AUTHOR’S NOTE: In 1913, King David Thurman, a Cooper Landing-area resident who often seemed one step ahead of authorities, was finally convicted of violating game laws and served time in the Seward Jail. After his release, he busied himself in preparation for another season of trapping, hunting and mining.

After his 1913 conviction for violating the territorial game laws, King David Thurman served 50 days in the Seward Jail and was released on Aug. 27. While he was behind bars, he received daily visits from a young friend, 12-year-old Emmett Krefting, whom he had befriended in the summer of 1907 at Simon Wible’s gold-mining camp on Canyon Creek. Emmett’s mother, who had been the camp cook, supplied Thurman with hot meals each day during his incarceration.

In Krefting’s memoir about his y

See Full Page