Per Edward Larss


Mr. Larss, or Larson as he later was known, was a famous photographer of the Gold Rush. He was born on this day, February 16, 1863 in Sweden. He worked with another photographer, Joseph E. N. Duclos here in the north from 1899 until 1904. Duclos continued working in Alaska and died in Alaska of pneumonia after surgery in 1917. Their many photos are seen at the Alaska Archives under “Larss and Duclos” or incorrectly as “Larss and Duglos.” Above is a cute one of naughty ladies on a ladder in Dawson.
Larss left Alaska and the Yukon in 1904 and eventually went back to California where he died in 1941 in San Pedro. Below is a family portrait of P.E., his son Edward and wife Hilda taken around 1905.

His biography is captured in the book “Frozen in Silver.”

Victoria Alphonsia Tooley Yorba


A long name for this missionary born on September 17, 1862 in California, probably Sacramento. She and other ladies came up in 1899 to found a mission called the Peniel Mission, which still stands in Skagway. There were other Peniel Missions in California. The purpose was to save young women from a life of prostitution, but by 1899, there were few prostitutes left in Skagway, having married or left for Dawson.
Victoria showed up in the 1905 directory, but ended up in Los Angeles where she died in 1944.