Yukon who is who

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Bob
	
Bob was a young First Nations man recruited in 1886 by trader Arthur Harper to take Tom Williams to the coast by dog sled. Coarse gold had been discovered on the Fortymile River that fall and the trader wanted the Alaska Commercial Co. to send in supplies suited to an influx of prospectors. Bob and Tommy carried a sack of mail with letters from Harper and others describing the size and location of the gold strike. They left the post at the mouth of the Stewart River on 1 December 1886. The weather warmed, and Tom fell through the ice twice, going in over his head. The river ice was rough, the dogs suffered from sore feet, and it was slow going. A cold front hit on New Year’s Day as they were crossing Lake Laberge. They started the Chilkoot Trail in a blizzard and soon abandoned the sled. They made about five miles in two days and then created a snow shelter at Stone House, just below the summit. Williams had a fever, and Bob abandoned the mail and their few supplies to carry Tom on his back. After five more days, they met a group of Chilkat who delivered them to Healy’s store. Bob was loaded into Healy’s schooner and taken to Juneau to have his toes amputated. Tom died, but not before talking about the big strike on the Fortymile. Two search parties went out to look for the mail bags and Healy offered a $125 reward, money raised by the Juneau miners. Healy discovered the mail bags near the summer, next to one of Bob’s dead sled dogs. The miners sent Bob home with some cash and a new Yukon sled.((Deb Vanasse,// Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2016: 64-66.))