George T. Snow (1847 - 1925)
George Snow was born James Fink in Boston, Massachusetts and ran away from home at age 17 to join the navy. By 1870, Fink was a professional actor using the stage name of George T. Snow. In 1884, he was living in Port Townsend, Washington with his wife and two children. Between 1884 and 1887, he and his family performed at home and in Victoria, British Columbia.1) Snow and his family with his brother Joseph arrived in Juneau in 1887.2) Snow was running the Opera House in Juneau.3)
In 1888, Snow and partner George Miller came into the Yukon River basin, visited the Stewart Island trading post and mined the river bars of the Stewart River.4) In 1892, he travelled into the Yukon River basin on a second prospecting trip. In 1894, he brought his family and combined prospecting with his profession of acting. His troupe included his wife Anna, his son Monte, his daughter Crystal Brilliant, and his brother Joe.5)
Snow opened a theatre in Forty Mile and brought in a troupe of music-hall girls from San Francisco. There is no evidence that these women were prostitutes but the youngest girl in the troupe was known as “The Virgin” because the miners thought she might have seen one. Some of the theatre scenery was very elaborate.6) In December 1894, Snow was a founding member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers at Forty Mile.7)
In 1895, the Snows moved to Circle City, Alaska and built a two-story log theatre.8) He and his partner, Byron Allison, started building the theatre, the Grand Opera House, in the spring of 1895 and finally formed a partnership with the Alaska Commercial Co. to complete it. Snow Snow and his family performed classics and sponsored shows performed by others.9)
In January 1896, a resolution at a meeting of the Yukon Order of Pioneers at Circle City authorized Snow to compile a history of the Yukon Valley. This was eight months before gold was discovered on Bonanza Creek. The history was never published but the disorganized papers were saved.10)
In 1897, George and his brother Joe worked claims on Bonanza Creek and then George and his family moved to California in 1899.11) They returned to Juneau in 1900 and to Skagway in 1909. In 1910, they moved back to Seattle. George became the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic posted in Seattle in 1915. Anna was a founding member of the Ladies of the Golden North in 1919.12)
Snow lived in Alaska for twenty-five years. The stories he collected from his contemporaries were scattered over a dining room table when he died in Seattle. His daughter, Crystal Snow Jenne, boxed them up and took them to her home in Juneau. They remained undisturbed until 1964 when she gave permission for them to be microfilmed by the Baker Library, Dartmouth College.13)