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1 Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings, and it originated in the American West. It was not until I taught an Introduction to Dendrochronology class that I learned the history of the laboratory and its connection to the desert and astronomy.

2 The planet Mars attracted many scientists and amateurs alike in the late nineteenth century. The theories of Martian intelligent life were wildly popular with the public, but the scientific community was skeptical of them.

3 Douglass's relationship with his supervisor, Lowell, was strained after the Message from Mars debacle. He grew even more disenchanted with Lowell's aspirations after the fiasco, and he was eventually dismissed from the observatory.

4 Douglass began the work of dendrochronology in Arizona, where his ambitions in astronomy had taken him. He collected his first 25 tree-ring samples from a log yard in Flagstaff by cutting stem discs from the ends of logs and the tops of stumps.