City honors pole explorer

Lincoln Ellsworth was the first person to cross both the North and South poles.
HUDSON, Ohio (AP) -- In this northeast Ohio city, the high school sports teams play under the name "Explorers" in honor of a former resident who helped pilot a flying expedition to the North Pole -- and who some say was robbed of his dream when another flight was credited with reaching the mark first.
The city's library and historical society plans a daylong celebration today to commemorate Lincoln Ellsworth, who eventually became the first person to cross both poles by air and who named several features of Antarctica while claiming hundreds of thousands of miles of it for the United States in the 1930s.
Ellsworth and his friend Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, flew over the North Pole just three days after explorer Richard Byrd did on May 9, 1926.
At the time, Ellsworth wrote in his journal, "Wakened up at 2 a.m. by the roar of motors and cheers. It was Byrd starting for the Pole."
Byrd was made famous by his flight, which appeared in headlines all over the world. Ellsworth's flight, which reached the pole at 1:28 a.m. on May 12, 1926, was relatively uneventful.
But a decade ago, Ohio State University archives turned up a journal Byrd carried on his flight with notations that seemed to support the belief of some experts, who suspect Byrd missed the pole.
Not forgotten
And Ellsworth is still remembered in northeast Ohio, where the Hudson Library & amp; Historical Society plans to commemorate the flight's 80th anniversary. The explorer was born in Chicago in 1880, but was sent to live in Hudson with his grandmother when his mother died. He attended both the public school and the private Western Reserve Academy, but was eventually sent to boarding school in Pennsylvania and then went off to college.
After being kicked out by Yale and Columbia, Ellsworth traveled out West to survey for a railroad and even prospected for gold. Then a steamer trip to Alaska piqued his interest in the poles.
His father, James Ellsworth, contributed $100,000 to his son's North Pole expedition. James Ellsworth also is well remembered in Hudson for reconstructing the business district after a fire and building the city's clock tower. Both father and son are buried in a Hudson cemetery.
After donating the money, James Ellsworth tried to go back on his decision, but the expedition went forward in May 1925. A heavy wind pushed the team off course during the flight, and the elder Ellsworth believed his son dead when he passed away in June.
But the team finally returned after almost four weeks and undauntedly tried again the next spring, only to have Byrd capture the glory.
Also crossed South Pole
Ellsworth made a trip to the South Pole in 1935, making him the first to have crossed both by air. The plane used for the South Pole flight, the Polar Star, is now in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Collection.
On that and another expedition in 1939, Ellsworth claimed parts of Antarctica for the United States and named features, including the Ellsworth Highlands. He has since received national recognition, earning the U.S. Medal of Honor and being pictured on a commemorative stamp in 1988.