Walter Harper

Yesterday's Person-of-Mystery was Walter Harper.  Famous for being the first man to make it to the top of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America at 20,327 feet.

(Walter Harper)

Harper was an Alaskan native, and the son of mixed parentage (his mother, Jennie, was an Athabascan Indian) who accompanied Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, and Robert Tatum, but it was Harper who reached the summit a day earlier than the rest of the party on June 7, 1913.  He was only 21 at the time.

Tragically, he died when the SS Princess Sophia went down on October 25, 1918.

(Mt. McKinley)

Curiously enough, Hudson Stuck, who co-led the expedition to the Mt. McKinley was a British immigrant, turned Texas cowboy and one-time school teacher in none other than San Angelo, Texas.

(Hudson Stuck)

Strange how so much seems to lead back to San Angelo!