PROSTITUTES EXPORTED
In 1901 federal immigrant inspector Kazis Krauczunas arrested nine Interior Alaska prostitutes on charges of white slavery, and transported them to jail in Seattle, only to learn they could only be tried in Fairbanks. From the left were (1) Germain C. Montbrun, a.k.a. Lily Davies, (2) Maries Kesterlyn, (3) Camille Leonard, (4) Jennie Dutailly, (5) Lily DeVarley, a.k.a. Rachel Couti, (6) Mrs. Felix Duplan, (7) Carman Dubois, (8) Marcel Romet, a.k.a. Debiscop, and (9) Rachael Bursoin, a.k.a. Burgoi. Most were veterans from the Dawson light district who had worked in Fairbanks quite peacefully for a couple of years. Because they were foreigners, Krauczunas eventually succeeded in deporting all but Camille Leonard, who outwitted him by hiring a Fairbanks man to marry her, thus becoming an American citizen.
NA, File #52484-28, RC85, with grateful thanks to Claus Naske who discovered the photo

I would particularly like to thank the friends and brave descendants of our sporting women who forthrightly admitted they were connected and took the time to set the record (and my thinking) straight.

In addition, I owe a great deal to the historians, archivists, librarians, museum keepers, collectors of memorabilia, interested citizens, and fellow writers who helped me track what was thought to be untrackable. Many of you will find yourselves in my footnotes. In the three decades it took to research Good Time Girls, I have learned that some would prefer not to have their names mentioned. For the help of those who will remain anonymous, I am most grateful!

It is appropriate to address a hearty thank-you to Rosalie L'Ecuyer, my research assistant since 1989. She has been enthusiastic from Day One, and her insights greatly broadened the scope of this project.

My editor, Christine Ummel, and publisher Kent Sturgis of Epicenter Press have been incredibly helpful, patient, and supportive, even when my own spirits lagged. Catherine Breslin has proved a fine coach, despite the fact that she lives in New York City. Starry Kruger, also a New York resident, has been most helpful. Pat and Earl Cook, Orea and Clifford Haydon, the late John and Grace Butrovich, Candace Waugaman, Kathleen Dalton, Rene Blahuta, and Claire Fejes helped me unlock some of Fairbanks's mysteries and were more than generous with their time. Historians R. N. DeArmond of Sitka, Diane Brenner of Anchorage, Paul Solka of Fairbanks and Eugene, and Terrence Cole, Claus Naske, and Gretchen Lake of Fairbanks filled gaps I didn't always know I had. Michael Gates, with the Klondike National Historic Sites in Dawson, and David Neufeld, the Yukon historian in Whitehorse, were helpful on Canadian sources. Pierre Berton's Klondike provided wonderful background. David Richardson's biography of Richard Geoghegan and Richardson's painstaking translation of Geoghegan's diaries proved a wonderful resource that I hope one day will see publication. Thanks also to the Alaska Humanities Forum.

I would also like to acknowledge the encouragement of the late William Warren, a free-thinking priest of the Fairbanks Diocese of the Episcopal Church, who had privy to church records (later destroyed) that documented the founding of the Fairbanks Line by a fellow churchman, the late Archdeacon Hudson Stuck. And I'm more than grateful to Stuck himself for sticking his neck out in an era when he was hanged in effigy — and damn near in the flesh — for undertaking a radical social experiment. It stood the test of time for half a century and should not be written out of history.

Finally, I wish to express my appreciation of the good time girls of the Far North—for their courage, the entertaining charm of their antics, and their amazing endurance. Bets were placed that I'd never finish this book because I too much enjoyed the research . . . but I want to put the record straight in their memory.