John Cleves Symmes
1780–1829
American army officer and hollow-earth theorist. Nephew of John Cleves Symmes (1742–1814). Captain in the US army. After retiring in 1818, issued a circular declaring the earth to be hollow, with openings at the poles, and campaigned for polar exploration to confirm his theory.
Sources
Letter from J. C. Symmes, 6 February 1874 and n. 6
Rothenberg ed. 2001 s.v. Hollow-earth, theory of.
letter