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, inter
ested 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 ex
plorations 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 Prof
essor 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 or
ganize expeditions but who have not succeeded in getting the necessary
capital. It seems likely now that this syndicate of American capital
ists 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 univer
sal 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 Govern
ment 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 tenta
tively an outline of the steps that might be taken to discover new lands
in the North, explore those already discovered, and follow that explor
ation 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, prob
ably 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 Shackle
ton, 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.