North Pole Discovered
The discovery of the North Pole on April 6, 1909, marked a significant milestone in Arctic exploration, culminating nearly 25 years of ambitious efforts led by explorer Robert E. Peary. Accompanying him were Matthew A. Henson, an African American explorer who played a crucial role as Peary’s invaluable assistant, and four Inuit guides. Their journey involved immense physical challenges, including extreme cold and limited food supplies, as they trekked for 18 to 20 hours a day to reach the pole. Henson, displaying remarkable skills in navigation and survival, was the first to arrive at the pole, where he planted the American flag.
Despite facing competition from other claimants, such as Dr. Frederick A. Cook, Peary's expedition was recognized as the first to successfully reach the North Pole, leading to accolades for both Peary and Henson, though Henson's recognition came much later. In the years that followed, concerns about climate change emerged, highlighting the vulnerability of polar ice due to human-induced global warming. Observations showed significant melting of Arctic sea ice, altering ecosystems and threatening future sea levels and weather patterns. As the century progresses, the potential for a navigable Northwest Passage raises both environmental and geopolitical implications, underscoring the ongoing relevance of the North Pole in scientific and global discussions.
North Pole Discovered
North Pole Discovered
The discovery of the North Pole by men of three races on April 6, 1909, was the culmination of nearly a quarter century of effort. Those who reached the pole on that date were Robert E. Peary, a white man who originated and led the effort; Matthew A. Henson, an African American man who had served as ship's cook, carpenter, and blacksmith and then as Peary's servant before becoming his co-explorer and most valuable assistant; and four Eskimo guides (Coqueeh, Ootah, Eginwah, and Seegloo).
Peary, who was born at Cresson, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1856, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877. After graduation he served as a cartographic draftsman in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for two years before becoming an engineer in the navy in 1881. As part of the navy's corps of civil engineers, to which he remained attached until his retirement (with leaves for his explorations), he served as assistant engineer in chief of the Nicaragua Canal survey.
Having meanwhile become interested in Arctic exploration, Peary made his first trip to the far north in 1886. His association with Henson, whom he had met when the latter was a clerk in a Washington clothing store, dates from this first expedition, in which Henson, then about 19, served as a member of the crew. In Greenland, Peary and a Danish friend journeyed inland from Disko Bay and over the Greenland ice sheet for a distance of 100 miles, reaching a height of 7,500 feet above sea level.
Seven companions accompanied Peary on his second exploration of Greenland in 1891. They included his wife and Henson, who was to accompany him on all of his Arctic explorations and twice save his life, as Peary would once save his. On this tour, Peary made several contributions to scientific knowledge, the most important of which was the verification of Greenland's island formation. He also proved that the polar ice cap extended beyond 82 degrees north latitude and discovered the Melville meteorite on Melville Bay. Peary also encountered the “Arctic highlanders,” an isolated Eskimo tribe. He befriended them, and they assisted with his later surveys. Henson, meanwhile, was learning the Eskimo language and becoming a master sled dog driver and an expert in the numerous other skills necessary for arctic survival.
Peary continued his work with further expeditions in 1893–1895 and voyages during the summers of 1896 and 1897. In 1898 he announced his intention to travel to the North Pole. During the next four years, he sought possible routes from camps at Etah on the northwest coast of Greenland and Fort Conger on neighboring Ellesmere Island. Despite all his efforts, he fell short of reaching the pole on several attempts, including those of 1902, when he reached 84 degrees 17 minutes north latitude, and 1905, when he reached 87 degrees 6 minutes.
Undaunted by these failures, Peary and his party set sail on July 17, 1908, on the ship Roosevelt on still another expedition to the pole. They spent the winter in a base camp on Ellesmere Island and on March 1, 1909, began the final trek north from Cape Columbia. On April 6, Peary and his party reached the top of the world. This was after days of exhausting effort during which they had traveled 18 to 20 hours a day, menaced by the cold and dwindling food supplies. Henson reached the pole first with two of the Eskimos. Peary, exhausted and barely able to walk, arrived 45 minutes later and took a reading, which confirmed Henson's calculation of their location. Henson then proudly planted the American flag at the North Pole, 90 degrees north.
The men built an igloo and camped for more than 30 hours at the pole, making astronomical observations. At 4:00 P.M. on April 7 they headed south and, with favorable conditions, made the return trip to Cape Columbia in 16 days. The effort cost the life of one Eskimo, who drowned during the return trip.
When Peary and his party reached Newfoundland, Canada, they found that they were not the only ones claiming to have reached the North Pole. Dr. Frederick A. Cook, who had served as the surgeon on Peary's 1891 expedition, said that he was the first to perform the feat, but his report failed to withstand scrutiny. The National Geographic Society accepted the discovery of the Peary expedition as the authentic one, and Congress voted its thanks and promoted Peary to rear admiral. This was in 1911, the year of Peary's retirement from the navy. He received numerous other awards as well, including the rank of grand officer of the French Legion of Honor, before his death on February 20, 1920. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.
Henson received some of his recognition rather belatedly. In 1945, Congress awarded him a medal for “outstanding service to the Government of the United States in the field of science,” and near the end of his life President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored him at the White House. Henson, born on August 8, 1866, in Charles County, Maryland, died at the age of 88 in New York City on March 9, 1955. He died two months before the death of Ootah, the last survivor of the trip to the Pole, who died near Thule, Greenland, at the age of 80 in May 1955.
After 2000, climatologists were concerned that global warming caused by human-induced carbon dioxide emissions was causing the ice on the poles to melt. On September 5, 2012, the Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level yet, at less than four million square kilometers, forty-five percent less than during the 1980s. And in the summer of 2013, a lake formed at the North Pole, with a thin sheet of ice separating it from the sea underneath. Record temperatures were measured during the 2000s. The ice was melting much faster than first thought, coming in line with predictions made in 2007 by Al Gore that the ice would be disappearing by 2013. It is estimated that, during summers, a ship will be able to cross from the UK to Alaska by the end of the century and that eventually all the ice will be permanently melted, causing a worldwide rise in sea level. This will mean the flooding of coastal areas, with an estimated three-foot rise in sea level by 2100, and the destruction of many inhabited islands that now only exist under sea level, such as the Maldives. Terrestrial and marine environments are experiencing changes that will affect the ecosystems of plants and animals living in the Arctic and elsewhere. There are smaller numbers of reindeer and caribou than ever before. Land close to the North Pole is gradually changing from tundra to grass and shrubland, and even trees have expanded their range.
Scientists see the melting of the ice caps as a threat to weather patterns because the thermohaline current is directly affected by ocean temperature and the melting of the freshwater ice caps is causing temperature changes in the saline oceans, along with the increase of atmospheric temperature from global warming. This has been seen in the 2000s, as heavier rains in many areas have caused floods and strong storms have brought damage to communities around the nation. Also, the loss of cooling sea ice will accelerate global warming because it will reduce the planet's protection from the sun's rays. A little more than two hundred years since the North Pole was first discovered, humans are facing the imminent creation of a Northwest Passage.