I know this is a very old article, but Simons was not Alaska's first licensed guide. He was the very first licensed Master Guide with license 001. However, the very first overall licensed guide was Andrew Berg who received his license in 1908, the same year Simons arrived in Alaska. As the guide program developed and became more formalized they developed a second class of game warden/licensed guide and created the Master Guide category which is how Simons is credited as being number 1. In effect both men were the first licensed guides but that was because there became two categories of guides at different times.