Legislature(2019 - 2020)GRUENBERG 120
02/18/2020 03:00 PM House STATE AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB144 | |
| HB74 | |
| HB239 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SB 144 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 74 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 239 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 144-ESTABLISH JUNE 7 AS WALTER HARPER DAY
3:03:37 PM
CO-CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the first order of
business would be SENATE BILL NO. 144, "An Act establishing June
7 of each year as Walter Harper Day."
3:03:52 PM
SENATOR CLICK BISHOP, Alaska State Legislature, relayed a brief
account of Walter Harper's accomplishments as the first person
to reach the summit of Denali [Mountain] at the age of 20, on
June 7, 1913. He left Fairbanks by dog team, arrived in Nenana,
and was joined by Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, and Robert
Tatum. With them were Johnny Fred and Esaias George, who
provided support. "Everything they had was what they brought
with them." They encountered a myriad of obstacles and bad
luck; they lost most of their gear in a fire. The group was
able to reach the summit; Karstens and Stuck claimed that if it
hadn't been for Walter Harper, they would have never summited.
SENATOR BISHOP continued by saying that Walter Harper met his
future wife while recovering from typhoid fever in a hospital in
Fort Yukon; she was a nurse; they fell in love and were married.
They were bound for the Lower 48 on the Princess Sophia when it
ran aground [in the Lynn Canal on October 25, 1918]. He was on
his way to medical school so that he could return and practice
medicine in Fort Yukon. He and his wife perished with the rest
of the passengers aboard the steamer. They are buried in the
Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.
3:09:02 PM
DARWIN PETERSON, Staff, Senator Click Bishop, Alaska State
Legislature, paraphrased from his written testimony, which read:
• Walter Harper's name is permanently stamped in Alaska
history because he was the first person to reach the
summit of Denali on June 7, 1913.
• SB 144 proposes to honor this great Alaskan by
th
designating June 7 of each year as Walter Harper Day.
• There were six people on the expedition team: (None of
these men had technical climbing experience on a
mountain like Denali. Prior to 1913, there were 11
unsuccessful attempts to summit Denali.)
o Hudson Stuck (expedition leader) 50 years old. The
Episcopal Archdeacon of the Yukon.
o Harry Karstens (expedition leader) 35 years old. He
was an accomplished outdoorsman, a miner, a packer,
and a guide. He later became the first
superintendent of Denali National Park from 1921 to
1928.
o Robert Tatum 21 years old. Robert was a theology
student from Knoxville Tennessee who was working at
the Episcopal mission in Tanana when Hudson Stuck
invited him to join the expedition.
o Walter Harper 20 years old. He was Stuck's
prot?g?.
o Johnny Fred and Esiais George were two 17 year old
boys from St. Mark's Episcopal Mission in Nenana.
They were selected by Hudson Stuck to accompany the
team to base camp, haul supplies and hunt for food.
Neither Johnny nor Esiais would join the rest of the
team on the ascent. The plan was for Esiais to
return to Nenana with one dog team while Johnny
stayed in base camp.
• Stuck, Karstens and Harper launched the expedition
from St. Mathews Church in Fairbanks on March 13. They
traveled by dog sled to Nenana where they met up with
the rest of the team Robert Tatum, Johnny Fred and
Esaias George. On April 11, they had their base camp
set up and started planning their ascent.
• The team had shuttled 3,000 lbs. of equipment and
supplies in backpacks and would continue moving a
cache of gear, including several cords of firewood,
from camp to camp up the mountain.
• They estimated that in ascending the 20,000 foot peak,
the men climbed 60,000 feet altogether.
• On May 2nd, they had relayed their cache to the midway
point of Muldrow Glacier at 10,800 feet when disaster
struck. They lost a great deal of their gear,
including tents, clothes and food when their cache
caught fire. (A match tossed by Karstens or Stuck
after smoking their tobacco pipes).
• Despite the setback, they continued climbing and on
th
June 7, Walter became the first human to set foot on
the summit of Denali with the other three members of
the expedition arriving after him.
• Stuck concluded that Walter could have climbed another
10,000 feet based on his condition at the summit.
Harry Karstens referred to Walter as "fearless" and
Stuck attributed a great deal of their success to
Walter's exceptional stamina and his ability to always
maintain complete self-composure in the face of any
hardship.
• As extraordinary as this achievement was, it's not the
only reason we should celebrate Walter Harper.
• Born in Tanana in December 1892, Walter was the
youngest of eight children. His mother was Jenny
Albert, a Koyukon Athabascan and his father was Arthur
Harper, an Irishman who emigrated in 1847.
• Arthur was a well-known prospector and trader in the
Yukon basin. In fact, his widespread prospecting,
numerous discoveries and his prolific letter writing
to outsiders about the gold prospects in the Yukon won
him the recognition as the discoverer of gold in the
region and he was credited with starting the Klondike
Gold Rush.
• But Walter never knew his father personally because
his parents split up when he was two years old. It was
Walter's mother, Jenny, who had the greatest impact on
his formative years. She raised Walter in the
Athabascan traditional way of life and he spoke the
Koyukon-Athabascan language.
• When Walter met Archdeacon Stuck at a fish camp in
1909, he began attending school at the St. Mark's
mission in Nenana. He was 16.
• Being so impressed with Walter's ability, Stuck hired
him the next year when he was 17 years old to be his
winter trail guide, riverboat pilot and interpreter
throughout his missionary travels along the Yukon.
• The Archdeacon tutored Walter and in the proceeding
years, Walter seamlessly integrated into his father's
Western culture without forfeiting an ounce of his
mother's Athabascan heritage.
• After the Denali expedition, in the fall of 1913,
Walter traveled outside with Stuck to continue his
formal education in Massachusetts where he attended
the Northfield Mount Hermon preparatory school through
1916. That same year he returned to Alaska to continue
working with Archdeacon Stuck in preparation for
college.
• In 1917, Walter became ill with Typhoid fever. While
he was recovering in the Fort Yukon mission hospital,
he fell in love with his nurse Frances Wells, who
st
devoted herself to his care. On September 1, 1918,
they got married in Fort Yukon.
• Seven weeks later, the newlyweds boarded the Princess
Sophia in Skagway bound for Seattle with their final
destination being Philadelphia so Walter could attend
medical school. After which, the couple planned to
return to Alaska so Walter could serve his people as a
medical missionary.
• Sadly, their future dreams were never realized because
they both died along with the rest of the passengers
when the Princess Sophia ran aground in the Lynn Canal
th
on October 25, 1918.
• After their bodies were recovered, Walter and Frances
were buried beside each other in the Evergreen
Cemetery here in Juneau.
• Walter's untimely death denied Alaska the legacy of a
respected Elder a full life would surely have
provided.
• However, we feel strongly that passing SB 144 is a
fitting tribute to honor this great Alaskan who lived
his life with excellence, integrity and resilience.
• In fact, Congress saw the wisdom in honoring the
accomplishments of Walter Harper. In 2013, Congress
passed the Denali National Park Improvement Act that
included a bill sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski,
naming the Talkeetna Ranger Station after Walter
Harper. Anyone who intends to climb Denali must first
stop at the Walter Harper Ranger Station to get their
permit.
3:16:01 PM
CO-CHAIR FIELDS expressed his appreciation for the proposed
legislation.
REPRESENTATIVE STORY stated that naming a day for Walter Harper
would ensure that Alaska's youth and current and future
residents know about a short-lived but powerful life.
[SB 144 was held over.]