USA > Alaska > Alaska and the Klondike > Part 15
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One of the features of the village is a band of twenty- one pieces, which other travellers have said plays well the national airs and other simple music. It was a matter of keen regret to the leader that nearly all his members were away fishing when we called-he would have been glad to give us a serenade. The children and many of the adults speak English, though some of them smash it up a good deal in the effort. Father Duncan met these people first on the ground of their own language, and did not insist on trying to teach them English; but the later gen- eration has made some progress in that direction.
This is only the outline of the history of this remark- able community, and it is introduced here not because it is altogether new, but because it illustrates what has been done by one devoted man working all alone and contend- ing, at times, not only with the ignorance and superstition and native savagery of these people, but with narrow ecclesiasticism and stupid statesmanship, and proves what can be done for the Indians of Alaska by well-directed effort.
I do not wish to be understood as assuming that Father Duncan is the only one who has laboured zealously for
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the uplifting of the Alaska Indian. I have already, in a previous chapter, described the work of the Jesuit Fathers at Holy Cross Mission on the Yukon, and I do not wish to underestimate the efforts made at Anvik and at St. Michael and at Sitka and many other missionary stations along the Yukon, on the Seward Peninsula and elsewhere, but I am sure that nowhere have the results proven more satisfactory than those accomplished at Metlakahtla.
And yet all that has been done at Metlakahtla ought to be done with less effort almost anywhere else in Alaska, because these Tsimsheans whom Father Duncan has civ- ilised were originally the most unpromising of all the ยท natives of northwest America. The Alaska Indian, as a rule-and this applies to all the different families or groups-is an inoffensive, tractable, lavishly hospitable, honest, simple-minded fellow, who suffers from poverty and often from imposition by the white man, to whom he is yet ever ready to render kindness when called upon to do so. The prospector and the scientific explorer and the mail-carrier will testify to his honesty and the gen- erosity with which he receives the cold and suffering trav- eller into his hut and yields to him the warmth and shelter and food which have saved many lives.
Judge Mckenzie, who lives up at Coldfoot, on the upper Koyukuk, nearly 100 miles beyond the Arctic Circle, told me at Rampart of an incident which illustrates the disposition of the Alaska Indian. A poor old Kobuck known as Peter saw a cartoon of Uncle Sam hanging in a store at Coldfoot, in which Uncle Sam was represented
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Eskimo Boy and Young Malamute
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as barefooted. He understood that it was a picture of the Great White Father at Washington, and after looking at it intently for a long time he pointed to the naked feet and said: " No moccasins ?" " No," said the merchant, " Uncle Sam hasn't got any moccasins." Peter looked very much puzzled and distressed, but went away without further words. A few days later he came in carrying a pair of moccasins, and, holding them up, and pointing to the cartoon, said: " Moccasins; you send Uncle Sam."
The people of Alaska are not indifferent to the just claims of the Indians upon the whites. They contribute to their necessities whenever they know of the existence of want and suffering, but the Indians never complain, and their sufferings sometimes end in death because the whites are ignorant of their condition. The people of St. Michael were greatly distressed one winter to find out almost by accident that the Indians in the village near by were perishing of cold and hunger. But all such relief must come from private purses ; there are no public funds available. It is clearly the Government's duty to care for the Indians; they are not a charge upon the states or ter- ritories within the United States, and the federal Govern- ment is morally bound to take care of them in Alaska. The burden of this obligation was clearly set forth in a forcible speech by Rev. D. W. Cram before the senatorial committee at Valdez. He maintained that the Govern- ment owes the Alaska Indian: first, a living, because the changed conditions have largely deprived him of the chance to earn it himself; second, the protection of his
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personal rights, in which respect he has been most unjustly treated in many ways ; and, third, it owes him an education not only in books but in some of the simple arts by which he may improve his condition.
At Nome the committee listened to statements concern- ing the Indians by Captain J. C. Barr, of Tacoma, who has spent many years in Alaska and is one of the best in- formed men on the Indian question on the Pacific coast, and by Major J. F. A. Strong, editor of the Nome Nug- get. Captain Barr favoured the establishment of one or two reservations where the Indians might be collected and taken care of, somewhat on the reservation plan in the States. Major Strong advocated the appointment of agents who should be charged with the duty of caring for the Indians, and who should protect them from being defrauded in the sale of the product of their native handi- crafts, by which they could, if thus assisted, aid materially . in their own support. Both Captain Barr and Major . Strong condemned rigorously the restrictions laid upon the Indians by the game laws.
The Eskimo is by nature a hunter. He seeks his game on land and sea. The walrus, the whale and the seal af- forded him food and shelter before the white man drove these animals beyond his power to pursue them in his com- paratively frail oomiak. Rev. C. E. Ryberg, of Nome, who has proven his right to speak for the natives by ser- vices rendered to them, suggests as a practical measure of relief that the Government furnish for the use of the natives of the west and north coasts small steam vessels
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with which they may take whales and walrus. He claims there is experience to justify the expectation that this could be made a very profitable business for the natives, who are experts in this line, after reimbursing the Gov- ernment for its expense in equipping and sailing the ships. The whaling business is again attracting white whalers for the profit there is in it, and he argues that it would be even more profitable for the Eskimos. Whalebone is now worth $7.50 a pound, the ivory of the walrus is val- uable and $20,000 in whale oil is a moderate catch for a schooner in a single season. This looks like a practical plan to restore a native industry which once was adequate to the support of these people, but which would be revived under very much more favourable conditions than orig- inally prevailed.
If one would see the disastrous consequences of the un- restricted contact of the Indians with the whites he need go no further than the sandspit at Nome, where are en- camped during the summer Eskimos from points all along the coast and as far away as East Cape, Siberia. The Indians of Alaska are not noted for chastity under any conditions, and the conditions which exist there are about the worst in this respect, while the easy access to " fire- water " produces the results that might naturally be ex- pected.
I brought away from Alaska no more persistent and recurring impression than that of the heavy obligation resting upon the Government to do something to amel- iorate the condition of these wretched people of the north,
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who have fallen into our hands through no fault of their own, and for whom the Government has thus far done so very little.
The McCulloch arrived in Seattle harbour in the early morning of Thursday, August 27. We left there June 28, so that our trip from the sound to the Arctic and back again to Seattle had occupied just two months. The dis- tance covered from Minneapolis and back to this city aggregated a little over 10,000 miles.
From St. Michael to Seattle we travelled by the revenue cutter McCulloch, stopping at such points as the members of the senatorial committee wished to reach. The log of that splendid ship showed that we had travelled with her 3,406 miles, and just twenty-eight days. For the many courtesies received at the hands of Captain W. C. Coulson and Lieutenant F. M. Dunwoody and all the officers of the ship I am personally under heavy obligations. Captain Coulson reached the age of retirement about six weeks after our arrival at Seattle, and is now enjoying the rest and leisure he has so well earned after more than forty years of faithful and honourable service to his country. Lieutenant Dunwoody has received a well-earned promo- tion, and is now in command of another ship in the revenue service. I shall hear of his continued success and of the advancement of any of his fellows of the McCul- loch with great pleasure, as they proved themselves on that long voyage to be courteous gentlemen and capable and faithful servants of their government.
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As for the tour of the members of the senatorial com- mittee, I am sure that in time it will result in great things for Alaska. I believe they came back greatly impressed with the possibilities of that wonderful country and re- alising fully the peculiar responsibility which rests upon them to advance its interests in every way. They made serious business of their tour of investigation every day, and have the information which qualifies them to shape legislation with respect to Alaska wisely and for the best interests of a country which is one day destined to contain several millions of prosperous people.
Since the publication of the preceding chapters in news- paper form, for the purposes of this book and to make more complete and timely this story of Alaska as it is to-day, the following two chapters on " The New Fair- banks District," and on the great possibilities of "The Reindeer Industry," have been added.
J. S. M.
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XIV THE FAIRBANKS DISTRICT
S OMEBODY in describing the gold fields of the north has said: " The gold of Alaska is where you find it." That may not strike you as a very profound remark, but it is significant, nevertheless. The geologist has done very little to aid the prospector in the north. The prospector has been ahead of him nearly every time. The geologist has come along afterwards and studied the conditions and reported on them, but for all practical pur- poses the scientific men have cut a small figure in the de- velopment of the country. But that isn't their fault. Think of the immense extent of country to be surveyed, the in- adequate number of men engaged in scientific exploration and the meagreness of the appropriation for that purpose compared with the ground to be covered, and the diffi- culties under which the work must be done.
It was a squaw man who uncovered the riches of the Klondike; a trio of reindeer herders staked the first claim on Anvil Creek; the last great stampede in Alaska fol- lowed the lead of a weary and footsore Italian coal-miner, who, deserted by his last companion, and working alone among the hills between the Little Chena and the Chatinka rivers, whose waters flow into the Tanana from the north, hit upon the treasures of what is now known as the Fair-
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banks District. It is 250 miles in a direct line from Daw- son to Fairbanks; it is 500 miles in a straight line from Fairbanks to Nome; and the great Treadwell mines are 700 miles from either of these mining centres. Where the next important discovery is to be made is a secret of the future, with nothing more to suggest how or when or where it will be revealed than preceded the unfolding of the others. Alaska is a big country. That's what the word " Alaska " means; gold seems to have been scattered all over it. The only difficulty is to find places where it has been sown thick enough by the hand of nature to make it profitable to gather it.
The new discoveries in the Tanana valley were begin- ning to attract some attention and led to a small stampede in the summer of 1903. On board the Healy, the steamer which our party overtook at Nulato, on our trip down the Yukon, I found two Minnesota men who had just come out of the Tanana country very much dis- appointed, and resolved that that was the last stampede in which they would ever engage. Since then six or seven thousand have gone in, most of them are there yet and thousands more will no doubt go this year (1905).
Felix Pedro sought for gold four summers among the hills and along the creeks of the Forty-Mile district, the Kitchumstock and in the Circle City district, and finally on the banks of the creeks which rise west of the Forty- Mile district and flow into the Tanana. Here in July, 1902, he found at last the object of his search. Known as a careful and diligent prospector, his movements were
THE FAIRDANKS
Getting Busy in Fairbanks
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closely watched by others who desired to take advantage of his industry and his persistence. To avoid revealing the secret of his discovery before he could secure the results of his labours for himself and those who had aided him in his search, he made his camp several miles from the scene of his mining operations, and going secretly each day to his work before and after daylight, cutting his way through the frozen ground without fires, and carrying the waste up a ladder in a sack, he succeeded in locating claims which have since made him and his friends inde- pendent of further concern with regard to the fortunes of the miner.
Travellers up the Tanana from the Yukon in the sum- mer of 1903 would have found 200 miles from the mouth of the Tanana a rambling village of 150 to 200 people. The name given to this place was Fairbanks, out of com- pliment to the present vice-president, who as a senator had manifested unusual interest in the District of Alaska. To-day there stands on the same site a city of 5,000 peo- ple, incorporated, with extensive business houses, two lumber mills producing 25,000 feet daily and unable to supply the demand, two newspapers, schools, churches, a free library, a hospital, electric lights, a telephone system and a real-estate boom. Business lots, 50 feet front, rent as high as $300 a month ground rent, and others less favourably situated sold during the past year for $3,000. This town has telegraphic communication by means of the Alaska Government system with Nome, Rampart, Eagle, Dawson, Valdez and Seattle. The telephone system not
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only connects different parts of the town, which is scattered for a mile and a half along the Little Chena River, but furnishes communication also with Chena, 20 miles west on the Tanana, and with the mining camps on the creeks, 20 to 30 miles northeast. A road is in course of construc- tion from Fairbanks to the centre of the mining district, and a railroad over the same route is already projected and promised as one of the developments of the coming year.
The routes of transportation to Fairbanks from Seattle are, in summer, either by way of Skagway and the White Pass line to Dawson, thence down the Yukon River to the mouth of the Tanana and up the Tanana, or by way of St. Michael up the Yukon and the Tanana; in winter, many will take the trail from Dawson or Circle City into this new region, but more will go by the shorter route through Valdez, up the Copper River valley, and down the Tanana. Many are expected to make their advent during the winter by the latter, which is much the shorter route, travelling overland with dog teams or horses from Valdez.
During the past summer the stampede from Dawson into this new gold field threatened to depopulate the metropolis of the Klondike. It is estimated that 3,000 people left Dawson for Fairbanks by the Yukon River, and that three-quarters of a million dollars' worth of goods were shipped by the Dawson dealers to the Tanana, while $250,000 has been sent out from that centre for investment in the Fairbanks mines and in various business
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enterprises. The stampede to the Fairbanks district has also brought the largest volume of business to the fleet of boats on the lower Yukon since the rush to the Klondike in 1898. The earnings of these river boats, and chiefly from the Tanana business, is estimated at from $500,000 to $750,000 for the season of 1904. The fare from Daw- son to Fairbanks was $40 second class, $70 first class and the freight rate, $70 a ton. The Tanana is not navigable by the larger river steamers and much of the freight billed to Fairbanks must be re-shipped at the mouth of that river. From St. Michael to Fairbanks, the freight rates are $90 a ton, while the carrying charge from Fairbanks out to the creeks ranges from 10 to 20 cents a pound during the summer, but was reduced during the winter to less than half that figure. It is 16 miles from Fairbanks to Dis- covery claim on Pedro Creek and 25 miles from Fairbanks to Cleary Creek, on which most of the development has been done. It is stated that $2,200 was paid last summer for the transportation of a 20-horsepower boiler from Fairbanks, 12 miles back into the mining district. This enormous expense is to be accounted for, of course, only by the fact that there are no roads through that country worthy the name. It is expected that scores of steam boil- ers and thousands of tons of other freight and machinery will be taken into the mining district during the winter, but this is a comparatively easy task when the surface of the ground is frozen. Fairbanks itself is difficult of access owing to the necessity of transferring the freight from the larger steamers at the mouth of the Tanana to smaller
Fresh Arrivals at Fairbanks
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steamers adapted to the navigation of the stream and of the still smaller Chena, on the banks of which Fairbanks is located. This fact, and the heavy demand for supplies of all kinds, explains such prices at Fairbanks as $10 to $12 for 100 pounds of flour; bread 25 cents a loaf; 20 cents a pound for sugar ; 30 to 35 cents a pound for hams and bacon; 15 to 18 cents a pound for potatoes; butter $I a pound; $28 a case for eggs; moosemeat, 60 cents a pound; beef, 60 cents to $1.25; lumber, rough, $75 a thousand; dressed, $100. Even at these prices it is diffi- cult to meet the demand, and a shortage of the food supply at Fairbanks was expected in winter. Last spring there was such a scarcity of food that wild-goose eggs commanded 50 cents apiece, and the first fresh beef brought into the camp sold for 75 cents to $1.50 a pound. These prices, too, are not the result of any desire or at- tempt to corner the supplies, for efforts of that kind are guarded against by the commercial companies which handle most of the trade, no individual being allowed to buy more than a reasonable amount at one time.
Manifestly Fairbanks is no place for a poor man and this is true not only on account of the cost of living, but for the reason that prospecting in that country involves sinking shafts 10 to 20 feet in order to reach the gold- bearing stratum. Wages for mechanics average $1.50 an hour, $I an hour for common labour, and $25 a day for a team. But such wages are not out of keeping with the cost of living in this as yet comparatively inaccessible mining district.
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THE FAIRBANKS DISTRICT
The ore in the Fairbanks district is taken by traders at $16 an ounce. The miners, not satisfied with that price, have had it assayed and find it is worth $17.50, which shows that this is a fine quality of gold, better than that in the Klondike, and nearly as fine as that at Nome. It is more inaccessible, however, than at either of the other places. In the Klondike the gold is often found exposed or very slightly covered along the beds of the creeks. The same is true at Nome. In the Fairbanks district there seems to be no gold in the creek bottoms, but it lies up on the ledges and on the hillsides in a stratum of gold-bearing gravel two or three feet thick, and is located only after sinking shafts 10 to 20 feet from the surface. Occasionally the stratum crops out on the hillside and may be drifted out, as the miners say; that is, tunnelled for from the hill- side, but in all cases it is frozen and can only be removed after the ground is thawed. This makes the use of the boiler or thawer essential, and it is stated that 125 boilers have been taken into these creeks during the past year. Doubtless many more will be employed during the coming year, showing a remarkable degree of confidence in the dis- trict and a stage of development rarely achieved in so short a time. The thawer used in mining in Alaska is simply a boiler for the generation of steam, which is delivered by a pipe in the shaft. On the end of the steam pipe is a flexible connection carrying the steam into a hollow steel tube five feet in length, pointed, with apertures at the point for the escape of the steam. This steel point is driven into the frozen gravel, the steam is turned on. and pre-
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sently the ground is softened up for a diameter of two or three feet. The process is much more rapid than might be supposed by the inexperienced. By this method mining is carried on in Alaska and the Klondike all winter, and the cre is taken out and piled on the dump for sluicing in sum- mer. The frozen condition of the ground at a depth of 15 or 20 feet largely obviates the necessity of timbering, as the supports left for the purpose sustain the frozen roof of the mine without the aid of supports. Water in the Fair- banks region has been abundant thus far, and is likely to continue adequate for all the necessities of the industry.
That the district is a rich one, and that it may yet rival the Klondike, is supported by the prices men who know the district best are willing to pay for mining properties in it. A half-interest in one claim on Cleary Creek advanced within a month from $19,600 to $35,000, out of which $6,000 had been taken during the interval between the purchase and sale. Reports are made of clean-ups of $1,600 on Cleary Creek after a run of two days, with five men at work; another of $700 for two days' run with four men in the drift, while the remarkable claim is made that for a six days' run on a Cleary Creek claim, working 18 to 20 men, the output was $16,280. Seventy-five thou- sand dollars has been refused for an adjacent claim, which could have been bought a year ago for $1,000, and $127,- 500 was not enough to buy a two-thirds interest in another Cleary Creek property.
These are only a few facts bearing upon the develop- ment of what certainly promises to be a wonderfully rich
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district, one in which there will be required the possession of some capital in order to develop and successfully carry on a mining enterprise, but enterprising men,-young, strong, and vigorous,-capable of withstanding the hard- ships of a miner's life in Alaska, and with $1,000 to $5,000 to work with, have opportunities here which will no doubt prove attractive to many during the coming season.
A steam boiler of 8 to 20 horsepower costs from $125 to $200 at Fairbanks. This, aside from the necessary food supply, with lumber enough to build a cabin, constitutes the chief expense of an outfit. Many men have gone into Alaska, or the Klondike, with nothing more than a shovel, a pick and a pan, and what food they could carry on their backs, and have struck it rich; but it will require resources of more liberal quantity than that to insure success in the Fairbanks district at present. The gold-bearing area, so far as it has been located, extends over a district probably 40 miles square, and has already been pretty thoroughly prospected. The opportunities offered there now are mainly to those having money enough to buy promising claims, or enough to provide the machinery and the sup- plies for a part interest in a claim. Men of experience in mining will have an advantage over the " tenderfoot " or the " chee-cha-ko," and doubtless some wasted fortunes will be restored in this promising camp.
It is one of the characteristics of a lucky miner that a fortune quickly made is quickly wasted. Roaming over the gold fields of the north to-day are many men on whom
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fortune has smiled; men who have made their lucky strikes, have reaped their tens, their hundreds of thou- sands, but are to-day as poor as when they first took up the miner's pick. Such men are to be found in Fairbanks. " Swift Water Bill " struck it rich in the Klondike, and became one of the characters of Dawson. It pleased him to set out California champagne at $30 dollars a bottle to any one who would drink with him. It is one of the traditions of Dawson that he once made eggs in that town worth $2 apiece by cornering the entire market out of spite against a fickle favourite. At the same time his tastes were not cultivated to the elevation of $30 champagne. When Bill had money he went to New York to find a place big enough in which to spend it. He had heard that meals could be had at Sherry's which cost $25, and he " cut loose " with an order for ham and eggs. " Swift Water Bill " turned up at Fairbanks one day last summer looking for some one to furnish him a grub stake, and soon became manager of a property out of which the owner took $60,000 before selling it for $55,000.
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