George Harkrader

George Hardrader was a miner living in Sitka, Alaska in 1880. He and eighteen others chose Edmund Bean as their leader and petitioned the United States Government to deal with the Chilkats and give the miners an escort for safe passage over the Chilkoot Pass. The party successfully made it into the interior and unsuccessfully prospected on the Hootalinqua (Teslin) River that summer.1)

In 1883, Pilz travelled with some Chilkat and four miners, including Harkrader, into the Yukon River basin. Pilz misspelled Harkrader as “Harkridre” in his memoir. They travelled to the Fortymile River and Pilz went down the Yukon River with Lieutenant Schwatka. H. Franklin and Mattison stayed at the Fortymile with what supplies could be spared and some from Fort Reliance. Pilz poled back up the Yukon River with the Chilkats and Harkrader who was sick. Pilz left Harkrader on Dyea Creek with a fire and the only blanket as he had to be packed, being helpless with rheumatism. Wilson and Healy had started a store on the beach that spring and Capt. Healy went up with some Chilkats and packed Harkrader down.2)

1)
Alfred Hulse Brooks, Blazing Alaska’s Trails. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1973: 323-25.
2)
George E. Pilz, “Reminiscences: Pioneer Days in Alaska.” Original manuscript, property of Mr. Charles E. Brunnel, College Alaska, 1935.