Bill Couture (d. 1958) Bill Couture was the last resident of Forty Mile. When he got ill, he put a message in a bottle and sent it floating down the Yukon River, hoping that someone would send help. A prospector came by and took Bill to the Dawson Hospital, but he died. The bottle was found after his death between Eagle and Circle, Alaska some 100 miles downstream.((Alan Innes-Taylor, "A Schematic study of the Yukon territory - June, July, August, September and October (part of Fort McPherson trail.” Heritage Branch files.))