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- STATUS: Photojournalist.
- BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Wells had made two prior trips to Alaska (1889, 1890) as a reporter before being hired by the Scripps-McCrae League, a primarily US midwest newspaper syndicate, to cover the Klondike gold rush. He arrived at Skagway on 7 Aug 1897 and went through the White Pass about five days later. He reached Dawson on 20 Sep. His last letter to his newspaper editor is dated Dawson, 15 Dec 1897.
Wells produced an excellent visual and written record of his travels, one of the few photojournalists to do so, the other being Tappan Adney. Wells returned to Skagway via the White Pass by dogsled carrying urgent and secret despatches that were to be sent to the War Department in Washington, D.C. He took a few photos along the way back and even met his colleague John B. Burnham who was on his way out to Juneau. Burnham photographed the Wells party on 1 Jan 1898 (Wells:177). Skagway, AK, was reached on 24 Jan 1898.
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