John H. Hoeppel, a member of the U. S. Army Signal Corps, participated in construction of the Army's telegraph lines in Alaska and also worked as an Army signal operator at several stations in the territory. He spent the winter of 1900-1901 at the Kokrines station on the Yukon River and the summer of 1901 as a telegraph lineman along the Yukon below Kokrines. He spent early 1905 at Tanana Crossing on the upper Tanana River. For the year 1905-06 he was operator in charge at Fort Egbert (Eagle, Alaska), and by August of 1906 was stationed at Nome, Alaska, where he witnessed the arrival of Roald Amundsen, who had just completed his historic voyage through the Northwest Passage. In 1907 he married in Indiana. He and his wife moved to Sitka, Alaska, in 1909 and spent several years there before being transferred back out of Alaska. He and his family returned to Sitka in 1915, but eventually settled outside Alaska.
From the description of John H. Hoeppel photograph collection, 1900-1906. (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). WorldCat record id: 226376966
