The Ruth of the Ruth Glacier

R-U-T-H Doesn't Quite Spell TRUTH

By Erik Johnson, Denali Historian

The Don Sheldon Amphitheater is located on the Ruth Glacier. It is southeast of Mount McKinley, sandwiched between Mount Dan Beard, Explorer's Peak, Moose's Tooth, and Mount Barrille

William C Clark, esq.

In 2019, the U.S. Geological Survey recognized "Don Sheldon Amphitheater" as the official name of the visually stunning geographic feature located high on the Ruth Glacier in the Alaska Range. The amphitheater, previously known as the "Ruth Amphitheater," sits just southeast of Mount McKinley. Don Sheldon is one of the most celebrated pilots in Alaska and Denali history, but who exactly was Ruth?[1]

Frederick Cook with his stepdaughter Ruth.

Photo published in the Standard Union (Brooklyn) on July 26, 1903.

The story of Ruth predates the park’s founding and is connected to the early 20th century frenzy to ascend North America’s highest peak. The notorious Frederick Cook was a physician and explorer who circumnavigated Mount McKinley in 1903 but failed to reach the summit. In 1906, Cook made a second attempt to conquer the mountain, and boldly claimed success—a claim that has been widely discredited.[2]

During his exploration of the Denali region in 1903, Cook named the largest glacier for his stepdaughter Ruth Hunt. Ruth would have been about four years old at the time but little is known about the rest of her life. She was born around 1899 and legally adopted by Cook after he married her mother Marie Fidele Hunt in 1902.[3] Ruth eventually married and became Ruth Hamilton. She had a son, and a daughter named Bette who allegedly visited Denali in 2006 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her grandfather's ascent. Ruth died in 1970 and was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York—the same final resting place as her father.[4]

In late 1906, headlines across the country announced Cook's summit. This appeared in the October 3, 1906 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Coincidentally, the article also included a paragraph about another member of the party being baffled by Cook's claim.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

[1] Part of Sheldon's connection to the amphitheater is due to the a six-sided "Mountain House" cabin he built there in 1965-66. Later in 1966, he filed on a 4.9 acre parcel around the cabin site. When ANILCA passed in 1980, the national park expanded and encompassed Sheldon's parcel.

[2] News of Cook's summit was published by the press but almost immediately met with skepticism from people in his own climbing party (Professor Herschel Parker and Belmore Browne among the skeptics). Cook's summit claim faced increased scrutiny after he also claimed to be the first person to reach the North Pole in 1908. Cook spent the rest of his life defending his accomplishments but there were extensive efforts to debunk them. He lost much credibility when he was sentenced to prison for mail fraud in the 1920s. There has been a group dedicated to Cook’s defense, and there continues to be defenders over a century later. The NPS acknowledges the 1913 Karstens-Harper-Tatum-Stuck expedition as the first recorded summit.

[3] After Cook circumnavigated Mount McKinley in 1903, he wrote an article for the American Geographical Society in 1904 called "Round Mount McKinley. In the article he describes "Ruth Glacier" (named for his daughter) and "Fidele Glacier" (named for his wife at the time). Fidele Glacier was officially named "Eldridge Glacier" in 1913. Cook also states that he named the glacier for Ruth in his book To the Top of the Continent.

[4] Ruth had a younger stepsister, Helene Cook Vetter, who spent much of her life defending her father’s honor.

In 1909, the Arctic Club of America honored Frederick Cook with a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He was given a hero's welcome after claiming to be the first to the North Pole.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division