The Grand Canon of the Yukon

• Main Author: Schwatka, Frederick
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1990
• Subjects: Arctic; Yukon
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195061024.003.0018; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52479546/isbn-9780195061024-book-part-18.pdf

Abstract Frederick Schwatka (1849-1892) was one of the most remarkable figures of his century: army officer, attorney, medical doctor, best-selling author, and arctic explorer. Born in Galena, Illinois, Schwatka graduated from West Point in 1871, was admitted to the Nebraska Bar in 1875, and received a medical degree from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York in 1876. Obsessed with the lost 1845 Franklin expedition, he undertook an expedition into the Arctic in 1879-1880 and actually located some graves. This was hailed in his time as one of the great triumphs of arctic exploration. Schwatka later resigned his military commission and spent the rest of his short life traveling and writing. He died of a drug overdose at the age of forty-three in Portland, Oregon, after a long illness.