Clark Woodward Sprague (d. 1928)
	
Captain Clark Sprague was born in Wisconsin and started his river experience in 1876 on the Columbia River, based out of Portland, Oregon. He came north during the Klondike stampede and joined with others to form the Monarch Transportation Co.((Jerry E. Green, //Yukon Riverboat Captains.// 2019 website: http://www.users.miamioh.edu/greenje/#S)) The steamer //Monarch// was built in Ballard, Washington in 1898 by the Columbia [River] Navigation Co. and towed to St. Michael by the //SS Rival.// Captain Sprague took delivery and on 30 June took seventy passengers from St. Michael to Dawson.((W.D. McBride, "Saga of Famed Packets and other Steamboats of Mighty Yukon River." //Caribou & Northwest Digest,// Spring 1949: 100.)) 
	
The //Monarch// and the //Sovereign,// both owned by the Columbia [River] Navigation Co. in July 1898, were racing to get to Dawson first. W.H. Churchill, Dawson agent for the company, announced that a first-class ticket with meals and a birth from Dawson to Seattle would be given to the first person to report the arrival of either of the company’s boats.(("Who will win the ticket." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 2 July 1898.)) Captain Sprague’s //Monarch// was the first outside steamer to arrive from St. Michael on 21 July 1898.((W.D. McBride, "Saga of Famed Packets and other Steamboats of Mighty Yukon River." //Caribou & Northwest Digest,// Spring 1949: 100.)) It made the trip up to St. Michael in seventy days and came from St. Michael to Dawson in twenty days and twenty hours.(("The first boat in Dawson." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 23 July 1898.)) Passengers on the //Sovereign// thanked Captain Danaher for his efforts to accommodate passengers who had freight that should have been on the //Monarch.//(("Good wishes to the Captain of the Sovereign." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 27 July 1898.))
	
Captain Sprague was in charge of the Yukon River steamer //Mona// in 1898 and also commanded the //Sovereign// at some point in his career.((Jerry E. Green, //Yukon Riverboat Captains.// 2019 website: http://www.users.miamioh.edu/greenje/#S)) The //Monarch// was put on the St. Michael to Fairbanks run.((Jerry E. Green, //Yukon Riverboat Captains.// 2019 website: http://www.users.miamioh.edu/greenje/#S))