Click HERE for larger image

The following account of the finding of Noah's Ark was reproduced from a broadcast by Art Baker, on the Sierra Madre program over ABC on March 30, 1945. Mr. Baker got most of his information from Life Digest, an Australian Public.

A Russian airman, more than 20 years ago, was flying over historic Mr. Ararat, in Asia Minor. As he swooped near the 17,000-foot crest of the mountain, his eyes lighted on a strange object, a huge boat, completely decked over. All its details were visible in the crystal-clear air, stubby mast; curved bow, built as if the designer expected waves to wash right over it. The flyer roared back low over his discovery, confirmed his first impression, and then flew back to base.

When he told his fellow fliers what he'd seen he met roars of laughter except from his captain. The officer, of strong religious tendencies, thought deeply, then climbed into his own plane and flew over Ararat himself. When he returned to base, he said: "I believe that I have seen Noah's Ark."

Yes, incredible as it seems, these airmen were convinced that they had discovered the actual Ark in which Noah rode out the flood 5000 years ago. They were sure of what they had seen a huge boat high up on the cliffs of an inland mountain that a scientific expedition was sent out. Two companies of soldiers scaled the colossal cliff and made their way over ice fields until they reached the strange ship.

They went over the boat with a fine-tooth comb. They measured it from stem to stern and sideways. Their report stirred deep interest in Moscow. Here's what they found that the ship contained; hundreds of compartments in keeping with the instructions the Bible says the Lord gave Noah.  Rooms shalt thou make in the Ark.  Some were very large, presumably to accommodate larger animals, others were like tiny cages, like the monkey house in a zoo.

That was the first expedition, two others followed. One of these was sent from Turkey, and here's what it found. The Ark, if such it is, was embedded in ice but amazingly in good condition. That fact puzzled the investigators. They identified the material in the craft as the ancient  gopher wood  of the scripture "that's a member of the cypress family. Doors built of cypress have been known to last 1000 years. But never 5000 years. That stumped the investigators, led them to think they were on the wrong trail. But then they learned from old residents around the base of the mountain that violent earthquakes in 1883 had dislodged huge blocks of ice from the very summit of the mountain.

One native mountaineer told the investigators that he had seen the bow of the strange craft sticking out of a great block of ice a few years before. Thus, the investigators reasoned, the Ark had never been touched by air until a little more than 60 years ago. Buried in eternal ice, it had been preserved for posterity. This was like the prehistoric animals discovered in perfect preservation in Siberian glaciers.