Masonic Explorers Who Left Their Mark
Many world–renowned explorers have traveled to new and distant places throughout history, and many of them were Masons.
A few took their allegiance even further, leaving Masonic markers in some of the most remote areas of Earth — and beyond.
A few examples:
- Polar explorer and pioneer aviator Richard Byrd and his pilot, Bernt Balchen are said to have dropped Masonic flags on both Poles. During a 1930s flight over the South Pole, Balchen allegedly added his Shrine fez.
- When astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., famously orbited the Earth 22 times, he carried a blue Masonic flag and a Masonic coin with him. He later presented the flag to his lodge in Colorado.
- Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin supposedly brought a Masonic flag to the moon in 1969. Aldrin a member of Clear Lake Lodge in Texas is even rumored to have carried a special deputation from the Texas Grand Master, claiming the moon as a territorial jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Texas.
- According to an article in Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Meriwether Lewis left evidence of his Masonic affiliation in Montana’s waterways. The state’s modern-day Big Hole River, Ruby River, and Willow Creek were originally names Wisdom, Philanthropy, and Philosophy — names bestowed by Lewis, in all likelihood the first Mason to set foot in the region.
(Source: California Freemason, October-November, 2011)