The Silent City

http://books.google.com/books?id=RIMUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA68&dq=1887+bristol+alaska+willoughby&as_brr=1&ei=pyCrSMj3DobUjgGaiuXMDQ&rview=1#PPA67,M1

In 1885, explorer Richard Willoughby claimed to have discovered a wonderful mirage above Alaska’s Muir glacier: He’d seen a modern city, he said, with buildings, church towers, vessels, even citizens. This photograph sold “like hot cakes” in the summer of 1889, and Willoughby sold the negative to a San Francisco photographer for $500.

There it all unraveled. An American consul, home from England, noted that the “silent city” bore a striking resemblance to Bristol. It turned out that Willoughby had paid an English tourist $10 for an overexposed photo of his hometown, and the rest was hot air. Still, he deserves credit for invention.