Thom Swanny Swan

Alaskan History Magazine, November-December, 2020 Thom Swanny Swan

Inside this issue: - Mottram Dulany Ball, a little-known founding father of Alaska, was the Collector of Customs in 1878 and the highest-ranking federal official in the Department of Alaska, making him de facto governor of the territory.- Alexander Hunter Murray built the stockaded fort and Hudson's Bay trading post at Fort Yukon while the territory of Alaska was still a part of Russian America.- As the gold rush at Iditarod and Flat brought more people to the remote area, the Episcopal Church brought medical services and other comforts to the hard-working frontiersmen. - In 1885 Dick Willoughby brought news that he had discovered a wonderful mirage above the Muir Glacier; a modern city, with church-towers, large buildings, vessels in the docks, and people moving in the streets. He also had a photograph of what he called The Silent City. Excerpted from T. A. Rickard's book, 'Through the Yukon and Alaska.'- In her 80 years Nellie Cashman, the "Miner's Angel," earned the respect of miners from Arizona to Alaska with her hard work, charitable giving, and relentless pursuit of the next big strike, wherever that strike might happen. - The Alaska Dog Team, 1922, an article meant to provide guidance to travelers from the premier travel source, Rand McNally, on how to hire, drive, and care for an Alaskan dogteam. - The First American Musher in Alaska, by Thom "Swanny" Swan, details how Robert Kennicott was the first known white man to travel via dogteam in Alaska, when he spent two winters exploring the land and collecting specimens near Fort Yukon.