Adam and Eve Go South
Genesis 2 verse 10 states that "A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it separated into four headwaters." Verses 11-14 go on to name these rivers as the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates.
Modern biblical scholars point out that the Tigris and Euphrates are still with us today and that their location in the cradle of western civilization; the Mesopotamia Valley, makes the placement of the Garden of Eden somewhere in Iraq a near certainly. Indeed the Summerian word "Edin" means plain, such as the land formed between two rivers.
Others have disagreed. In Lucas Kansas, Samuel Dinsmoor started building a concrete tourist attraction of the same name in 1908. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, said that God told him the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County Missouri. And in the tiny town of Florida there lived a man who combined the bible verses with geography to come up with a different idea.
E.E. Calloway was a life long resident of the tiny town of Bristol in Northwest Florida. Using the Genesis statement of the 4 rivers flowing eastward as a starting point, Calloway searched world maps looking for a place to reconcile the bible's fact. He found that only the area between Bristol and Chattahoochee Florida met the criteria. Here was 4 rivers; the Chattahoochee, the Hiddekel, Spring Creek, and the Flint. All 4 rivers flowed from one source; the Apalachicola. Further supporting his claim was the existence along the Apalachicola of a rare species of tree known as Gopher Wood. Gopher wood is described in Genesis 6:14 as the wood that Noah built the ark out of.
Calloway spent 60 years trying to prove his claim. He even wrote a book entitled "In the Beginning" to support his theory. Calloway died without seeing his idea become accepted by biblical scholars.
