Mushers fought Bush Pilots and lost. With their dog teams they made money delivering mail to isolated outposts in Alaska through the early years of the 20th Century. They became legendary heroes driving rescue missions. One famous relay of mushers saved Nome from Diptheria.
Gillam Weather and a Legendary Bush Pilot
But in the early 1930’s, airplanes and bush pilots arrived on the scene. Bush pilots delivered mail more efficiently; put the mushers out of business. And bush pilots, effecting more dramatic rescues, replaced mushers as the legendary romantic heroes of the Subarctic.
Mushers tried to fight back. In the late 1920’s a sign posted on the door of one roadhouse read, “Drunks, Indians, and Airplane Pilots not welcome here.” But increasingly capable airplanes and the skills of legendary pilots doomed the mushers to obscurity.
First came “Thrill ‘em, spill ‘em, no killem Gillam”.
Then came the “Glacier Pilot”, Bob Reeve.
During WWI, Captain Reeve paid 5$ for an airplane ride, and the ride hooked him forever. Right after the war Reeve became a barnstormer. Barnstormers didn’t fly passengers or mail; they flew stunts for audiences who expected the stunts to kill him.
In 1929 Reeve acquired one of the first pilot licenses issued in the United States and moved to South America where he flew commercial missions through the Andes; made money doing it. But in October 1929 the stock market crashed and the money evaporated. Broke, Reeve stowed away in a steamship locker and wound up in Valdez, Alaska where a Ford dealer with a cracked-up biplane hired him to fix it then leased it back to him.
Reeve explored the massive Wrangell Mountains on foot and learned them from the ground up. When he flew through them his knowledge of the terrain combined with his formidable skills as a pilot to make him “the glacier pilot”.
Nobody could replace “No Kill ‘em Gillam” as a heroic pilot. But Gillam wrecked planes and his personality tended to drive off pilots and mechanics. Gillam’s business lost money. Upstart Reeve came to help but also to compete. One of Reeve’s first rescue missions carried Gillam to the hospital when he slipped off an icy wing and injured himself.
Reeve Airways flew out of Valdez; became an instant commercial success and made its owner the next legendary Alaska bush pilot.