Not everyone who rushed to the Copper River Area planned to just pick up their gold and return home again, a wealthy man or woman. Many formed companies for the purposes of transportation, exploration and development.

The corporation issued a prospectus and sold stocks and shares. Companies like the Connecticut Alaska Mining and Trading Co. purchased their own sailing vessel for transportation, planned to find gold then claim a townsite and sell lots to late arrivals, to open a store, and generally make money in the acclaimed Yankee way.

Some minority groups saw the gold rush as an opportunity to acquire land and build their own communities. Andrew Holman, who had lived in Alaska for 12 years, headed a group of Norwegians from Madison, Wisconsin who planned to establish a community, build a lumbering industry, and start farms.

The people who formed corporations generally saw beyond the gold rush to the northward expansion of European Americans into Alaska and the long-term settlement and development of Alaska.

(Jim and Nancy Lethcoe are the authors of Valdez Gold Rush Trails 1898-99 ).