Sam White arrived in Alaska in 1922 as a member of a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey team. He dreamed of coming north during his boyhood days in Maine. One of nine children, he was born in 1891 and worked for the International Boundary Survey before and after two years in the U.S. Army during World War I.

He became an agent (game warden) for the Alaska Game Commission in 1927 and worked out of Fairbanks. He first used dog teams to patrol the area northeast of Fairbanks but in 1928 he learned to fly and used an airplane for patrol work. He became the first Alaska Game Commission warden to patrol his area by plane.

An experienced bush pilot, White worked for the Commission until Sept. 1941 when he resigned. He stayed in Fairbanks and flew for Wien Airlines. In World War II he flew charter planes for the U.S. Air Force. Following the end of the war, he returned to fly in Alaska until retiring in the early 1960s.

(Source: Alaska Magazine, April 1977, p. 63)