Inquiries to "New Eden" about the article were referred to Benjamin F. Allen, the source for the story. However, Allen had not intended for the story to be published until it could be corroborated, and he resented the embellishments Gurley had added. In October 1945 he described the version of the story he told to Gurley, writing: "In conversation with him I had given him the few details originating from two soldiers in the Czarist Russian army during the First World War, deceased many years ago. The story by these soldiers came to me from their relatives of how a Russian aviator had sighted a suspicious looking structure in one of Ararat's obscure canyons. Infantrymen were sent on foot to investigate and their officers and they decided it must be Noah's Ark, with one end sunk in a small swamp. "These were the only details they gave."" Allen said that "95%" of the "New Eden" article, including the name "Vladimir Roskovitsky," had been fabricated by Gurley, who issued an apology at his request.