Fritiof M. Fryxell (April 27, 1900 – December 19, 1986) was an American educator, geologist and mountain climber, best known for his research and writing on the Teton Range of Wyoming.
He attended Augustana College in nearby Rock Island, graduating in 1922 with majors in biology and English.
[2][3] Beginning in 1926, Fryxell spent the next nine summers in and around the Teton Range, which at the time was inaccessible by train or automobile.
During three summers of field work for his dissertation, Fryxell spent almost all his time in Jackson Hole, the valley in the eastern lee of the Tetons, studying the moraines and glacial outwash from the mountains.
He camped out, carrying his tent, rations, and down-filled sleeping bag with him as he traversed the valley floor.
On his rare days off, he would rise as early as two o'clock in the morning to begin his ascent.
Nearly always exploring alone, he climbed previously untraveled canyons, discovered hidden lakes, and summitted many of the range’s peaks for the first time.
[4] [5] During the academic year, Fryxell worked at developing a geology curriculum at Augustana.
[7] In 1935 Fryxell took a new summer position in Berkeley, California as geologist with the Museum Laboratories of the National Park Service.
He brought with him years of notes and diaries that he had accumulated during his stays in Wyoming, and putting his degree in English to good work produced The Tetons: Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape (1938), a classic of Western nature literature that has been reprinted many times.
[8] Over the rest of his career, Fryxell wrote several other scholarly books about the Tetons, glaciation, and topics of geological interest.
In addition, he had a passion for preserving the history of the great Western explorers and artists who had spent time in the Tetons.
Among his topics were mountain climber Billy Owen, artist Thomas Moran, photographer William Henry Jackson, and cartographer and geologist François E. Matthes.
After the outbreak of World War II, while in the service of the Geological Military Unit, he played a crucial role in selecting landing sites in the South Pacific as well as Africa and Europe.
[10] Fritiof Fryxell wrote a manuscript biography of his father, an immigrant from Vättlösa Parish, near Götene in southern Sweden, but never tried to publish it.
After his death The Story of John Fryxell was published by the Augustana Historical Society with an introduction by Ann Boaden.