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In 330 B.C. the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia sailed into the North Atlantic and discovered, what he believed to be Thule, the northernmost land on earth. His book, “About the Oceans,” gave an account of this journey, but it has been lost for centuries. Only a few references to Pytheas' explorations are known from the works of other ancient scholars. No one could determine the location of Thule from these references with any degree of certainty. Through the ages, the speculations about the location of Thule has stirred the imagination of explorers, intellectuals and poets. Thule became a mythical place, and an idea in history, evoking an urge for adventure, forever moving farther and farther north as the arctic explorers reached higher and higher latitudes.
This ancient geographical mystery was believed to be solved when Robert E Peary discovered the northern tip of Greenland in 1900. “I felt that my eyes at last rested upon the Arctic Ultima Thule (Cape Morris Jessup),” Peary wrote.
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Mara Boland at Peary’s cairn on Cape Morris Jessup. Mara is holding a bottle of liquer left by Lauge Koch who mapped the northen coast of Greenland in 1921. Peary also left a bottle of whiskey and an American flag in the cairn.
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For 68 years, Cape Morris Jessup remained undisputed as the northernmost point of land in the world. But in 1968 an American/Canadian team determined that Kaffeklubben Island, 30 miles west of Cape Morris Jessup, was farther north. 10 years later a Danish team discovered a tiny island less than a mile north of Kaffeklubben Island.The maps had to be redone and the new northernmost island was named Oodaag Island after one of Peary's Inuit companions.
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Northern end of Kaffeklubben Island.
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Kaffeklubben Island was discovered by Lauge Koch in 1921. A team of American Air force personnel and scientists that included Daniel B. Krinsley, William E. Davies, and Eigil Knuth, became the first to visit the island (July 6, 1960) with two U. S. helicopters.
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