A Los Alamos Scientist Expresses Interest

Around this time, Ron received another call, this time from one of the scientists at Los Alamos. Jim Irwin had sent the specimen Ron had given him that came from the strange site above the ark site, to Los Alamos, and the scientist who ran the test had some questions for Ron. He wanted to know about the area the specimen came from, and Ron invited him to come and see for himself. To his surprise, John Baumgardner, a geophysicist from Los Alamos, accepted his invitation and in June of 1985, John, Dave and Ron went to the ark site.

Plotting the Metal Detector Scans

Using the 3 types of metal detectors, they did a scan of the site. At each metal reading, they placed a rock, and then connected each rock with plastic tapes. Before long, the shape of a ship could be seen in the pattern of the ribbons. John Baumgardner, skeptical at first, soon began to show his excitement. After all, it was the metal analysis of the specimen Jim Irwin had sent him that had caught his attention. Another Los Alamos scientist would later tell Ron that they suspected that perhaps a satellite had crashed in the region and that Ron, ignorant of these matters, mistook it for Noah's Ark. John would be a great asset to the team, if he ever became convinced- at least that what's Ron and Dave thought. He had financial backing and his credentials were certainly impressive.

At one point, when they were doing metal detector scans, John pointed out some metal flakes protruding out from the site of one of the metal readings, "I'd save those frames", he tells a jubilant Dave Fasold on video. Ron and Dave had an agreement- since it was so time consuming and nearly impossible to work and video everything at the same time, the 2 agreed to share their footage, an agreement Dave has honored. And so, when the trip ended, the 3 were all in full agreement that this was Noah's Ark and that radar scans were imperative.

August 1985- Disaster

The next trip would be in August 1985- the time of the annual "ark hunters'" pilgrimage to Mt. Ararat. John's financier, a California attorney, agreed to fund the venture. Dave arranged for Tom Fenner of GSSI, the manufacturer of the radar equipment, to come over with an SIR-8 system, and then he arranged for ABC's "20/20" to cover the event at the last minute, with his friend, Jim Burroughs as cameraman. John's financier came along with their own film crew, as well as 2 other scientists from Los Alamos.

John also arranged to do interviews with the 700 Club on CBN. Ron got the permits, and all seemed to be "go". Except tensions were now building. It was apparent that John wasn't fond of being a "member of Ron's team" when he had the credentials and his financier was funding the project. Ron and Dave (who were paying their own way) didn't have financial backing and it was getting costlier and costlier, especially for Dave who still had children at home.

Ron, John and the others from Los Alamos arrived first, and they did another metal detector scan, laying out red and yellow ribbons. They measured the length using sophisticated surveying devices and arrived at 515' 7"- again, 300 royal Egyptian cubits. All was filmed by John's crew and Ron got some video.

Attacked by Terrorists

With all the publicity in the region from the gathering of high-profile ark-hunters, the regional terrorists took this opportunity to rear their ugly heads. Attacking some of the folks on Mt. Ararat, they soon fled and headed to the boat-shaped site. Commandos had been stationed around the site, hiding in the crevasses, and when the terrorists made their move, these commandos quickly rose up and decimated several of them, causing the rest to flee.

Martial law was declared and the site was now off-limits. All of John's team left before Dave arrived with Tom Fenner and the SIR-8 radar system and the news crew. It seemed like a total loss, a total waste to have the radar and technician so close yet so far. But having the "20/20" people there paid off handsomely. The work up to that time was documented in a positive manner and the whole nation had an opportunity to see what was happening on "Doomsday" mountain. This was another interesting thing Ron and Orhan had learned when they questioned the villagers in Aug. of 1984- the mountain was called locally, "Doomsday mountain", which again, is just one more "circumstantial" evidence. Next...