On August 28, 1962 (while J.F. Kennedy was President of the United States and D. Van Meter had just taken over from G. Turin as President of the Information Theory Society (then, Group)), the founder of our field was vacationing with his family out west. The diligence of our colleague Toby Berger in this regard has led to a startling discovery! Claude Shannon was selected (almost "randomly") to represent the billionth visitor to one of the 192 areas administered by the National Park Service. As it happened, the visited area was the Lava Beds National Monument and the momentous event was duly recorded by the Herald and News, the newspaper of Klamath Falls, Oregon. As fate had it, the photographer happened to capture Shannon under the ``Information'' banner of the Ranger Station.
For those who don't believe in unlikely events, let this be proof that they do indeed occur. Immense thanks and credit are due to Toby who, through undisclosed powers of investigation and deduction, unearthed the evidence of this event and who, hence,has hereby earned the also rarely bestowed title of ``honorary historian'' of our Society and who, thereby, truly is the guest columnist in this issue's column.
This photo originally appeared in the Herald and News, Klamath, Oregon, on August 28, 1962 and is reprinted with permission of
the Herald and News. The original caption read: BILLIONTH VISITOR - Richard D. Jacobsen, chief park ranger of the Lava Beds National Monument,
presents to Claude Shannon and his family a certificate citing them for
being selected to represent the one-billionth visitor to a park administered
by the National Park Service since it became established Aug. 22, 58 years
ago. Observing the presentation are, left to right, Andrew, Shannon's wife,
and Robert. Park superintendent Irvin D. Kerr said it was impossible to
determine which visitor to the National Park System was actually the billionth,
so one visitor in each of the nation's 192 areas administered by the National
Park Service was selected to represent the billionth visitor.