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OLDApril & May 2007 NEWS$ 3.75 Nazis Seek “” For Atomic Bomb began to make plans to sabotage a older and better educated than most German naval base near and to Norwegian resistance fighters, with kidnap Vidkun Quisling, the leader a calm and amiable personality. After of the collaborationist government. one year of training, he was made an Haukelid’s plans were disrupted officer with the rank of lieutenant. when the Gestapo, the Nazi secret In early February of 1943, state police, discovered his activities Haukelid accepted an assignment in the winter of 1941. as second-in-command of a secret Haukelid narrowly escaped to mission to sabotage a Norwegian during the Second . From there he made his power and chemical plant fifty miles World War. (Courtesy of North way to England, where he joined the west of Oslo. This plant was the American Heritage Press.) Linge Company, a Norwegian Special world’s only commercial supplier of Forces unit being trained by the deuterium oxide, or “heavy water,” by Paul Chrastina British army to wage guerilla warfare used to moderate the process of Knut Haukelid, a twenty-nine- against the Germans in . atomic fission in nuclear reactors. The year-old Norwegian surveyor, was At a training camp in the Scottish Germans, who were trying to invent returning home from a construction Highlands, British commandos an atomic bomb, had seized the plant View of a hut on the Hardanger site in northern Finland when the taught Haukelid to parachute into from the Norsk-Hydro Company and Plateau from which saboteurs set German army invaded Norway on mountainous terrain. He also received dramatically increased its production out for the plant, visible April 9, 1940. Haukelid immediately special training in lock picking, bomb of heavy water, which could be used in the valley below. (Courtesy volunteered to join the Norwegian making, and hand-to-hand combat. to generate explosive plutonium fuel of North American Heritage army and was issued a gun. Within a Haukelid was a natural leader, for a bomb. The Allies, who were Press.) few weeks, the Germans rolled over the Norwegian regular and volunteer forces, capturing the capital city of Oslo and forcing the Norwegian government to take refuge in England. By early June the well-supplied Germans controlled Norway’s major cities. They were also waging a brutal war of attrition in the countryside, isolating and destroying towns and villages to which groups of resisters had retreated. “The Germans set fire to all farms as they advanced,” Haukelid later wrote. “Civilians who refused to leave their homes were shot, and all livestock was burned to death. We swore then that we would never give in—not even if the Germans won the war.” Following the defeat of the Norwegian army and the imposition of a pro-German civilian government in Oslo, Haukelid joined a network of civilian underground resistance fighters who still opposed the Nazi occupation. An avid skier and outdoorsman, he established shortwave radio transmitters in remote wilderness areas to communicate with the Norwegian government- in-exile and with Britain’s wartime secret service, the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). With S.O.E. assistance, Haukelid This plant at Vemork, in German-occupied Norway, manufactured “heavy water.” (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.) page two

trying to develop their own atomic north of Vemork. In a mission code- out of rations and were subsisting on bomb, feared that Norwegian heavy named Operation Grouse, an advance reindeer meat and a vitamin-rich tea water would allow the Germans to team of four Norwegian commandos brewed from moss and melted snow. win the race to build the world’s first had parachuted into Norway in Haukelid was told that he and five nuclear weapon. October of 1942. They had set up other men of Linge Company had The heavy-water plant was perched several camps and a series of supply been assigned to make a new attempt on the side of the steep mountain gorge caches on the plateau. to cripple the suspected German of the Mâne River at a place called The Grouse team was supposed to nuclear weapons program. Lieutenant Vemork, near the town of . have been joined by a squad of thirty- Joachim Rönneberg would lead their The plant used hydroelectric power four British commandos to stage a mission. Haukelid would be second- derived from a five-hundred-foot raid on the lightly guarded plant, in-command, but all team members waterfall to power the manufacture of but this phase of the mission, code- were fully trained and each could heavy water and other chemicals. named Operation Freshman, had met complete the undertaking alone, if S.O.E. officers told Haukelid with catastrophe in November when a necessary. The other members of the that a Norwegian spy named Einar Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) bomber and team were Lieutenant Kaspar Idland Skinnerland had infiltrated the two gliders carrying the troops crash- and Sergeants Frederik Keyser, Hans Vemork plant and had set up radio landed in Norway. The survivors had Storhaug, and Birgir Stromsheim. transmitters nearby on the Hardanger been captured by German soldiers At one o’clock on the morning Commandos at a shelter. Plateau, a sparsely populated upland and then executed by the Gestapo. of February 16, 1943, the Operation Moreover, the Germans had either Gunnerside team boarded an R.A.F. learned or guessed the mission’s Halifax bomber in Scotland. They objective and had increased security crossed the North Sea by the light at Vemork. Installations of high- of a full moon and successfully caliber machine-guns, floodlights, parachuted onto the Hardanger and land mines now surrounded the Plateau. At dawn they set out on skis plant. Despite the disastrous setback to look for the Grouse team, but later of Operation Freshman, the Grouse in the day they were turned back by team remained encamped on the a blizzard and were forced to take Hardanger Plateau. They had run shelter in an abandoned hunting

Knut Haukelid making a postwar visit to one of the huts in which the commandos stayed. (Courtesy of North American Heritage Press.)

The gorge of the frozen Mâne River below Vemork. To reach their objective the commandos decided to climb down one side of the gorge, then up the other side. (Courtesy of North American Heritage Press.)

Reenactors of the raid on the Vemork heavy water plant during fiftieth- anniversary events in 1993 commemorating the raid. (Photo by Terje S. After training in England, the commandos parachuted onto the Hardanger Knudsen.) Plateau in Norway. page three cabin. For the next three days heavy convinced, he exclaimed: “God, it’s accumulated as the product of a long, guarded by German sentries equipped snowfall and high winds made further great to see you fellows here, on the slow process of electrolysis. The most with floodlights and machine guns. travel impossible, but on the morning plateau of all places!” obvious way to reach the building Rönneberg and Haukelid studied of February 20, the wind died and the Kristiansen, who was familiar with was by way of a seventy-five-foot aerial photographs of the five- skies rapidly cleared. the surrounding countryside, agreed suspension bridge that crossed the hundred-foot-deep Vemork gorge, As the men prepared to leave the to guide the team in its search for the gorge of the Mâne River. The bridge looking for a way to penetrate its cabin, they each picked up a rucksack Grouse camp. Later that day the team was used by the plant’s regular natural defenses. They noticed areas packed with food, weapons, and encountered Grouse members Claus employees and visitors, and was of trees and shrubs growing on high explosives. Around the cabin in Helberg and Arne Kjelstrup. They all directions the flat surface of the said that their leader, Jens Poulsson, plateau lay buried under snowdrifts. was at a nearby cabin, while their The team members were about to fourth teammate was manning a set out when they noticed a man on shortwave radio station at another, skis in the distance, heading directly more secluded, hut further away. towards them. With the six Gunnerside men The Gunnerside commandos and three of the four Grouse team hid behind a corner of the cabin members united, it became necessary and waited as the man came closer to decide what to do with Kristiansen. and then stopped to examine the Rönneberg and Haukelid finally fresh ski tracks they had left around decided to tell the hunter to remain on the building. When he cautiously the Hardanger Plateau for three days approached the cabin door, they before going home, and to reveal immediately surrounded him with nothing about what he had seen. The drawn weapons. team then moved to a hut near the A brief interrogation revealed edge of the plateau, about seven miles that the startled skier was not a from their objective in Vemork. German soldier or Nazi sympathizer The heavy-water plant was located but a local reindeer hunter named in the basement of a complex of Kristian Kristiansen. Once this was buildings that housed hydroelectric established, the commandos had to turbines, laboratories, and chemical prove to the wary Kristiansen that factories. The facility contained they, too, were Norwegians, and not eighteen four-foot-tall stainless steel German troops. When he was finally tanks in which heavy water gradually

Collection canisters for heavy water at the Vemork plant. (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.) After the commando raid. (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.)

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to notice the noise. covering team waited until the expectantly, sound of a small explosion Haukelid facility. the through rumbled later wrote that the he was blast surprised impressive.” was The German not appeared sentries not “particularly to unarmed single a until passed minutes notice it. A German few soldier the barracks with emerged a swept the beam flashlight. near Haukelid’s and from He Poulsson and place, hiding Poulsson’s whispered: “Shall I fire?” doesn’t know what has leave him as long as possible.” happened; nothing unusual and returned inside. Seconds later, Rönneberg, Stromsheim, Keyser, and from Idland the emerged shadows of and the ran building towards the followed by Haukelid and the rest. railroad gate, accomplished. The demolition team had found the heavy-water collection tanks being monitored by only two unarmed Norwegian employees. The men had offered no resistance as the explosives were planted. They were later later the two teams slipped out of the gate, the on lock the through cut shed, and ran to a cluster of small buildings about one hundred yards factory. heavy-water from the to find hiding places from which they could keep watch, while Rönneberg and his men proceeded towards the heavy-water plant in two groups of two, each carrying enough explosives to complete the mission if the other failed. One glass. breaking of sound faint the of the teams had kicked in a window to gain access to the basement of the chemical plant. Haukelid watched the sentry post; the sentries did not seem Fold on line. on Fold

Name...... NO POSTAGE NECESSARY Street...... IF MAILED IN THE City...... For the final approach towards utility a reached they p.m. 11:30 At At the base of the escarpment they The nine commandos finalized BUSINESS REPLY MAIL FIRST-CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO 15 LANDISVILLE PA railroad grade. the plant, the groups: men Haukelid, Poulsson, Helberg, split into Kjelstrup, two and Storhaug went ahead as a covering a team, demolition followed group by Rönneberg, consisting Keyser, of and Idland. Stromsheim, Haukelid led with each the man exactly way, following his to conceal their footsteps in the snow, number if the tracks were found. shed five hundred yards outside the gate to the plant. From the shed they could see the suspension bridge and a German army At barracks midnight nearby. the changed their posts, German and a half-hour sentries three seconds,” Haukelid wrote. lip the to hiked and skis their removed they Helberg, Following gorge. the of climbed down a series of snow-covered slanting, ledges, grabbing tree trunks for balance and support until they reached the icy Helberg riverbed. had As warned, wall of the the gorge was more sheer and opposite rocky than the way by had which come they down, but after about hour an of quiet, cautious climbing, the team reached the narrow shelf of the cliff face cliff across the that gorge looked as if it could be climbed without the use of ropes. explosives, guns, Machine plans. their detonators, and fuses were carefully loaded into rucksacks first-aid along kits, extra with flashlights, emergency food rations. After sunset and the men dressed in white ski-parkas and pants, then left the hut and skied down a steep, wooded towards Each Vemork. man carried a escarpment pistol, a knife, several hand grenades, and a potassium cyanide “suicide powder to be used pill” in filled the event of capture. “Once bitten with through it would ensure death within POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE X OLD NEWS 3 W BRANDT BLVD LANDISVILLE PA 17538-9964

On the morning of February 27, Fold on line. plant. made a trial Vemork dressed in run civilian clothing. to said and later hours few a returned He that he had found a route down into frozen was River Mâne The gorge. the solid, Helberg said, and there was a protected protected only by a single unmanned gate in the fence surrounding the

Artwork for User Defined (4" x 6") Produced by DAZzle Designer 97, Version 3.02 Layout: C:\ENVMGR32\DAZZLE32\OLDBRM.LYT (c) Envelope Manager Software, www.EnvelopeManager.com, (800) 576-3279 January 8, 2002 1:25 pm U.S. Postal Service, Serial # Norsk-Hydro Norsk-Hydro facilities in Rjukan, near were Vemork, accidentally targeted by American bombers in November of 1943. (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.) ledges ledges of broken rock about a quarter mile downstream from the Reasoning that bridge. “where plants could a grow, man can go,” they decided to climb down to the river at this point and then scale the other side of gorge the to a railway line the running side of the mountain up to the plant. Because of the steep cliffs on either side of the grade, the railway was page page four page five allowed to escape with the saboteurs The Germans decided to dismantle , the time bomb exploded. The In 1965 a fictionalized version of the before the blast, which tore the the Vemork facility and move the ferry sank within minutes, taking the attack on the Vemork heavy-water water tanks apart and spilled over operation to a new, more secure site heavy-water canisters with it. Of the plant was the basis of the film The one hundred gallons of heavy water in Germany. In late January of 1944, fifty-three people on board, twelve Heroes of . Actor Richard into floor drains leading to the Mâne workers began loading stockpiles of German soldiers and fourteen civilian Harris starred in the role of Haukelid, River. heavy water onto rail cars at the plant. passengers drowned in the cold water although screenwriters renamed his The saboteurs quietly retreated On February 16 Haukelid received before rescuers arrived to save twenty- character “Knut Straud.” During the by way of the railway line and then orders to intercept and destroy the three Norwegians and four Germans. television coverage of the 1994 Winter climbed and slid back down the shipment. In three days, he learned, After completing the demolition Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway, steep rock face into the gorge below. the train would leave Vemork and of the ferry, Haukelid remained in Haukelid was interviewed as part of a As they were crossing the riverbed, travel east to Lake Tinn, a long, narrow Norway and continued to work with special report by CBS news journalist sirens began to wail and brilliant body of water over one thousand feet the resistance until the war ended Charles Kuralt. Haukelid died soon white floodlighting suddenly lit up the deep. The rail cars were to be loaded fourteen months later. A few weeks afterwards on March 8, 1994, at the mountain walls above them. onto a ferryboat and transported to prior to the defeat of Nazi Germany age of eighty-three. “Now we had to take to the hills,” the south shore of the lake; from there in the spring of 1945, the impact of Haukelid later wrote. Three grueling they would again travel by rail to Oslo the Norwegian sabotage missions hours later, the team reached the rim and then by ship to Germany. on the German atomic program was SOURCES: of the Hardanger Plateau. Looking The most vulnerable link in the validated when U.S. soldiers found Bodanis, David. E=mc2: A Biography back down into the valley during the route was the ferry crossing. A an unfinished nuclear reactor in a of the World’s Most Famous Equation. ascent, they could see German search carefully placed bomb could send the bombproof bunker in southwest : Walker & Company, 2000. parties swarming over the grounds of shipment irretrievably to the bottom Germany. Engineers estimated that Haukelid, Knut. Skis Against the the brightly lit plant. of Lake Tinn, but Haukelid and other the reactor would have needed an Atom. Minot, ND: North American While skiing back to their hut, resistance leaders were hesitant to additional 185 gallons of heavy water Heritage Press, 1989. the commandos were buffeted by attack the ferry because civilians before it could have started producing Kurzman, Dan. Blood and Water: a powerful rising wind. Helberg regularly used it to cross the lake. the plutonium needed to build a Nazi Sabotaging Hitler’s Bomb. New York: separated from the group to retrieve “It is always hard to take a decision atomic bomb. Later investigations Henry Holt and Company, 1997. some civilian clothing from a nearby about actions which involve the loss revealed that the German nuclear Marks, Leo. Between Silk and cache on the plateau. The rest got to of human lives,” Haukelid later wrote. program had encountered many Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941- the hut just before dawn, expecting “In this case an act of war was to be other setbacks and was two years 1945. New York: The Free Press, Helberg to rejoin them with the new carried out which would endanger behind the Allied Manhattan Project, 1998. clothes. the lives of a number of our own but historians agree that the heavy Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Later that day a blizzard enveloped people—who were not soldiers.” The water sabotage made it physically Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & the area. When the weather cleared on perceived risk of allowing the Nazi impossible for the German program to Schuster, 1986. March 1, the Norwegians sent a radio regime to develop an atomic bomb, go forward during the final desperate message to England confirming that however, grimly outweighed these year of the conflict. INTERNET: the Vemork plant had been “completely considerations: “Our orders from Haukelid received medals of honor Knut Haukelid Biography. http://www destroyed.” Helberg, meanwhile, had London left no doubt that it was of from Norway, Sweden, , and .imdb.com/name/nm0369386/bio been spotted by German soldiers and vital importance to the outcome of the the United States. He remained active . http://www was unable to rejoin the group. He war that the Germans should not get in the Norwegian army after the war, .hydro.com/en/about/history/1929 escaped to Sweden. the heavy water…. The ferry at Lake rising to the rank of lieutenant general. _1945/1943_2.html The remaining saboteurs split up. Tinn had to be sunk to finish the job.” Seven of the remaining men also On February 19 the heavy water escaped to Sweden in uniform, but shipment arrived at the lake and was Haukelid and three others remained in loaded onto the ferry Hydro. That Norway to work with the Norwegian night Haukelid and two Norwegian resistance. For the next six months Resistance fighters disguised as they kept on the move, alone and workmen infiltrated the docks by the in small groups, evading German lake. German soldiers were aboard search parties by camping high in the ferry, but the boat’s deck was not the mountains and traveling on skis under guard. Judging from the sounds to meet with regional resistance coming from below, the soldiers were organizers. busy playing cards. The situation at Vemork was Haukelid and one of the men monitored by S.O.E. spies who casually boarded the Hydro, while the continued to work at the facility. third man kept watch on the gangway. During the summer of 1943, they Haukelid then planted a nineteen- reported that the Germans were pound time bomb in the ferry’s bilge, tenaciously rebuilding the heavy- near the bow. The group escaped from water plant. In late July, Haukelid the area unnoticed by the Germans. learned that production of heavy The next day, when the Hydro water had been fully resumed. A new, was over the deepest part of Lake stronger garrison of German soldiers had been stationed at Vemork, and The Lake Tinn ferry Hydro. (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.) security around the plant had been improved. It was decided that another sabotage raid against the plant was not likely to succeed. On November 16 one hundred and forty American bombers flew from British bases to Vemork and dropped seven hundred bombs on the facility and the surrounding area. Because of bad weather and poor visibility, only fourteen of the bombs actually hit the power plant. Of those, two damaged the upper floors of the heavy-water building but did not harm the basement level where the concentrated heavy water was collected and stored. Twenty-four civilians were killed in the bombing, and the Norwegian government in Knut Haukelid wrote a book England condemned the raid, about about his role in preventing the which it had not been consulted in Nazis from obtaining deuterium advance. oxide. A reunion of the saboteurs in 1990. (Courtesy of Norsk-Hydro.) page six Family Contests Will Of Alfred Nobel by Matthew Surridge world’s most successful businessmen. Nobel swore his witnesses to a copy of the will by mail, Sohlman On November 2, 1895, sixty-two- He had never married and had no secrecy. He deposited the will in a was shocked to find that he and year-old Alfred Nobel carried a copy children. He knew that his six nieces Stockholm bank and kept its existence Lilljequist were to sell off Nobel’s of his last will and testament to the and nephews were expecting to inherit secret from everyone else, including stock shares, land, and other properties Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. his wealth, but he had other ideas. his family and Sohlman. in order to establish a foundation to There he signed it in the presence of Nobel held unconventional Slightly more than one year later, on award the annual humanitarian prizes, four Swedish witnesses. Nobel, the beliefs about political, religious, and December 10, 1896, Nobel suffered a leaving only a tiny fraction of Nobel’s inventor of dynamite, was one of the moral issues, and he had written an stroke and died. Five days afterwards, fortune to distribute to his nieces and innovative will. It specified that most the grieving Ragnar Sohlman was nephews. Sohlman regarded Nobel’s of his fortune be used to fund a set informed by telegram that Nobel nephews Ludvig, Hjalmar, and of five annual prizes to be awarded had named him as executor of his Emanuel as personal friends. He was to nominees who “conferred the estate. To assist Sohlman, Nobel had especially close to Ludvig Nobel, on greatest benefit upon mankind” named as co-executor another young whose recommendation he had won each year in the fields of literature, engineer, Rudolf Lilljequist. his job as Nobel’s assistant. medicine, chemistry, physics, and Sohlman was not yet aware of Sohlman contacted Lilljequist, international peacemaking. No person the unusual nature of Nobel’s will, who was then working in Bengtsfors, of comparable wealth had ever made but he feared that neither he nor Sweden. The two men agreed a similar bequest. Lilljequist was competent to manage that in spite of the unavoidable Nobel mistrusted lawyers and the distribution of such a vast fortune. disappointment to Nobel’s heirs, they had written the will by himself. He later wrote that he was at first were bound to try to faithfully carry He named his favorite laboratory thrown into a state of despair by out his wishes. assistant, twenty-five-year-old Ragnar the magnitude of the task facing Sohlman believed that Nobel’s Sohlman, as his executor. Sohlman him. “The announcement of the intentions were clear. Yet he knew, had worked for Nobel as a chemical unexpected responsibility . . . gave from newspaper articles published engineer and knew very little about a sleepless night. I was now faced in Sweden, that the terms of the financial or legal matters, but Nobel with a task for which I felt totally will had been made public and had admired him as a clever scientist with unqualified.” Although he would be disappointed his friends Hjalmar Ragnar Sohlman. a sincere and honest character. well compensated for his work as and Ludvig Nobel. Alfred’s nephew executor, he was strongly tempted Emanuel Nobel, who was to receive to refuse to accept his appointment. a slightly larger inheritance than Nonetheless, he had been very fond the others, was not opposed to the of his employer and finally decided idea of the Nobel Prizes. Sohlman that he must accept the responsibility wrote letters to all of the members as his duty to a departed friend. of Nobel’s extended family, trying Soon afterwards, when he received to gain their support in fulfilling the

Alfred Nobel. The first page of Alfred Nobel’s will. page seven terms of the will. In a letter to Ludvig ought to be spent to directly fund them from the deleterious effect end, Hjalmar and Ludvig along with Nobel, Sohlman expressed his desire scientific research. Sohlman knew of excessive wealth, fearing that it their sisters Ingeborg, Tyra, and to remain Ludvig’s friend, adding: “At that if a single one of the institutions might make them lazy. In a meeting Mina agreed. Following the meeting, the same time I have to keep in mind declined to award Nobel Prizes, then in June of 1897, Lindhagen suggested Emanuel Nobel issued a statement the importance of not compromising according to Swedish law the will various proposals for a compromise that persuaded the Swedish academies the trust placed in me.” Ludvig’s would automatically be invalidated agreement with Nobel’s family, but of science and literature that the will response was guarded. and a court would probably award the Sohlman and Lilljequist doubted that would remain valid. On February 9, Swedish courts entire estate to Nobel’s family. they had the authority to override After that, the implementation of declared the will legal in Sweden. Late Sohlman ran into more resistance Nobel’s will. Sohlman met with the will was a formality. The Nobel in March, however, Sohlman learned at the Academy of Stockholm, which the Nobel family’s lawyer, but his Foundation was established in 1900, from the Swedish consul in Paris that had been chosen by Nobel to award unwillingness to yield on the terms of and the first Nobel Prizes were Hjalmar and Ludvig Nobel had gone the prize for literature. Members of the will led the lawyer to break off all awarded in 1901. Sohlman became to Paris to study the possibility of the academy said that they had no communication with the executors. managing director of Nobel’s former bringing legal proceedings against business awarding prizes to writers When Sohlman tried to settle the laboratory in Bofors. From 1936 to the will in France, where much of of all nationalities, as was required matter in a personal meeting with 1946 he was the managing director Nobel’s wealth was stored in Parisian by the will; they said that it was Ludvig Nobel in late summer, the two of the Nobel Foundation. He died banks. Sohlman hurried to Paris with their patriotic duty to encourage the men argued, reaching no agreement in 1948. His grandson, Michael, is his Swedish lawyer, Karl Lindhagen. flowering of Swedish literature by and cooling their long friendship. currently executive director of the On Lindhagen’s advice he decided supporting Swedish writers, rather Karl Lindhagen successfully foundation. to immediately move Nobel’s stock than to try to monitor and evaluate all defended the fairness of the will, but it certificates and papers beyond the literature written in every language could be invalidated if Sohlman failed jurisdiction of French courts by around the world. to persuade Swedish academicians shipping them out of the country. Sohlman’s efforts to win over the to award the prizes in chemistry, Sohlman wished to avoid drawing scientific and literary scholars were physics, and literature. attention to the shipment, which might interrupted when he was drafted into In January of 1898, Sohlman violate French tax laws. Rather than the Swedish army. Military service met with officers of the Swedish SOURCE risk alerting the French authorities by was legally required of all Swedish academies of science and literature Sohlman, Ragnar. The Legacy of asking the bank to arrange the transfer men, and Sohlman was unable to gain to assure them that if they agreed Alfred Nobel: The Story Behind the of the securities, Sohlman himself an exemption. Because he was also to award the prizes, their members Nobel Prizes. Translated by Elspeth picked them up at the bank and took legally required to manage Nobel’s would not be forced to do any extra, Harley Schubert. London: The Bodley them by carriage to the Swedish estate, he was allowed to bring his unpaid work. Instead, Nobel’s money Head, 1983. consulate, carrying a loaded revolver accountant to boot camp. There he would fund a special institution to in case of an attempted theft. The rented a room in a small private help them choose the prizewinners. INTERNET: Swedish ambassador, who liked the building to use as an office. After he This pleased the academicians, but Alfred Nobel. idea of repatriating Nobel’s wealth to drilled all day with the other draftees, they would not agree to award the http://www.nordicway.com/search/ Sweden, cooperated with Sohlman in he went to the office to work on legal prizes unless members of the Nobel Sweden/Sweden_alfred_nobel.htm arranging for the stocks to be mailed documents in the evening. family endorsed the idea. “Where There’s A Will.” http://www from the consulate to Sweden. In addition to his waging a legal Sohlman was then in discussion .irwinabrams.com/articles/will.html Sohlman met for dinner that night battle to defend the will, Sohlman with Alfred Nobel’s nephew Emanuel with Ludvig and Hjalmar Nobel. had to manage the very complicated regarding the disposal of one of The atmosphere was strained but finances of Nobel’s estate, so he Alfred Nobel’s companies. Sohlman, initially cordial. After dinner, the and his accountant generated a huge knowing that Emanuel was more question of the will emerged. Hjalmar number of documents each evening. receptive to the idea of the prizes claimed that because Nobel’s assets These were delivered to the nearest than the rest of his family, decided had been stored in France, a French post office each day by a military to try to broaden the negotiations court should rule on the validity of bicycle courier. The base had only one with Emanuel and to get him to the will. Sohlman tactfully replied telephone available, in the officer’s agree to fully support Nobel’s will. that this was an academic question mess, and when constant calls for He hoped that Emanuel’s support because Nobel’s wealth was now out “Recruit 114 Sohlman” annoyed would convince the family to accept of the country, and therefore beyond the officers, a new phone had to be the validity of the will, thereby French jurisdiction. Sohlman told installed. Finally, in the summer of convincing the Swedish academicians Hjalmar that the will could now only 1897, after matters to do with the will to accept it as well. be challenged in Sweden. required Sohlman to repeatedly seek In February of 1898, Emanuel Hjalmar and Ludvig were surprised leave in order to meet representatives agreed to support the will in exchange by Sohlman’s revelation and did not at of the Norwegian parliament, he was for a chance to buy Nobel’s highly first believe him. Before leaving, they discharged. profitable company at a favorable said that the will was unreasonable, When Sohlman completed his price and to maintain control over and they urged Sohlman to settle their military service, he found himself it. Sohlman accepted these terms, claims to their uncle’s fortune through in court with Lindhagen to defend and Emanuel called a meeting of some form of arbitration. Nobel’s will from charges that it was his family in which he passionately Ragnar Sohlman during his Sohlman rejected that idea. He later unfair to Nobel’s extended family. argued in favor of the deal. In the military service. wrote a letter to Hjalmar claiming that Lindhagen argued that the Nobel he and Lilljequist could not negotiate clan was already prosperous, and that any changes to the will because they Alfred Nobel had wanted to protect had a “moral duty to defend it as best we can.” Sohlman communicated with the four institutions that Nobel had selected to award the prizes: the Norwegian parliament, the Caroline Medical Institute, the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Stockholm. The Norwegian parliament quickly agreed to award the peace prize, and the Caroline Medical Institute in Stockholm agreed to award the prize for medicine or physiology; however, when Sohlman met with members of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, he discovered that many of them were not interested in awarding prizes in chemistry and physics. They argued that running a contest was a distraction The Nobel Prizes were awarded for the first time in 1901. This image from their work, and that the money Emanuel Nobel. shows Wilhelm Röntgen accepting the prize for physics. page eight General Tries To Meet Enemy Leader by Brad Courtney and executed them. Since that time advance his political career. Jeffords guides who knew the countryside. General Oliver Otis Howard was a Cochise had retaliated so effectively later confessed, “I was prejudiced Ideally, they should be friends or successful commander for the Union and extensively that many Americans against him on account of his well- relatives of Cochise who might army during the Civil War, and he feared to settle in southern Arizona. known humanitarian ideas and, to my persuade the chief to allow Howard became known as “the Christian General Howard and his assistant, mind, posing as a Christian soldier.” into his stronghold. At Tularosa, he general” because of his strong moral Lieutenant Joseph Sladen, left After deliberating for what Howard found Chie, the son of Cochise’s convictions, his humanitarianism, Washington and traveled to Fort considered a long time, Jeffords said: brother. Chie’s father, Coyuntura, had and his desire to become a minister. Apache, Arizona, where they “General Howard, Cochise won’t been one of the hostages executed In 1862 he was awarded the learned that no one at the fort knew come. The man who wants to talk to by Lieutenant Bascom. Cochise had Congressional Medal of Honor after how to locate Cochise in order to Cochise must go where he is. I’ll tell thereafter acted as Chie’s father. losing his right arm during the Battle open negotiations. Some peaceful you what I will do. I will take you to Despite what had happened of Fair Oaks. When the war ended in Chiricahua Apaches who had Cochise.” to his father, Chie was ready to 1865, he was appointed commissioner accepted reservation life told Howard “Do you know where he is?” help make peace. He consented to of the Freedman’s Bureau, which that Thomas Jeffords, a white man Howard asked. join Howard’s team, but with two gave him supervision over four who lived a hundred miles east, was Jeffords unhesitatingly answered, conditions: Howard must give Chie’s million liberated slaves. In 1867 a friend of Cochise and might be able “I can find him.” wife a new horse and then find a he co-founded Howard University, to find the Apache leader and arrange Howard’s prompt response Chiricahua subchief named Ponce which was named in his honor. a meeting. surprised the frontiersman: “I will go and persuade him to also serve as a In the summer of 1872, President Howard and Sladen traveled to with you, Mr. Jeffords.” guide. Ponce was Cochise’s nephew- Ulysses Grant appointed Howard as Jeffords’s hometown in the Valley of Jeffords warned Howard that it in-law, tantamount to a son-in-law in Special Indian Commissioner. Grant Tularosa, New , where they might take several weeks to locate Chiricahua culture. wanted Howard to negotiate a peace met the tall, red-bearded frontiersman Cochise. He also said: “It must be you Howard instantly provided the treaty with the Chiricahua Apache on September 7. Howard wasted no and I alone.” Cochise would be wary horse for Chie’s wife. He promised to leader, Cochise, who was waging a time. After introductions, he said: “I of too many white men, he added. try to recruit Ponce, who resided about guerilla war against white settlers in understand, Mr. Jeffords, that you Howard astonished Jeffords again eighty miles east of Tularosa, near Arizona. know Cochise, and can find him. I when he announced: “I will start at the Alamosa Reservation. Howard learned that the guerilla have come here from [Fort] Apache once, as soon as we can get ready. We Howard’s party departed Fort war had resulted from an incident to find you, and, if possible, to get will call it tomorrow.” Tularosa on September 13 and arrived eleven years earlier when Cochise had you to go to him and induce him to Jeffords agreed to be Howard’s at Canada Alamosa on September 16. been falsely accused of kidnapping come to me for an interview.” ally: “I saw then that he was not only On September 18 they found Ponce, an American child. Cochise escaped Jeffords did not answer quickly. a brave man, and fearless as far as who agreed to serve as a co-guide arrest by cutting his way out of the Based on what he had read in his person was concerned, but really with Chie. arresting officer’s tent, but the officer, newspapers, he suspected that was in earnest about trying to stop the Ponce’s wife was displeased with Lieutenant Bascom, later captured Howard was a phony idealist who destructive war which Cochise was him for agreeing to participate in his brother and two of his nephews struck a holier-than-thou pose to waging against my countrymen.” the mission, so after Howard gave Jeffords eventually agreed to let Ponce a horse, Ponce turned it over Howard bring Lieutenant Sladen to his wife to appease her. To the and four other white men on the trip. astonishment of the white men, when Howard sent for a pack train from the expedition set out to seek Cochise, Fort Craig, about one hundred miles Ponce went on foot while everyone east of Tularosa. Zebina Streeter else rode a horse or mule. Sladen would be the main packer. Added marveled: “On foot he went. Whether to the team were Charles May as we traveled twenty miles on level interpreter, Albert Bloomfield as ground, or thirty miles up and down ambulance driver and cook, and J.H. the rugged mountain sides, it was all Stone as assistant packer and cook. the same to Ponce.” Occasionally, he Howard also needed Chiricahua would even take a side journey or run

There are no known photographs of the Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise. These two photographs show his youngest son, Naiche (left), and his eldest son, Taza (right). Taza succeeded his father as leader of General Oliver Otis Howard during the American Civil War. his nation. page nine ahead of the others to hunt game. “No in height. Through the center ran a Cochise a reservation at Canada Before summoning his captains, sign of weariness did I ever see him stream of water coming from a large Alamosa. Howard said that Alamosa Cochise stipulated that Howard order display,” Sladen wrote. stream nearby.” was good country for the Apaches: “It a cease-fire to ensure his warriors’ On September 24 Howard’s party Sladen felt extremely nervous. He has five rivers, plenty of grass, mescal safety. Howard offered to send met a group of prospectors. Their wrote: “Never before had a party of and nuts, and antelope and other game Sladen to Fort Bowie with his order leader was James Bullard, whose white men ventured into the hands in the mountains.” for a cease-fire, but Cochise believed brother had recently been killed by of this band, and come out alive. Our Cochise’s associates were Howard’s soldiers would obey only if one of Cochise’s raiding parties. Indians realized this and were fearful surprised when he declined this they heard it from the general himself. When Bullard saw Chie and Ponce, of the result to ourselves.” Only proposal, because Canada Alamosa Cochise said that Sladen and Jeffords he thought of nothing but revenge and Howard, confident that the mission was coveted by many Chiricahuas must remain with him, while Howard pointed a gun at them. The typically was the fulfillment of God’s will, and was considered much better than himself went to Fort Bowie. Howard amiable Howard positioned himself seemed serene. Tularosa, which had been offered to acquiesced. in front of his guides and angrily One of Cochise’s subchiefs, Tygee, Cochise in times past. What Cochise With Chie serving as guide through challenged Bullard: “You will kill me told Howard that his chief would really wanted, however, was to settle the rugged Chiricahua territory, first.” Bullard backed down, put his not meet them until the following right where he was, in his beloved Howard immediately departed for gun away, and withdrew. day. Sladen wrote in his journal that Dragoon Mountains, above Apache Bowie, forty miles to the east. Their As much as Ponce and Chie needed the Indians seemed unsure of how Pass. He said: “Why not give me journey led through Apache Pass, Howard’s protection, Howard also Cochise would react to Howard’s Apache Pass for my people and I will where Howard noticed a sadness needed theirs. Sladen wrote that the intrusion: “Altogether, our prospects protect the road to Tucson. I will see overtaking Chie and learned that Apache guides “were in no danger for were, at the best, doubtful. But that the Indians will do no harm.” Chie’s father had been killed there themselves from their own race, yet the morrow was to decide, and for When Howard continued to press eleven years prior. showed some apprehension on our tonight at any rate, we were to be left for Canada Alamosa, Cochise said he Eager to achieve peace, Howard own account. One of them usually in peace.” would have to consult his captains. traveled all night and reached Bowie rode or, in Ponce’s case, ran ahead During the early morning Although Cochise’s influence among at seven o’clock the next morning. of the party, and the other constantly of October 1, the Chiricahuas his people was strong, no real peace He ordered the truce, and was already hastened from one high point to announced, “He is coming.” They settlement could be negotiated until heading back to Cochise’s stronghold another to scan the horizon [for signs quickly arranged themselves in a his captains came into camp from by two o’clock that afternoon. of potentially hostile Indians].” circle and spread a blanket for their “making a living,” his euphemism for On October 3 Howard and Chie On September 26 Howard’s party chief. Cochise arrived, dismounted raiding. reached the Dragoon Mountains, reached the Gila River in Arizona, from his horse, dashed towards where Ponce and Chie finally found Jeffords, and warmly embraced him. signs that Chiricahuas had recently Jeffords then turned towards Howard passed by. That evening, at the party’s and introduced Cochise, saying, campsite, Ponce and Chie built a fire “General, this is he; this is the man.” and made smoke signals. Cochise scrutinized the general, and Cochise made no smoke signal then took Howard’s extended hand in reply, but that night Sladen was and said in his best Spanish, “Buenos awakened by the sound of something dias, Señor.” Howard, surprised by like coyote howls. Sladen saw Ponce Cochise’s noble bearing, later wrote, and Chie sitting up and listening “How strange it is that such a man intently; they soon replied with their can be the robber and murderer so own howls. A response was given. much complained of.” Ponce and Chie then sprang up and All gathered under an oak tree. At disappeared into the darkness. The first, Cochise conversed with Ponce coyote-like howls continued but and Chie, asking them about Howard. gradually grew faint. Eventually They explained that Howard had the two Chiricahua scouts returned, been given much power by the “Great Cochise and his band ranged through parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and settled peacefully in their blankets, White Father” in Washington. They the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. and fell asleep. described how Howard had stood up The next day, sixty warriors from to Bullard, how he had placed himself Cochise’s band approached Howard’s between the angry miner and the two group. Sladen wrote: “Members of the Chiricahuas, saying Bullard would band came cautiously in sight from have to kill him first. Cochise nodded their different hiding places on the in approval, and then turned towards mountain, like wild animals venturing Howard to ask him the purpose of his out of their holes in the ground.” The visit. leader of this group, Nazee, told Howard got right to the point: “I Howard that Cochise was camping in have come from Washington to meet the nearby Dragoon Mountains, but your people and make peace, and will Nazee refused to reveal his chief’s stay as long as necessary.” exact location. He advised Howard Cochise responded, “Nobody to reduce the number of white men wants peace more than I do.” in his party if he wished to approach Howard’s first proposal offered Cochise. Pointing at Jeffords, Nazee said, “No white men excepting him.” Howard initially agreed to this demand and told Sladen and the other white men to return to Fort Bowie, but before the men departed, Howard changed his mind. Over strong objections from Chie and Ponce, he kept Sladen at his side. For the next three days, Ponce and Chie led Howard over secret trails that led through Apache Pass to the foothills of the Dragoon Mountains. They made camp and sent up smoke signals, and then Chie sauntered off. Within a few hours, two Chiricahuas arrived and guided the party into an Apache camp. Sladen observed: “The place seemed the center of a natural fortification. In extent it seemed 40 or 50 acres, flanked on either hand with precipitous bluffs 300 or 400 feet Thomas Jeffords. Lieutenant Joseph A. Sladen. page ten only to learn that Cochise had moved Cochise’s subchiefs back in camp. go to Thomas Jeffords. He was pleased Oliver Howard rose to the rank his camp to a higher elevation upon That night a powwow was held to learn that Howard had already of major general. He later became learning that a Chiricahua war to decide whether or not to accept appointed Jeffords to be the agent to superintendent of the United States party, unaware of the ongoing peace Howard’s peace offer. Howard wanted the future Chiricahua reserve. Military Academy at West Point. talks, had ambushed a small unit of to be there, but Jeffords restrained Cochise’s grateful reciprocation He died on October 26, 1901, in American soldiers, killing four of its him, saying, “They will let us know was his guarantee that all roads Burlington, Vermont, and was buried six men. Cochise, fearing retaliation, if they want to make peace.” Jeffords passing through his reservation would there with honors. had moved his people farther up in studied the distant drumbeats, and be safe to American travelers. He the mountains where they could more from their tone, reached a conclusion. declared: “Hereafter, the white man SOURCES: easily defend themselves. “They have decided for peace,” he and the Indian are to drink the same Howard, Oliver Otis. My Life and Reassured by Howard’s return, happily informed Howard. water, eat of the same bread, and be Experiences Among Our Hostile Cochise moved his camp back to Cochise approached Howard and at peace.” A white flag was placed Indians. New York: Da Capo Press, its previous location, where he and told him he was ready to discuss on nearby Knob Hill—later renamed 1972. Howard together awaited the return terms. The chief commented that he Treaty Peak—heralding that Cochise Roberts, David. Once They Moved of all his captains. Howard continued was getting old and would like to live had made peace. Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo, to try to persuade Cochise to accept at peace, but if the white man would Cochise was stricken with stomach and the Apache Wars. New York: Canada Alamosa as a reservation site. not let him do that, he would keep cancer shortly after making peace. He Simon & Schuster, 1993. But as Cochise’s subchiefs came in fighting. died two years later. Thomas Jeffords Sweeney, Edwin. Cochise: Chiricahua and each stated their preferences, Howard replied that the only was the only white man present during Apache Chief. Norman and London: it became clear to Howard that the remaining issue was to set the the burial ceremony. Neither he nor the University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. Dragoon Mountains was the only boundaries for his reservation. They Chiricahuas ever revealed the location Sweeney, Edwin, ed. Making Peace locale where most of the Chiricahuas would encompass all of the Dragoon of Cochise’s burial site, somewhere with Cochise: The 1872 Journal of would accept reservation life, so he Mountains as well as Apache Pass. high in the Dragoon Mountains. They Captain Joseph Alton Sladen. Norman relented. Cochise asked that the assignment considered it sacred and thought that and London: University of Oklahoma October 10 found all thirteen of of Indian agent at the new reservation it should be forever private. Press, 1997.

Country Doctor Tests Experimental Therapy by Rick Bromer Holtzapple gave Fred some die without some sort of extraordinary ordinary country doctor” who had On March 6, 1885, a sixteen- medicine that his books recommended intervention, told the doctor to go stumbled onto a good idea. ‘‘I didn’t year-old boy named Fred Gable for pneumonia patients, but over ahead with his experiment. do it as a scientific discovery,” he fell ill in the farmhouse where the next few days Fred’s condition Holtzapple told Fred that he would said. ‘‘I was just trying to help my he lived with his parents near the worsened. By the sixth day of the soon provide him with “something to patient.” village of Loganville, Pennsylvania. illness, Fred was panting at the rate breathe.” The doctor hurried home, Until antibiotics became available Fred’s parents summoned the only of eighty breaths per minute, but he then returned to the Gable farm with a in the 1940s, oxygen therapy physician in Loganville, Dr. George complained that he was suffocating. basketful of chemicals and laboratory remained the only effective treatment E. Holtzapple, who was twenty-two His complexion turned blue, chills equipment. for pneumonia. The oxygen tent, years old and so new to his profession wracked his body, and he coughed up He later wrote: developed in the 1920s, greatly that he had not yet saved enough blood. simplified the administration of money to buy a medical satchel. Holtzapple stayed at Fred’s bedside I generated oxygen from oxygen to pneumonia patients. When the young doctor arrived at to encourage the boy to battle through chlorate of potassium and black Among the thousands of patients who the Gable farm, he diagnosed Fred’s the crisis, but hope seemed to vanish oxide of manganese in large test survived pneumonia in oxygen tents ailment as pneumonia, an infection when Fred said, “Doctor, if you don’t tubes over a spirit lamp, and was Holtzapple’s sister, Mary, who that causes the lungs to fill with fluid. give me something to breathe, I’m with rubber tubing I conducted after her recovery commented: “My There was no effective treatment going to stop.” the gas to the bottom of a bucket brother always was a clever boy.” for pneumonia in 1885, so a patient’s Fred’s request for “something to filled with water which I had Holtzapple spent the rest of his survival depended partly on his own breathe” gave Holtzapple an idea; placed beside the patient’s bed. life practicing family medicine in willpower. Many pneumonia patients if he could provide Fred with pure Then, with a fan, the gas was York County, Pennsylvania. He was found the sheer effort of breathing so oxygen, the boy might be able to wafted into the patient’s face. an amiable man, active in his church unbearable that they eventually quit breathe with less effort. Holtzapple . . . The effects on the respiration and well liked by his neighbors. In trying, but some found the strength to knew that oxygen was the “vital and his color were distinctly his spare time he taught himself to keep fighting for air until the disease element” in air, a fact that Joseph appreciated by the parents and play a variety of musical instruments ran its course. Priestley had discovered in 1774. those around the bedside of and read books about science, Priestley had demonstrated that mice, the young man. I repeated the philosophy, and history. He was which would suffocate after five administration a number of nearly eighty-four when he died in minutes in a sealed jar containing times during the day until it was York on February 22, 1946. Sitting ordinary air, could survive for twenty no longer needed. The patient at his bedside during his final days minutes in the same jar filled with recovered rapidly. was Fred Gable, aged seventy-seven. oxygen. Fred lived to be ninety-one. He died Nobody had ever tested the effect To his own astonishment, in 1960 at the Lutheran Home for the of oxygen on pneumonia patients, Holtzapple had discovered the Aged in Washington, D.C. but Holtzapple thought it might be first effective treatment for one of worth trying. Chemistry was one of the world’s most common deadly the doctor’s hobbies, and he had a diseases. SOURCES: collection of laboratory equipment at Holtzapple made no money Holtzapple, George E. “Report his home on the far side of Loganville, from his discovery, but news of to the Medical Society of York, so he would be able to make oxygen. his successful therapy spread and Pennsylvania, August 4, 1887.” York Holtzapple explained his idea to he eventually received a note of County Heritage Society Library & Fred’s parents, warning them that it congratulations from King George V Archives, 250 East Market St., York, was untested and possibly dangerous, of England and an honorary doctorate Pennsylvania. and that oxygen might prove from Susquehanna University. York County Planning Commission. poisonous in high concentration. The Holtzapple described himself to a York County: A Window on the Past. Dr. George E. Holtzapple. Gables, certain that their son would local newspaper reporter as “just an York, Pennsylvania: 1975. page eleven Scientist Struggles To Solve Butterfly Migration Mystery by David Vachon enthusiasm for butterfly research and released in the eastern states and Urquhart wrote: “As we journeyed Fred A. Urquhart became interested assisted him in rearing, tagging, and provinces all migrated southwestward through lush tropical valleys and arid in monarch butterflies when he was releasing thousands of monarchs. towards . deserts, we saw only two monarch growing up in , Canada. The In 1950 Urquhart became the In 1965 Urquhart received grants butterflies. Finally we headed back to beautiful orange- and black-winged director of zoology and paleontology from the National Geographic Society our headquarters at the University of monarchs appeared in early summer in at the Royal Museum. Two and the National Research Council Texas, our mission a failure.” great numbers, and then they vanished years later he and his wife published of Canada to further his research. By After returning to Canada, the in the fall. Curious about where they an article in Natural History magazine this time, he was acknowledged as the Urquharts wrote a number of articles went, Urquhart learned that scientists about their experiments with tagging world’s foremost expert on monarch about the monarch butterfly for did not know whether the monarchs monarch butterflies. In the article butterflies. He had studied all aspects popular magazines and newspapers hibernated during the winter or flew they asked for volunteers to help of their complex life cycle, which in Mexico, asking readers to contact south. with the project. As a result, they began with a small white egg attached them if they knew of any large In the winter of 1928, when received letters from enthusiastic to the underside of a young milkweed congregations of monarchs. One of Urquhart was sixteen, he spent all his naturalists in various locations across plant. From this egg emerged a these articles appeared in 1972 in the spare time trying to locate dormant North America who agreed to look striped caterpillar that ate milkweed English-language paper The News monarchs. He found hibernating for tagged butterflies released from leaves and grew through a series of Mexico City and was read by Ken butterflies, such as anglewings, Toronto. These volunteers actively of skin-shedding molts, eventually Brugger, an American textile engineer mourning cloaks, and red admirals, but encouraged others to look for tagged transforming itself into a leaf-like working there. Brugger sent a letter to not a single monarch. After graduating butterflies. Urquhart wrote: “As green pupa, from which a winged from high school, Urquhart studied tagged specimens began to appear in adult emerged. Urquhart knew for biology at the , various towns and cities, our migration certain that the monarchs he tagged and then he earned a master’s degree study was reported in newspapers and all migrated south, but he still did not there in entomology. magazines across the continent.” know where they spent the winter. He continued to study monarch In early 1954 Fred and Norah A few of Urquhart’s tagged butterflies and found no evidence that Urquhart were invited to a science butterflies were recovered in Mexico. they wintered in Canada. It seemed conference at the University of One specimen that he had personally plausible to him that they migrated California at Berkeley. During their tagged in his backyard in Toronto was to a warm southern climate. He was stay in California, with the help found in the late 1960s a few hundred aware that large clusters of monarchs of two students, they spent a day miles north of Mexico City. Urquhart congregated on the Monterey tagging thousands of monarchs that guessed that the overwintering grounds Peninsula of California during the were hanging dormant in pine trees would be found either in Texas or in winter months, but their numbers in Washington Park. Although Fred Mexico. Eager to solve this mystery, were not so large as to suggest that Urquhart did not believe that these he and Norah arranged to spend the all monarchs from North America monarchs had come to California winter of 1969-70 working at the gathered there. He realized that in from Toronto, he was curious to know University of Texas in Kingsville. order to find out where the majority where they would go in the spring. Using Kingsville as a base, they Fred Urquhart. (Courtesy of of monarchs went, he would have to The night after they did the tagging, drove across Texas, stopping at high Monarch Watch.) track their movements. it rained. Urquhart wrote: “The schools and colleges, and interviewing In the fall of 1935, Urquhart following morning we visited our biology teachers and students. No one was working at the Royal Ontario tagging area. The monarch butterflies knew where the monarchs congregated. Museum when he decided to mark a were still in large clusters on the The Urquharts crossed into Mexico, number of monarchs. He had sheets branches of the pines, but our tags, again speaking with science teachers of small paper tags printed bearing like scattered confetti, littered the and professors. Urquhart wrote, “We the note “Return to Museum, Toronto, ground.” questioned professional entomologists Canada.” He glued a tag to the upper Urquhart realized that the glue that in departments of agriculture and surface of the right front wing of each he had been using to attach tags to biology professors in the universities monarch. To see how the tags held, butterfly wings for sixteen years was . . . but no one had heard of an area he released the butterflies in a large not waterproof. This explained why where there were great numbers This male monarch has a tag flight cage. He wrote, “Within a short he had never had a butterfly returned of monarchs.” They spoke with attached to its right wing. period of time all the tags fell from from anyplace more than a few Mexican farmers who had seen (Courtesy of University of the wings.” hundred miles from Toronto. When he only small numbers of monarchs. Toronto Press.) After experimenting with many returned to Canada, Urquhart began unsatisfactory methods of attaching investigating adhesives that would not tags to the butterflies, Urquhart settled be affected by moisture. He found a on the technique of punching a hole suitable substance and redesigned the in a wing and gluing a folded tag to tags, consecutively numbering them itself through the hole. In the spring so that he could keep more accurate of 1936, he began releasing tagged records. butterflies into the wild, and every so To encourage more volunteers often one would be returned to him by to join the program, he developed a mail. method for attaching tags to monarchs Urquhart kept records of release that took an average of just eight and capture dates of his monarch seconds. After that, the number of butterflies. Although some of his participants grew into the hundreds. released butterflies were returned to As more monarchs were tagged him from hundreds of miles away, and released, more specimens were none of them was captured far enough returned. away to suggest that it had reached a Urquhart began keeping track of warm climate. the data on a large topographical map Urquhart earned his doctorate in that hung on a wall in his office at the entomology in 1940. From 1940 to University of Toronto. He put one pin 1945, during the Second World War, at the point of release and another he served in the Royal Canadian Air pin at the point of recapture; he then Force. In July of 1945, he married strung a black thread between them. Norah Patterson, who shared his He discovered that the monarchs Monarch caterpillar. (Wikipedia) page twelve the Urquharts offering his help. He told about his discovery, Urquhart As we sat enjoying the quiet of from egg to adult butterfly takes them that he did not know anything congratulated him and urged him the forest and the beauty of the six weeks, between three and six about butterflies, but he liked to travel to continue looking for more sites. trees covered with butterflies, generations of monarchs hatch in the countryside and he liked solving He told Brugger that the number of a branch [about an inch in throughout the summer months. Only problems. Urquhart sent him pictures butterflies should far exceed fifteen diameter] broke with the weight the monarchs born after August—the of monarchs and information on where million. He also told Brugger that of a great cluster of monarchs descendants of the butterflies that left tagged monarchs had been found. he was surprised to hear that the and fell at my side, casting Mexico—survive to migrate back to Brugger began traveling extensively monarchs were overwintering so high hundreds of fluttering butterflies the species’ overwintering grounds. through those areas, asking local up on the mountainside where the on the ground. I leaned over to The process by which the late-summer people about the monarchs. Realizing temperature was near freezing. He had examine the fluttering mass and butterflies manage to find their way that Brugger was committed to the imagined that they would be found in my eyes rested on a white label to Mexico has not yet been fully project, Urquhart provided him with tropical valleys where they could feed attached to the wing of one of explained. expense money. on the nectar of wildflowers. the fallen members. I picked In 1986 the Mexican government In April of 1974, Brugger wrote to The Bruggers found two more sites up the specimen. At first I was established some protection over five Urquhart that he had seen a swarm in the surrounding mountains that speechless, but after regaining sites where monarchs are known to of monarchs while driving through winter where monarchs were roosting my composure I shouted to overwinter. Although illegal logging the desert outside Mexico City. on fir, spruce, and cedar trees. The Norah, who sat some distance has persisted in those areas, the This suggested to Urquhart that the following January, Fred and Norah away, busily tagging. government is continuing its efforts to monarchs were dispersing from their Urquhart traveled to Mexico in order protect the butterflies’ overwintering overwintering grounds and were about to see the monarchs for themselves. Urquhart was anxious to learn grounds. to head north. He wrote Brugger, The two couples hiked to the top of where this monarch had been tagged. “Your data and observations are a mountain named Cerro Chincua, on The next day he telephoned his exciting. We feel that you have zeroed which the Bruggers had previously office in Toronto and learned that the SOURCES: in on the right area.” found a monarch colony. Urquhart monarch had been tagged and released Calderon, Roberto Solis et al. “The Soon after this sighting, Ken later wrote in his book The Monarch in Chaska, Minnesota, on September Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Brugger married Catalina “Cathy” Butterfly, International Traveler: 5, 1975, five months earlier. He was Michoacan, Mexico.” In Conserving Aguado, who was from the Mexican tremendously pleased to have this bit Migratory Pollinators and Nectar state of Michoacan, where most of the We eventually reached the of evidence that he had finally located Corridors in Western North America, tagged monarchs had been recovered. summit. As we gazed along the the overwintering grounds of the edited by Gary Paul Nabban. Tucson: She was eager to help Ken. mountainside . . . Norah and I eastern population of monarchs. University of Arizona Press, 2004. In the late fall, when the monarchs felt that we had reached the end Subsequent research revealed that Urquhart, Fred. A. The Monarch were expected to descend on Mexico, of a long journey. Somewhere while monarchs living west of the Butterfly. Toronto: University of Ken and Cathy Brugger spent long below us the migrant butterflies Rocky Mountains head to California Toronto Press, 1960. hours riding along mountain roads on had gathered to spend the winter in the fall, the much larger eastern Urquhart, Fred A. The Monarch their motorcycle. At one location they months. population migrates to the mountains Butterfly, International Traveler. found the remains of a large number We stumbled along the of southwestern Mexico. Between Chicago: Nelson Hall Publishers, of monarchs. When they reported this narrow mountain path. Then, two hundred and five hundred million 1987. to Urquhart, he wrote back: “You must as if a curtain had been drawn eastern monarchs arrive in Mexico be getting really close. Don’t give up revealing a theatrical scene, every November, sweeping over an INTERNET: now.” there before me were hundreds area of about sixty square miles to “Flight of the Monarchs.” http:// In December the Bruggers spoke of lofty spruce trees, some settle down in chilly coniferous forests www.dispatchesfromthevanishingw to woodcutters who were working covered from top to bottom with on the slopes of the high mountains. orld.com/pastdispatches/monarch/ near the town of Donato Guerra, one monarch butterflies. I gasped in In late February the monarchs leave monarch2.html hundred miles west of Mexico City. awe. . . . As we gazed in silence the cold overwintering grounds and “Obituary of Kenneth C. Brugger.” These woodcutters said that large at the scene before us, the sun, fly down to lower elevations where http://www.texasento.net/Brugger.htm numbers of butterflies could be found which had been hidden behind they mate and feed on nectar. In early “The Majestic Monarch Butterfly.” in the wintertime high up on the a gray cloud, emerged. . . . The March they begin their journey north. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/ wooded slopes of a nearby inactive trees were transformed into a The females lay eggs on milkweed butterflyhistory.html volcano called Cerro Pelon. People blaze of color as the butterflies plants after reaching the Gulf Coast “Migrating Monarch Butterfly.” living in the area traditionally believed spread their orange wings to the of the southern United States. During http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ that the monarchs were the returning warm sunlight. . . . the early summer, the butterflies that news/2000/11/1122_monarchs.html souls of their dead relatives because We kept to the margin of left Mexico die, but their offspring “Internal Clock Leads Monarch they appeared at the beginning of the butterfly forest and tagged continue to migrate north as far Butterflies to Mexico.” November, coincident with All Saints’ migrants we found on bushes as southern Ontario, drawn by the http://news.nationalgeographic Day and the Day of the Dead. and on the ground. We avoided blooming of milkweed. .com/news/2003/06/0610_030610 On January 2, 1975, the Bruggers venturing into the area where Because the complete life cycle _monarchs.html drove up the base of the mountain and the butterflies covered the forest then continued on foot to the summit. floor, because we did not want After several hours of searching, they to step on them. . . . Norah and I came to a dense four-acre stand of regularly scanned the butterflies fir trees, where every tree was full clustered on the spruce trees of monarchs. They estimated that using our binoculars in hopes they were looking at fifteen million of locating specimens bearing butterflies. white labels attached to their When Brugger telephoned Urquhart wings during fall migration.

A stand of oyamel firs in Mexico State, Mexico. Monarchs overwinter in mountain forests like this one. (Wikipedia.) Female monarch lays eggs on a milkweed plant. (Wikipedia.)