Richard D. Cotter

Richard D Cotter was orphaned at a young age and emigrated to the United States in 1850 with his brother John, who moved to Bowling Green, Missouri.

[5] and described him as "Stout of limb, stronger yet in heart, of iron endurance, and a quiet unexcited temperament, and better yet, devoted to me, I felt that Cotter was the one comrade I would choose to face death with, for I believed there was in his manhood no room for fear or shirk.

"[7] In the Exploration of the Sierra Nevada, Francis P. Farquhar describes Cotter as, "an indomitable mountain-climber whose Services were of great value in more than one branch of the work".

The project was abandoned in July 1866, when completion of the submarine Transatlantic telegraph cable established a link from the United States to Europe.

However, the public interest stimulated by the Alaskan project is credited with influencing the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million.

[10] Cotter then joined Clarence King on the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel in 1867, resigned after two years and settled in York just outside Helena, Montana.