 What follows in a story that was published in The Seattle Star newspaper. The story stared on Monday, May 21, 1928 and installments continued daily until its conclusion on June 2 1928. The story outlines the adventures A. Graham, T.N. Alvord, Aaron Neely, B.F. Smith and the author, A. E. Smith. It was copyrighted in 1928 by The Seattle Star. This picture ran with the story and shows A.E. Smith on the Left and two his Companions A. Graham (center) and Aaron Neely (right) as they looked in 1928. |
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THIRTY years ago a living, roaring stream of humanity poured thru Seattle, lured by the golden magnet of the north.
"On to the Klondike!" was on everyone's lips. Lights flared in the night. Prospectors talked; merchants sold outfits; the waterfront was alive with excited men; Elliott bay jammed with ships.
I was a gold rusher in those days. I am going to tell my story just as it happened-no fiction, no hear-say. But before I start, let me give you a little of the background -the urge behind the mad stampede for gold.
Let us go back a few years prior to '98.
The financial affairs of the world were administered under a double standard-gold and silver. There was a profitable market for all the silver the world could mine.
Under this condition, the intermountain country of the United States developed a vast industry. This industry absorbed the surplus labor of our land and drew largely from the labor market of our creditor nations. This made a good market too for agriculture products.
BUT, shortly before '98, our creditor nations put into effect a single-or gold-standard. This destroyed the market for our silver; it disturbed financial conditions to such an extent that many industrial enterprises could not be carried on at a profit. Everything threatened to come to a standstill.
It was while we were laboring under these chaotic conditions that news was flashed, not only all over our country, but, to all the world, that gold had been found in the sand and gravel beds of the "Great Yukon" and its tributaries.
The news was soon followed by visible evidence, in shipload quantities.
People forgot to worry about the double standard or "free silver." They began, instead, to prepare for the rush to the Yukon or the Klondike for a cargo of "the precious stuff."
SEATTLE generally was considered as the logical starting or outfitting point for the gold country. It soon became known as "The Gateway to the Klondike and Alaska."
It did not require much persuasion on the part of a friend to persuade me to join him in the stampede. We soon arranged for a party of five to join in our venture
These men were A. Graham, a Seattle businessman; T. N. Alvord; a farmer and businessman of Kent; Aaron Neely, a farmer and businessman of Auburn; B. F. Smith a laborer of Seattle and myself of Orillia, and native son of King county. All the other members of the party were early pioneers.
Mr. Alvord had been a "49er" in the California gold rush. All of us were practical river and trailmen.
During the later part of July '97, the Seattle Newspapers were advised by wire that the S.S. Portland-the gold ship-was about to reach port from Alaska with a number of Yukon miners and a cargo of gold dust.
In response the newspapers at once chartered a fast steamer and sent a number of reporters to meet the treasure ship and escort her to the dock and interview the returning miners.
Within a few hours the whole world was made acquainted with the facts of the great discovery. Within a few days our chamber of commerce, bankers and financial agencies, as well as our prominent citizens were besieged with inquiries from all parts of the world.
People came flocking into Seattle to learn first hand and to become a part of the great excitement. Rooming houses and hotels that had been nearly deserted, now had every available bed taken. Beds and "shakedowns"-blankets spread on the floor- commanded premiums.
Seattle merchants wired to Portland, San Francisco and the west for goods to supply the stampeders' wants. Extra trains and boats were put on to handle the increased business.
Many merchants form other parts moved to Seattle; there was not building space enough for all. Cheap, temporary buildings were put up to stow new stocks. Some dealers rented space in the city streets and erected tents in which they did a thriving business.
The south side of James street, between First and Second avenues was occupied by several tent merchants. The old-established shopkeepers rented basements that had long been disused; attics that had been shut up for years-any space at all, wherever they could find it.
Sales rooms were open far into the night. Shipping and packing departments never closed.
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Docks became so crowded with good awaiting shipment to the north that they could take no more. Merchants used sidewalks to store good that had been sold and packed, but could not be moved. Ships chartered to take the gold seekers and their good to the land of promise, had to wait in Elliott bay until they could find room at the docks to load. Last but not least dentists worked double time, preparing the gold seekers' teeth to combat the prospective hardtack and sourdough biscuits. This may sound funny, but many a poor prospector didn't find it so. |
Chapter II
BY way of preparation for our trip to the Alaskan goldfields we assembled our outfit at Stewart Street, and Boren Avenue. Our foodstuffs were packed in water-proofed canvas bags.
We dried our own fruit and beef and got our beans from the farms in the valley. We also built our own sleds and a knockdown frame for a river boat. 40 x 8 and 3 and ½ feet deep. Waterproof parkas completed the outfit.
Them we secured passage to Skagway aboard the Steam-schooner "Signal." On March 8 we employed Ben Fread to take our outfit to the dock in a couple of days and we followed on foot. I remember that when we reached Third and Pike the sidewalks were so congested by gold-rushers that we had to walk in the street to keep pace with the drays.
Occasions for bidding "bon voyage" to the spampeders were rare. Ninety-nine percent of the gold seekers were from other parts of the country and had no friends there who had any personal interest in them. But the docks were crowded with people there on business or just to satisfy their curiosity in a spectacle never before seen in America.
I FINISHEDchecking my good aboard the boat about two hours before sailing time and took a position of vantage on the shelter deck just above the gangway where I could see and hear everything that was going on.
There were a few touching scenes, as friends parted and families were divided. About an hour before sailing time, I remember a family appeared and took up a position near the ship, on the dock.
This family consisted of a German about 40 years old, his wife of 32, and four children. The husband was fair and heavy set; the wife had dark eyes and chestnut hair and was rather frail. The children consisted of a babe in arms, a boy of 3 clinging to his mother and twin girls of about 7, hanging to their father's coat.
Mother and Father spent their last minutes together in animated conversation, with eyes that shone like stars on a moonless night. Then the ship's mate called: "All aboard!" The father took some small parcels and his last kisses, and climbed aboard.
The last sight we had of them, mother and children stood grouped together on the dock, waving farewell.
I learned later that these folks were the Werners, who had a little home near the Madison street power house. The husband and father had long been employed by the streetcar company. I'll tell more about the family in a later chapter.
OUR first port of call was Victoria, where we stopped to have our customs papers okehed and to secure fishing and hunting licenses. A lot of the Yukon country is on the Canadian side of the boundary. Uncle Sam had permitted the miners and prospectors of Alaska a wide range of freedom in local government, but not so the Canadians. They administered affairs on their side of the line with the idea of securing revenues to help defray expenses of their home government-and also, it seemed to favor their own citizens.
This condition was the occasion for a great deal of discussion and some bitter criticism among the gold seekers. Incidentally, it was taken advantage of by "Soapy" Smith, king of the crooks, to further his own interests.
One of "Soapy's" agents came aboard our boat at Victoria and accompanied us to Wrangell, Alaska which was "Soapy's" main rendezvous at the time.
LEAVING Victoria we proceeded toward the Gulf of Georgia. Just before entering it, at sunset, we passed thru a school of herring about five acres in extent. It seemed to be about half water and half herring.
On the third morning form Seattle we were steaming thru Queen Charlotte sound at sunrise, with a heavy headwind and a nasty swell. Myself and the crew were the only ones to appear for breakfast. The wind increased to a moderate gale and we could make no headway so we put back for shelter and await abatement of the storm.
Our harbor was a cove behind a small island off the northeast corner of Vancouver island. A few minutes after coming to anchor a canoe containing four Indians came alongside the ship and asked for firewater. One of the crew passed them a line and a passenger passed them a bottle. One of the Indians was about the largest I ever saw, and gaudily dressed. He grabbed the bottle and as he had it elevated to take a drink one of the helpers in the ship's galley, not knowing what was below, threw over a bucket of water, striking the Indian full in his face.
It looked like war right then!
Chapter III
BY THE use of expert diplomacy and the gift of another bottle of firewater, the hostile Indians were pacified, and took their departure.
One the forth morning out o, a clear sky came and we crossed Queen Charlotte sound and were nearly across Fitzhugh sound when it begin to snow. It became so heavy that our visibility was limited to about 200 yards. So we put into another cove on the east side of the narrow pass. Drooping branches of spruce and hemlock nearly enveloped the "Signal."
The old ship had been designed as a freighter and had only accommodation for a crew and a dozen passengers, but those who had chartered her for the trip to the gold rush had built an addition to the afterpart of the deckhouse and constructed a shelter deck of light canvas that turned the rain pretty well.
But while we were in the cove during the snow storm the melting snow came thru in large quantities and we spent about 16 miserable hours.
ON THE fifth day the weather was perfect, and we soon got warmed up and begin to enjoy the scenery. Which at this point is grand and inspiring, even to the phlegmatic.
It is at such times as this that the student of human nature has every opportunity to peruse his studies with success.
The next day we passed the rock at the north end of Sarah Island where the "Senator" of Nome fame struck later and became a complete wreck. The rock wasn't charted then: it is now.
About this time too, "Soapy" Smith's agent completed his observation of the passengers and became quite affable with his intended victims. Although I had been raised on the frontier and had a former expedition to Alaska I was not able to size this agent up and never suspected that he was a party of the Smith organization.
This part of our journey was in narrow waterways. We saw mink, skunks and kindred animals frequently on the beach; once in a while a deer approached, swimming in the channel.
Our table fare was plain, but ample. When anyone felt inclined to criticize the food, he had only to look ahead to the time when he would have to put up with his own efforts in the culinary art to heave a sigh of anxiety.
ONE THE night of the sixth day we crossed Dixon entrance and awakened the next morning to get the first good view of the evergreen shores of "our Alaska." It looked to us like cones and pyramids nestling in green carpet, surrounded by the arms and grasped by fingers of the great Pacific, wearing a necklace of pearls and diamonds and crowned by a turban of white.
We passed the port of entry, Ketchikan for a few moments for official business and then proceeded on our way.
At this time Ketchikan could hardly be called a town. Although it has since become the metropolis of Alaska, and the center of huge mining and fishing industries. Some of the finest and most curative hot springs in the world are located at its back doors.
After leaving the port, we passed many unsuspected deposits of the finer metals, including gold, and retired to our berths at night amid scenes of historic import where Englishman and Russian fought for the land and Russia eventually sold to America "for a song."
We got into Wrangell at 3 a.m. on the eighth day from Seattle. The Signal unloaded half her freight and a few passengers including "Soapy" Smith's agent, who was know known as "Macdonald the Scotchman."
WRANGELL was the second permanent white settlement in the territory of Alaska and had several periods of prosperity. At one time it was the port of entry for the Hudson Bay Fur Co.
At another time it was a military and trading center for the Russians, and, later still, a base of supplies for the Cassiar gold diggings. It had become know aboard our ship that I had been to Wrangell two years previously. So, as soon as the light was good. Some of the passengers asked me to show them the town. I was willing. "Macdonald" became one of the party.
As soon as we were ashore, Macdonald began talking about the relative merits of American and Canadian mining laws; he continued his discourses while we viewed the totem poles and other interesting sights. Finally he called our attention the a cheap building bearing the sign "Information Bureau."
"Here." He said, "is an information bureau maintained on American soil by the Canadian government. Prospectors can get any information, free of cost, about the gold fields."
He waved to us to enter. We followed him like a flock of sheep.
Chapter IV
THE ONLY representatives of the law in Wrangell at this time were the men at the customs house and William Fagget, the postmaster. Mr. Fagget has since become a neighbor of mine at Orillia.
In the last chapter I left myself, and some passengers, following "Soapy" Smith's agent in what he said was an "information bureau." Inside a man sat at a table with a few old magazines and papers on it. There was no other furniture besides the table and the one chair.
When we entered Macdonald addressed that man saying: "I've brought a few friends to get some of those maps."
The man rose to his feet and remarked: "You'll have to excuse me for a few minutes, I have given out the last maps and I'll have to go to headquarters for more."
Within two minutes, another party came in and inquired for maps. Macdonald told him the clerk had gone for some more.
"I'm on my way home form the Klondike and want some maps for my friends outside." said the newcomer. "You fellows going in?...If there is anything I can tell you, Just ask questions."
Some ventured a few questions but the newcomer, to head off a disclosure of his ignorance, began a narrative of his adventures, telling how he had sold his mine and how he has lost part of his money in Dawson in a simple card game which he proceeded to illustrate. While he was completing his illustration, Mcdonald placed a conspicuous mark on the cards. When the demonstration was over the newcomer offered anyone $100 to pick the "luck card," which everyone proceeded to do. In the meantime the room had become crowded with men. The table was between me and the open door.
UP UNTIL now I had remained an idle spectator. When the man who had turned the "luck card" picked up the $100 the operator asked him to wait a moment and show that he had $100 of his own in case he had lost. Everyone in the room made an attempt to get at his money belt.
At this juncture I fathomed the situation and ducked down and ran around to the door. I grabbed my partner and pulled him thru the doorway without a word.
At this instant there was a free grab by all for all the money in sight. The man at the table when we went in was "Soapy" himself. He was a very ordinary looking man small of stature and unnoticeable for anything except his eyes, which were those of an eagle.
WITH our money safe, we boarded the "Signal" again and floated northward, admiring the scenery, glistening glaciers and huge icebergs. Near evening on the 10 day out from Seattle we reached Skagway, the city of tents and fond dreams.
I remained at the dock and checked out our goods, while they were being unloaded form the ship. The other members of the party took a trip uptown, which was more than a mile distant from the dock.
We finished unloading and checking at 8 p.m. My partners returned to the dock with the information that the trail up the pass was bare of snow for about seven miles, and that they had employed teams to haul our five-ton outfit up to the snow line. Where we could operate our bobsleds.
Skagway temperatures were about 40 degrees midday and about 25 degrees at sunrise, so, to take advantage of the night frosts, we arranged to leave the dock at 5:30 a.m.
EARLY the next morning we got underway on the long trail. After passing thru Skagway, the trail went onto the river ice in places. At one of these spots as the largest sled was passing the ice broke and the sled and its cargo sank to the gravel bed below.
Among other things on this sled was a case of goods weighing 2500 pounds. On this, partly to brace and hold it was Mr. Graham. When the ice broke the sled skidded and rolled on its side dumping the entire load into the river including Mr. Graham. Who landed on the river bed in a sitting posture. The case landing squarely on his lap.
Chapter V
FORTUNATELY for Mr. Graham, he was carrying a heavy rifle when the sled crashed thru the river ice and pinned him under it. The rifle muzzle jammed in a crevice in the bed of the stream and supported part of the weight of the heavy sled until we could come to his rescue. Neither Mr. Graham nor the goods suffered any serious damage.
Later on the trail, our teamsters met with another mishap, with different results. I will tell about that in a later chapter.
At snowline we found the river valley so narrowed that there was no room for the trail along side the stream. On account of a waterfall, the river was not frozen over, so it became necessary to blast a trail along the cliff to let us pass.
By packing and sledding we finally reached timberline at the forks of the river in six days of hard trail work.
IT WAS about eighth miles from timberline above Skagway to the summit, and about 13 miles from the summit down to timberline on the other side. We planned to move all of our goods to the summit before breaking camp and them move the same down to timberline on the other side.
At breakfast the day that we made the first trip to the summit it was proposed that we carry along our mufflers to protect us from frost in the high altitudes, but Mr., Graham was proud of his manhood and though himself frost-proof. He said he didn't want to disguise himself with a piece of silk.
On the south side of the summit it seemed quite warm, and we found it best to tie our coats to the sled, but on reaching the top at 1 p.m., we faced a north wind form the interior and were glad to don our coats without delay. As soon as we could cache our good, we hurried to shelter on the south side of the pass. About a mile south of the summit the trail divided, making a double road, one for ascending prospectors, one for descending.
On the descending trail we found very good coasting. Making the five miles in 15 minutes.
On a part of this five mile descent our sleds were over 20 feet below the surface and part of the time several feet above the surface of the snow.
AT SUPPERTIME we noticed that Mr. Graham was very quiet, and that the next morning he had nothing to say. But a few days later his face looked like a molting hen, or a scabby sheep. He wished he'd worn his muffler.
After getting all our goods to the summit for checking by the customs officer we loaded our camp equipment expecting to stop for long enough for checking and paying duty and then keep on down to timberline.
But when I presented my papers that the customs office had okehed down at Victoria they were refused, and I was told to go back to Skagway and have them corrected.
I asked the officer in charge if he would make the correction and he replied that he was too busy. "Come round tomorrow at 10 and I'll see what I can do." He offered.
I conferred with the other members of the party and we decided to pitch camp on the summit so Mr. Alford and I made camp and the others went back to timberline on the American side and got a load of wood.
The next morning at the appointed time, I called at the customs office. The officer in charge crossed out one word on my papers and inserted another in its place and said: "Ten dollars, please!" He receipted the papers and we paid the duty in addition to the "special fee" -in other words graft.
IMMEDIATELY north of the summit of White Pass there is a lake-Summit lake. It is six miles long and the trail led directly across it. It was covered with heavy ice, which in turn was covered with six feet of settled snow.
Before freight could be moved over the lake it was necessary to make many trips over with snowshoes and then several trips with empty sleds. After this preparation the snow became so packed that it would hold the weight of a man with a loaded sled.
There were many large outfits awaiting transportation. Some had teams of houses and double sled. While they came on the trail there were no turning-out places. The handsledders were crowded out into the packed snow, much to their chagrin.
The third day we were on this section of the trail, there came a south wind and we proceeded to rig a sail on our sleds. With this aid we got underway with a double portion of freight for a load (700). We sped along at five miles per hour and when we met a team the horses did not wait for an argument, but immediately got out of the way and went headlong thru the now to the ice below.
Chapter VI
IT WAS not long until the trail over the pass was wide enough for all. Our fist camp north of the pass was on Middle lake, about a half mile from shore on the ice.
We placed two short logs on the ice, after shoveling away the snow, and placed our stove on the logs to keep it from settling as the heat melted the ice. After the first day the cook had to wear rubber boots while cooking as he had to stand in a puddle of water. The puddle increased in depth each day and became more than a food deep before we moved camp again.
We had a separate tent to sleep in and this remained dry, as there was not enough radiating hear from our bodies to melt the ice. While we were camped on Middle lake Mr. Alford became slightly ill, and remained at camp a couple of days. During the second day he though he felt enough better to gather a little firewood. So taking his hand ax he went to where some dead trees were standing thinking they would make good fuel.
In his effort to climb a little high he took hold of what he thought was a bush. In doing so he broke the snow crust and found himself falling down, down, down.
What he had thought to be a bush, proved to be the top of a spruce tree 75 feet tall that had been buried in a snowdrift.
THE spruce timber in this part of the country is limbed within a few feet of the ground. Alvord was able to climb up the tree again to the top of the snowdrift, and by careful maneuvering he got out onto the uninjured crust, and back to camp. But he came back without the fuel, and without his ax.
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A business associate of mine used the other pass -the Chilkoot, and as it was to our mutual advantage to get into tough with each other I selected this time to make an effort to locate him. His name was Marshall and he had left Seattle more than two weeks ahead of our party and was much further along the trail.
I took a sleeping bag and a change of footwear and three days' rations -about 36 pounds- on my back and started out for the other trail. About an hour after starting a very strong wind began to blow. It filled the air with snow and soon obliterated the trail, but there were enough travelers to help me keep my bearings so I did not get lost. Fortunately, Marshall had business that day and that caused him to take a back-trail and we met face to face. We transacted our business and I made my way back to camp, arriving late and having made more than 35 miles under adverse conditions. |
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ON THE divide between Middle lake and Lake Linderman, and near the latter, I noticed some strange appearing protuberances from some spruce saplings. Investigated and found that some prospector in the rush of the previous fall had gotten this far on this way to Dawson and could get no farther in the blizzard.
So he had bent the sappeling to the ground, tied his goods to them and then released the saplings. They sprang upright and carried his goods about 20 feet above the ground out of reach of dogs and wolves.
Another prospector, who got no further than the summit in the same rush, saved his good by placing them in a shallow cave in a cliff and covering them with rocks. Snow soon blanked them 15 feet deep. I saw the owner of this cash, Barswell, in Seattle, uncover his good, finding everything okeh.
WE MADE our next camp near Lake Linderman. We had been camping on snow and ice so long that we thought we'd try to make this camp on the ground. We speculated a place that looked to be a level nook, with sheltering banks on three sides, but open toward the trail and lake.
We began shoveling away the snow and continued, all hands shoveling as long as we could to throw the snow out of the hole. Then two men went on top and pressed the snow back while three continued to shovel form the bottom.
When the hole became so deep that two relays could no longer throw the snow clear of the whole one man went up still further to pass the snow away.
We thus contended as long as three relays could throw out the snow. But presently even three could make no further progress. We gave up the effort and pitched our sleeping tent in the hole and slept on the snow as usual. Pitching the kitchen tent on top
Chapter VII
THE TRAIL from Lake Linderman to Lake Bennett follows the water course, crossing and recrossing the stream several times. The stream, as we went along it, was partly open and partly frozen.
One of the ice-bridges over the stream was pre-empted by a get-rich-quick person who destroyed the ice-span and built a wooden one and began to charge tolls. He was rolling in the cash in a steady stream until someone reported him to the northwest mounted police. They sent two officers to investigate and led him away a prisoner.
When we reached Lake Bennett, we began looking for a suitable place to construct our boat for the long hard trip down the Yukon.
Lake Bennet is 26 miles long and nearly three miles wide. At that time it was fringed with spruce timber. The trail followed the eastern shore, which had a timber belt about 100 yards wide in most places. We found a location about half way down the lake.
I WENT to the Canadian commissioner's office and secured a license to cut timber for boat construction. I paid $10 dollars for it. Then we found a pit already built by my friend Marshall that we used for sawing our lumber.
We found that two men operating a whipsaw would sat 150 feet of timber in 10 hours. We operated two saws and it required a week to cut the logs and saw the lumber necessary for the boat.
It was 42 miles from Skagway to where we built our boat and it took us 42 days to transport our outfit, weighing five tons. We had the assistance of horses for about eight miles; the balance of the trip was made by man power at a rate of a mile a day.
While we were building our boat the eastern shore of the lake was one vast shipyard, 26 miles long, operated by 40,000 men.
When we had all finished, there was not a single tree left standing that was suitable for lumber. Thirty days from the time we started building the ice broke and we could start our river voyage. But we had several days of anxious waiting for the ice to go out.
The ice on the lakes at the head of the Yukon is oftentimes five feet thick, but this year it was only 26 inches deep. While we were waiting for the break we heard a crier calling: "Two men drowned, and a large reward offered for recovery of the bodies."
Where the boundary line between British Columbia and the northwest territory of Canada crossed Lake Bennett there was-and is-an Island. The lake narrows to about a quarter of a mile, and the wind draws thru there with great force. The ice melted faster there than on other parts of the lake.
There had been a light flurry of snow, which obscured the condition of the ice. A dog team with some light express and three men was hurrying down the lake and in the narrows they struck weak ice and went thru. The dogs and two men were drowned.
We went to investigate, but by the time we reached the place of the tragedy, the bodies had been recovered.
We attended the funeral two days later and when we looked at the remains we identified them as those of the teamsters who had hauled our outfits from the dock at Skagway to snowline on the trail.
WHEN the lake cleared of ice we had a great launching day. If the boats had been suitably placed they would have made a great pontoon bridge from one end of the lake to the other. They were of all sizes and descriptions. From one man skiffs, to steamers of 100 tons capacity.
Several photographers took pictures of our boats and we ordered several copies, but never received them.
There was a lone missionary going to Dawson, who built his skiff near us. We offered him passage with us but he said he preferred to be independent. Nails ran short in the shipyard. Some were offered at 75 cents a pound, but some of the rushers refused to pay the price.
Chapter VIII and IX are missing
Chapter X
PRICES at Dawson were unbelievable. I paid 75 cents for a cake of Magic yeast. I was offered $60 for a five-pound tub of butter.
I had a little business matter to attend to with a judge of the superior court of Spokane, who happened to be in Dawson. On making inquiry where he could be found, I was referred to a saloon. I called there and found the judge sitting at a table reading. I got his attention and beckoned him out.
When we met on the street he apologized for loafing in a saloon, but said that there was no place under cover, except his room and the bar room where he could find a table for a little writing or reading. When a man would do any business with a boat owner on the river front, he did not ask if the might use the intervening boats as a thorofare, but went right ahead over them, night or day.
The only water in Dawson good for drinking was from a spring back of the town. It sold for 35 cents a gallon.
We transacted all of our Dawson business in one day. But while there I called on my friend Marshall and saw a poke of god dust worth $1500, that he had received in exchange for 300 lbs of food stuffs. His brother showed me a can with $10,000 worth of dust that he had been paid for labor during the winter just past. I visited several cabins and found the golden dust in evidence everywhere. It was as conspicuous as bread in a bakeshop.
STOCKS of good for the merchants came in mainly by boat from down river, but these had not arrived yet and the merchants were getting their stocks by way of the trail. Most of the business seemed to be being done by the prospectors who were parting with a portion of their supplies in exchange for the yellow metal.
There had been a very great food shortage during the winter and all of the miners were eager to buy a little food at any price. But they were delaying purchasing for their future needs until the boats arrived. They soon appeared with goods enough to supply a fair-sized army. There was a continuous stream of pack trains between town and the creeks, bringing gold dust and taking out supplies. The miners worked the creeks form eight to 20 miles out. There was no night in the Yukon valley at this time of the year. One suited himself about sleeping, taking any eight hours that suited him best.
Dawson had no pavements and sidewalks in the main consisted of one or two planks, laid lengthwise. The street on the river front, where the drainage was good was fairly passable, but on the other streets a foot man would sink to his shoe tops in mud if he stepped off the walks.
THERE was no sand or gravel near the top at Dawson, just mud. The sand and gravel where the gold was found were 100 feet below the surface. The whole mass was saturated with water during the summer and could not be worked.
In the winter the whole mass froze solid and was worked by thawing a little at t time with wood fires. The pay dirt was put in piles, which froze as soon as it reached the surface and would remain until summer, when it was thawed by the sun and put in a sluice box with running water and the gold separated.
This process was called "the clean up" It often yielded as much as $100,00 in a few days for the best mines; in some of the others the yield was less than the expense.
It was with misgiving that we left such scenes for other locations, the reports of whose riches were as yet unverified.
But Marshal and myself were given an inside tip on some ground on which others were paying fabulous fees to be located. This was in the foothills of the Endicott range at the headwaters of the Koyukuk river.
WE LEFT Dawson June 10, stopped at Circle City and called at the customs office to get our refund of duties paid the Canadian government on our goods. Circle City camp was the best camp on the Yukon before the strikes near Dawson.
Circle got its name from the fact that it was thought to lie on the Artic Circle. The midnight sun was visible from water level all right, but as a matter of fact, Circle is 30 miles from the Artic line. There is a reason for the discrepancy, but I have not space to explain it.
From a few miles above to 75 miles below Circle the Yukon is from 10 to 30 miles wide and divided into many channels. The main channel changes from one course to another almost daily, which makes this part of the river difficult to navigate.
Chapter XI
AFTER passing the flats mentioned in the last chapter, the Yukon becomes grand and broad stream easy to navigate. From here to the mouth of the Koyukuk we traveled day and night taking turns at the oars.
We reached the mouth of the Koyukuk June 20 to find it in flood stage, with water four feet above the banks.
The current was so strong that we were able to make only half a mile an hour headway with the oars. However whenever the wind blows at this season it blows up stream and later we made for miles an hour for a few hours with the help of sails.
Traveling upstream we worked 10 hours a day and had a regular schedule. For the first four days we tied up to a willow bank at camp for the night, as there was no land above water, but the fifth day the flood had so far subsided that we were able to go ashore and, by wading in mud a foot deep, to reach dead spruce and replenish our fuel.
IN A SHORT time the river became shallow enough to allow us to reach the bottom with our poles instead of oars, making about 20 miles a day.
There had never been any survey made of the Koyukuk country and our maps were not of much use. I had to depend on such crude instruments of navigation as I could carry on an expedition of this kind.
Where the Artic circle crosses the Koyukuk a Unites States reconnaissance survey party had left its markers, so we checked up at this point. We found that we were only four miles our off our reckoning.
In some mysterious manner it became noised abroad that Smith and Marshal were headed for the Endicott range on a proposition were four men had taken out $35,000 in six weeks time with only prospectors equipment. So a stampede was precipitated and people came chasing after us.
MANY of the stampeders came in small boats but there were 56 steamers ranging in size form 30 feet to boats of 200 and 300 tons. We were the first, however to reach the spot designated on the sketch given us.
Hundreds followed us, asking "Where are Smith and Marshal?"
There was an Indian camp located a few miles from the supposed gold find and we made diligent inquiry of the redmen, but found there had been no white men on the upper river for 10 years.
But--10 years before there had been quite a stampede to the river and some gold had been taken out at Texas bar, opposite Red mountain and also at a bar on the north fork of the Koyukuk.
We decided to make as complete a check as possible before changing our plans.
MARSHAL and I took a small outfit and went into the hills and made a complete check from the sketch but found no trace of any workings. But we did find some very fine gold on the surface and down about six feet, but from there on to bedrock we found nothing. We became fully convinced we had been "buncoed"
When we returned to camp we found everyone in a state of suppressed excitement and heard many insinuations. There were sly glances and some talk of a lynching party. Those who had paid in fee in advance were wise enough to know that the parties responsible for the situation were many miles away. Enjoying the spoils without fear of molestation.
We had worked, mostly by hand power, 700 miles up a turbulent stream and were now 1800 miles from Dawson. It was September, with the first signs of winter already in evidence. Some of the outfits were badly depleted and damaged form exposure.
FISH and bear meat was plentiful, berries were to be had with much labor. There were a few land birds and numerous ducks. The rushers made a complete survey of the situation'; some decided to make a thoro test of the country while they were in it.
Others decided to go out before the river froze. Among these was Mr. Werner, mentioned in Chapter 2 in connection with our departure from Seattle. Werner came to me and explained that his supplies were about gone, and that he had little cash, but not enough to pay his fare home. He said he meant to try and work his way back to Dawson. He had mortgaged his home to pay for his outfit and his trip north.
"I don't know what will become of me." He said to me, and give me a letter for his family, should the worst happen.
Chapter XII
I ASSURED Mr. Werner I'd be glad to be of service to him. So he went into the woods alone and was gone about an hour. And returned with a letter and handed it to me without a word. He wore the expression of one doomed. He turned slowly and walked back into the woods. I never saw him again.
There was a party downstream talking of going down the river. I presumed Mr. Werner was connected with these men. Later when I returned to Seattle, I went to the Werner home and gave Mrs. Werner a brief account of all that had occurred and delivered the letter.
Mrs. Werner made no comment, other than to state that she had received no word from her husband.
THE KOYUKUK stampeders now scattered. Some went up the north fork and found pay dirt at the dept of 140 feet. The first hole cost several thousand dollars to thaw and dig. Other stampeders including my party continued up the west fork. Still others went down the river.
Those of us who went up the west fork located a bunch of claims and proceeded to build a permanent camp of log houses. We named it Beaver City.
After completing the log houses the stampeders built a table on the common in front of the camp and held a banquet in honor of the occasion.
The first job was to go to the river and catch salmon. These quickly froze and remained fresh and wholesome all winter. Numerous ducks were shot for food and also a few bear.
After preparing for winter the several parties that had located claims joined forces to prospect them. The hole sunk by my party was 73 feet deep. The first six feet showed some very fine gold, but from there, down to bedrock there was not a trace of metal.
During the short days of winter when the sun was below the horizon, the thermometer dropped to 76 below for several days and touched -80 one day.
About this time scurvy broke out in camp. It soon became evident that there would be several deaths if relief was not secured.
It was learned that there was a small stock of raw potatoes in Artic City 130 miles to the southeast. So a dog team was dispatched for them while the thermometer ranged around 70 below,
The team made the trip safely and within three days of the arrival of the potatoes, the worst case of scurvy had so far recovered that he was able to leave his bed and join the family circle at the dining table.
NOW BEGAN the long time of waiting for the return of the sun and the break-up of the ice. That would mean the opening of the prison doors and permit the disappointed prospectors again to become part of the outer world.
Many a wife and mother waited "outside" in cramped circumstances for the return of the bread winner and home-protector.
During the latter part of May 1899 rumblings as distant thunder became audible and increased form day to day. Finally water began to appear on the ice. Then the ice-sheet began to move and the thunder-like roar increased to such proportions that voices could not be heard.
Everyone was over come with awe. We could do nothing but watch one of the greatest forces in nature at work
The ice that was now speeding its way to the ocean was nine feet thick.
A few pictures were taken. Boats were loaded and friends told good-bye. We were off for home.
Two weeks of drifting and rowing down the west fork, Koyukuk and Yukon, brought us to St. Michaels and then the steamer for home!
The End.
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