Northwest History. Aviation 8. Wilkins' Expedition, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1926
• Subjects: Arctic; Fairbanks; Jones island; Point Barrow; Frederic Lewis Earp.; North American Newspaper Alliance; Detroit Arctic Expedition; George Wilkins; monoplane; gasoline and oil; Earl F. Hammon; Wainwright; dog feed; Arctic shore; Alexander Malcolm Smith; Earl Rossman; Colville river; Herbert Anderson; Circle City; Nome; Peter Brandt; trading station; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Arctic Ocean; Detroit; Jones Island; Pacific; Rossman; Wilkins; Barrow; Alaska
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86286

Wilkins To Fly Back To Arctic: May Leave Fairbanks Today For Point Barrow With Expedition Supplies./Urges Dog Teams Ahead./Plenty Of Feed At Jones Island 75 Miles Nearer Starving Animals Than Barrow. WILKINS TO FLY BACK TO ARCTIC May Leave Fairbanks Today for Point Barrow With Expedition Supplies. URGES DOG TEAMS AHEAD Plenty of Feed at Jones Island 75 Miles Nearer Starving Starving Animals Than Barrow. - By Frederic Lewis Earp Special Correspondent of The Spokesman-Review and the North American Newspaper Alliance with the Detroit Arctic Expedition. FAIRBANKS. April 8.-Captain George Wilkins plans to return to Barrow immediately, perhaps tomorrow, if his monoplane, the Alaskan in which he returned yesterday from there, can be conditioned in time, in order to transport gasoline and oil to the Detroit arctic expedition's advance base. Only a few minor repairs to the motor and radio set are necessary before he hops off. Before leaving Barrow last Tuesday morning, Captain Wilkins instructed Earl F. Hammon of the expedition, to mush to Wainwright for dog feed and then proceed along the Arctic shore toward Jones island to meet the overland party in charge of A. Malcolm (Sandy) Smith. In a radio message last night to Earl Rossman, in charge of the overland party's camp near the Colville river, 80 miles south of the coast, Captain Wilkins told him to press on at full speed to rejoin Smith and Herbert Anderson, who had gone ahead to Jones island to obtain feed for the party's dogs. After effecting a junction with Hammon the party is to proceed along the coast to Barrow. The captain this morning gave his coordinate in his flight over the Arctic ocean on March 31 as 73 degrees 30 minutes north and 156 degrees west. In the first radio message received from him Tuesday at Circle City the longitude had been dropped by the operator. Plenty of Seal Meat. NOME, Alaska, April 8. --Old-timers said here today that they believed seal meat obtained from natives on Jones island, in the Antic ocean near the mouth of the Colville river, will enable an overland supply division of an arctic air expedition of Captain George H. Wilkins to continue to Point Barrow. Alexander Malcolm Smith started with the supply division, which consisted of sleds loaded with food and equipment, from Fairbanks to Point Barrow. After many delays food supply for dogs drawing the sleds became depleted and Smith reported that the animals would be shot and the sleds abandoned if sustenance was not obtained. He changed his course for Jones island, which is 75 miles nearer than Barrow and which can be reached by traveling through a country more easily traversed by dog teams. Peter Brandt and three other man from Nome have a trading station at Jones island and have known Smith for many years. It is reported here that seal meat on the island is plentiful.