Here he helped get packers for George Dawson's Yukon Expedition of 1887, and witnessed Tom Williams' dying message about the Fortymile gold strike.
Six years later he persuaded three Chicago financiers to form the North American Trading & Transportation Company to compete with the Alaska Commercial Company. That fall Healy steamed up the Yukon River in the Porteus B. Weare (named after the company's new president), and the following year built the trading post of Fort Cudahy on the Fortymile River.
Healy was a vindictive combative man who was thoroughly disliked by the miners. He once said he never felt right unless he had a fight on his hands, and he usually had more than one.
