Jujiro Wada
#154880 Most Popular
About
A Japanese adventurer turned dog musher, he became the founder of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Before Fame
He came to America stowed away in a tea box on a freighter heading for San Francisco, and from there got a job as a cabin boy on a North Sea expedition.
Trivia
He was dispatched to the site of modern-day Fairbanks to tell nearby traders about the gold strike, but when the resulting mob found the best sites were already claimed, they were ready to hang him.
Family Life
He was born in Matsuyama and raised in a small town in western Japan by his mother from the age of 4.
Associated With
He also helped create the Iditarod Trail, now the site of an annual race by dog mushers like Susan Butcher.
