The life of Percy Harrison Fawcett was never short of adventure. An amateur explorer who obtained a gold medal for his services to the Royal Geographical Society, in a time long before planes, GPS and radio communication. He was a man with a story and a character so much larger than life, that popular fiction has drawn influence on them for years, from Arthur Conan Doyle's “The Lost World” to the Hollywood archeology of Indiana Jones, even making an appearance in TinTin & The Broken Ear as a blowpipe wielding hermit. For over twenty years his career saw him delve deep into the Amazon, until, in 1925, just months before newspapers printed their headlines that the city of Atlantis had been found, he set off into the forest in search of a lost city he had christened simply “Z”.
SOURCES
Grann, David (2009) The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday Publishing, USA.
Fawcett, Percy (1953) Lost Trails, Lost Cities. Funk & Wagnalls, NY, USA.
Thorpe, Vanessa (2004) Veil lifts on jungle mystery of the colonel who vanished. The Observer, Sun 21 March, 2004. UK
Williams, Misha (2004) AmaZonia.
Kennedy, Dane (2007) British Exploration in the Nineteenth Century: A Historiographical Survey. History Compass, 5: 1879-1900. UK
The Atlanta Constitution (1925) Daring Exploration Party Sets Forth To Find Site of Cradle of Civilization. The Atlanta Constitution, p.14, 12 Jan, 1925. Atlanta, USA.
The Leader post (1927) Fear for Col. Fawcett, Missing in Brazillian Jungle Nearly 2 Years. The Leader Post, p.1. 14 Feb, 1927. Canada
The Spokesman Review (1927) Colonel Fawcett Thought Alive. The Spokesman Review, p.67, 24 July, 1927. USA.
----------
For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com
Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories
Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected]
or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.
