John Healy (entrepreneur)

This article is about the American entrepreneur. For other people named John Healy, see John Healy (disambiguation).

John J. Healy (1840-1908) was an American entrepreneur in the late 19th century, who also operated in Canada at various times. Originating from a base of operations in Montana, he and Alfred B. Hamilton established a whiskey trading post near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta in 1869. The post was originally named after Hamilton, but a second, larger post nearby was given the name of Fort Whoop-Up.

Healy sold the fort to Dave Akers in 1876. After a career as the sheriff of Chouteau County in Montana, a newspaper editor and a businessman in Fort Benton, Montana, Healy moved to the north, operating a trading post at Dyea, Alaska, He later moved into the Yukon to operate a transportation company during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Healy died in 1908, and was buried in Seattle, Washington.

Bibliography

• Birth of a Community: Water the Key to Development
• Healy's West: The Life and Times of John J. Healy