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In this humorous and upbeat memoir, James Wickersham describes his career as a pioneer judge and later as a congressional representative assigned to a vast, snow-covered district, extending over 300,000 square miles in the undeveloped Alaska Territory. Wickersham’s many adventures include traveling by dogsled over hundreds of miles through snow-covered mountains; serving as judge for the trials of many famous outlaws in the midst of the gold strikes; and hunting, mining, and climbing in his local Alaska wilderness. Though he was instrumental in the early history of Alaska, and his legacy is evident throughout the state—for example, he named the city of Fairbanks—this is the first and only work to focus on Wickersham’s life during this pivotal time in Alaska’s history.
James Wickersham (1857–1939) was a statesman, author, historian, and scholar. He was born near Patoka, Illinois and moved in 1883 to Tacoma in the Washington Territory.
Introduction
1 The Genesis of an Alaskan Court
2 Dawson and the Klondike Mines
3 Planting American Courts in the Wilderness
4 Common Law of the Trail
5 Riding the Arctic Circuit
6 The Yukon River Winter Trail
7 Triple Murder in the Aleutians
8 The Anvil Creek Conspiracy
9 The Corruption of the Court
10 Liars and Thieves
11 Social Life at Nome, 1901-1902
12 The Dog Trail From Circle to Fairbanks
13 Fairbanks and the Tanana Mines
14 The Mount McKinley Expedition
15 Up the Kantishna
16 The Approach
17 On the Slopes of Denali
18 Rafting Home
19 Three Thousand Miles of Justice
20 The Valdez-Fairbanks Trail in 1905
21 The Judge Goes on Trial