Today is Walter Harper Day in Alaska. Harper, at the age of 20, was the first person to stand on the summit of Denali on June 7, 1913.
It took the expedition three months to travel from Fairbanks to the summit of North America’s highest peak. The final four weeks of the trek were spent on The Mountain.
Harper and his new bride were on the doomed final voyage of the steamer Princess Sophia, when it ran aground in Lynn Canal, and eventually sank when a storm came up. He was 25.
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