I declare the earth is hollow, and habitable within; containing a number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my life in support of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me in the undertaking.

John Cleves Symmes, Jr. was born in 1779, and died in 1829. He was a War of 1812 veteran, and was best known for his theory that there were huge, 4000-mile holes at both poles of the earth which led into the HollowEarth. He died before he was able to mount an expedition to either Pole, but from his notes, he wanted to find a wondrous land near the North Pole... perhaps the lair of SantaClaus? He certainly wanted to use Old Saint Nick's preferred method of transportation...

"I ask one hundred brave companions, well equipped, to start from Siberia in the fall sea- son, with Reindeer and slays, on the ice of the frozen sea: I engage we find warm and rich land, stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals if not men, on reaching one degree north- ward of latitude 62; we will return in the succeeding spring."

Or perhaps this is TheBigRockCandyMountain? Heh.

He was actually the model for Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, according to some sources, which of course was used as an inspiration for Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

To add to the confusion, there's another John Cleves Symmes, the uncle of the HollowEarth proponent, who was a Founding Father, and his biography can be found here. He was the father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison, the first President to fall victim to the Zero-Year Curse.

Links

• http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/symzonia.html