Most people in the Cresson area are familiar with Admiral Peary Highway. But who was Admiral Peary?
Robert Edwin Peary was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1865. After attending college in Brunswick, Maine, he joined the U.S Navy. Peary had an admiration for hiking, and often dreamed of becoming the first man to reach the North Pole.
In 1886 Peary made his first expedition to the Arctic. After traveling nearly 100 miles east in Greenland, he had to return back due to a shortage of food. But this didn't stop him. Peary then took a second route in 1891. It was much more difficult than the original route he had planned. He was accompanied by Frederick A. Cook, who served as a surgeon, the ethnologist Eivind Astrup, bird expert and marksman Langdon Gibson, and John M. Verhoeff, a weatherman and mineralogist. Robert Peary also brought his wife along the expedition. After a shipyard accident where Peary broke his leg, he made the final part of this journey in May 1892. They had come to the conclusion that Greenland was an island, and traveled a total of 1,250 miles.
In 1908, Peary had set off on his last expedition towards the North Pole. He traveled from New York to Ellesmere Island, Canada with a crew of 23 men. They had left Ellesmere Island on March 1, 1909. During the following month preparing for the expedition, many men left to return back to their base camp. This left only six men to reach the North Pole.
On April 7, 1909, recorded in Peary's diary are the words "The Pole at last!!! The prize of 3 centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years, mine at last." Robert E. Peary was the first man to reach the North Pole.
Although there are some doubts that Peary was the first man to reach the North Pole, he is still honored locally in Cresson. Which is why we decided to name one of our flavored coffees after him, The Admiral.