WEBVTT - Fire From the Rocks, Part 1 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.720 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.960 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. When 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.239 we think about fire, and we do think about fire 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.000 a lot on this show, let's come out the time 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.360 and time again. What are you are you confessing something 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.639 that we that we love fire, that we worship fire, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.840 that we delight in its um, its growth, and its consumption. Um. No, 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.120 but it is it must be fed. But it is 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.599 an important aspect of Earth. You know, as we discussed 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.280 on past episodes. You know, Earth is the only planet 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.599 known to have fire, and there was a time when 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.960 there was no fire on Earth because it wasn't possible yet. Um. 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.559 You know fire. When we think about fire, we think 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.840 about its fleeting nature, but also it's potential, it's tremendous 0:00:55.880 --> 0:01:00.400 power provided conditions are just right. Um. It's uh. It's 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.480 always interesting to think about how fire is in many 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.720 ways more un event than a thing, and for it 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.679 to happen you need heat, fuel and oxygen, and the 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.480 fuel and the oxygen we're not always present on our planet. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.560 Fire is more or less an aspect of the New 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.960 Earth and The earliest evidence of charred vegetation dates back 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.160 a mere four hundred and forty million years. Right, So 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.240 today natural forest fires are just part of the cycle 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.520 of life on the surface of Earth. But there was 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.560 a time when Earth had its first forest fire. Can 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.240 you imagine that, like the first time that ever happened. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.800 it's crazy to imagine. And so this is this has 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.760 been an aspect of life under their earth ever since. Um. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:45.280 And yeah, with with fire, it's it's interesting too because 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.559 there's this trifecta. Obviously this necessary for it to exist. Um, 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.320 but it is a delicate tripod. Remove one of the 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.720 legs of the fire tripod and the fire will perish. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.480 Uh So. Yeah, our relationship with fire is sometimes like 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.080 whoe is out of control? And other times it is 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.400 you know, I can't get this thing to light at all? Um. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:07.160 You know. So I think we're all familiar with that, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.160 with the dual nature of fire. Uh So. For today's episode, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.040 and this will spill it into the next episode as well, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.360 I thought we might start with just what I thought 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.119 was just really tantalizing question because I'd never really thought 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.680 about it before, not not until you brought up this topic. 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.040 And that is what is the longest that a single 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:31.120 fire has raged? Uh? And I guess they're all sorts 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.080 of sort of artificial parameters we might throw in. You know, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.880 what constitutes a single fire versus multiple fire spread out 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.440 over time? Uh? I guess we kind of have to 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.200 take the human scenario of like a hearth or a 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:48.280 camp fire and imagine that is sort of our basic principle, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.720 like a single a single flame that keeps eating things, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.240 keeps consuming, maybe it moves. But what is the longest 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.560 that such a fire has raged without snuffing out completely 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.519 and having to be reset one way or another? Great question? Yeah, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.079 so of course you know the answer, and I that 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.920 I know the answer to now. But but putting ourselves 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.520 in the mindset of someone who doesn't know the answer, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.359 you might likely turn to a few different categories to 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.680 start off. And the first would be what we just 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.079 talked about, forest fires. Um. So you know, as long 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.120 as we've had forests and fire, uh, this has been 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.360 a possibility here on earth. Uh. Many of the worst 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.520 forest fires in history, though, are measured in terms of acres, destruction, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.520 and fatality rather than in time. But if you dig, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.120 dig down, you you can start seeing some some time 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.960 stamps on things. Many of the worst are dated to 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.280 just a single day in human history um. Others last 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.200 longer though some of the consist of multiple blazes, So 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.320 it becomes perhaps a little more of a challenge to 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.280 think of a continuous fire in these cases. Uh, though 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.200 in many of the cases I think it does fit. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.440 Some wildfire seasons, of course, span many months, and then 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.120 you have you have particular fires that have raged for 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.080 a period of time. There's the Coyote Fire of nineteen 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.600 siour in Santa Barbara, California, which lasted from September one 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.240 to October one. So it seems we might if we're 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.040 thinking about about modern forest fires, we're gonna probably look 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:23.039 at something lasting days months, um uh, somewhere in that range. Now, 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.760 as for wildfires of yesteryear, as well as blazes caused 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.440 by prehistoric extinction events, I I couldn't find any stats 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.240 on this, but I suppose it's worth thinking about. But 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.719 it's also worth thinking about the fact that when you 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.120 have a particularly large energetic fire, it can ultimately become 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.760 something entirely different. You've become this this fire storm which 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.280 creates and sustains its own wind system. So I mean, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.000 I guess that's one of the reasons when we start 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.560 looking at some of these big blazes, they do tremendous damage, 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:58.680 they can cover a pretty large area, but they're still 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.360 not lasting long and time because they're just eating through 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.480 all of that fuel in a relatively short period of time. 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:07.680 And of course, with when we're talking about wildfires, we 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.080 also have to think about the fact that, uh, you know, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.360 the human civilization has a has an impact as well 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.680 on just how wildfires will play out through a given 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.520 forest scenario. Uh, you know, and to a certain extent, 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.920 you know, we've we've been able to to jump in 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.240 with um with orchestrated burns, control burns to try and 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.159 uh simulate sort of the natural cycle of fires that 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.520 would normally occur um. But another area where you have 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.080 to factor in human civilization is of course when you're 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.279 dealing with urban fires, where the trees and various other 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.880 aspects of the natural world have been remade into an 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.760 artificial environment a city, and then what happens when that 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.920 catches fire. Well, I think a lot of the same 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.200 practicalities are involved here as well. Some of the great 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.120 fires to ravage cities are often measured to a single 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.839 date in time UM, though there are some exceptions. There's 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.640 the uh There's the one b C burning of Carthage, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:14.120 which reportedly took seventeen days. But this was also said 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.839 to be a systematic burning of the city by the Romans, 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.040 So I'm not sure if that would count UH so 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.240 much because it was it was one of these situations obviously, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.120 where the Romans are like, let's burn the city down, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.599 let's make sure everything burns through. There are some other 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.360 fires that are that are worth mentioning. There's the Great 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.279 Fire of Utricht in the Netherlands that lasted nine days 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:39.360 reportedly in twelve fifty three. There's the eighty nine first 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.560 Great Fire of Lynn, Massachusetts, reportedly last two weeks, destroying 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.760 roughly a hundred buildings. So it looks like, if we 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.440 were going to say it looked to the world of 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.680 like urban fires, for some sort of a candidate for 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:53.919 longest fire, you're gonna be looking at something in the 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.760 realm of days two weeks, But figures beyond that seemed 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.000 kind of doubtful. All right. The next area to think about, though, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.760 would be, of course, human sustained fires. What about situations 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.400 in which a human cultivated flame, a flame that's kept 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.760 and fed more or less like a pet either for 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:16.120 technological purposes, say like a forge or a pilot light, 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.520 or something that's more religious or secular, or a secular 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.960 symbol in nature, you know, something like a holy fire 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.960 that's kept going, or some sort of a monument that 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:29.600 has an eternal flame hooked up to it. I was 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.840 shocked to discover how many monuments there are that have 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.520 so called eternal flames on them because I don't know, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.520 maybe it's just uh, my morbid brain, but it seems 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.680 like calling a flame eternal is just tempting the faces. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:45.960 Like you you know, this is not this flame will 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.320 not burn forever. It's like settled down. You can't call 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.119 it eternal. I was trying to think what you should 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.320 call it instead. I can't come up with anything. I 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.240 don't know, maybe the long burning flame or something, or 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.840 the attempted eternal flame. It's just eternal is not gonna happen, right, Yeah, 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:01.960 I mean I guess, and to a certain extent, I 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.200 guess this is obvious. Like they're getting into the idea 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.880 of like the fire is something that is that it 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.080 can go out and it has to be cultivated. And 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.680 you know, a lot of these are tied to two 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.119 causes and memories with the with the idea of saying like, hey, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.240 let's let's let's make a point of remembering this individual 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.880 or remembering this cause. Um, and and we'll use the 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.679 fire as a symbol. Uh. But that that yeah, And 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.200 there have been a number of these that that have 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.200 sprung up just at the end of the twentieth century 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.400 and and even you know, in the twenty one century. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:36.960 And uh and and it's also and it's certainly with 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.960 the older ones that it gets more difficult to really 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.920 figure out. Okay, has this been truly a perpetual eternal 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.199 fire or has it gone out at least once, if 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.319 not multiple times over the span of time that is 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.760 attributed to it. I'm sorry that Roger Corman is invading 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.720 my brain right now, but I'm thinking of a line 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.440 and attack at the Crab Monsters where the giant psychic 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.319 crab they're assaulting it with with different types of weapons. 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.200 The humans are trying to defeat it, and at some 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.160 point they use a fire based weapon and the crab 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.400 counters by telling them he says something like that was 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.360 quick thinking Dale, but the pity is that all fires 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:17.520 must one day burn out. True, it's true. Um. But 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.520 by the way, more fairly recently, someone was asking, I 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.880 think in the discord for Stuff to blow your mind, 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.480 what are all the episodes in which Joe has mentioned 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:30.080 attack of the crab monsters. No one had a clear answer, 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.920 but a few a few episodes were brought up in 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.840 which people remembered you you mentioning it. We'll add this 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.199 to the list. Okay. Uh So, out of the various 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:40.839 examples that come up, but one that I thought was 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.280 pretty interesting is that of the the dast show in 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.760 Temple Complex in Japan that has a flame that is 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:51.400 said to have been burning for about twelve hundred years. Obviously, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:56.040 it's impossible to say with something like this, uh. And 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.959 ultimately I guess the it's the idea of the continuous 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.440 flame that is most portant here. Uh. But but still 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.439 this is an example of one that has supposedly been 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.000 burning for over a thousand years. Now. This is not 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.319 quite a flame. But I ran across this as well, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.800 and I thought I mentioned just because it's amusing and 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.959 and maybe we have some listeners who can who can 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.679 report on this firsthand. But there is something known as 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.199 the Centennial light bulb in Livermore, California, specifically in the 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.240 firehouse there. It's been burning there, uh, the bulb since 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.440 nine one, though this has not been continuous. There have 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.439 been power outages and electrical issues, etcetera. So I'm not 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.280 sure exactly like what the ratio is between the time 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.679 during that century plus that the light has been out 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.480 versus on. But it's certainly a very old light bulb 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.200 that still lights up. And there is a webcam you 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.120 can like check in on its status at centennial bulb 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.040 dot org. So this is same filament, no, no replaced parts, 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.000 it's the same bulb old and it still works, still works, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.960 yeah uh, And and you can go visit it like 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.600 on the website. It has information about how you can 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.520 see this bulb for yourself. That is very impressive because 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.160 obviously this is not an LED bulb or something. This 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.120 is Lord knows how they're making light bulbs in nineteen 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.200 o one, but this was in some form an incandescent 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.400 filament based light bulb. Yes. Now, now getting back to 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.520 the idea of fire and technology, I will say that 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.880 I don't have an answer regarding things like pilot lights 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.160 or you know, forge fires, industrial flames. Um, So there 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:36.760 might be a really good example out there that I 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.920 just couldn't find of a of a verified long burning 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.440 pilot light or long burning forge fire, that sort of thing. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.000 But if listeners out there have have have something to 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:56.559 submit on that count, let us have it. So, based 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:58.719 on everything I've mentioned here and then, this very much 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.960 reflects my mindset going into this. I was thinking, Uh, 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.000 you know, before we did any research, before we brought 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:05.679 up the idea of the episode, I would have guessed, well, 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.160 the longest raging fire, you know, maybe maybe it's it's gone, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.280 you know, a few weeks, a few months, uh, and 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.600 you know the conditions are just right. But beyond that, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.480 I mean, how how long can a fire rage? Uh? Joe, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.800 would you like to get into uh one of the 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.440 answers that that we're going to discuss in these episodes. Well, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.000 for the rest of the series, we wanted to talk 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.200 about naturally fueled flames. Flames that can burn for a 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:38.360 long long time because humans weren't even necessary to create them, uh, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.679 that they're in they can arise in various ways. We're 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.120 going to talk about some major categories I think more 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.400 in the next part of this series. But there are 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:51.480 various kinds of of of burning and ignition processes that 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.640 it turns out have been going on on the surface 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:59.319 of the Earth for hundreds or even thousands of years, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.640 which of course absolutely just dwarfs everything that that I 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.560 that I've mentioned so far. It really puts things on 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.680 an entirely different time scale, right, So I wanted to 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.840 talk in uh in this episode about one example that 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:14.960 really struck me when I was reading up for this 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.120 that's sort of an odd man out, it's not exactly 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.240 fitting into the other categories that we're gonna be talking 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.319 about in part two, so I figured to be good 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.960 to start with this one. So in the Northwest Territories 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:32.160 of Canada, there is a stretch of seaside cliff faces 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:36.200 and hills along the eastern coast of a place called 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:42.319 Cape Bathurst where the earth and the rocks themselves seem 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.520 to be perpetually burning, and they have been that way 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:51.080 probably for thousands of years. In English, this place is 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.720 known as the Smoking Hills or sometimes the Smoky Mountains, 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.920 not to be confused with the ones in along the 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.480 Tennessee North Carolina border. Different and smoky mountains literally smoking 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.920 in this case, but in the language of the anuvialu It, 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.280 and these are the people native to the western Canadian 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.240 Arctic region. It is known as nar you At, which 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.840 means big fire. And I was poking around for good 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.800 historical resources on this place. A lot of the articles 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.840 I dug up actually seemed rather confused, offering contradictory details 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.280 about early observation. So the best thing I found was 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:33.080 a piece in a magazine called Twosaiosat, which is a 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.320 publication devoted to the language, culture and history of the Innuvvaluate. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.040 This article is by Charles Arnold and it's called ing 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.680 Near you at the Smoking Hills of Franklin Bay. So 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.040 Arnold identifies the earliest written account of the Smoking Hills 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.560 as one tracing back to a Scottish naturalist, explorer and 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.840 naval surgeon named Sir John Richardson, who wrote about the 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.320 hills in the eighteen twenties while documenting an expedition that 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.200 he made to chart the coastlines of northern Canada. And 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.400 as a side note, this mission was actually organized in 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:14.360 cooperation with another Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin, who many 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.040 years later in eighteen forty five, would head up the 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.160 infamous Lost Franklin Expedition, the goal of which was to 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.760 fully chart a northwest sea passage through Canada. They were 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.440 hoping to find a way to get around the northern 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.200 part of the continent by water. Obviously, this is even 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:32.760 though you know, if you look at a map you'll 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.760 see a lot of gaps between the islands of northern Canada. 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.800 This is more difficult than it might sound because often 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.400 these waterways are are choked with ice. So when Franklin 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.280 got lost in the eighteen forties, he was trying to 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.000 find this northwest passage. And if you want to know more, 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.840 you can look up what's known and unknown about the 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.000 voyage of the HMS Terror and the HMS arab Us. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.800 If you want some good hair raising mystery with hints 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:01.200 of cannibalism. Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a faculous score. Um. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.280 You know what we've been able to piece together over 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:05.840 the years through you know, the original history and then 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.360 the finding of the wreckage and so forth. Um. Dan 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.800 Simons wrote a fictional take on the Terror and the 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.360 Arabis titled The Terror, which was a brick of a 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.080 book that was then made in to an excellent AMC 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.280 mini series a few years back. Uh. In this Franklin 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.480 is played by the actor Kieren Hines. But I highly 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.560 recommend this series. It's a wonderful mix of detailed historic 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:35.440 depiction as well as fantasy and horror. Jared Harris and 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.960 Tobias Menzies also star in that. It's really good. Rob 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.160 can you do a short version of what we actually 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:45.120 do know about the Lost Franklin expedition? Well, uh, there's 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.160 a killer monster that shows up. No, No, that's the 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.880 that's the that's the mini series I'm thinking of. Um, 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:53.720 I mean, it's really really story. We could get into 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.760 the full episodes really, but but basically, you have these 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.600 two vessels that were that we're seeking the North Passage 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.479 and they went missing, and and you get into like 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.400 what happened to the crew, Like how long were they 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.320 marooned out there in the ice and their ships locked 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.119 in frozen in Where did where did they get to? 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.600 Did anybody actually, you know, make it out. It's presumed, 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.000 I think still that they all died. But you know, 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.080 there's a lot of there's been a lot of analysis 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.719 over the years about uh, you know what happened to them, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.760 and then and then later on we we actually found 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.920 the wreckages. There's a famous painting I think that has 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.760 to do with this, uh, with this lost voyage called 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.680 It's got a really metal album name. It's called something 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:43.200 like Man Proposes, God disposes or something um and it's 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.360 the painting is just a polar bearers fighting over scraps 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.560 of the wreckage. Yeah, for the for the longest the 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.960 wreckage was was just lost entirely, but it was in 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:59.680 September and expedition by Parks Canada discovered first the Arabis 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.399 and then two years later they found a terror as 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.080 well well. Anyway, coming back to the story, Sorry, so 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.040 Dr John Richardson, the author of the account I'm about 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.200 to site, was not involved in the lost expedition. He 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.000 just was an early collaborator with Franklin. So turning back 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.119 to his survey several decades earlier, in traveling along the 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.440 shore of the place that would come to be known 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:27.040 as Franklin Bay, Richardson made some observations of something marvelous 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:32.879 cliffs that themselves appeared to be quote on fire giving 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.520 out smoke, and where the ground appeared to consist of 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:41.560 quote burnt clay's variously colored yellow, white, and deep red. 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.960 I found another source quoting one of Richardson's accounts, where 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.439 he says, quote at Cape Bathurst, the northern end of 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:54.000 Franklin Bay, bituminous shale is exposed in many places, and 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.639 in my visit there in eighteen six was in a 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.800 state of ignition, and the clays which had been thus 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.320 at supposed to the heat were baked and vitrified, so 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.720 that the spot resembled an old brick field. And I 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.280 will say I understand what Richard is is getting at here. 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.680 Of course, brick fields are places where bricks are manufactured. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.720 You can look these up on the Internet and you 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.640 can see the resemblance with the unnatural look of the 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.399 baked earth. But when I look at pictures of the 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:27.080 smoking hills, my computer ruined brain sees these landscapes, and 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.600 unfortunately the first place it goes is that it looks 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.520 like a level in doom. Yeah, it does. Um it. Also, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.960 I have to say it looks kind of delicious, like 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.760 I'm also reminded of I don't like red velvet cake. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.119 It's like red velvet cake emerging from the earth. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:47.080 And it's very interesting the way they produce these protruding 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.600 rock formations. They're very jagged, uh, and they seem to 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:56.320 be rather resistant to weathering compared to the unbaked rock 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.280 all around them, which is more smoothed over. Yeah, very jagged, dairy, 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.080 and very bloody looking in some cases. Say it looks 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.440 like some sort of rock formation that is just gouged 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.919 into the flash of a titan. Totally. So that's what 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.879 Richardson saw in the eighteen twenties. He says, Hey, you know, 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.440 we went past these cliffs. They appeared to be on fire. 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.040 They're giving off smoke. We see a lot of burnt clay. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.960 It's yellow white and deep red. Very weird. Looks like 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.720 an old brick field. But then the written history of 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.080 the Smoking Hills continues after the disappearance of the Franklin 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:30.120 expedition in the eighteen forties. So Franklin, the two ships Franklin, 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.240 and the crews go missing, and in the year eighteen fifty, 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.159 a ship called the HMS Investigator, under the command of 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:42.080 Captain Robert McClure was searching for survivors of the Franklin 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.600 party in the area around Franklin Bay. Once again, when 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.040 the crew of this ship came across the same weird 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.720 site cliffs by the sea that were strangely covered, and 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.600 we're giving off plumes of smoke. And at first they 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.920 thought that these might be campfires or signals from the 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.560 Franklin survivors, so they sent out a small boat to 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.240 check it out, see what's going on. But no, it 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:10.040 was not survivors of the Franklin mission. Arnold in his 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:15.119 article identify as testimony left by a Moravian missionary named 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.679 Johann mr Sing who was a member of the shore party. 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:20.960 And this is one where I really wanted to find 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.760 the original text, but I don't. I can't if this 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.359 has been digitized anywhere, I could not find it. It 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.760 appears to be from what's called the Arctic Diary of 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.159 Johann mr Ching eighteen fifty eighteen fifty four. That was 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.119 that was published in print form in Toronto in nineteen 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.920 sixty seven. But but I couldn't find the digital version. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:43.520 So I'm relying on arnold summaries of of what mr 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.200 Ching says. But he says that when they got to 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.359 the source of the smoke, they found no human life 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.719 alive or dead. Only quote a thick smoke emerging from 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.000 various events in the ground, and a smell of sulfur 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:59.840 so strong that we could not approach the smoke pillar 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.359 year than ten or fifteen feet flame there was none, 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:06.359 but the ground was so hot that it scorched the 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.640 soles of our feet. Arnold says that Mr. Ching compared 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:14.000 the landscape to a huge chemical factory. He says that 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.400 water from nearby ponds had been fouled by something from 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.520 the earth, and that it that the water tasted sour, 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.080 and they brought back samples of rocks from the smoking hills, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.320 brought him back to the ship where he Merching apparently 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.879 claims that they ended up burning a hole in the 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.480 mahogany table where Captain McClure kept them. So they took 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:35.520 some rocks back to the captain and they're burning up 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:39.200 his furniture. You know this This reminds me again of 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.679 the mini series of The Terror because one of the 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.800 things that they stressed in that show and Uh, and 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.400