Print

[Craig Romig]

Today i was rereading articles in Tighar Tracks. As i was reading about shoe parts being found in 1991. I remembered what our   grade school teacher told the class in the 1970's. She told of us of shoes and other stuff that had been found on Nicku. She also said that the shoes found couldnt be verified as coming from amelia. Because there had been people who lived on the island for a short time in the 1950's. She also said they were still looking for her on gardner island. She had also mentioned no water on the island.

I realized. That the shoe story she told us. Must have been some news from the original shoe findings. For some reason. I thought. That tighar was the one to bring the original shoe find to the front page.

Interesting how the original shoe story got out and lasted that long. Before anyone got serious enough to take more intrest of the shoe find again.

[Ric Gillespie]

I realized. That the shoe story she told us. Must have been some news from the original shoe findings.

That's really interesting.  There was never any press about the original shoe findings because that incident was kept secret by the British.  The only public mention of the discovery of bones and shoes on Gardner (that I'm aware of) was in a San Diego Union newspaper article in 1960.  Retired Coast Guardsman Floyd Kilts related a greatly distorted account that few people believed.  By any chance did you go to school in the San Diego area?

[Craig Romig]

No kansas city. My teacher may have though. Or had gatheted the knowledge somehow.

[Ric Gillespie]

Your story is interesting because you seem associate it with a particular time and place (1970s and the school you were in at that time). Can you pin it down to a particular year?  What teacher? What grade?
TIGHAR's first publication of the Floyd Kilts story wasn't until 1989.

[Craig Romig]

It was prior to 1974. That is the year we moved. I can only remember two grade school  teachers names. One is the kindergarten  teacher. And she wasnt the one who told us that. It had to be my first or second grade teacher. Maybe third grade. I cant remember which grade i was in when we moved. I do remember the year 1974. Let me see if i can call the school to maybe find out other names

[Craig Romig]

I need to file a written request to get info. But i think i still have grade cards. Ill look when my wife gets home. To be sure i find them quickly.

[Ric Gillespie]

It had to be my first or second grade teacher. Maybe third grade.

You can remember all those details from story about Amelia Earhart that your teacher told you in first, second, or third grade?  I can't do that.  I can tell you my teachers' names for those grades and a few memorable incidents, but that's about it.  Must have made quite an impression on you.

[Craig Romig]

I remember a flash picture taken of me crawling on the floor. I now still have that picture.

Kck schools. Kindergarten through 4th grade. 1968 through 1972.

It seems we moved in august of 1972.
This was all found off of old grade cards.
i do not have first grade. But i remember her name. She was hot to me at the age of six.

I will withold names from public. But could pm them to u.

[jgf1944]

Part of the recall was, "She also said they were still looking for her on gardner island."
      For me, the stunning part is the possibility of a systematic find-Earhart effort that exited circa 1972. I am going to run though some papers that might have carried such news, had it existed at all. 
      Hope we make contact with the teacher. How fascinating. 
Guthrie Ford

[Ric Gillespie]

I'm quite sure there was no effort - systematic or otherwise - to find AE on Gardnerin the 1970s. At that time all of the buzz was about her being captured by the Japanese. There a couple of expeditions to the Marshalls to interview supposed witnesses.  There were some Smithsonian ornithological (bird) surveys done at Gardner but nothing related to AE.

[Daniel R. Brown]

It seems the Associated Press picked up the story, first published in San Diego on Thursday 7/21/60, and distributed a shorter summary that was reprinted elsewhere over the following week. The Access Newspaper Archive shows it Friday 7/22/60 in Albuquerque NM, Hayward CA and Salt Lake City UT; Saturday 7/23/60 in Phoenix AZ; and Wednesday-Thursday 7/27-7/28/60 in Pasadena CA. The headlines vary but the text is nearly identical in all of those instances. I didn't find any other mention of it during the 1960s or 1970s.

Dan Brown, #2408

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

It seems the Associated Press picked up the story, first published in San Diego on Thursday 7/21/60, and distributed a shorter summary that was reprinted elsewhere over the following week. The Access Newspaper Archive shows it Friday 7/22/60 in Albuquerque NM, Hayward CA and Salt Lake City UT; Saturday 7/23/60 in Phoenix AZ; and Wednesday-Thursday 7/27-7/28/60 in Pasadena CA. The headlines vary but the text is nearly identical in all of those instances. I didn't find any other mention of it during the 1960s or 1970s.

That's the Floyd Kilts story.  TIGHAR has been aware of that story since at least 1991.