The Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles

 
   

Home

About The Club

Calendar Of Events

The Great Adventure

Adventurers Foundation

Board of Directors

Club Archives

Publications

Adventurers’ Club News

Links

Contact Us

Directions

Privacy Policy

Webmaster

Detailed Calendar Page
February 2010

February 4, 2010 - David Larsen - The Search for Noah's Ark

Virtually every culture worldwide preserves in its memory or mythology, the story of a cataclysmic flood that wiped out the earth and its denizens, with only a few survivors who also preserved animals on a boat or raft. Why would such a story be a common belief if it were not rooted in actuality?

Suppose the biblical account of a global, life-ending flood was historical? Accurate. True. What are the ramifications for the disciplines of history, archaeology, geology, paleontology... evolution? Author of the book, Dinosaurs on the Ark, David Larsen has wrestled with these questions and more for over thirty years.

Convinced by tantalizing eyewitness accounts that the remains of Noah's Ark still exist, frozen in the ice atop Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey, David has made nine trips to Turkey, two to Armenia, and five climbs of Mt. Ararat in an attempt to locate the structure and to re-write both history and science.

Former editor of National Geographic Magazine, Gilbert S. Grosvenor once stated, "If the ark of Noah is ever discovered, it will be the greatest archaeological find in human history and the greatest event since the Resurrection of Christ; and it will alter all the currents of scientific thought." Find out why, February 4th...

David Larsen graduated from Oral Roberts University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Literature and a minor in physics. It was in 1973 that David first became aware of, and interested in, the search for Noah's Ark. Over the course of his studies he began to see Noah's Ark as the "Rosetta Stone" of Scriptural interpretation with regard to the account of Creation and the Flood. David's studies and calling have led him to make eight trips to eastern Turkey - and he has climbed Mt. Ararat five times - in an effort to verify the remains of the Ark of Noah.

After matriculating at ORU, David spent two years as a graduate assistant in the physics department at the University of Arkansas. He eventually moved to California and graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1982. Deciding against full-time "ministry," he began teaching high school math and physics. Currently David has felt called into full-time ministry and was formally licensed as a pastor in February 1998. He continues to speak to high school and college students. In addition, he continues to be part of the ongoing effort to verify and document the existence of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey.

Website: searchnoahsark.com

Photo of David Larsen.
David Larsen

Photo of Open Ark at the Park.
Open Ark at the Park

February 11, 2010 - Jim Dorsey - Guests of the Maasai

Jim Dorsey, (# 1081) and his wife, Irene, journeyed to Tanzania and Kenya as invited guests of an elder of the Maasai nation, a gentleman who has been at the Adventurers Club many times.

They stayed in a traditional village and lived as their hosts did, including helping to herd cattle, milk goats, and track wild game. As honored guests a goat was sacrificed for them. Evenings were spent learning the Maasai culture, beliefs, and recording oral histories.

This presentation will take you inside the daily lives of one of the most colorful and enigmatic tribes in all of Africa in a way few people could ever hope to experience.

Website: jamesdorsey.com

Photo of Jim Dorsey and Moses Pulei.
Jim Dorsey and Moses Pulei

February 18, 2010 - Paul Spitzzeri - Emigrant Adventures in Early Los Angeles

The Workman and Temple Families

Born in remote northern England, William Workman lived at the frontier of the United States while in Missouri and at the northern reaches of Mexico both in New Mexico and California. He was a fur trapper, merchant, farmer and rancher and banker who made and lost millions. His son-in-law, F. P. F. Temple, made the sea voyage around the Horn in 1841 to Mexican Los Angeles and joined William Workman in business activities that made them the wealthiest figures in Los Angeles before the spectacular failure of their bank in 1876 brought them ruin and stopped the city’s first growth boom. Temple’s son, Walter, was the fortunate beneficiary of oil income during the 1910s and 1920s, and sought to restore the family’s prominence in Los Angeles. His resources were overmatched by his ambition and, by the Great Depression, financial failure overwhelmed the family once again.

This amazing story will be told by Homestead Museum Collections Manager Paul Spitzzeri illustrated by photographs and other images that will take the listener back to the days when the Adventurers’ Club was formed and well before. Spitzzeri’s book The Workman and Temple Families of Southern California, 1830-1930 will be available for purchase at $20 and he will gladly sign copies after the presentation.

Paul Spitzzeri is Collections Manager at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum, where he has worked since 1988. He has a B. A. and M . A. in History from California State University, Fullerton.

Paul has published articles and essays on overland emigration, railroad development and regulation, race and citizenship, and crime and criminal justice in such journals as California History, Southern California Quarterly, California Legal History and Journal of the West, and in the anthologies Law in the Western United States, Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West, and Icons of the American West.

His biography on the Workman and Temple families received a 2009 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. Paul is now writing a history of criminal justice in Los Angeles County from 1850 to 1875.

Paul is also a director of the Historical Society of Southern California and is Treasurer and Past-President of the California Council for the Promotion of History.

Website: homesteadmuseum.org

Photo of William Workman 1851.
William Workman 1851

Photo of F. P. F. Temple 1919.
F. P. F. Temple 1919

February 25, 2010 - Manny Gomes - World Champion Samurai Expert

Demonstrations in the art of Samurai sword techniques, knife throwing, and martial arts fighting techniques. Manny will be accompanied by his award winning black belt team.

Click here to Return to the Calendar of Events Page