In 1924, twenty-nine-year-old scientist and explorer Gayle Dexter prepared to travel deep into the Andes in search of something most experts believed had vanished millions of years earlier.
Hunters in a remote region of South America claimed they had seen an enormous creature swimming in an isolated mountain lake. Others reported finding huge tracks leading through the jungle. Some believed the animal might be a surviving dinosaur, glyptodon, or plesiosaur hidden among inaccessible lagoons and vast subterranean caves.
Backed quietly by several prominent scientists who feared public ridicule if the story proved false, Dexter set out to determine whether the sightings revealed a prehistoric survivor, or merely a tale fueled by isolation and too much local liquor.
Scientist Will Seek Andean Dinosaur
“Gosh, but I just know I’m going to have the best time of my life and I’m just crazy to get started.”
These schoolboy words were from the 29-year-old scientist, writer, and explorer, Gayle Dexter, now seeking, with the backing of about ten of the foremost scientists of the country the truth about the reported finding of the dinosaur, glyptodon or plesiosaurus which South American hunters have glimpsed in the region of the Andes.
The names of the scientists are being withheld for the reason that scientists hate to be made fools of more than any other living creatures and Mr. Dexter says that if he finds the reports the result of too much South American hooch, his conferees will surely be made the laughing stocks of the country.
Dinosaur Seen In Andes
Seriously, Mr. Dexter is filled with a great hope that he may unravel the mysteries of centuries. The Lakes Andes and Esguel, in which the animals are supposed to have been sighted, are small lagoons, almost inaccessible and having no outlet. The lakes about in historic findings of the Jurassic Period.
It is possible that huge subterranean caves in the region of the lakes may house families of these extinct animals. This, and the statement of Sheffield, a hunter, that he saw the reptile swimming in the lake, having traced it by huge tracks through the jungle, are facts which have stirred the hopes in the young scientist that it may not be a hoax after all.
Dexter sails from New York Saturday.
Source: The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. October 4, 1924.
