Willis Thorp was from a cattle-raising family. As a young boy he helped drive a herd from Oregon to the Yakima Valley area of Washington Territory. In 1886 he moved to Juneau and opened a butcher shop. He built a slaughterhouse on the southern outskirts of town and began shipping cattle “on the hoof.”

Thorp eventually became a newspaper owner. He leased, then purchased a small-lode gold mine and stamp mill on Gold Creek. He founded the Alaska Electric Light and Power Co., which is still in business. He began by purchasing surplus electricity from a mining company, then later he installed his own production plant.

Thorp completed several cattle drives over the Chilkat Pass to the Yukon to feed the Klondike gold miners. In 1897 he retired to a real estate business in Seattle.

From: “Beef for the Yukon Miners,”by R.N. DeArmond, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, Heartland Magazine, November 28, 1993, H-6-7.