UM gains Adm. Byrd polar rock > Family donation honors university Antarctic work

ORONO — A 900-pound boulder was given to the University of Maine this week.

Before deciding campus officials have rocks in their heads for accepting it, consider the boulder’s history.

It’s 300 million years old.

It’s from Antarctica.

And it was supposed to mark the grave of famed polar explorer Adm. Richard E. Byrd, the first person to fly over the north and south poles.

When it became apparent that the gray boulder was not going to be placed over Byrd’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery, one of his daughters decided to give the piece of granite to the university in recognition of the school’s Antarctic endeavors.

“It’s a wonderful conversation piece,” geology Professor Stephen Norton said as he walked around the round boulder that arrived at UM on Monday. “It’s a monument to Admiral Byrd, and it recognizes the work the University of Maine has done in the Antarctic.”

The rock’s journey to Orono was a circuitous one. It began when glaciers transported it through the Transantarctic Mountains, which run the length of the frozen continent.

When the glacier retreated, the rock was left in an arid area known as Bull Pass. There it sat for millions of years, with blowing sand smoothing it and salt slowly carving holes in its sides.

Asked by Byrd’s family and the National Science Foundation to find an appropriate rock to mark the explorer’s grave, UM geology professor and Antarctic researcher Harold Borns chose this well-weathered rock a decade ago. Byrd could have passed it on one of his Antarctic journeys.

It was transported by a Navy helicopter to Ross Island near the Antarctic Peninsula, where it was then put on a ship and taken to the west coast of the United States. From there it was taken by train to Arlington National Cemetery, where it sat for seven years. A family disagreement apparently prevented the rock’s placement on the grave of Byrd, who died in 1957 at the age of 69.

When told that the rock would be given to UM, university officials began looking for ways to transport it to Maine. The military did not want to get involved, and private trucking companies would have charged a hefty sum.

Then Borns called Dysart’s Transportation in Hermon, and they said they’d do it for free. Dysart’s driver Fred Ayer, who was hauling a load of timber to Southwest Harbor, picked up the rock at Arlington and hauled it to Hermon where it was transferred to the back of his pickup truck for the last leg of its journey to Orono.

“When you consider where it was 300 years ago … it’s been quite a trip,” said George Jacobson, director of UM’s Institute for Quaternary Studies, which has organized several Antarctic research missions.

The rock is currently sitting on the ground floor of the Edward T. Bryand Global Sciences Building, home of the geology department and the Quaternary Institute. Norton and Jacobson hope to move it to a sunny alcove on the building’s third floor, where it will be displayed along with a mammoth tusk.

Work on that section of the building, which will also house a large conference room, has been halted because the university has run out of money. About $200,000 is needed to complete the building.

Until then, the rock will sit in a second-floor alcove. A plaque to be put on its base will describe Byrd’s polar adventures, including five Antarctic missions. It will also describe UM’s work on the frozen continent.

Each year, up to 10 UM researchers, including faculty and students, travel to Antarctica to conduct experiments and collect information.

When the rock’s home is ready, E. Bolling Byrd Clarke, the explorer’s daughter who gave the rock to UM, plans to come to Orono for a dedication ceremony, Jacobson said.

A sled that Byrd used at the South Pole was donated to the university by a third party in 1978 and is on display at the Hudson Museum.

Byrd, who first became famous in 1926 when he flew over the north pole, had a summer home near Sullivan. He reputedly planned three polar expeditions at the lodge on Tunk Lake, which he dubbed “Wickyup.”

He is supposed to have penned the book “Alone,” the tale of the winter of 1934 he spent in a small wooden shack at the south pole, at the wooden lodge.

The lodge, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, burned to the ground in July 1984. William Berkley of Massachusetts was convicted of the arson in 1988. He purchased the house from Byrd’s son, Richard Byrd Jr., in 1983.