The Woman Who Survived Alone on the Island of Polar Bears

In September 1921, five people and a small cat arrived on Wrangel Island, a remote piece of land in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. Their ship sailed away, leaving them with supplies, equipment, and a plan to establish a settlement. For the four young men, the expedition promised adventure. For Ada Blackjack, an Iñupiat woman from Alaska, it was a chance to earn money for the son she desperately wanted to bring home.

Ada had not signed up to be an explorer. She was hired as a seamstress to repair clothing and help keep the expedition running. Her young son Bennett was ill, and the offered wages seemed like a way to pay for his care. She feared polar bears and had little experience hunting in the Arctic. Yet she boarded the ship because the money could change her family's future.

The island offered no easy welcome. Wind swept over its open ground, sea ice made travel dangerous, and the cold demanded constant preparation. At first the group managed to hunt and maintain camp. But the promised relief ship failed to arrive in 1922, and their situation grew increasingly precarious. Food became harder to obtain, and illness began to weaken the party.

By early 1923, the men faced a desperate choice. Three of them—Allan Crawford, Fred Maurer, and Milton Galle—set out across the ice toward Siberia in search of help. They were never seen again. Lorne Knight, the fourth man, was too sick to travel. Ada stayed behind to care for him. The expedition that had begun with five people now depended on one woman with limited survival experience.

Knight suffered from scurvy. Ada worked to find food, tend to his needs, and keep their shelter usable. She taught herself to shoot and trap, skills she had not expected to need. Her diary records the small, practical victories of survival: practicing with a gun, checking traps, and trying to keep life moving forward. But she could not save Knight. He died on June 23, 1923.

Ada was now the only human being left at the camp. Her companion was Vic, the expedition's cat. Beyond the shelter lay the Arctic landscape, with polar bears and months of uncertainty. There was no guarantee that a rescue ship would come. She had to make her own routines and keep herself alive without anyone to share the work.

She strengthened her shelter with driftwood, improvised a stove from empty kerosene cans, and built a raised lookout to watch for polar bears. She hunted birds, trapped foxes, gathered eggs, and made clothing. The tasks were exhausting, but each one increased her chances of surviving another day. Her thoughts often returned to Bennett, the son waiting in Alaska.

On August 20, 1923, Ada heard something outside. Through the fog she spotted a ship approaching the island. It was a rescue vessel. When she met the arriving party, she learned that the three men who had gone for help had not returned. Ada and Vic were the only survivors of the expedition.

Back in Alaska, newspapers celebrated Ada as a remarkable Arctic survivor. But the attention also brought accusations, unwanted publicity, and disputes over money. She had not gone north in search of fame. She had gone to provide for her son, and the ordeal cost her far more than she had expected.

More than a century later, Ada Blackjack's story remains extraordinary not because she arrived on Wrangel Island as a seasoned survival expert, but because she did not. Faced with isolation, grief, illness, and a landscape that offered no second chances, she learned what she needed to know and kept going until rescue finally appeared.

Historical note: This account follows the National Park Service's history of Ada Blackjack and contemporary diary evidence cited there. Some expedition accounts differ on minor details, so the narrative avoids invented conversations or claims about what Ada privately thought at particular moments.