Jack Boone

Born in California, Jack Boone moved to Alaska as a young man and settled in Juneau, where he started a family and built a home. He moved his family to Eagle in 1973, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a "jack of all trades," excelling at most of his endeavors. Known as an accomplished mechanic, builder and successful businessman, he also was committed to the service of his community, serving many years on the Eagle City Council, as an assistant mayor, as a trainer and assistant chief for the volunteer fire department, and as a tutor at the local school. He also spent many hours trapping, hunting and piloting his boat on the Yukon River, as well as mining for gold. By the early 1990s, Jack and his wife, Jean, ran the general/hardware store in Eagle, and in the 1970s and 1980s they were active in the protests in Eagle against the National Park Service when Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve was established and management regulations were being formulated. Local residents felt that they and their subsistence lifestyle were being pushed off of public lands. In 1979, Jack testified at a Congressional hearing in Fairbanks on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the Boones participated in a trespass in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. The Boones also provided some of the anti-Park Service signs that were posted around Eagle. Jack Boone passed away in 2012 at the age of 72.