Letter from Vilhjalmur Stefansson to William Wallace Corey, 30 October 1920

C O P Y

October 30th, 1920.

Sir:

Sir James Lougheed asked me to prepare for your consideration the following memorandum:

October 28th I saw Sir James with the object of getting him personally interested in the case of Wrangel Island. I had previously put the situation before the Prime Minister who is, I believe, interested and who may intend to take some action.

Wrangel Island was discovered by Captain Kellett of the British Navy in 1849. We made no landing. For many years thereafter the land he discovered bore the name Kellett Land.

When the American whaling industry developed in this part of the ocean, the island was sighted by Captain Long, an American whaler. Captain Long did not know that the island had been discovered by Kellett and already placed upon the maps. Supposing it a discovery of his own, he announced it as such and suggested that the island should be called Wrangel Island in honor of Baron Wrangel, a Russian officer of Swedish blood who on behalf of the Russian Government had been conducting explorations by sledge northward over the ocean from the mouth of the Kolyms River about the year 1825. Baron Wrangel had heard rumors of land to the north but had failed to discover any. Captain Long now suggested that this might be the land which Wrangel had been in search of and that it would, therefore, be appropriate to name it in his honor.

For no valid reason but apparently merely because no one thought the land of any value, our geographers and mapmakers followed those of other countries in gradually dropping the name Kellett Land in favor of Wrangel Land.

The first landing on Wrangel Island was made by the American Revenue Cutter "Corwin" in 1881. Members of the crew spent only a few hours ashore.

The second landing on Wrangel Island was made a few weeks later (summer 1881) by United States Revenue Cutter "Rodgers." The ship was anchored in what is now called Rodgers Harbor and the crew remained on or near the island for more than a week, exploring it very roughly and making the map which is now in use. This map is very

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inaccurate because of the inadequacy of the survey.

From 1881 no landing is known to have been made upon Wrangel Island until the winter 1914. The ship "Karluk" of the Canadian Arctic Expedition was wrecked some sixty miles to the northeast of Wrangel Island and the larger part of the crew spent about six months in the island.

So far as I know, there has been no landing by men of any nationality on Wrangel Island since our men left there in September 1914.

Wrangel Island lies about one hundred miles from the coast of Siberia. There are many maps in existence which have colored Wrangel Island with the same colors as Siberia. It has been stated by Professor Badé of the University of California. In his introduction to John Muir's "Cruise of the Corwin" that it is a mistake to suppose that there is a treaty between the United States and Russia or any agreement between them by which the United States agree to consider Wrangel Island Russian territory. He makes this statement in explicit contradiction of the common notion that such a treaty exists.

So far as I know, the Russian Government never took any steps indicating that they valued Wrangel Island or intended to take possession of it. No expedition was ever formed for the purpose of exploring or landing on Wrangel Island and no landing seems ever to have been made by Russians.

The newspapers have just carried an announcement that the Soviet government of Russia has leased the northeastern corner of Siberia, about four hundred thousand square miles, to a syndicate of American capitalists. This report has been confirmed by the Soviet representative in New York and by despatches from Petrograd to London as well as by announcements of these American capitalists themselves.

While there may be doubt as to the authority of the Soviet government and as to its permanence in control, there seems to be no doubt that they have ceded whatever rights they have for a term of sixty years to this American syndicate.

It is well understood in Alaska and among Americans who know, that Wrangel Island is an excellent base for fur trade and for walrus hunting. I have known of several men in Alaska who have tried to organize expeditions but who have not succeeded in getting the necessary capital. It seems likely now that this syndicate of American capitalists may do something to occupy Wrangel Island as part of their lease. It is also likely that independent Americans may go to Wrangel Island unless prevented from doing so by this syndicate.

Through the discovery by Captain Kellett of the British Navy in 1849 and through occupation by our Canadian Naval Service Expedition

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of 1914, we have a better claim than any other country at present to Wrangel Island. Should we occupy it in an unostentatious way, it is not likely that any country will protest, for some years at least, against our occupancy, for the idea of the great value of the North is only slowly dawning at present and is not likely to become universal for several years. If we are the first to realize the value of these northern islands and to occupy them, they as well as other lands that we may be able to discover to the north will belong to us. But should we continue inactive until others have occupied Wrangel Island, our claim resting upon the discovery would probably be inadequate to secure us possession of it as against the claims of others supported by their present occupation.

There has already been brought to the attention of the Government the question of whether we shall be able to maintain successfully our claim to Ellesmere Island. We should occupy Wrangel Island before any such dispute arises as has already arisen with regard to Ellesmere Island.

At the request of the Prime Minister, I am giving very tentatively an outline of the steps that might be taken to discover new lands in the North, explore those already discovered, and follow that exploration by occupation so as to insure our territorial rights in these lands.

It is easy to show that the northern lands contain resources that we value to-day. It appears to me, however, unnecessary to go into that discussion. It is simpler and safer merely to remind ourselves that it has been the universal course of history up to the present that the lands considered worthless in one age are considered valuable in the next, and that the spread of value in land will, therefore, probably continue to the remotest corners of the earth.

It appears to me clear that the Antarctic continent will become a valuable possession much later than the islands north of Canada. Still, through the familiarity with the Antarctic continent brought about in Great Britain by the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton, there has been created the very strong impression there that even that remote and really icy land is going to have commercial value.

Honourable W. W. Cory, Deputy Minister, Department of the Interior. Ottawa, Ontario.