Error when trying to do a recovery

Hello,
I trying to do a restore using from the online backups.  I have restored
the data backup (untarred) and removed all files from the pg_xlog
directory.  I also deleted and recreated the archive_status directory
under pg_xlog.  I created the recovery.conf file with only the
restore_command in it.
When I start postgres (pg_ctl -l logfile start). The following text is
all that exists in the logfile:

<2005-03-01 14:21:43 MST>FATAL:  incorrect checksum in control file


What control file is it referring to?  Is there some way to generate
more verbose logging?


thanks

Warren Little
Meridias Capital