Ben F. Downing (c1862 - 1906)
	  
Ben F. Downing was born in New Hampshire and adopted by a farmer in Maine.((//Alaska Magazine,// April 1906 in Ed. Ferrell, //Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950.// Juneau: Heritage Books Inc., 1994: 212-213.)) He travelled through Texas, Montana to the Black Hills, South Dakota where he went into partnership with a freighter, but his partner was killed and their wagon burned.((Elva Scott, //Historic Eagle and it’s People.// Eagle City, Alaska. June 1992: 93-95.)) Downing returned to Montana and was a United States deputy marshal and caught three bullets. In 1896, he went to Circle City on the Yukon River in Alaska.((//Alaska Magazine,// April 1906 in Ed. Ferrell, //Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950.// Juneau: Heritage Books Inc., 1994: 212-213.)) 

Downing moved onto the Klondike when he heard news of the gold strike.  P.C. Richardson attempted to install a mail service to Nome in 1899 but failed. Downing came in and secured the Star Route contract and began building cabins for his carriers every twenty miles, locating the sites in the late fall in a rowboat. Early contractors could expect to get $1 per letter delivered and a good commission on gold carried. In winter, they carried passengers and mail usually using a four-horse bob-sled stage from Dawson to Eagle. Below Eagle they used dog teams.((Elva Scott, //Historic Eagle and it’s People.// Eagle City, Alaska. June 1992: 93-95.))  Downing established a relay system, hired over forty men, and broke trails on the Yukon River in the winter with their dog teams.((//Alaska Magazine,// April 1906 in Ed. Ferrell, //Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950.// Juneau: Heritage Books Inc., 1994: 212-213.)) 
	
In 1903, he was carrying the royal mail from Dawson to Eagle. He was contracted as a government mail carrier between Dawson and Nome and he carried the mail between Dawson and Tanana, about 900 miles. Downing had a dog corral near Dawson with 100 or more dogs. He could mush forty miles a day. One time, he was nearing Dawson on his eastward trip and ran into a hole in the Yukon River. The dogs saw the hole and veered off, but the sled went in and so did Downing. The dogs were able to pull him out, but he had no cap or mittens and he was drenched. He ran on for several miles to a roadhouse. His face, ears and nose were burned, and his feet were almost solid, but he pressed on to Dawson to deliver the mail on time. He was taken to hospital in Dawson and the doctors wanted to amputate. Downing threatened to shoot the man who would do it and asked them to fix the feet as well as they could. The ends of several toes were trimmed off.((John Scudder McLain, //Alaska and the Klondike.// New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1905: 87-92.)) That year, Downing was outbid on the American contract by the Northern Commercial Company, but the Canadians gave him a contract to carry mail between Dawson and Eagle.((William S. Schneider, //On Time Delivery: the dog team mail carriers.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2012: 5-7.))
	
In 1904, Downing travelled to the Tanana country and was successful in the general merchandise and transportation business. He sold out his Alaska interests in 1905.((//Alaska Magazine,// April 1906 in Ed. Ferrell, //Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950.// Juneau: Heritage Books Inc., 1994: 212-213.)) He died in 1906 in a hospital in San Francisco where he had gone to rid himself of a bullet he received in the Black Hills.((Elva Scott, //Historic Eagle and it’s People.// Eagle City, Alaska. June 1992: 93-95.))