August Hahn Collection of Eric A. Hegg Photographs, ca. 1897-1898

Eric A. Hegg was born in Bollnas, Sweden, in 1868 and came to America with his parents when he was three years old, settling in Wisconsin. Hegg studied art and photography (possibly as an apprentice to a local photographer). At fifteen, he opened his own studio in Washburn, Wisconsin. At the age of twenty-one, Hegg moved to the Puget Sound area, and by 1897, he owned two photo studios in Bellingham Bay, Washington. In that year, he left for the gold fields with a group of men from Bellingham Bay on the Skagit Chief sternwheeler. Having arrived too late in the season to get all the way to Dawson, Hegg stayed close to the coast, photographing stampeders, first in Dyea, then with a second studio in Skagway. With his brother Pete and several others he formed a party continuing on to the Klondike, heading over Chilkoot Pass, successfully navigating through White Horse Rapids, on to Lake LaBarge, Thirty Mile River, past Five Finger Rapids, and arriving in Dawson in July, 1898. He later went to Nome and opened a studio there, continuing to photograph the gold rush. Eric Hegg died in San Diego in 1955.