Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center

The four members of the Grand River party are photographed together before their departure.

Austin Cary, class of 1887, came from Machias; Ernest Young, class of 1891, from Brunswick; Warren Smith, class of 1890, from Litchfield; and Dennis Cole, class of 1888, from Fryeburg.

These men were charged with "discovering" the Grand Falls, a reportedly magnificent waterfall that had been described by two earlier explorers.

The Bowdoin Boys were inspired to make this journey by articles in the 1891 issues of Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine, which claimed the Grand Falls were "a fine chance for some enterprising young man ... to make himself famous."