The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1950-07-27
FIN-AN { IE R
CRUSHED BY
LOAD OF COAL
84-Year- 0Id Alaska Lead
er, Beloved as Gap"
Dies in Hedly River Mine

FAIRBANKS. Alaska, July 81
LR-Alaskas foremost industrialist
and wealthiest man--Capt. Austin
Eugene Lathrop-died beneath the
wheels of loaded coal car yester-
day. He was "a.
The fatal accident occurred as
Lathrop inspected load of coal
gondolas at his Healy River Corp,
holding at Suntrana, 112 miles south
Of here.
DIR. Paul B. Haggland Of Fair
banks said the operator of the gon-
dolas failed to see Lathrop and
released a loaded car down a slight
incline. The industrialist either
tripped or fell under a wheel.
An inquest was to be held at the
mine today by us. Commissioner
Margaret Sullivan of Nenana.
The Fairbanks News-Miner owned
by Captain Lathrop. said the body
was being returned here in an
Alaska Railroad ambulance car.
After several days. it will be ship
ped to Seattle where his will stip-
ulates that he be buried.
His extensive holdings are be-
lieved to run to several million dol
lars.
Captain Lathrop many years ago
expressed his intention of turning
his businesses over to his senior en-
ployees upon his death.
In addition to controlling interest
in the AHealy River Corp, AlaskRs
largest coal mine. and the Fair
banks newspaper. Lathrop owned
five theaters, two radio stations. a
large apartment building and
bowling alley.
Born in Lapeer, Mich, Oct. 5.
1865. Lathrop came west to Seattle
in June, 1889, few days after the
Seattle fire razed much of the city.
boy Contractor"
He pitched tent. set himself up
as a contractor. and began razing
old buildings and excavating for
new Within year he was known
throughout the Pacific Northwest
as the hoy contractor"
He contracted to build an electric
railroad from Anacortes. to Fidalgo.
on Fidalgo Island, but the railroad
collapsed in the 1893 financial panic.
Undiscouraged. he leased Protec-
ton Island, off Sequim on the
Olympic Peninsula, setting up one
of the northwest's first modernized
poultry ranches. It was there that
he entertained Benjamin Harrison.
former President Of the United
States. II
Acquires Captain Title n
Lathrop acquired the title OF
Captain In 1896 when he bought
half interest in the 110-foot steam
schooner L. J. Perry and piloted 1T
carrying gold-seekers from port to
port in Alaska.
He set up a draying business at
Valdez and hauled supplies over
the rugged trails to the interior cop
per mines. With the start Of con-
struction on the Copper River
Northwestern Railroad. Lathrop
moved to Cordova. the rail terminus.
and contracted to haul all supplies
from the docks to the railroad work.
ing areas.
Lathrop married Mrs. Cosby L.
Mcdowell, Seattle widow. in VAL
DEE in 1901. Mrs. Lathrop died IN
1909.
In 1900 he took the first modern
drilling equipment into the Ter
ritory and started drilling for oil at
Cold Bay. near the tip of the Alaska
peninsula.
He abandoned the oil project
when Alaskan coal and oil lands
were Withdrawn from public entry
by the government few years later.
Start in Cordova
1t was at Cordova. Lathrop fire.
quently said later. that he got his
start He subsequently became di-
rector and president of the Bank of
Cordova, bought the Cordova Com
mercial Company and his first the
alter.
Naturally. he has been vital
figure in the Territory's politics. A
staunch Republican, he served as
the party's national committeeman
during ex-President Hoover's term
and was recently renamed to the
post. He was opposed to Territorial
Governor Ernest Gruening and to
Statehood for Alaska. He served in
the Alaska Legislature in 1921 as