Walter Harper

The youngest of eight children, Walter Harper was born in 1893 as the son of Arthur Harper, an immigrant from County Antrim, Ireland, and Jennie Seentahna (née Bosco) Harper, of the Koyukon people from the Koyukuk region. They married in 1874 when Harper was 39 and Jennie was 14, at Koyukuk. Harper and his partner Al Mayo founded a trading post in Tanana, near the Athabascan site of Nuklukayet. Harper also did some mining there, after years of experience in California and British Columbia. Mayo married Margaret, a cousin of Jennie.

The couple separated permanently in 1895, and Arthur Harper left the area. He died of tuberculosis in 1897. Jennie reared Walter as a Koyukon. All the older Harper children had been sent for education to boarding schools "Outside", mostly in San Francisco, California. Harper's partners also adopted this practice for their mixed-race children.

At the age of 16, Walter Harper started attending Tortella School, an Episcopal boarding school associated with St. Marks Mission in Nenana, Alaska.[http://library.alaska.gov/hist/hist_docs/finding_aids/MS004-11-02.doc Guide to Collection: St. Mark's Mission, Nenana, Alaska]; "Biographical/Historical Note", 2010, State of Alaska Library, accessed 22 September 2013 There he met Hudson Stuck, Episcopal archdeacon of the Yukon, who served a large area of the Interior as a missionary.{{cite news|title=Dr. Stuck scales Mount M'Kinley|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/06/21/100630411.pdf|accessdate=21 July 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 21, 1913}} Stuck was impressed by Harper's intelligence, manners, and skills in fishing, tracking, trapping, fire-building, and dog handling.{{cite book|last=Haines|first=Jan Harper|title=Cold River Spirits: The Legacy of an Athabascan-Irish Family from Alaska's Yukon River|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7M77uJNahEC|accessdate=22 July 2013|year=2000|publisher=Epicenter Press|isbn=978-0-945397-85-4}} He hired him to work as his interpreter, guide, and dog driver. He also encouraged him to continue with his formal education.{{cite web|last1=Bundtzen|first1=Thomas K.|last2=Hawley|first2=Charles C.|title=Arthur Harper|url=http://alaskamininghalloffame.org/inductees/harper.php|publisher=Alaska Mining Hall of Fame|accessdate=21 July 2013|year=2009}}{{cite book|last=Stuck|first=Hudson|authorlink=Hudson Stuck|title=The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley): A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9c55AAAAMAAJ|year=1918|publisher=C. Scribner's sons}}{{rp|6}}{{cite web|title=Early Climbers Met Denali's Challenge|url=http://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/history-and-trivia/early-climbers-met-danali/|work=Now in the North|publisher=University of Alaska|accessdate=21 July 2013|date=February 1981}}

Stuck invited Harper, then 20, to be part of his 1913 expedition to climb Denali. Others in the party were the chief guide and co-director Harry Peter Karstens; Robert Tatum, an Episcopal missionary, who served as cook;{{cite book|last=Beckey|first=Fred|authorlink=Fred Beckey|title=Mount McKinley: Icy Crown of North America|year=1993|publisher=The Mountaineers Books|isbn=0-89886-362-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nXGOq8MhZYcC&pg=PA118|pages=118–119}} and two Gwich'in teenagers, Johnny Fredson and Esaias George,{{cite news|last=Moutoux|first=John T.|title=Ascending the steep roof of the continent Just to 'look out the windows of heaven'|url=http://denali2013.org/meet-the-team/1913-team/robert-tatum/|accessdate=10 July 2013|newspaper=The Knoxville News-Sentinel|publisher=Denali 2013|date=May 22, 1932|archive-date=25 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925123137/http://denali2013.org/meet-the-team/1913-team/robert-tatum/|url-status=dead}} who helped prepare and maintain the base camp. This pair also brought the dog teams down when the terrain became too rough for their use.

On March 17, 1913, the expedition left from Nenana to climb Denali. The first day, they hiked {{convert|30|mi|km}} along the Tanana River valley with two sleds of supplies, pulled by fourteen dogs. The {{convert|110|mi|km|adj=on}} journey up the river to Eureka took eight days; there, they replenished supplies and celebrated Easter.

It took them several weeks to reach their final camp; their journey had been much longer than expected. They had made it through the steep, crevasse-filled Muldrow Glacier, and endured a tent fire. It then took them three weeks to get through the Karstens Ridge, where the trail was blocked by huge rocks and blocks of ice thrown up by an earthquake the year before. They also survived a {{convert|50|ft|m|adj=on}} icefall. On June 6, they arrived at their final camp at an elevation of {{convert|18000|ft|m}}, the highest camp ever established in North America.

At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, the climbers left camp for their final summit attempt. At 1:30 p.m., the party reached the top of Denali, an elevation of {{convert|20310|ft|m}}.{{cite press release | last=Newell | first=Mark | url=https://www.usgs.gov/news/new-elevation-nation%E2%80%99s-highest-peak | publisher=USGS | title= New Elevation for Nation's Highest Peak | date=September 2, 2015 |accessdate=August 23, 2017}} Harper was the first to gain the summit. The team spent an hour and a half on the summit, during which Tatum planted a flag he had made earlier from handkerchiefs. He compared the view to "looking out of a window of heaven". Stuck ensured they also put up a six-foot cross.{{cite news|title=Dr. Stuck scales Mount M'Kinley|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/06/21/100630411.pdf|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 21, 1913|accessdate=September 21, 2013}}

After taking readings from their instruments to establish the height of the mountain, the party began the descent. Compared to the 50-day journey up the mountain, it took them just two days to make it back to base camp. The expedition returned to Tanana on June 20, three months and four days after they'd left.

Encouraged by Stuck, at age 21 Harper entered Mount Hermon School where he studied for two years, leaving in 1916.{{cite book|last=Askins|first=Kathryn|title=Bridging Cultures: American Indian Students at the Northfield Mount Hermon School|year=2009|publisher=University of New Hampshire|page=165}} He continued his education in Alaska while continuing to work on the frontier, and planned to attend medical school in Philadelphia. On September 1, 1918, he married Frances Wells in Fort Yukon, with Archdeacon Stuck officiating. For their honeymoon, the couple took the {{SS|Princess Sophia}} from Skagway to Seattle. From there, they would travel to Philadelphia, where Harper had been admitted to medical school, and his wife planned to join the Red Cross. They embarked on October 23 at Skagway, and the four-year-old Scottish steamer left at 10:00 that night.

A day later, as the ship was passing through Lynn Canal en route to Juneau, it encountered a strong gale and heavy snow. Princess Sophia went {{convert|1|mi}} off course and ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef, the flat, rocky tip of an underwater mountain. Initially the sea was calm, but soon another gale began. The ship asked by radio for help, but neither ships nor small boats could get close enough to rescue the people aboard because of the dangerous conditions. After about 40 hours, Princess Sophia broke apart and sank on October 25, killing all 268 passengers and 75 crew, a total of 343 persons lost, including Walter and Frances.{{cite news|title=C.P. Liner Founders In Alaska Gale; 343 Persons Aboard Lost With Her|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/10/27/97037713.pdf|accessdate=22 July 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 27, 1918}}

After the Harpers' bodies were recovered, the couple was buried side by side in Juneau.{{rp|70–71}}{{cite book|last1=O'Keefe|first1=Betty|last2=MacDonald|first2=Ian|title=The Final Voyage of the Princess Sophia: Did They All Have to Die?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bo974cFk3tgC&pg=PA60|year=1998|publisher=Heritage House Publishing Co|isbn=978-1-895811-64-3|page=60}}

• In 1913, Archdeacon Stuck named Harper Glacier after the first man to reach the summit. The {{convert|4|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} glacier runs from Denali Pass on Denali to the Great Icefall before becoming Muldrow Glacier.{{USGS|title=Feature Detail Report for: Harper Glacier|url=http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:1403187|accessdate=21 July 2013}} It was also named for Walter's father Arthur.{{rp|121}}
• On June 7, 2012, the 99th anniversary of the first ascent, Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced bill S. 2273, to "designate the Talkeetna Ranger Station in Talkeetna, Alaska, as the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station."{{cite web|title=Bill Text 112th Congress (2011–2012) S.2273.IS|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.+2273:|work=THOMAS|publisher=Library of Congress|accessdate=22 July 2013|date=March 29, 2012|archive-date=9 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109131324/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.+2273:|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|title=On 99th Anniversary of Summit, Murkowski Requests Hearing on Bill to Name Ranger Station for Athabascan Climber|url=http://www.akbizmag.com/Alaska-Business-Monthly/June-2012/On-99th-Anniversary-of-Summit-Murkowski-Requests-Hearing-on-Bill-to-Name-Ranger-Station-for-Athabascan-Climber/|newspaper=Alaska Business Monthly|accessdate=July 22, 2013|date=June 7, 2012|archive-date=September 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927164955/http://www.akbizmag.com/Alaska-Business-Monthly/June-2012/On-99th-Anniversary-of-Summit-Murkowski-Requests-Hearing-on-Bill-to-Name-Ranger-Station-for-Athabascan-Climber/|url-status=dead}}
• In 2020, Alaska Senator Click Bishop introduced and saw passed Alaska SB 144, to have June 7 annually designated Walter Harper Day. {{cite web | url=https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Text/31?Hsid=SB0144A | title=Alaska State Legislature }}https://juneaunews.com/juneau-news/walter-harper-day/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}{{cite web | url=https://fm.kuac.org/local-news/2021-06-07/today-is-walter-harper-day | title=Today is Walter Harper Day | date=7 June 2021 }}
• On July 19, 2022 the Walter Harper Project unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of Walter Harper in downtown Fairbanks, Alaskahttps://www.walterharper.org/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.peakbagger.com/climber/climber.aspx?cid=433 Walter Harper] at peakbagger.com

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Category:Koyukon people

Category:1893 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:20th-century Alaska Native people

Category:Accidental deaths in Alaska

Category:American mountain climbers

Category:Deaths due to shipwreck at sea

Category:Denali

Category:People from pre-statehood Alaska

Category:People from Tanana, Alaska

Category:Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Juneau, Alaska)