Dr. Cook, Frederick Cook, Cook & Peary, The Cook Society, dr cook, hoaxes, fraud, North Pole

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Bradley Land doesn't exist... It's a fake!

This ridiculous map is from Fred's fanatical supporter (and Peary hater) Thomas Hall. Hall wrote an inflammatory book in 1917 in which he "proved" Cook reached the Pole. Most people can't read Hall without laughing at his naiveté and sheer stupidity.

	No one bothered to ask for proof before they printed Cook's stories. Newspapers irresponsibly created the "polar controversy."
"If Cook went to the Pole, he must have done it while I was asleep"! (Eskimo guide)
	Cook took this photo and claimed it was the land he discovered. It does not exist.
The two Eskimos shown above said the little SOB Cook lied to the white men. They say he really only went about 12 miles from land on his sleigh ride. These very intelligent and capable natives were well known to arctic sportsmen since they served as hunting guides to other expeditions for many years. When Fred was in prison (1924), Etookashoo (above) told McMillan "If Cook went to the Pole, he must have done it while I was asleep"! Yet to this day the Janet Vetter's Crook Society claims that the dumb Eskimos were so stupid they just didn't know they went to the North Pole. Not true—while Cook may have treated them like morons and called them his "boreal pygmies"—in fact these men were just as smart as you are.
But that's not all he faked...There's more!
The arctic was remote and dangerous in the era before modern aviation, cell phones, and satellites. So when Fred made up his story of reaching the North Pole he also claimed to have discovered land. Fred knew that no one would go verify it. By the time someone searched for Bradley Land, years later, Fred was in federal prison. Bradley Land doesn't exist and Cook never even tried to reach the Pole. A truly pathetic hoax. Why did he do this? For money, and his need for fame. Discovering land was a big deal in the days before air travel and a sure fire way to become a big shot. Fred knew damn well that no one in their right mind would go back to that frozen hell and look for it! He made a fortune selling his North Pole adventure story to packed crowds at sold out lectures, He sold the same story to newspapers, magazines, etc. This quickly brought him offers totaling over $1.5 million in 1909 dollars. The $24,000 paid by the New York Times would be about $360,000 today. He gave lectures, a single one of which netted him the equivalent of $60,000. His book even sold 60,000 copies. *Hoaxing was very profitable.* * Dollar conversions from 1909 to 2000 are based upon gold being $20/oz. then and $300 now. Another reference is the fact that a civil engineer earned $2,000 a year in 1909. This means current dollar equivalents are 15 to 30 times higher.