Fred Thomas

Fred Thomas was born in 1919 to Margaret (Schaeffer) and Jacob Thomas in Fort Yukon, Alaska. His father arrived in the area from Wisconsin in the early 1900s working on a steamboat on the Yukon River. His mother was originally from Circle City, Alaska. Fred grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle of hunting, trapping, fishing, gardening, and berry picking on the Yukon and Black Rivers. Despite suffering from tuberculosis as a young man, he remained an active hunter and trapper around Fort Yukon well into old age, and was known as the most notorious lynx trapper. In 2009, at age 90, he was one of the oldest active trappers in the area, and went on his last moose hunt when he was 95 years old. From 1958 to 1976, he worked for the U.S. Airforce at the base in Fork Yukon. He married Charlotte William from Chalkyitsik and together they raised seven children on the Black River and in Fort Yukon. Due to his lifetime of living and traveling on the land, Fred had expert knowledge of the land, lakes, rivers, plants, fish, birds and animals, and was a keen observer of environmental change over time. Fred Thomas passed away in 2018 at the age of 98. For more about Fred Thomas, see his obituary in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner newspaper.