General Wilds P. Richardson arrived in the District of Alaska – Alaska was not a Territory until 1912 – in 1897. At that time there were mobs of starving Klondike gold seekers who had been conned into taking steamships to Valdez so they could hike to Dawson. (Pull out a map and see how ridiculous that assumption is.)
They could not make it.
When their food ran out, they returned to Valdez and the town was chockablock with starving men.
General Richards rose the challenge. He hired the men for a dollar a day for 30 days. Just enough for them to buy a ticket south and $10 to live on until they could get a job in Seattle.
The 380-mile highway from Valdez to Fairbanks is named in his honor.