My grandfather's story so impressed me that over the years I noted any material pertaining to this enduring enigma. It seems as if, every couple of years, someone claims a new Noah's Ark discovery in a book, documentary or TV special. Even supermarket tabloids regularly exploit this mystery. Before long, I had a veritable flood of questionable and unverifiable data. The Koran speaks of the Ark landing on Al Cudi - there's a mountain by that name 200 miles south of Ararat.
More contentious sites exist in other countries and continents.
And there's the tale of a months-long expedition by Czar Nicholas's soldiers, during which the Ark was supposedly entered and photographed. This expedition was just prior to the Bolshevik Revolution during which, it is said, many of the Czar's soldiers were hunted down and slaughtered and the Ark photos, maps and artifacts disappeared. Relatives of the few soldiers who survived have family records that seem to confirm the authenticity of the expedition. The SRI is a federally-funded 'institute' that serves the intelligence community. Then I met Ed Davis, an octogenarian and breeder of prized Nubian goats in the American southwest.