By Gary Dickson
Seventy-three and one-half years ago Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, her navigator, disappeared while attempting an around-the-world flight. Who knows what Earhart would have accomplished or to what pinnacle her celebrity would have grown had she successfully completed the globe-circling flight?
We do know that ever since she became lost over the Pacific Ocean, not a year has gone by that she has not been the subject of a new book, lecture series, newspaper and magazine articles, a film or the primary objective of some group trying, once and for all, to solve the mystery of her disappearance. A few weeks ago I read that some bones just found on a South Pacific island may be Earhart”s.
On my office wall I have a framed poster of Earhart from the town of her birth, Atchison, Kansas. I was the publisher of the newspaper there, the Atchison Daily Globe, for several years. Earhart remains the most revered citizen to hail from Atchison.
Every year the Ninety-Nines, a female aviator group, of which Earhart was the first president, meets in Atchison to honor aviation pioneers at the International Forest of Friendship. The organization owns Earhart”s birthplace home and operates a museum in it. In 1997, on the 100th anniversary of her birth, Atchison placed searchlights on the Missouri River Bridge to “guide Amelia home.” Recently, Earhart was voted one of Kansas ” Eight Wonders. Last year a movie about Earhart, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, debuted. In October my wife got a new puppy from her cousin in Kansas. Because the dog came from Kansas, my wife named her Amelia.
Since Earhart”s disappearance there have been numerous theories about her fate. Of course, many experts believe she simply ran out of fuel, crashed into the water and sank to the bottom of the Pacific. Others believe she was spying on the Japanese for the U.S. government. Some think she was captured and executed, while others believe she returned and lived in New Jersey under the name of Irene Bolam. One grocery store tabloid published an article that told how Earhart had managed an Indonesian rubber plantation until her death.
One real possibility involves part of a shoe, airplane parts and pieces of bone that were recently found on Nikumaroro Island, which is south of Howland Island, where Earhart was headed when contact with her was lost. The bone fragments are being checked to see if they could be Earhart”s. Ric Gillespie, head of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), has been traveling to Nikumaroro Island since 1989 in an endeavor to solve the Earhart mystery. Gillespie has long believed that Earhart and Noonan made a forced landing on the island”s flat coral reef and survived as castaways for a period of time.
In all of those years, Gillespie has amassed an interesting collection of evidence that includes an aluminum panel proven to be from a Lockheed Electra like Earhart”s. He also discovered part of a shoe heel that has been confirmed as a brand match to the shoes Earhart was wearing in the last photo of her. There was also a plastic shard found that exactly matched the curvature of the side window of her plane.
Now, we”ll wait to see what the scientists at the University of Oklahoma discover about the bone fragments. An Earhart relative donated genetic material for the scientists to use for comparison. Gillespie warns that people should not be too excited; the bones could be those of a turtle.
Part of me hopes they are turtle bones and not Amelia Earhart”s. I like the fact that after more than 73 years Amelia Earhart is still regularly in the public eye. I”m afraid that if the mystery is finally solved and closure brought to the case, the Earhart mystique will come to an end and Amelia Earhart will disappear once again; this time forever.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
