Trailing and camping in Alaska

Introduction

Hiyu Skookumf

That is the Alaska Indian's expression for the incomparable, and it is here used because the white tourist will borrow the exclamation when he stands amidst the largest group of high mountains on the globe — where flowers bloom beside the most wonderful glaciers ever seen by man; when he looks upward at the perpendicular precipice of Mount Sanford's southern face, a mile straight above, where eagles flying in front of their nests resemble sparrows; when he watches the spiral smoke and steam of Unaletta's volcano; or when he gazes at the rainbow-colored waterfalls that descend, apparently, from the heavens.

This narrative was written by a follower of the trail, when there was one to follow, and not by a follower of a Longfellow, a Cooper or a Stevenson. It is told in the simple language of the trailers, and unnecessarily long words or elaborate descriptions have been avoided. In fact, many incidents which were commonplace to the author, but which might have proved interesting and unusual to the reader, have been curtailed or withheld in order not to interfere with the general character, or to become tedious by their added length.

Introduction

Hiyu Skookum!

The mining man, also, will utter it to express his wonder when looking upon the most extensive mineral deposits that nature has ever disclosed to view; when watching the working of the greatest goldquartz mine in the world; when realizing that if all other copper and tin mines were closed down, Alaska alone could supply the demand; and that her infantile existence, thus far, has been signalized by the production of three hundred million dollars in value.

The statesmen of the future will repeat it when Alaska is acknowledged to be richer in mineral wealth than all the states of the American Union put together; when it shall supply the whole of the United States with paper from its spruce forests, and fish from its waters; and when they appreciate its marvelous development since Secretary Seward was ridiculed for " buying an ice box."

The naturalist will exclaim " Hiyu Skookum ! " when he beholds the prodigious growth of its vegetation, or the bones of those gigantic animals which once wandered through its forests when the earth was younger, the crust thinner and the climate warmer. The reader is invited to come with me, in his imagination, and camp amidst scenes which words can but partly describe, and when he visits Alaska in person, he, too, will exclaim " Hiyu Skookum! "

Chapter VIII

A Trip to Skagway — A Snoring Medley — Interviewing an Old-timer — His Love for His Dog — Ridding the Town of the " Soapy Smith Gang " — The Murder of Bert Horten and Wife .. . 108

Chapter XVI

The Doctor and his Porcupine — One Source of Two Rivers — Killing Two Bears and a Caribou — By Slate Creek to the Source of the Tanana — Crossing the Captain West Mud-glaciers — Killing Two Mountain Sheep 199

Chapter XVII

A Grizzly Bear and a Foot-race — Exploring on the Nabezna River — A Lonely Grave and Its History — The Suslota Indians — The Return to the Coast — Buying a Skeleton of a Horse . . . 212

CHAPTER XXIX A Detective — Some Statistics — Down to California

The End of the Trail 369

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mt. Wrangell Frontispiece

Valdez facing page 21

"Little Dog Pete" 27

Reflection in Valdez Bay 32

A Glacier Crevasse 38

Horses Swimming Copper River 50

Mt. Drum (seen through telescope) 56

Fording a Dangerous Glacier Stream 62

The Banks of the Copper River 77

Juneau 100

Skagway 108

Sitka, Indian Avenue, Greek Church 130

Totem Poles at Wrangell 134

Keystone Canyon 144

A Lake Scene 159

Among the Mountains of the Alaskan Range 164

Valdez, As We Left It 182

Eselota and His Family 218

Pack-Train Crossing on a Pole-Bridge 226

Alaskan Caribou Swimming 233

Camping in Copper River Valley 242

The Dangerous Ice-Field 251

The "Bonanza" Copper Deposit 263

Copper Nugget on Nugget Creek 265

Skin of Alaskan Grizzly 270

An Indian Pack-Train 300

James Germansen 318

Camp Comfort Roadhouse 327

Telling Camp-Fire Stories 340

Greenville Channel 365

Chapter I

He has not lived in vain who has caused a smile to blossom on the face of another.

It was partly because of that favorite motto of mine that this narrative, which is descriptive of ten years spent in exploring, hunting and prospecting in Alaska, has been written. Looking backward, across that interval, for beginnings, recalls an incident that occurred in San Francisco in February, 1898. One day during my stay there, I was accosted by John D. Ackerman, who was, at that time, Chief Clerk in the United States Surveyors' office, and who offered me an opportunity that was, indeed, as agreeable as it was flattering.

" You're the very fellow I want to see. A man who is going to Alaska was in here this morning and asked me to recommend a Deputy United States Surveyor to go north with him. He proposes to bear all expenses, but he requires a man who is accustomed to roughing it and who is capable of frontiering it alone, if necessary. I told him that you were in the city, and that I would ask you to call on him at the International Hotel."

" Who is this man? " I inquired.

" He is Captain I. N. West, who has been a prospector and quasi-explorer. He spent three years in South America, and two in Alaska. One year he was in the Shusitna River country, and the other year was spent in the Copper River region. He claims he found a great deposit of gold and now is returning for it."

" When was he in that country? "

" I believe it was some time in the eighties. "

"Well, it sounds rather fakish to me, but I shall call upon him this evening; that is one of those trips, you know, from which the best of us might never return."

I called on Professor Davidson of the State University, and from him obtained Lieutenant Allen's report of his trip through that country, because I desired to be prepared for false information, if this I. N. West should be inclined to give it. I confess I entertained doubts that any white man except Allen had ever been through that region.

At seven p. M. I called at his hotel and found him waiting for me. Upon entering his room he requested some gentlemen to retire, as he said he had important business with me. He then closed and locked the door and moved a small table over to the back part of the room, and spread a blue print upon it. Before he proceeded with the subject, he desired to know, in the event of my rejecting his offer, if I would agree not to announce his secret for a limited time. He inquired also whether I ever had been bewildered ; what I would take with me on such a trip ; the kinds of guns and ammunition, and even what kind of matches I would take along.

During our talk I observed that he was a man of strong features and mentally pronounced him to be the one man among a thousand who would dare to undertake such a trip as he claimed to have made. He was more than six foot tall and gave his age as seventy-two years. He said he desired to locate some placer ground which he wished to have surveyed for patent, so that his family would be benefited thereby, as he expected never to return to that fabulously rich eldorado. He said :

" Once I cleared eighty thousand dollars in the Black Hills country. I let my family have all but ten thousand, which I spent while looking for another rich placer deposit, and at the very last I found enough gold for all of us. Although it was far away in the wilds of Alaska, I have worked for years with the constant expectation of returning to it some day. I have endeavored vainly to get financial aid, but the word Alaska has scared them away.

" I failed to find what I was looking for, in South America. When I started for the Copper River country, I engaged nine Yakutat Indians to accompany me. One had been in that country, and could talk the Indian language of that region, and he could talk very good English. We skirted the coast until we arrived at a point about half-way between Malispina and Behring glaciers. From there we packed up the steep mountain range, crossed glaciers and descended a creek the Indians called Tana, meaning Trail, River. This emptied into the Chitina (Copper River) and it contained some placer gold, but owing to the glacier floods it is doubtful if it could be worked profitably.

" As rapidly as the stock of provisions was consumed, I would send two Indians back. I continued to do this until there was but one, my interpreter, with me. We ascended a river called the Chitistone (Copper Rock) and went through a pass, south of Mt. Wrangell, over to the head of White River, crossing to the head of the Tanana, and finally to the head of the Ahtna, or the river now known as the Copper River.

" At the southeast end of the Suslota Mountains, on the Tanana side, is where I tell my men that I have found the gold. Some old glacier moraines, which I call mud-glaciers, are there. You see I am compelled to tell them something, and if I should tell them the exact place, they would mutiny, and either go ahead or send some of their friends to beat me to it ; so it is necessary that I guard against such trouble.

" We lived on sheep meat and wild parsnip-root, until we arrived at Suslota Lake, and there we obtained all the dried salmon we could carry; after this we had fresh salmon nearly all the time.

" We descended the outlet of the Suslota to the Slahna River, and there got a boat from some Indians and drifted down to a grassy plot where there was an old Indian village, about three miles from the Copper River."

11 The maps mark the outlet of the Suslota as emptying into the Copper River and not the Slahna," I said.

11 There are no correct maps of that country, and Allen might have assumed it did that, but I say it empties into the Slahna about eight miles up from the mouth. Now, if you must wait for an appointment for Alaska, as you say, and should come later with a horse, I want you to come direct to this old abandoned Indian town. You'll find horse feed there, and I shall come down there every two weeks and pilot you to the discovery. I shall blaze a Cottonwood tree, facing and in sight of the old Indian wickiups, and shall write my name there, and at the foot I shall bury a little can in which there will be a note.

11 Well, we descended the Copper as far as the Chistochina River. There I discovered fine gold coming down that river, so we hid our raft in the brush, and spent two weeks up at the source. Now,

I will say that there is some placer up there somewhere, and I am going to leave my men in there to find it."

The peculiar emphasis with which he said this, together with the twinkle of his eye, caused me to wonder if his discovery were not on the head waters of the Chistochina.

" We returned as far as the Klutina River. From there we ascended to a lake which is about twenty miles long. Of course, there is no lake marked on the maps, but it is there, all the same. On the west side of this lake I am going to attempt to ascend a creek that leads over towards the Chistochina. I believe I can get through that way. From that lake we crossed the glacier over to Valdez Bay. We hoped to find a trading post there, but there was none, and we built a raft and floated with the tide, about twenty-five miles, to where we arrived at an Indian town. We were taken from here in hidarkies to Nutchek. The Jeanie soon arrived there on her return from a whaling cruise, and on it I returned to San Francisco.

" Now, let me tell you something about the discovery. The Indian found the first nugget, which he picked up with his hand. I then washed out considerable gold with my pan. I had to take it down nearly a quarter of a mile to where there was a little water at the junction of another creek. We found, on the mountain-side, a very rich pocket, and the Indian carried the gravel down in a sack. I continued to wash until I had panned out about six hundred dollars. The only thing that bothers me is the scarcity of water, but of course that is more plentiful in summer-time, as it was very late in the fall when we were there. Gold ! Why, man — come up there and I'll pay you, not only for your trouble, but you shall have an interest with me, for there is gold enough for all of us."

" What direction did the drainage run from that mountain?" I asked.

11 The gulch draining the hillside where we found the gold, ran southeasternly and emptied into a creek that ran westward. Now, what do you say to the proposition? "

To this I answered:

11 To-morrow I shall bring a friend with me by the name of Stephens. I want you to meet him, so that you can leave any word with him for me when up at Valdez Bay. I shall see him off on the next boat with my outfit, except my horse. I shall write my application to be appointed Deputy Mineral Surveyor for Alaska, for the purpose of surveying out some mining claims of I. N. West. That will be sent off to-morrow. I shall be in Valdez in June, and shall attempt to cross over into the Copper River valley with ' the military expedition that is going in there."

I wired for Stephens, sent up my application, and, within a week, I saw all hands off on the same boat. Sherman Stephens wanted adventure and so did I. Two months later, I was on my way to join the goldseeking throng that was rushing northward, and I lingered for a few days in San Francisco before making the final plunge. While there the cry of a newsboy attracted my attention and I heard him say:

11 Total loss ! The Helen W. Alma goes down with forty souls! "

This old boat had been chartered to go to Valdez, Alaska, but when it struck the heavy seaswells it broke up, and all on board were lost. The only sign of the ship that the sea ever gave up was some rotten driftwood that floated on the surface.

This was the significant beginning of a life where the loss of one's comrades, I afterwards learned, would be a common occurrence. About every old sea relic had been put into commission to accommodate the northward rush. A short time after this, the Jane Falkenburg was abandoned on the coast of Behring Sea; the Jane Gray broke up in mid-ocean and many lives were lost ; and the Mermaid, another old sea-coffin, was wrecked on the coast of Vancouver Island.

I traveled a thousand miles overland to Seattle, the metropolis of the northwest. Never again will that city be filled with such a mongrel lot of transients. They hailed from everywhere and were dressed in all sorts of clothes. What the merchants advised them to buy for their northern trip was purchased without question. They bought furs and striped and variegated mackinaw clothing, and proud of their purchases, paraded the streets in most fantastic costumes.

I attempted to demonstrate that " a fool and his money are soon parted " by purchasing a cigar and burning some of mine. I invited a short, pumpkinseed-shaped man to have one also. He had no legs to speak of, that is, they only had sprouted and then had evidently become discouraged and stopped growing. He said:

" How mad it does make me to have one of those gold-crazed idiots ask to what part of the North I am going! Why, I came near whipping a fellow yesterday who asked me that question. I tell you," and his neck began to swell, as he pounded his left hand with the clenched fist of the other, " I am going to remain right here, for no other purpose but to see the disappointed expression on the faces of those fooled fellows when they return from the North. That is what / am going to do ! "

I walked over to a friend who was going North and said:

" I have discovered a curiosity and want you to examine it."

" Is it an animal? " he asked.

II Yes. Do you see that stump of a human with his hat drawn down near to his boot tops and smoke puffing from under it?"

"Yes."

" Well, you will do me a favor if you will talk with him until you can find out to which part of the North he is going. You see, he is trying to keep it a secret, by pretending that he is not going North, but you can explain that you heard that he positively was going. You should be able to worm it out of so short a sawed-off block as that."

11 I'll just enter the ring for one round, for your sake," he answered, and he approached the man.

They appeared to talk very earnestly for a while, then again I noticed the swelling of the little fellow's neck and he began to pound his left hand, and I heard him say:

" I have told you three times that I am not going North, and by "

I had turned away, and failed to hear any more. Presently my friend came by me and as he did so he muttered:

"rilbedurned!"

He acted, after that incident, as if he thought I was trying to get him into trouble. It was several hours before I ventured to ask him what luck he had had in getting information from the man who lived so near mother earth, and then he replied:

" Do you suppose that I am such an idiot as to want the reputation of being whipped by that little sawed-off block of insolence whose excuse for living cannot be seen below his hip-pockets? "

I said: "It is remarkable that a man in Seattle should openly deny that he cared to go North. Would you believe that I could shoot in any direction without hitting a man who intends to go to Alaska or to the Klondike?"

" Are you going to shoot? "

" No, I was only using the expression in a comparative way."

" I guess if you should let fly into that crowd across the street, you probably would wing a dozen of them."

And I walked over to the crowd to see the attraction. It proved to be one of the many patented devices for " saving " gold, for sale in nearly every block in town, and finding ready purchasers. Experienced miners walked up, peeped at the machine, smiled and then walked away. There was one young man, however, who had made himself conspicuous by loading an express wagon down with rockers, plates, etc. My companion, who had been a life-long prospector, volunteered some information, saying:

" My dear sir, you must have a mine already discovered?"

" No," he replied, " I have never been in a mining country in my life."

" Then wouldn't it be advisable first to secure a mine to work, before making such extensive purchases ?" was asked.

" Now, see here, old fellow, do you think I'm fool enough to be going North for fun? Do I look like it? I will tell you, right now, sir, I'm going to have a mine before I am in Alaska six weeks."

" I sincerely hope you will, but are you not aware that an ordinary sluice-box is all that a miner needs for washing out placer gold?"

" Very well, please tell me what a sluice-box looks like, and where I can get one, and I will buy that, too."

The foolish fellow was buying everything any one suggested, and knew no more about mining than did his shadow. There were hundreds of that particular kind going North. Seattle hotel men and merchants were reaping a harvest. Even pickpockets were doing a lucrative business, as that city had a so-called Klondike of its own. The few days spent in Seattle were amidst surging, wild-eyed stampeders, who were hopefully roofing castles in the air. Most of those visionaries returned from the North within six months, dejected, tattered and forlorn, indicating by their appearance the many hardships they had endured and their dire disappointments.

I left Seattle on May 1 2, on the steamer Valencia, with my outfit, horses and hopes. That steamer was afterwards wrecked on the coast of Vancouver, Jan.

25, 1906, with a loss of 133 lives. We glided over Puget Sound, so named after Lieutenant Puget, and landed at Nanaimo, B. C, where we spent a day, coaling. A few passengers visited the mines, while others wandered about and smelled the dogwood blossoms as large as saucers. After sailing two days along the coast of Vancouver, and other islands, we left British waters by crossing Dixon's Entrance and entering Alaska. Dixon was another English navigator whose explorations assisted the British in a contest with Russia, France and Spain for the Pacific seaboard.

We stopped at Hunter Bay, Alaska, for several days, unloading supplies at a fish cannery. Here the Indians swarmed over the boat, and peeped in at the dining-room and cushioned seats, grunting their astonishment, and clucking, snorting and spitting that gutteral language of theirs at each other. The language of the coast Siwash is a combination of Chinook, Aleut, facial grimaces and snorts. One would think it impossible to talk the conglomeration without choking, unless trained to it from infancy, but it isn't. A handsome young woman, who was teaching a mission school near by, came on board, and the fluency with which she exhibited her linguistic accomplishment in the tongue of the Siwash was astonishing. Such an attempt would have given me the lockjaw.

I saw a white squaw, who had light colored hair and blue eyes, possibly a quarter-blood, sitting in a dug-out canoe. She would not speak a word of English and deserved pity, as she had a very dark Indian for a husband and several equally dark children.

This Hunter Bay is in a more southern latitude than are the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Glasgow and Edinburg. From Hunter Bay to Point Barrow, Alaska, the distance equals that from Chicago to New Orleans. From here to Alaska's most western island is as far as across the United States from Savannah to Los Angeles. The climate of Hunter Bay is more uniform than at any place in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and its winter is warmer than that of most of the Southern States.

While here, the slow, continuous rain, so characteristic of Alaska's coast, began falling. We passengers went hunting and killed nothing. We became familiar, however, with swampy hillsides where moss held water like a sponge, and we found devil clubs and skunk cabbages. Devil clubs are a thorny exemplification of the Imp, and, if touched, will leave little needles, about the size of those of a cockleburr, to be picked out of the fingers for a week after. The skunk cabbage is a favorite food of wild geese and ducks. Occasionally a spruce hen flew among the trees, and deer beds were seen here and there, at the roots of the hemlock and spruce.

The gloomy weather impressed us with dismal forebodings, but our impressions of grandeur and sublimity were yet to come. When we left Hunter Bay, the steamer gave three long whistles that echoed from mountain to mountain, from canyon to canyon and across the smooth water.

The charm of Alaska began gradually to steal upon us. We gazed for days at the mountains and their reflections on the water. We watched the boiling wake of the ship, the ripple forming a V, the prow of our boat being the apex. The distant lines of the ripples washed the shore on both sides. One never tires looking at the scenery of an inside voyage to Alaska. It is then, if ever, one enjoys a good smoke, and is willing to share the pipe of peace with all mankind. The inside passage, as here referred to, is the route that leads behind the islands from Puget Sound to Sitka, and is away from the ocean swells.

We glided through Wrangell Narrows and past old Fort Wrangell, where the Russian Baron Ferdinand P. Von Wrangell defied the British and by the firing of cannon disputed their right to land. His long name would have been sufficient for me. I know I could never fire on a name like that. This act of his probably saved Alaska for the United States, for, if the Russian bear had been less aggressive, Canada would now hold the preponderance of North America. The dispute was finally settled in 1839.

Aggressive Englishmen show great self-reliance when traveling with authority from home. It has been said that Warren Hastings, when he went to India to collect a fine which had been levied on the Rajah, sent for the Rajah to come aboard his vessel and he came. Hastings was more fortunate in India than were the Englishmen, Derzhaven and Bernard, in Alaska. They sent for the Chief of the Koyukans to come to their camp and bring them his two daughters. This chief was unused to being sent for, but he came, declaring that " the salmon would drink blood before they returned to the sea." Yes. He came, but he introduced himself by cutting out the intestines of the over-confident Englishmen and burying their bodies on the bank of the Yukon.

Such thoughts came to us as we glided among mountains clothed with spruce forests at the foot, and their bald heads with white caps. The scenery did not change until we arrived at Sitka, on the edge of the wide ocean, then Alaska's capital. From Sitka we crossed to Prince William Sound, and for forty-eight hours our vessel rolled and pitched, and so did we, both without and within, with no land in sight except the distant tips of Mounts Fairweather and St. Elias.

A dyspeptic friend of mine on board was so sure he would be seasick that probably he had been ill with apprehension for a week before he had embarked on this voyage. He retired to a room that the purser had assigned him, evidently for the purpose of being sea-sick, but it was not the room his ticket called for. I had endeavored to persuade him to go ashore at Nanaimo, at Hunter Bay and at Sitka, but he would not, because it might interfere with his expected sea-sickness.

He and the purser were almost mortal enemies. He stubbornly demanded the room that his ticket called for, then occupied by some ladies, even if the purser threw the women overboard. He was dissatisfied with the unlucky number of the one he was then occupying, and was desperate. With a resolve to make peace, I visited this invalid, and solemnly announced that the purser was regaining his mind.

"How is that?" was asked. I had done this to excite his curiosity, and therefore continued:

" The poor fellow has become nearly insane from having fallen over a precipice of love, and fearing a relapse, his people have secured this position for him, hoping that it may assist him on the road to recovery."

" Are you positive about that? " he asked.

" Certainly. I have known him for years, and am pleased to observe that he is recovering," I answered.

11 1 was sure that something was the matter with him all the time," replied the invalid.

Then I went on deck and accosting the purser, said:

" See here, purser, that invalid friend of mine "

" Hold on there! " announced the purser, " he is no invalid! "

" Yes, my dear fellow, he is in mind. Now I will give you this information in strictest confidence. He bogged down in pure love not long since and it has so affected his mind that his people have sent him along in my charge, hoping that the change and trip would benefit him. Of course we know he should be locked up, but I hope that in time he may fully recover. I am telling you this, so that you may be prepared for any sudden turn he may take, and hope you will be as considerate with him as possible."

" Well, well! Isn't it singular, I never thought of that? " said the purser. " Why, any one could see from another ship that he was insane ! It's just as plain as day, now. Say, I am much obliged to you for that information."

There, I had gained friendship by sinfully lying, but the Good Book has blessed the peacemakers. If I could only manage to keep peace between these two, I was satisfied. The next day I visited my friend and found him really sick. To console him I told him that Longfellow had loved the sea so well he had written