RARE SIGNED DETROIT NEWS-WILKINS EXPEDITION COVER (06/17/2011)

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RARE SIGNED DETROIT NEWS-WILKINS EXPEDITION COVER

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RARE SIGNED DETROIT NEWS-WILKINS EXPEDITION COVER

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Sold Date: 06/17/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Stamps

In 1927 The Detroit News decided to finance a new adventure in the Arctic -- the Detroit News-Wilkins Artic Expedition -- which included A.M. Smith, a Detroit News writer whose job it was to send back stories.

This second venture also met with failure when a blizzard forced the plane down in the Polar Sea on an ice pack 100 miles from land. Wilkins and his pilot walked 100 miles to an Eskimo village. Their long, three week trek had caused many to presume them dead. Their walk with 80-pound packs on their backs remains one of the greatest feats in Arctic history. They stumbled, tumbled, crawled over high ridges, they spread-eagled across thin ice. Wilkins went into some water to his armpits with the temperature 40 below. They made snow houses each night and attempted to melt the frost and dry the water out of their clothes. Eielson, their pilot, lost a finger from frostbite, but they survived. Later that year Wilkins was knighted by Britain's King George.

THIS COVER WAS CARRIED THROUGHOUT THEIR ORDEAL AND IS SIGNED BY WILKINS, WITH A NOTE EXPLAINING HOW THEY WERE "ON FOOT FOR 100 MILES"

AN EXTREMELY RARE AND UNIQUE COVER

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