He went to West Point in 1867 and later by studying law and medicine received degrees in both law and medicine. He then served in the military in the Dakota Territory.
In 1878-1880 he made a trek to find the lost Franklin Expedition. He said it was “the longest sledge journey ever made both in regard to time and distance” of eleven months and four days and 2,709 miles. It was the first Arctic expedition on which the whites relied entirely on the same diet as the Inuit.
In 1883, he was sent to reconnoiter the Yukon River by the US Army. Going over the Chilkoot Pass, his party built rafts and floated down the Yukon River to its mouth in the Bering Sea, naming many geographic features along the way. At more than 1,300 miles, it was the longest raft journey that had ever been made. In 1885 he wrote the Report of Military Reconnaissance in Alaska of his trek in 1883.
He died in 1892 at the age of 43 from poisoning or overdose in Portland and is buried in Salem.
Alihudhuria chuo kikuu cha West Point mwaka 1867 na baadaye alipata digrii katika sheria na dawa. Kisha akatumikia katika jeshi katika Eneo la Dakota. Katika mwaka wa 1878 na 1880, alisafiri kwa safari ya kutafuta safari ya Franklin iliyopotea. "Mfano wa safari hiyo ni ""safari ndefu zaidi ya kuteleza kwa pikipiki ambayo imewahi kufanywa kwa muda na umbali"" - miezi kumi na moja na siku nne na maili 2,709." Ilikuwa safari ya kwanza ya Aktiki ambayo wazungu walitegemea kabisa chakula kilekile kama cha Wainuit. Mwaka 1883 alitumwa na jeshi la Marekani kutembelea Mto Yukon. Baada ya kuvuka Mlango-Bahari wa Chilkoot, kikundi chake kilijenga mashua na kuteleza kwenye Mto Yukon hadi kwenye mdomo wake katika Bahari ya Bering, wakitaja majina ya maeneo mengi ya kijiografia njiani. Kwa kuwa safari hiyo ilifikia umbali wa kilometa 2,300, ilikuwa safari ndefu zaidi kuwahi kufanywa. "Mwaka 1885 aliandika ""Ripoti ya Military Reconnaissance katika Alaska"" kuhusu safari yake ya mwaka 1883." Alikufa mwaka 1892 akiwa na umri wa miaka 43 kutokana na sumu au overdose huko Portland na kuzikwa huko Salem.