the call. They didn't see the beavers as
Speaker 1: annoying rodents with a vindictive streak. They knew the animals
Speaker 1: served a very specific purpose within their ecosystem. They helped
Speaker 1: improve the quality of the water and streams and brooks.
Speaker 1: They created habitats for other creatures, and they were responsible
Speaker 1: for keeping the wetlands well. Wet Fish and game employees
Speaker 1: wouldn't kill them, no matter how much the town's residents
Speaker 1: wanted them to. Instead, they decided to move all seventy
Speaker 1: six of the offending beavers elsewhere. They've done it before,
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen thirties under similar circumstances, but the
Speaker 1: job was tough on both the people transporting them and
Speaker 1: the beavers themselves. It started with the beavers being trapped
Speaker 1: and by before getting loaded onto a truck. That truck
Speaker 1: would then take them to a conservation officer who would
Speaker 1: watch them overnight, then load them onto yet another truck,
Speaker 1: and that truck would carry the boxes to a nearby
Speaker 1: area where the beavers would be released, at which point
Speaker 1: their carriers would be fastened to horses and mules and
Speaker 1: hauled the rest of the way. Many beavers didn't survive
Speaker 1: the journey due to intense heat and dehydration. Also, the pack.
Speaker 1: Animals didn't love carrying angry beavers, because who would, so
Speaker 1: it was up to Idaho Fish and Game employee Elmo W.
Speaker 1: Header to figure out a better way. First, he designed
Speaker 1: special boxes in which to carry the beavers. They were
Speaker 1: wooden with holes drilled in the side, and they would
Speaker 1: open when they touched the ground. He also had the
Speaker 1: perfect new home ready for them in the Chamberlain Basin
Speaker 1: two miles away, but that was a long haul and
Speaker 1: it wasn't really accessible by truck or car. Even using
Speaker 1: mules and horses would have been really tricky, so instead,
Speaker 1: Head he used an abundant resource that was left over
Speaker 1: from World War Two parachutes. Yes, Elmo Header wanted to
Speaker 1: parachute the beavers into Chamberlain Basin, and he did it,
Speaker 1: and after a series of tests with an older male beaver,
Speaker 1: he put his plan into motion. On August fourteenth, Header
Speaker 1: filled eight crates worth of beavers and transported them by
Speaker 1: plane over the basin. Almost every beaver made it, save
Speaker 1: for one who chewed his way out of the box
Speaker 1: while still seventy five ft above the ground. But once
Speaker 1: the rest safely landed, their boxes automatically opened up and
Speaker 1: the beavers were free to start living their new lives.
Speaker 1: Oh and that older beaver that header used to test
Speaker 1: his new box design. He gave it the perfect name, Geronimo.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,