Hilma Swedahl

Who was Hilma Swedahl?

Hilma Swedahl, née Wounsch, was a Swedish-American gold prospector and the founder of the tourist target Alaska.

Hilma Wounsch was the daughter of a fisher in Bohuslän. The spring of 1896, she travelled to New York, where she worked as a domestic. After four years, she left for Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush. She joined a group of young people in Dawson with whom she reached the gold camp Ruby. From there, she continued alone to the foundings along the Ice sea cost. She lived alone in the wilderness for fifteen years until she married the gold prospector John Swedahl from Trondheim. The couple visited Sweden in 1912 and in 1928. After the last visit, Hilma Swedahl remained in Sweden, while her husband returned to USA. In the 1930s, she founded the Alaska, a tourist village on an island inspired by Alaska.

Hilma Swedahl died on 2 July 1965 and on her grave stone at Skee kyrkogård is carved her saying: "Don´t worry!".