Erie's History and Memorabilia

Paul Siple was an American Antarctic Explorer and Geographer from Erie who took part in six Antarctic expeditions, including the two Byrd expeditions of 1928-1930 and 1933-1935, representing the Boy Scouts of America as an Eagle Scout. Paul was also a Sea Scout. His first and third books covered these adventures. With Charles F. Passel he developed the wind chill factor , Paul Siple coined the term. Born Paul Allman Siple on December 18, 1908, in Montpelier, Ohio, his father, Clyde L. Siple, and mother, Fannie Hope (Allman) Siple, moved the family to Erie, when Paul was about ten years of age, where two years later he joined the Boy Scouts of America. Merit badge work held the greatest interest for him and by the time he was eighteen, sixty of these badges had been earned. He applied himself to the study of insects, radio, woodwork, art, athletics, first aid, bee-keeping, and many other areas of science as well as pragmatic subjects. It was during this period of time that Paul discove...

Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic Snow Cruiser was built in 1939 to support his third Antarctic expedition. It was a huge, one-of-a-kind invention designed to house scientists while they traveled to the South Pole and back over a 12-month period. It sported four, independently-steered, pneumatic tires 10 feet tall, and carried an airplane on its roof in support of the expedition. This Jules Verne-like vehicle also slept four comfortably, boasted a galley, machine shop, darkroom, and radio room, and carried a year’s supply of food. Byrd’s Snow Cruiser was designed by Dr. Thomas C. Poulter, Director of the Armour Institute in Chicago, and built by the Pullman Company of sleeping car fame at a cost of $150,000. The vehicle was so large the only way to get it from Chicago to Boston, its port of departure, was to drive it across country very, very slowly. The trip attracted huge crowds and newspaper headlines along the way especially when a series of mishaps spurred speculation that Byrd’s Snow Cr...