Published: May 06, 2008 01:40 am      

Event to honor explorer

CRESSON – History buffs can throw a lawn chair into the car and get out to Cresson Township today for a military salute to Admiral Robert Edwin Peary, the hometown hero credited with discovering the North Pole.

The salute will last from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the expansive lawn at the Admiral Robert Peary Memorial Park at the intersection of Admiral Peary Highway and the Cresson-Loretto Road.

Featured will be the Cresson American Legion and the Sankertown VFW.

The event is sponsored by the Cresson Area Historical Association, member Etta Albright said Monday.

“The association is trying to use every public event to celebrate the accomplishments of Peary,” she said.

“He is a hometown hero, an ordinary person from an ordinary place who achieved an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Peary was born in Washington Township – now Cresson Township – 152 years ago today and the salute will recognize that birth date.

The event is just one of a number planned throughout this year and early next year leading up to the 100th anniversary of Peary’s feat of becoming the first man to reach the North Pole.

That accomplishment was dated April 6, 1909.

According to The World Almanac, later research showed that the famed explorer might have missed his goal by 30 to 60 miles.

The issue still is being debated.

No matter: For Peary, reaching the North Pole ended 23 years of struggle to get to the northernmost part of the world.

Through it all, he lost eight toes to frostbite, records show.

Cresson Borough Council has designated today as Admiral Peary Day.

Local officials and a representative of the county commissioners have been invited to the salute, Albright said.