MARTIANS BUILD TWO IMMENSE CANALS IN TWO YEARS; Vast Engineering Works Accomplished in an Incredibly Short Time by Our Planetary Neighbors -Wonders of the September Sky.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D04E2DE163CE633A25754C2A96E9C94 6096D6CF
^^
Read that and then do a google search with "site:nytimes.com mars canals" for a whole rake of further reading.
Then listen to Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. It makes peoples panic at the time of broadcast a little more understandable.
http://sounds.mercurytheatre.info/mercury/381030.mp3
I think that by whatever means, this notion of life on mars has stuck in our collective conscience over the years... and some people take it to a rediculous extreme, seeing "evidence" of life in rock formations.