When young Gordon Elliot was sent to Alaska by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to investigate the validity of the Kamatlah claims, he was warned about Colby MacDonald. The biggest man in Alaska, bar none, they said. But they also said: If you won’t get out of his road, he peels your hide off and hangs it up to dry. Well, one of the reasons they sent Elliot was because they knew he didn’t scare and that he could be trusted to bring back the facts.