Cape Clarence Wyckoff (Danish: Kap Clarence Wyckoff), also known as Cape Wyckoff,[1][2] is a broad headland in the Wandel Sea, Arctic Ocean, northernmost Greenland. Administratively it is part of the Northeast Greenland National Park.

Cape Clarence Wyckoff
Cape Wyckoff
Kap Clarence Wyckoff
Peary's 1900 explorations map showing Cape Clarence Wyckoff and Cape Henry Parish in an uncertain position.
Peary's 1900 explorations map showing Cape Clarence Wyckoff and Cape Henry Parish in an uncertain position.
Cape Clarence Wyckoff is located in Greenland
Cape Clarence Wyckoff
Cape Clarence Wyckoff
Coordinates: 82°52′N 23°25′W / 82.867°N 23.417°W / 82.867; -23.417
LocationNortheast Greenland National Park, Greenland
Offshore water bodiesWandel Sea, Arctic Ocean
Area
 • TotalPeary Land, Arctic

History edit

In 1900 Peary explored the north coast of Greenland from Cape Washington in the west to a place he named Wyckoff Island in the east, on the way reaching Cape Morris Jesup, the northernmost point of mainland Greenland.[3] Cape Wyckoff was visible in the distance and was named by Robert Peary after Clarence F. Wyckoff, one of the members of the Peary Arctic Club in New York.[4]

This headland was marked on Robert Peary's map of the eastern coast of North Greenland as guesswork, based on sighting of two headlands from Wyckoff Land, for the visibility was marred by fog.[5] Cape Clarence Wyckoff was finally charted with accuracy by J.P. Koch during the 1906-07 Danmark Expedition.[6]

Geography edit

Cape Clarence Wyckoff is located in northern Herluf Trolle Land, eastern shore of Peary Land, on the NE side of the mouth of Hellefisk Fjord,[7] and 13 kilometres (42,651 ft) to the NW of Cape Henry Parish. Mount Wyckoff, reaching a height of 850 metres (2,789 ft), rises close to the shore of the point. A small bay lies on the western side, on the right shore of Hellefisk Fjord, and Wyckoff Land lies beyond this bay, about 9 km to the northwest.[8]

 
1911 map of NE Greenland by J. P. Koch showing at the top his northernmost explorations.

References edit

  1. ^ "Historical Records and Relics from the North Greenland Coast" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
  2. ^ The Non-Existence of Peary Channel
  3. ^ Mirsky, Jeannette (1970). To the Arctic: The story of northern exploration from earliest times to the present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  4. ^ How Did Frederick E. Hyde Fjord Get Its Name?
  5. ^ Spencer Apollonio, Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland, 2008 p. 101
  6. ^ EVALUATION OF ARCTIC ICE-FREE LAND SITES - KRONPRINS CHRISTIAN LAND AND PEARY LAND, NORTH GREENLAND
  7. ^ GoogleEarth
  8. ^ Prostar Sailing Directions 2005 Greenland and Iceland Enroute, p. 129

External links edit