Digital Bob Archive

Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic, was one of the principle subjects of \"The Last Place on Earth,\" the Masterpiece Theater serial recently shown by KTOO-TV. Few Juneauites probably know that Amundsen twice visited this city in 1906 and was the first distinguished visitor after the office of the governor moved here from Sitka.

At that time Amundsen had just gained world attention by his traverse of the Northwest Passage, something that had been tried unsuccessfully by many men. The explorer and his crew spent three winters in the ice pack in the 72-foot Gjoa. The third winter they were at Kings Point just east of Herschel Island. From there Amundsen and three companions made a rugged overland trip first to Fort Yukon, then to Eagle where a telegram could be sent to announce the feat. They then returned to the Gjoa and on August 31, 1906, sailed her into Nome where the whole crew was royally entertained.

Amundsen needed to check his instruments and compare his magnetic observations at the Coast and Geodetic Survey station at Sitka. No ship ran directly from Nome to Southeastern Alaska; he took the Saratoga to Seattle and another ship to Juneau, then transferred to the mail boat Georgia for the trip to Sitka. He first landed at Juneau on September 19 and was scarcely noticed. After he had gone to Sitka one of the two Juneau daily papers chided the public for its inattention to eminent visitors.

It was different when the explorer returned from Sitka on September 29. He was met at the dock by a large committee headed by Mayor H.T. Tripp and B.M. Behrends, president of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as by many admiring citizens. He was taken up Gold Creek to view some of the mining operations there, then across the channel by ferry to Treadwell where he was given a complete tour of the mines by Superintendent Robert A. Kinzie. It is not recorded that Amundsen called on Governor Hoggatt, who had just returned from a trip to the Interior and Nome, but he may have done so. Amundsen caught the steamer Cottage City for Seattle while his crew sailed the Gjoa to San Francisco where she was displayed at Golden Gate Park for many years. Eventually I believe she was returned to Norway.

Amundsen never got back to Juneau but he did return several times to Alaska. Following his conquest of the South Pole, 1910-1912, he traversed the Northeast Passage, from Norway to Nome in the Maud. Then he took the first airplanes to Northwest Alaska with the intention of flying to the North Pole, and spent the winter of 1922-23 along that northern coast. As the result of an episode there, the Amundsen family silver eventually found a home in Juneau, but that is another story.

The explorer's last visit to Alaska was in 1926 when he arrived at Teller from Spitzbergen after crossing the North Pole in the dirigible Norge. After the Italian airship Italia was wrecked while returning from another North Pole trip, Amundsen left Bergen in a plane to make a search and was not heard from again.