Find-a-grave photo. Click photo to see original image.

Here is a fun piece of trivia that came across our desk today.  Which famous Arctic explorer is buried in Salem?  That would be Lieutenant Frederick Gustavus Schwatka.  He is buried at the City View Cemetery in Salem.

Schwatka made expeditions for the American Geographical Society, the U.S. Army and private investors.  His books include: Along Alaska’s Great River and The Search for Franklin.

He died in Portland in 1892 from an accidental morphine overdose (read article here).  He is buried with his father, who bore the same name.

Now you know and can amaze you friends and relations.

Frederick Schwatka

Etching of Frederick G. Schwatka.  Illustrated London News. 1880. Source: Wikimedia Commons.