by Gary Beers
Commander Robert Edwin Peary was one of the most well-known public figures in the US and around the world in 1909. An American explorer and naval officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Peary was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909.
What is less well-known is that during his triumphant return from the North Pole, Peary took his first steps on US soil in Vanceboro, on September 21, 1909.
Here is how the story of Peary’s visit to Vanceboro was first reported:
After the celebration in Vanceboro, Peary was met by big crowds in Lincoln and other towns along the route from Vanceboro on Bangor. In Bangor he was, once again, greeted by a large and enthusiastic throng of well-wishers:
From Bangor the Peary party made its way to Portland, for yet another celebration:
Peary’s accomplishment was also met with some significant controversy. Upon returning to civilization in 1909, Peary learned that Dr. Frederick A. Cook, a surgeon and ethnographer on the Peary expedition to Greenland in 1891-1892 claimed to have reached the North pole in April 1908. As the years went by, Peary’s claim was almost universally accepted until the 1980s when scholars, examining newly available documents, cast doubt on whether he had actually reached the pole or missed it by some miles.
For the thousands of Mainers from Vanceboro to Portland who greeted the great explorer more than a century ago, however, Peary would always be the man who “wrested from the heart of nature the greatest secret she has ever held” (see Wayne Reilly, “Bangor lionized Robert Peary on way home from North Pole,” Bangor Daily News, September 20, 2009, https://www.bangordailynews.com/2009/09/20/living/bangor-lionized-robert-peary-on-way-home-from-north-pole/ )
Vanceboro Historical Society 