So while they waited in Ankara, Mine Unler, one of Ron's liaisons with the Turkish government, arranged for a meeting with Dr. Ekrem Arkugal, Turkey's leading archaeologist world famous for his work on the Hittite excavations throughout Turkey. 

In October of 1984, the Turks had sent their own archaeologists to investigate the boat-shaped object.  Ron loaned them one of the White's ferro-magnetic metal detectors.  Their expedition had yielded very positive results, as one of them showed Ron their field notes. They had retrieved several four foot long metal "spikes" which were still intact, but which Ron never got to actually see, as he was told they were taken to the Museum of Mines and Minerals in Ankara. They had also gotten the same pattern of metal readings that Ron had gotten. Dr. Arkugal was provided this information and when Ron spoke with him, in a conversation which Dave videotaped, he stated that "it is, at any rate, a ship."  A professed atheist, he would later state in an interview that it was Noah's Ark.  When asked why, he simply replied, "because there is no other explanation."

Things were going incredibly well, Ron thought!  When Dr. Arkugal presented him with a copy of his book, "Ancient Ruins of Turkey", he wrote, "To Mr. Ron Wyatt, Congratulations for the successful discoveries." Not only that, but Mine Unler was arranging a meeting for Ron later in Ankara in which he would meet with all of the pertinent ministries at one time, explaining his research. Things had come a long way in the last seven months, thanks to Jim Irwin.  Jim had introduced him to the Guleks, where at there home he had met both Orhan Baser and Mine Unler, and later meeting Dave Fasold.  Although he had just met Dave, he could already tell that Dave meant business, whatever he did.  And he was already excited about the site, even though he hadn't seen it yet.

Finally, they flew to Erzurum where they hired a young taxi driver to take them to Dogubeyazit - Dilaver Avci, who would become a trusted friend and ally to both Ron and Dave. When they arrived at the ark site, the excitement of both Dave and Samran was evident.  Since there was still snow on the ground, it was covered to a great extent, which accentuated the boat-shape.

Dave had brought both a pulse-induction metal detector, as well as his molecular frequency generator (MFG), which he demonstrated by picking up the metal readings from great distances.  The conventional metal detectors were only effective when within a few feet at the most.  Samran stood on the ark and spoke in Arabic while Dave videotaped him for his friends back home.

Then Ron took them to see the anchor stones and the village of Kazan.  Dave could not contain his excitement - while Ron was a believer in the ark of the Bible, Dave was a believer in the ark of the Gilgamesh epic, and he was familiar with the Babylonian connections evident on some of the anchor stones.  One example was the ziggurat carved on one of the stones, representing the tower of Babel constructed in southern Turkey soon after the Flood.  (See below)

Everyone was happy, that is, until Ron took them to see the tombstones and house he believed was Noah's and his wife's.  When they got there, the house was now reduced to a pile of loose rock, and the tombstones were gone!  Right where they once had stood was a partially filled hole - the grave had been robbed!  Ron was heartsick.

After they left, Samran was convinced that Ron was sincere, and arranged for all three of them to fly to Saudi (see newsletter # 6). Ron was excited as things were looking bright not only for Noah's Ark, but he would actually get to return to Mt. Sinai legally! He finally had someone to work with on the ark who believed in it as much as he did, and who was in a business that required him to be familiar with the electronic equipment that was so vital to the research.

When they returned to Turkey from Saudi Arabia, Dave was anxious to get home and left as soon as he could.  Ron arranged to stay four more days so he could attend the meeting Mine had arranged.  He met with all the ministries and presented his case for Noah's Ark.

Their response was very positive and he was assured that they would cooperate with him as much as they could. Dave wanted to bring over sub-surface interface radar and scan the site.  This radar system would reveal any structure beneath the surface, much like a cat scan used on the human body.  The radar can be tuned to various frequencies which reflect various depths.  Therefore, by scanning the same area numerous times, each time using a different frequency, a three-dimensional picture can be constructed.  However, the radar and an operator are very expensive to rent, and the idea of purchasing a system was out of the question.  But, it had to be the next step, as excavation on the ark was still denied by the authorities.

A little less than a month later, Ron returned to Ankara for more meetings, arranging for permits.  Even employing the metal detectors required a permit, and once the permit was issued in Ankara, it had to then be taken to Agri, the capital of the eastern region, where it was then processed.  And this is where many problems can come up.  Ankara is the head of the government, but the regional governments like to think that they are, in fact, the final word.  Ankara is a very long way from Agri and Dogubeyazit.  If any problems arise with a permit in Agri, it could mean many days of costly waiting and travel back to Ankara, even then, without the assurance that the problem would be solved.  So Ron spent a lot of time in Ankara.

Around this time, Ron had received another call, this time from one of the scientists at Los Alamos.  Jim Irwin had sent the specimen Ron had given him that came from the strange site above the ark site, to Los Alamos, and the scientist who was doing the test had some questions for Ron.  He wanted to know about the area the specimen came from, and Ron invited him to come and see for himself.  To his surprise, John Baumgardner, a geophysicist from Los Alamos, accepted his invitation and in June of 1985, John, Dave and Ron went to the ark site.

Using the three types of metal detectors, they performed a scan of the site.  At each metal reading, they placed a rock, and then connected each rock with plastic tapes.

Before long the shape of a ship could be seen in the pattern of the ribbons.  John Baumgardner, skeptical at first, soon began to show his excitement. After all, it was the metal analysis of the specimen Jim Irwin had sent him that had caught his attention.  Another Los Alamos scientist would later tell Ron that they suspected that perhaps a satellite containing high-tech metals had crashed in the region and that Ron, ignorant of these matters, mistook it for Noah's Ark.  John would be a great asset to the team, if he ever became convinced - at least that what's Ron and Dave thought.  He had financial backing and his credentials were certainly impressive.

At one point, when they were doing metal detector scans, John pointed out some metal flakes protruding out from the site of one of the metal objects, "I'd save those frames", he tells a jubilant Dave Fasold on video.  Ron and Dave had an agreement - since it was so time consuming and nearly impossible to work and video everything at the same time, the two agreed to share their footage, an agreement Dave has honored.  And so, when the trip ended, the three were all in full agreement that this was Noah's Ark and that radar scans were imperative.

The next trip would be in August 1985 - the time of the annual "ark hunters'" pilgrimage to Mt. Ararat.  John's financier, a California attorney, agreed to fund the venture.  Dave arranged for Tom Fenner of GSSI, the manufacturer of the radar equipment, to come over with an SIR-8 system, and then he arranged for ABC's "20/20" to cover the event at the last minute, with his friend, Jim Burroughs as cameraman.  John's financier came along with their own film crew, as well as two other scientists from Los Alamos.  John also arranged to do interviews with the 700 Club on CBN.

Ron got the permits, and all seemed to be set to "go," except tensions were now building.  It was apparent that John wasn't fond of being a "member of Ron's team" when he had the credentials and his financier was funding the project.  Ron and Dave (who were paying their own way) didn't have financial backing and it was getting costlier and costlier, especially for Dave who still had children at home.

Ron, John and the others from Los Alamos arrived first, and they did another metal detector scan, laying out red and yellow ribbons.  They measured the length of the site using sophisticated surveying devices and arrived at 515 feet and 7 inches- again, 300 royal Egyptian cubits. All was filmed by John's crew and Ron managed to get some video also.

Then, with all the publicity in the region from the gathering of high-profile ark-hunters, the regional terrorists took this opportunity to rear their ugly heads. Attacking some of the folks on Mt. Ararat, they soon headed to the boat-shaped site. Commandos had been stationed around the site, hiding in the crevasses, and when the terrorists made their move, these commandos quickly rose up and decimated several of them, causing the rest to flee. With this, martial law was declared and the site was now off-limits.

All of John's team left before Dave arrived with Tom Fenner and the SIR-8 radar system, and the news crew. It seemed like a total loss, a total waste to have the radar and technician so close yet so far. But Dave's move at getting the "20/20" people there paid off handsomely. The work up to that time was documented in a positive manner and the whole nation had an opportunity to see what was happening on "Doomsday" mountain.

This was another interesting thing Ron and Orhan had learned when they questioned the villagers in August of 1984, the mountain was called locally "Doomsday mountain," which may imply a connection to the Flood.

On Sept. 5, 1985, Ron signed a contract with the "old colleague" that he had been told was responsible for having he and his sons arrested in Saudi Arabia.  It was a contract to write a book on Ron's ark research.  This man, despite his treachery, was an excellent writer in Ron's opinion, and Ron's theory was to get him involved in the work and make him an ally.  Ron never told him he knew who called the Saudis and made the accusation which cost he and the boys three months in Saudi prison.  What good would it accomplish? All that was past.  So now, this "old colleague," whom we will now refer to as "Mr. T" (for Trouble) was, in a sense, a part of it all.

There wasn't much else Ron could do at the site until they could do a radar scan, and the system is extremely costly - neither Ron nor Dave had any way to purchase it. Rental was thousands of dollars, and that was too much of a gamble after the August scenario.

So Ron (naively, some may consider) enlisted his nephew, Gary Rucker, to build a small version of a radar system with a sensitive "idiot" light that lighted when high levels of reflection (which indicated solid objects) were encountered.  Gary is in electronics by vocation and, once he understood the principle, felt he would be able to construct a crude one. And he did. Handheld, it produced a frequency which it sent directionally; when it returned, it was recorded on a wire-type recorder.

On Oct. 23, less than two months later, Ron returned to Turkey with this "radar" scanner and "Mr. T."  When "Mr. T" arrived, Ron noticed he had a very large video camera which looked professional, along with his photography equipment.  Ron took him to see the anchor stones in the "Village of Eight" and "Mr. T" was more intent on filming than he was photographing anything, which seemed strange.  You can't use video in a book...

Back at the hotel, Ron overheard "Mr. T" telling someone on the phone that he had a "deal" with the BBC to do a documentary on the ark.  It finally sunk into Ron's skull that this man felt no bounds to tell the truth about anything.  And so Ron refused to show him the actual ark site, or anything else other than the things he had already seen.

But the trip wasn't a waste.  Ron arranged to make a quick trip to the site without "Mr. T," and he took the makeshift scanner.  Ron scanned the site with it and the results were impressive in his estimation.  At least this let him feel better about making further efforts to get the official SIR system to the site.  He knew the results of the "makeshift scanner" would be ridiculed.

The entire scene with "Mr. T" was a fiasco - he raged and insisted that Ron show him everything, but Ron was adamant.  At one point, as they were returning from the village, "Mr. T" became so enraged at Ron's refusal to show him things, that he got out of the taxi (in the light rain and cool temperatures) and began to walk.  Ron had the taxi drive slowly, behind him, until he silently got back into the car, nearly frozen. "Mr. T" would get his revenge, or at least he would try.