Who was Ruth of Ruth Glacier? How a Denali glacier got its name

In 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey made "Don Sheldon Amphitheater" the official name of the striking feature high on the Ruth Glacier in the Alaska Range, southeast of Mount McKinley. It had been called the Ruth Amphitheater. Sheldon is one of the best-known pilots in Alaska and Denali history, but who was Ruth? This article is by Erik Johnson, the park's historian.

The amphitheater on the Ruth Glacier, ringed by Mount Dan Beard, Explorer's Peak, Moose's Tooth and Mount Barrille. Image from the Park Service's page.

The explorer and the glacier

Ruth's story goes back before the park existed, to the early 20th-century rush to climb North America's highest peak. Frederick Cook, a physician and explorer, circled Mount McKinley in 1903 but did not reach the summit. In 1906 he made a second attempt and boldly claimed to have succeeded, a claim that has been widely discredited. In 1903 he named the largest glacier for his stepdaughter, Ruth Hunt, who the article says was about four years old then.

Frederick Cook with his stepdaughter Ruth. Photo published in the Standard Union (Brooklyn), July 26, 1903.

Little is known about the rest of her life. She was born about 1899, and Cook legally adopted her after marrying her mother in 1902. She later married, became Ruth Hamilton and died in 1970, and she is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York, the same cemetery as Cook. In a 1904 article, "Round Mount McKinley", Cook described a Ruth Glacier named for his daughter, and he repeated in his book To the Top of the Continent that he named it for her.

Why Cook is a doubtful namesake

Headlines announced Cook's summit claim in late 1906. The same Brooklyn Daily Eagle article also noted another member of his party being baffled by it.

The press printed news of Cook's summit, but people in his own party doubted it almost at once. Scrutiny grew after he claimed in 1908 to have been first to the North Pole. Cook spent the rest of his life defending his claims, while others worked to debunk them. He lost much credibility when he was sentenced to prison for mail fraud in the 1920s. A group dedicated to his defense exists, and the article notes defenders continue to appear more than a century later. The Park Service recognizes the 1913 Karstens-Harper-Tatum-Stuck expedition as the first recorded summit.

In 1909 the Arctic Club of America honored Cook with a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York after his North Pole claim. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Sheldon's own link

Don Sheldon's tie to the amphitheater comes in part from a six-sided cabin, "Mountain House", that he built there in 1965 to 1966. Later in 1966 he filed on a 4.9-acre parcel around it. When ANILCA passed in 1980, the national park expanded to include the parcel.

Sources

• National Park Service, Denali National Park and Preserve, “The Ruth of the Ruth Glacier” (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/dena-history-ruth-glacier.htm), by Erik Johnson, Denali Historian; historic photographs as credited in their captions; Ruth's living descendants and relatives left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.