John J. Healy
Experienced as a miner, rancher, trader and sheriff in Montana and Idaho, John J. Healy (1840-1908) came to Alaska in 1886 to develop a trading post at the trailhead to Chilkoot Pass. Thinking that he could compete with the Alaska Commercial Co. (ACC) on the Yukon River, Healy convinced several prominent Chicago families to form the Northern American Transportation and Trading Co. (NAT&T), which started operations on the Yuion, with headquarters at St. Michael, in 1892. To entice customers, NAT&T's prices were lower, but their policy was cash-only, whereas ACC offered credit.NAT&T was already operating steamboats and trading posts along the Yukon when increased traffic from gold discoveries in the Klondike in 1896 and later finds at Nome and Fairbanks generated huge profits for the company. In 1901, Healy was off to Europe seeking financial backing for several railroad lines: one from Valdez on Prince William Sound to interior Alaska, one from Dawson City perhaps to Nome, and one that would connect Paris with New York by way of Alaska. His plan for the latter included a tunnel under Bering Strait. In 1907, Healy led a crew surveying for a route for the railroad from Dawson through the White River country. (Editor's note: White River country is southwest of Dawson City. The White River enters the Yukon roughly 100 miles upriver from Dawson.) He became ill and after recovering at Dawson, he left the North and never returned. On September 15, 1908, he died in San Francisco.