On This Date in Minnesota History: November 20

November 20, 1919 – Vilhjalmor Stefansson, Artic explorer, thinks Minneapolis is cold.

Vilhjalmor Stefansson

Arriving this evening from the West Canadian coast, he drew his overcoat tightly about him, turned up the collar and kicked his feet together, trying to remain comfortable.

Most of Minneapolis strutted about tonight with coats unbuttoned, while the mercury played about the 45-degree above mark in an extremely mild pre-winter night.

The explorer, who spent six years with the Eskimo tribes in the Land of the Midnight Sun, admitted that he had “summered” through ice-bound islands when it was much colder than now, but recently he has been in the southwestern part of the Canadian coast, where Indian summer is still hovering.

He proved Minneapolis was cold with figures showing that winter temperatures at the North Pole are only five degrees lower than in the northwest.

“The best information we have,” he said, “shows that it is between 55 and 60 degrees below zero in mid-winter at the pole. Government records show that 55 degrees is a common occurrence in the Northwest each winter."
That the Arctic Circle is unfriendly, dreary, desolate and no habitation because of widely advertised ice-bergs, lack of food and impossible temperatures was denied by Stefansson.

“There is plenty of food,” he continued, “it is not terribly and impossibly cold. That is all story-book lore. There is green grass and verdure on every speck of land as far north as explorers have gone. True, the summers are shorter, but still there are possibilities for raising stock and vegetables.”

Stefansson is credited with being the only northern explorer to furnish food for his party from the area travelled. At sea, the seal furnishes food, and on land it is the caribou.

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He pointed out that numerous exploring parties had trekked the Arctic Circle and starved to the last man because they did not know how to take advantage of the natural resources. He said that he never suffered for lack of food; neither had his men.

“How the world retains the idea that the North is so frigid and uninhabitable,” continued the explorer, “is a mystery that I cannot fathom. Even Canadians do not know the conditions existing in their own northern possessions.

“Americans have made wonderful progress in the propagation of reindeer in Alaska. There are now 200,000 of the animals thriving there, and many are already on marketing in the United States.”

A Minneapolis wholesale meat concern, Stefansson said, has contracted for 5,000 carcasses of reindeer. They are due here now.

“It costs but $1 a year to raise a reindeer,” he said, “and $2.50 will bring an animal to full market maturity. It costs $2 more to butcher, freeze and ship a carcass to Seattle.

“The average freight charge from Seattle to Midwest points is $4, but the hide of a reindeer alone sells for this much, while the entire carcass is worth $10 at present market figures.”

Stefansson would much rather stalk the ice fields than travel on railroads in Canada and the United States. A month among bergs usually fattens him 15 pounds, he said, but in the last month he has lost this much in weight.

In his first Arctic cruise, Steffansson discovered the “blond” Eskimo. This was in 1906. Again in June, 1913, with a party of 26, he left Victoria, B. C., for another tour of exploration for the Canadian government.

A year later he discovered a new continent or large island north of Prince Patrick Island. He made geological and botanical reports to the Canadian government.

Prince Patrick Island, upper left²

Stefansson was born in Arnes, Manitoba, Nov. 3, 1879, and made his first northern expedition to Iceland in 1903. He graduated from Harvard divinity school, taught school, sold insurance, lectured, was a reporter and edited a newspaper in N. D.

He was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Nelson at the Leamington Hotel this evening. He left at 10:30 tonight for Chicago.

The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Stefansson, Arctic Explorer, in Minneapolis; Shivers From Cold. Only Five Degrees Colder at Pole; Tales of Frigidity Held Myths.”; Nov. 21, 1919; pp. 1 & 4.

¹http://www.drbass.com/stefansson2.html

²https://www.infoplease.com/atlas/northwest-territories

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