John Munro Longyear

John Munroe Longyear ( born April 15, 1850 in Lansing, Michigan, † May 28, 1922 in Brookline, Massachusetts ) was an American timber contractors and the central figure behind the Arctic Coal Company, which examined the coal deposits in Svalbard 1905-1916 and by removing. This company established a settlement on Svalbard, which could accommodate up to 500 people for the miners. The settlement was known as Longyear City (now Longyearbyen ) and is the largest settlement on Svalbard.

Longyear was born in Lansing, Michigan. In 1906 he founded the Arctic Coal Company together with his longtime partner Frederick Ayer and various small shareholders. Longyear himself was the main shareholder of the company, whose headquarters was located in Boston. In 1901 he traveled to Svalbard and acquired there the Tronhjem Kulkompani Spitsbergen in 1904.

1916 Long Years mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen from the Kulkompani, a consortium of Norwegian investors, accepted and the lands were acquired. The company built additional mines in Adventdalen, the Gulf, in which lies Longyear City.

John Munroe Longyear died 1922 in Brookline, Massachusetts.