Helen (Armstrong) Schreider (born May 3, 1926) and Frank Schreider (January 8, 1924 – January 21, 1994) were explorers in the mid-20th century, known for traveling by amphibious jeep. National Geographic hired them after their first independent journey from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (1954–56). They were the first people to travel the length of the Americas solely by means of their own power. They completed six additional expeditions through National Geographic, working freelance at first and later as foreign editorial staff, for fifteen years, from 1956 to 1970. They worked as a team and lived for periods of time in about 50 countries on five continents. Helen and Frank Schreider were known for their ability to write, photograph and film within the cultures they visited. They wrote three books, six major articles for National Geographic, and contributed to nine other books. They also made three separate nationwide speaking tours with their films.
Early Exploration
Frank and Helen met at the University of California at Los Angeles, where Frank studied engineering and Helen fine arts. They married in 1947, but it wasn't until February 1951 that they embarked on a belated honeymoon, beginning their life of exploration and adventure. With their German shepherd Dinah they set out in a jeep for a jaunt to South America, but four months later they were back, disillusioned and broke. They had gotten only as far as Costa Rica, where they hit a "wall of mountains," as the Pan American Highway had not yet been completed.
Following this experience, they realized that to bypass the mountains of Costa Rica and the jungles of Panama they would need an amphibious vehicle in order to go by sea when they couldn't get through on land.
In the fall of 1951 Frank found an old rusty World War II amphibious jeep in a junkyard. He began the work to rebuild the engine and to repair the hull, while Helen designed the interior storage and living space.
Before the Schreiders could set off on another venture, they needed to raise money, so before finishing the jeep repairs they left for a two-year job at an air force base in Anchorage, Alaska. While there they expanded their dreams of adventure. They would start their journey at Circle, Alaska, the northernmost town in North America, and they’d travel to the end of Argentina to Ushuaia on the island of Tierra del Fuego, the world's southernmost town. This would be a journey of 20,000 miles.
The Schreiders started their journey from Circle on June 21, 1954, arriving in California a couple of weeks later where they continued to work on the rehabilitation of the amphibious jeep. Months later, christened with a Coke bottle, "La Tortuga," the two-and-a-half ton turtle was born. The craft was successfully launched in a calm bay in Los Angeles – making front-page news in the Los Angeles Times.
On January 1, 1955, they began the next phase of their journey. At the southern end of Mexico the highway gave way to 200 miles of oxcart tracks through thick jungle. Navigating this tangle of trees, vines, boulders and mud, with the help of local people and their machetes, they finally reached the wall of mountains in Costa Rica that had blocked them four years earlier. This time they turned to the coastline to go by sea but there was no calm bay to enter the ocean. They had to launch from the beach into twenty-foot waves, nearly ending their journey before it truly began.
La Tortuga proved to be seaworthy and they entered the Pacific on four occasions and survived four terrifying days in rough ocean water. They were then misled by a friendly fisherman to go inland on a small river to a supposed road, which turned out to be not a road but a railroad. In desperation, they drove 35 miles on the railroad, bouncing along the ties, which almost destroyed La Tortuga. Somehow they survived, got themselves to Panama City where it took Frank six weeks (and considerable expense) to repair La Tortuga.
On May 11 they passed through the Panama Canal, but this was an adventure in itself, with La Tortuga looking like a minnow beside the huge ships. The officer in charge of the Panama Canal Zone, Admiral Miles, tried in vain to dissuade them from entering the Caribbean. In parting, the admiral said that if they made it through the Caribbean to South America and Tierra del Fuego, he would recommend Frank to the Explorers Club.