Famous Explorers

• Amundsen, Roald

  The Norwegian explorer who reached the South Pole first

• Bird, Isabella

  The author of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

• Boone, Daniel

  The frontiersman who settled Kentucky

• Cabot, John

  Italian / English explorer of Newfoundland

• Cartier, Jacques

  French discoverer of Canada's St. Lawrence River

• Columbus, Christopher

  The explorer who opened the door to the Americas

• Cook, James

  English explorer of the Pacific in the 1770s

• Cortes, Hernan

  The Spaniard who took Mexico from the Aztecs

• De Long, George

  The polar explorer who led the U.S.S. Jeannette

• De Soto, Hernando

  Spanish conquistador who explored North America, 1539-42

• Dias, Bartolomeu

  Portuguese discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope

• Douglas, David

  The Scottish botanist whose 19th centry exploits led to the Douglas-fir

• Drake, Francis

  The English mariner who circumnavigated the globe

• Ericson, Leif

  The Viking settler who found North America before Columbus

• Eric the Red

  The viking explorer who colonized Greenland

• Fremont, John C.

  The man who mapped the West

• Gama, Vasco da

  Portugese explorer who opened up sea route to India

• Greely, Adolphus

  U.S. Army Arctic explorer

• Henson, Matthew

  The first man to reach the North Pole

• Heyerdahl, Thor

  Leader of the Kon-Tiki and Ra Expeditions

• Hudson, Henry

  The first European to sail up the Hudson River

• Lewis, Meriwether

  Co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

• Livingstone, David

  The Livingstone of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

• Magellan, Ferdinand

  The first guy to circumnavigate the Earth

• Mawson, Douglas

  Australian explorer of the Antarctic

• Nansen, FridtjofExplorer

  The Norwegian polar explorer who won the Nobel Prize in 1922

• Peary, Robert E.

  North Pole expedition leader

• Pizarro, Francisco

  The Spaniard who conquered the Incas

• Polo, Marco

  The exotic traveler who "discovered" the Orient

• Ponce de León, Juan

  The guy who claimed Florida for Spain in 1513

• Raleigh, Sir Walter

  The man who (maybe) laid his cloak over a mudpuddle for the queen

• Sacagawea (Sacajawea)

  The Indian woman who accompanied Lewis & Clark

• Scott, Robert Falcon

  The second man to reach the South Pole

• Shackleton, Ernest

  Leader of The Endurance expedition to Antarctica

• Sojourner (Mars Rover)

  The first rolling robot to land on Mars

• Stanley, Henry Morton

  Explorer of Africa

• Thompson, David

  The explorer who mapped Western Canada in the 18th century

• Vespucci, Amerigo

  The explorer after whom the Americas are named

See: Index by Occupation