Why does Santa Claus live at the North Pole? Blame A Crackpot Cincinnatian

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Have you ever wondered why Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, of all people? The answer may lie in a small urban park that was once a cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio. Here you will find the Hollow Earth Monument, perhaps the most unusual tombstone ever erected in the United States. It is certainly one of the few memorials erected to celebrate a surprisingly crazy geographical theory.

From Thomas Nasts Christmas Drawings for the Human Race, page 110

Digitized by Internet Archive

Hamiltons Hollow Earth Monument marks the grave of Captain John Cleves Symmes. He believed that the earth was hollow and that we could enter the interior of our planet through huge holes that pierced the north and south poles. Symmes thought the climate at the poles was mild and temperate, once travelers passed a protective ring of ice and snow, an ideal hiding place for Santa Claus.

A small park on the south side of Hamilton is home to the Symmes Hollow Earth Theory Memorial.

Photograph by Greg Hand

Symmes announced his Hollow Earth theory in 1818 in a widely circulated circular. His theory inspired a generation of explorers to attempt (and consistently fail) to find a route to the North Pole. All of this expeditionary activity, plus Clement Moore’s decision to have Santa’s flying sleigh pulled by a reindeer, an arctic animal, certainly inspired artist Thomas Nast to place Santa at the North Pole in a cartoon. published December 29, 1866 in Harpers Weekly magazine. Harpers was a widely circulated and hugely influential publication at the time.

If Symmes’ name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the nephew and namesake of the same John Cleves Symmes who helped create Cincinnati. Young Symmes rose to prominence as a hero during the War of 1812 and spent the rest of his life and reputation defending his crackpot theory.

Symmes imagined multiple temperate spheres nestled inside our Earth and accessible from the North Pole.

From Symmes’ theory of concentric spheres, page 68 digitized by Hathi Trust

Symmes developed his Hollow Earth theory while living in Newport, Kentucky and sent out pamphlets to all potential donors in the United States and Europe. He hoped to raise enough money to mount an expedition to the North Pole. United States President John Quincy Adams was reportedly about to provide federal funding for the Symmes Expedition when he was removed from office. Symmes died with his vision unrealized.

Symmes’ son, Americus Vespucci Symmes, took up the mantle and published a book to popularize his late fathers’ ideas of Hollow Earth. Americus claimed that an 1871 expedition led by Cincinnatian Charles Francis Hall verified his father’s theories, even though that trip was pushed back far from the North Pole. Another Cincinnatian, John Uri Lloyd, was inspired to write an early fantasy novel called Editorhpa (that’s Aphrodite spelled backwards) based in part on the Hollow Earth theory. Symmes’ theory also inspired Jules Verne to compose his novel, A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Alas, Americus too died before anyone had traveled far enough north or south to prove or disprove John Cleves Symmes’ theory. Americus erected the Hollow Earth Monument over his father’s grave in 1840, and it has drawn curious visitors ever since.

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