Krüger's Final Camp in Arctic Canada?

Abstract

On 3 July 1999, John England, Art Dyke, and undergraduate student Michelle Laurie were surveying raised marine shorelines on Axel Heiberg Island halfway between Cape Southwest and the mouth of Surprise Fiord. During this work, they discovered a site with objects that appeared to be "of considerable antiquity." ... Only the compass and the transit were collected for preservation and identification. Protruding through the surface sand was evidence of additional material, including what appeared to be tent canvas, as well as printed material and a shirt (or long underwear) with label of German origin. ... As both England and Dyke are well acquainted with the history of Arctic exploration, they began to consider who might have left the instrument, and under what circumstances, given its evident value. ... The abandoned samples clearly identified the site as a geological camp. The abandonment of specimens would be consistent with a team in some difficulty. ... The 1999 find described here now provides the best evidence concerning the probable fate of Hans Krüger and his team. The German label on the partially buried clothing, the fragment that appears to be tent canvas, the old-style canister, the small pile of rock samples, and most significantly, the evidence gleaned from the small transit, point to new evidence concerning this 70-year-old Arctic mystery. Why would one abandon such easily transported and important possessions that would constitute the very heart of the scientific expedition? The overriding impression that one is left with at this sparse site is its abandonment under duress. The fact that so few provisions remained, and that the tent itself many have been destroyed, suggests that the camp may have suffered a late spring snowstorm that buried what remained, and the explorers had no time or energy left to excavate it before escaping eastward. Regardless, if the site is Krüger's, then his team made it several hundred kilometres farther back on their return journey than was previously thought. Sadly, Krüger's fiancé and mother never had conclusive evidence of their loss, and their anguish is revealed in letters sent to Krüger via the RCMP in 1931, now preserved in the Library and Archives Canada. His fiancé never married and tragically committed suicide in 1946. We hope that the planned archeological survey of the subsurface and the snow-filled gullies adjacent to the site will help clarify what we have presented here, further confirming that this is Krüger's final camp. Since scientific surveys, including ours, have been so widely conducted along the coastlines to the east that lead into and through Eureka Sound, it is unlikely that any subsequent camp will be found.