Setting the record straight In your Thursday, May 20, 1999 issue of your newspaper, you published an historical article I wrote entitled “The Old Pioneer and the Missing Marker.” The missing marker was a bronze plaque that the citizens of La Jolla cast to observe President Lincoln’s 100th birth anniversary, Feb. 13, 1909. The old pioneer, who raised the colors up the new flagpole that day in Ellen Scripps Park, was Mr. C.M. Close. Mr. Close was a veteran of Gettysburg who sold seashells and curios in his shop on Prospect Street. By chance I met a couple of La Jolla businessmen who showed interest in the marker and the old pioneer when I mentioned that the La Jolla Historical Society archives contained information on Mr. Close and the marker. We then began to speculate if the marker still existed and where it might be. One of the merchants said, “I will organize a search of Ellen Scripps Park. I know a guy who has a metal detector.” A few days later, I got a call from him informing me that the marker is nowhere to be found. It’s lost. I then wrote the article utilizing information in the archives. Under the impression that the marker was lost, I added the following: “Four things can happen to a bronze marker: It can last forever; It can get lost; It can be stolen; on the other hand it could be recycled. If it survived the La Jolla patriotic scrap drives of World War II, it may still exist somewhere. Is it still buried under the grass of Scripps Park: In an attic, utilized as a stepping stone in a garden or a highly polished artifact in someone’s den?” Fast forward: A few weeks ago I read an article on President Lincoln’s 200th birth anniversary by Carol Olten, La Jolla Historical Society historian, that included a colored photograph of the plaque. Dumbfounded, I walked down to the park to check it out. There, on a slight rise surrounded by a wide open green turf, was the plaque securely attached to a granite rock about half the size of a Volkswagen — and about 40 feet from the sidewalk on Coast Boulevard. Either no one read the article, or those who may have were ignorant of the unintentional deviation from historical accuracy. If someone did catch the blunder, it was never brought to my attention. In the interest of historical accuracy, I will now hastily remove all references to the lost bronze plaque where they appear in the files. George Silvani, Point Loma Misinformation on seals and water quality A recent letter to the editor (“Humans have done our selfish best,” Village News, April 2, page 8) goes beyond opinion to spread false information. The writer states: “…the water in the Children’s Pool is much the same as the water in La Jolla Cove, along The Shores, at Pacific Beach, and indeed at Birdrock [sic].”  This statement is blatantly false, as evidenced by findings of the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.  In 1994, the DEH closed the Children’s Pool beach due to high fecal coliform levels. In 1997, DNA studies confirmed that the high fecal coliform levels were due to the seals.  (None of the other beaches cited have this high and constant level of fecal coliform contamination, and virtually none that is attributable to seals.) The only thing that has changed since these studies were done is a significant increase in the number of seals at the Children’s Pool, each of which produces still more fecal coliform bacteria. The writer further states that “the water in the pool is completely changed twice a day by tides and almost continually being flushed by surf and shore currents.” In fact, a combination of natural topography, augmented by the breakwater jetty that created the Children’s Pool, prevents this from happening.  Simple observation will confirm this fact, which is reinforced by scientific evidence on the public record. I am not a participant in the argument between pro-seal and pro-human “defenders” of the Children’s Pool area. But all of us have a stake in honesty and accuracy. The public is ill-served by blatant misstatements made in order to support either position. David Rearwin, La Jolla