Yukon who is who

Alfred Hulse Brooks (1871 – 1924)

Alfred Brooks was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1894. After graduation he studied in Germany and Paris. He became the assistant geologist and head of the Alaska branch of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He is credited with discovering that the biggest range of mountains in Alaska were separate from the Rocky Mountains. The Brooks Range stretches from east to west across Alaska and into the Yukon. In 1898, the American government announced a systematic plan to survey the geography and geology of Alaska, including the relatively unknown area north of the Yukon River drainage.¹⁾ In May 1899, the USGS sent Brooks to Pyramid harbour to assess the Dalton Trail and its suitability as a rail route.²⁾ Brooks and Frank Schrader were the first geologists at Nome in 1899. They speculated that the beach sands, deposited when the sea level was higher, could be as rich as the shore. The discovery of the Third Beach caused a record year of Alaskan gold production. Brooks nearly died of typhoid at Nome in the fall of 1899.³⁾

Between 1899 and 1911, six expeditions mapped the geography and resources of the Brooks Range. Brooks was appointed geological curator of Alaskan mineral resources in 1902. He wrote summaries of Alaska’s mineral industry every year from 1904 to 1916, and from 1919 to 1923. During the First World War Brooks was in France working as the chief geologist for the American Expeditionary Force. The mineral Hulsite is named for Alfred Hulse Brooks.⁴⁾