Same nickname, two very different men -- Part 2 - Homer News

The story compares two unrelated men known as “Beluga Joe,” both tied to Cook Inlet’s Beluga River area in the 1900s: Joseph Magill and Joseph Schneller. The article’s focus is on Magill’s early years and rise in the Yukon during the Klondike rush. In 1897, Joseph Andrew Magill left Washington for the Canadian Klondike. By 1899, a Dawson newspaper reported him in connection with allegations that he accepted money to expedite entrance to a gold commissioner’s office, with testimony later indicating he created and signed paperwork himself to pocket the funds. By December of that period, Magill appeared to be advancing professionally, including a partnership listing in Dawson and later roles connected to legal proceedings and estates. The narrative notes later accounts crediting him with significant wealth, though the article stops mid-sentence as Magill’s financial story continues.