Departures of note

In December 1914 Maurice Cole Tanquary and Donald Baxter MacMillan set off by dogsled for southern Greenland to report that Crocker Land did not exist and to request a rescue ship in 1915. They became lost for ten days in temperatures as low as –50 °F, ate several dogs, and encountered an Eskimo settlement; MacMillan returned to Etah and sent Tanquary onward with a Danish trader and an Eskimo guide.

Tanquary reached the mail station and then made the 400‑mile trip back to Etah, removing his boots as raw, bleeding skin fell from his rotting toes. He drove his dog team to Etah, where his big toes were amputated; Ekblaw described the dash as “the grittiest exploit of the expedition.”