Episode 22: The Top of the World, Part II

Matthew Henson, 1909 - after returning from the North Pole

Robert Peary and Matt Henson's chief rival Dr. Fredrick Cook emerged from the Artic in 1909, just a few weeks before Peary and his team returned, and claimed he had reached the North Pole in April 1908 - nearly a full year before Peary and Henson.

Cook's fame was short-lived. Once his evidence was examined, it was determined that he did not get anywhere near the North Pole. In fact, he never lost sight of solid land during his trip and was soon revealed to be a fraud.

Cook's alleged photo at the North Pole

Cook's other supposed arctic achievement, becoming the first person to summit Mt. McKinley (now Mt. Denali) in Alaska, was also proven to be a hoax. His famous summit photo was actually taken at a location still known as Fake Peak today. At just over 5,000 feet, Fake Peak is nearly 15,000 feet below the summit of Mt. Denali.

Promoted to Rear Admiral in recognition of his many years of service in the US Navy, Robert Peary was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Initially laid to rest in Section 3, he was moved to Section 8, Lot 15 two years after his death so a monument could be placed over his grave. Today, the large globe monument is just behind two simple markers over Robert and Josephine Peary's graves.

After being denied many of the same accolades as the white members of Peary's 1908-1909 Arctic Expedition, expedition member Donald MacMillan did much to make sure Henson got the recognition he was due before his death at age 88. In 1954, Henson was honored by President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House on the 45th anniversary of the North Pole expedition.

In 1988, about 30 years after his death, Henson and his wife Lucy's remains were moved from Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where they will rest beside Bert and Jo Peary for all time, in recognition of Peary and Henson's equal partnership.

Marie Ahnighito Peary, the first child of Robert and Jo, born in the arctic to much fame back in America, is also buried at Arlington. She is near her parents in Section 8, Grave 5190-6. She happened to be eligible for burial there because her husband, William Stafford, served in the Coastal Artillery Corps during World War I. In 1932, she traveled to the arctic to dedicate a monument in Greenland to her father and his expeditions.

We may never know if Peary and Henson actually made it all the way to 90 degrees north latitude, but we think they at least got pretty close. I personally think that arctic adventurers are absolutely crazy, but I do admit that if I was given a chance to visit with the dangers of an overland over-ice trek, I would go in a heartbeat.

Copyright: Leifur Örn Svavarsson (not me!)

And one final picture, because I think it's a neat one. On March 17, 1955, the USS Skate became the first submarine to breach through the ice at the North Pole.

Episode 21: The Top of the World

 

Robert Peary, 1909 - after returning from the North Pole

There are a few different definitions as to what constitutes the arctic region. The widely accepted definition is the lands laying north of 66.5 degrees latitude north, but as at least one of the maps below notes, some consider the arctic anywhere the warmest month's average temperature is below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)  

During the International Polar Year in 1881, American Adolphus Greely built Ft Conger on Ellesmere Island, Canada, just across from Greenland. Many future arctic expeditions started wither on Ellesmere Island or northwestern Greenland. Though abandoned by the Peary expeditions, Peary used Ft Conger as the basecamp for one of his later trips and had eight toes amputated there.

Today, Fort Conger is part of Ellesmere Island's Quttinirpaaq National Park

Fort Conger soon after construction in 1881

Fort Conger's interior. I imagine it was not this well furnished when Peary had his toes amputated after the fort was abandoned... but maybe it was. The government probably didn't take anything with them after closing down operations

A few of Fort Conger's buildings can still be seen today

Many western Arctic explorers used clothing, equipment, and methods they were familiar with, but which were wholly unsuited for the conditions on ground. Peary recognized the superiority of wearing native furs, which trapped a layer of warm air between the skin and furs, and using dogs to pull sledges, instead of having members of the expedition pull and push their own.

He also adopted the use of Inuit igloos which lightened the load of the dog sledges since tents and sleeping bags did not need to be brought along.

For Peary's final three or four expeditions, he was given use of the SS Roosevelt, named after President Theodore Roosevelt. Even though it was built to sail in the Arctic weather and waters, it still had to undergo significant repairs after every expedition.

Josephine Peary accompanied her husband as a member of his second and third expeditions and also came to visit during his fourth and fifth trips. This made her the first woman to be part of an arctic expedition and the first western woman to winter over in the arctic. 

Peary's third expedition started when Jo was eight month's pregnant with their first child, so a nurse was brought along to help with the birth. Marie Ahnighito Peary was born in 1893, less than 13 degrees longitude from the North Pole. Her middle name was given to her by the local Inuit for her light hair and pale skin and means Snow Baby.

Peary and Jo would round out their family with a son, Robert Peary, Jr., born in 1903 in the District of Columbia.

When Peary reached the North Pole in 1909, he planted a flag Jo had made him several years earlier, the same flag he had brought on most of his polar expeditions.

Each time Peary would gain a new "furthest north" record, he would plant this flag and then cut out a piece to leave behind; Jo replaced these pieces with white cloth. The diagonal cut was what Peary left at the North Pole. The flag was sold at auction in 2015 for $18,450.

Episode 20: The Great Unknown

Major John Wesley Powell with his Paiute friend Tangu. The Paiute gave Powell the name Kapurats (one arm off) in reference to his missing limb, lost at the Battle of Shiloh during the US Civil War in 1862.

After losing his arm at the Battle of Shiloh, and recovering enough to return to work, General Grant sent Powell to Illinois as a recruiter for the Union Army... thought I am not sure how effective it was to have a recruiter who had lost an appendage in battle. Sometime in 1863, before returning to the front, Powell and his wife, Emma Dean Powell, returned to Detroit to visit family and sat for these portraits.

After the Civil War, Powell and Emma traveled to the American west and compiled much scientific and ethnographic data in the region. This is another photo taken of him and Tangu during his time among the St. George band of Paiutes.

In 1869, it was time to explore some of the major rivers of the the west, including the Colorado, flowing through the nearly impassable Grand Canyon. No cameras were brought on that expedition so it wasn't until a government sponsored return trip that the area was photographically documented. Everyone dressed up for the first photo of the trip but changed out of their formal suites before setting off.

Just as he had on his initial expedition in 1869, Powell named on of the 1871 trip's boats the Emma Dean, after his wife.

Green River, about 1/2 mile below the Union Pacific railroad bridge, showing the boats soon after they had been run down from unloading at the bridge (the river runs right to left).

Unlike many expeditions of the day, which featured porters, manservants, and long cargo trains, camp life was anything but luxurious in either the 1869 or 1871-72 trips to the region.

The Grand Canyon, looking down the Colorado River from the Toroweap Overlook area, toward Prospect Canyon and Lava Falls Rapid... during the second expedition, photographers would climb up the canyon walls to get photographs like this.

A shot from the same vantage point, but looking the other direction, toward the Red Slide area.

Flaming Gorge - Head of the Horseshoe Canyon

Deer Creek Falls

Northern Arizona University has a repository of 200 photos from the expedition if you would like to see more. The above are just a few of my favorites. In 1969, the US Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in honor of the 100th anniversary of Powell's initial Grand Canyon expedition.

After his Grand Canyon expeditions, Powell was a busy man. He lived in Washington, DC but still traveled west whenever possible. He was the first direction of the Smithsonian Institute Bureau of Ethnography, the second director of the US Geological Survey, and a founding member of the National Geographic Society. This is his official portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.

Powell's niece Maude, who gained interion acclaim for her violin skill and virtuosity - the first American violinist to achieve international rank - visited the Grand Canyon and its John Wesley Powell monument in 1918.

Both Powell and Emma are buried at Arlington in the prestigious Section 1, Grave 408. Their marker is a granite obelisk whose the upper portion highly polished, the lower portion left rough and unfinished. Affixed to the marker is a bronze plaque with his portrait. Under that is carved an inscription, reading “Solder. Explorer. Scientist.” The back of the monument gives his dates of rank as a second lieutenant, captain, and major.