Mr. John Henry Turner, Assistant in the Coast and Geodetic Survey,
was engaged on the Alaskan boundary survey from June, 1889, to July, 1891. In the summer of
1889, with Mr. McGrath, he ascended the Yukon river to Fort Yukon, where the party divided. On
August 12 Turner began his journey up the Porcupine river to the boundary. On the 19th he
landed at the site of an abandoned camp near the one hundred and forty-first meridian, and
there began the building of quarters for officers and men and the erection of an observatory.
This camp was named Camp Colonna. Longitude was
determined by moon-culmination observations in March and April, 1890.
On March 27, 1890,
he set out upon a sledge journey from Camp Colonna northward to the Arctic ocean, where he
arrived on April 8. The next day he started back, and reached Camp Colonna on April 17.
Later he left Camp Colonna, descended the Porcupine and Yukon rivers, and proceeded to St.
Michael, Norton sound, where he was compelled to remain until July, 1891, when he departed for
Washington. He returned to Alaska in 1892 on boundary work, but owing to ill health was
obliged to give it up. During his stay in Alaska he made a valuable collection of bird and
animal skins, which he presented to the University of California. The expenses of this
collection he bore personally. He died in Washington on June 13, 1893. An account of his work
was published in the National Geographic Magazine in 1893, Vol. IV, pp. 189-197; see also
Coast and Geodetic Survey Report 1890-1891, Part I, pp. 86-88.