Yukon who is who

Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879 - 1962)

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was born William Stephenson at Gimli, Manitoba. His parents emigrated from Iceland two years before his birth. He was educated at the universities of North Dakota and Iowa and during this time he changed his name to Vilhjalmur Stefansson. He studied anthropology at Harvard University’s graduate school and was an instructor there for two years.¹⁾

Stefansson led expeditions to the Canadian north in 1908-12 and 1913-18. He approached the Canadian government in 1913 to supplement funding from the American Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society for a study of the Inuvialuit in the central Arctic. The Canadian government leaped at the opportunity to take over the expedition in its entirety and the American backers withdrew. The Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18 was established.²⁾

The Expedition divided into two parties, one led by Stefansson and the other, with specialists from the Geological Survey, on assignment under Brock and R.M. Anderson, Stefansson's assistant in the 1908-12 expedition. Stefansson lost his party when the Karluk was carried off by the pack ice. He decided to travel on the pack ice north along the 141st meridian and take sounding of the ocean floor. Stefansson, Storker Storkerson, and Ole Andreason departed on this trip in 1914. They returned to Herschel Island in 1914 for supplies and left again until the autumn of 1916. They “found” and named Brock and Bordden and Meighen islands. In January 1918, Stefansson contracted typhoid at Herschel Island and was taken to Fort Yukon to convalesce. He commenced a lecture tour and subsequently wrote a book on his travels, The Friendly Arctic.³⁾

In the July 1941 issue of Foreign Affairs, Stefansson suggested a winter road and/or a pipeline be built between Norman Wells, NWT and the head of navigation on the Stewart River. The oil could be transported throughout the Yukon and Alaska by steamer in case of a military crisis. After the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands, Stefansson supplied information about the sources of oil in the Canadian interior to the US Army.⁴⁾ The United States eventually commissioned a pipeline-refinery complex but Stefansson’s grander plan was ignored.⁵⁾