Walter Harper
Harper in 1913
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|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Main discipline | Mountain climber |
| Born | 1893 |
| Died |
October 25, 1918 (aged 25) Lynn Canal, Alaska |
| Nationality | American |
| Career | |
| Starting age | 20 |
| Notable ascents | Denali (June 7, 1913) |
Walter Harper (1893 – October 25, 1918) (Koyukon) was an Alaska Native mountain climber and guide. On Saturday, 7 June 1913, he was the first person to reach the summit of Denali (Mount McKinley), the highest mountain in North America. He was followed by the other members of the small expedition team, guide Harry Karstens, Episcopal archdeacon Hudson Stuck, who had organized the effort, and Episcopal missionary Robert Tatum.
After gaining more formal education, Harper married in 1918 and planned to go to medical school in Philadelphia. He and his wife took a steamer to Seattle for their honeymoon before setting off cross-country. The ship ran aground on a reef in a snowstorm, and was broken up in a gale, sinking on October 25. All 268 passengers and 75 crew were lost.
The youngest of eight children, Walter Harper was born in 1893 as the son of Jennie Seentahna (née Bosco) Harper, of the Koyukon people from the Koyukuk region, and Arthur Harper, an immigrant from County Antrim, Ireland. They married in 1874 when Harper was 39 and Jennie was 14, at Koyokuk. 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 traditional Koyukon. All the older Harper children had been sent for education to boarding schools "Outside", mostly in San Francisco, California. Harper's partners also followed this practice for their mixed-race children.
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