USA > Alaska > Trailing and camping in Alaska > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
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 lin- guistic 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
14
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
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 chil- dren.
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 dis- tance 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 uni- form 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 charac- teristic of Alaska's coast, began falling. We pas- sengers went hunting and killed nothing. We be- came 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.
15
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
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 Ferdi- nand 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.
16
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
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 In- dia than were the Englishmen, Derzhaven and Ber- nard, 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 em- barked on this voyage. He retired to a room that
17
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
the purser had assigned him, evidently for the pur- pose 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 dis- satisfied 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 an- swered.
" I 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 :
18
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
" 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
" How often-Oh, how often I have wished that the ebbing tide
Would bear me away on its bosom To the ocean wild and wide!"
19
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
This sick friend of mine then raised himself and said :
" Longfellow was a blamed fool !"
The conversation was then turned to the purser. He assured me that the purser was rapidly recover- ing his mental faculties, as he had visited him, and had found him in the best of humor.
When again we were on quiet water, the purser approached and said :
" Say, that was a capital idea sending that fellow up here. He is rapidly getting better, and he is a nice sort of chap, I imagine, when in his right mind."
This incident made me wonder if affairs in the world would not turn more smoothly if each indi- vidual treated all others with proper regard to pos- sible mental weaknesses.
Another personal friend on this ship was remark- ably tall and slim. He was long for this world, but had a slim chance. When we were on quiet water he was conspicuous, but he absented himself so suc- cessfully when the sea was rough, that I entertained the fear he had fallen overboard. As our boat floated smoothly on Valdez Bay, he reappeared, very much resembling a rawhide string that had been watersoaked and then stretched to its limit and dried. 'As he stood on the bow of our vessel, I suggested that the people would imagine he was our flagpole. He replied dramatically that he was no flagpole,
20
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
but a living demonstration of the geometrical per- pendicular.
We landed, May 29, 1898, in the little tent town of Valdez, which is about three thousand miles north and west of San Francisco. At this time my only possessions were a year's supply of provisions and twenty-five cents in money. The only cash transac- tion that I performed during the first summer in Alaska, was the transferring of that quarter from one pocket to another. I did that with due consid- eration, conservatism and business acumen, deliber- ately studying the possible loss through bad pockets and otherwise.
-
Valdes.
CHAPTER II
If the climate of Alaska is a tonic, many have lost their lives taking overdoses of it.
MR. STEPHENS came on board and informed me that Captain West had returned after a vain attempt to reach his discovery. He had become very ill and had been hauled out on a sled; in a very weak con- dition he had been placed on a steamer that was de- parting for the States. He had asked when I was expected, and had murmured :
" Oh, if I only could talk to him !"
I landed the next day after he had departed. It is probable that if we had met he would have dis- closed to me the exact locality of his discovery. However, I resolved to remain with the country and make an attempt to find it, and, if successful, to see that he or his heirs shared a portion of it.
The ice had broken up and had left him stranded in the Tazlina country. It was reported that West died soon after arriving home.
The great Valdez glacier appeared to be at the edge of the little tent town, but really it was five miles away. The mountains appeared scarcely a mile from us, and from twelve to fifteen hundred feet high, yet they were from three to five miles distant and from three to five thousand feet in altitude.
21
22
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
About four thousand people had landed there, three thousand or more of them had crossed the glacier, and many had recrossed during the last month to return home disgusted. The hungry glacier had been the death of some of them and its cracks were gaping for more. We felt that we were up against the toughest proposition of our lives and those who had been there a month knew that we were.
Most of those who had come to prospect were no more adapted to the vocation than a coyote would be to herd sheep. That Alaskan trail wound over the glacier, where young and old, the wise and other- wise, the opulent and the poverty-stricken traveled together. Primogeniture labels were at a discount. Many seemed inspired only by the incentive to es- cape from that eternal bondage of civilization which makes servants of us all-even down to the demands of etiquette. There were avaricious dreamers, " spirit-haunted with ominous sounds of clink- ing coin, and the metallic laughter of grimacing gob- lin accountants." Men of talent and virility were on their way possibly to the sacrifice of everything, in- cluding their lives, among those mountains of soli- tude-and all for the alien god of gold. The strenuous spirit was here as a delirious reality.
There were a few amusing incidents that occasion- ally relieved the homesick ones at Valdez. A Colo- rado man had a mule which insisted on leading every
23
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
one that took hold of his rope. The obstinacy of remote generations had been developed to this final combination of horse and donkey, where Nature has decreed it a useless waste of energy to allow the joke to continue beyond the mule. One of the picked men, "Big" John, who had been detailed with Captain, now Colonel J. R. Abercrombie, of the United States Army, to explore the Copper River country, possessed the one cardinal characteristic of the mule which enabled him to hold on to a thing, but it was with difficulty he could let loose.
It was decided to teach the mule to submit to the control of man by allowing " Big " John to do the dictating. As " Big" John took hold of the rope, the mule concluded to do some dictating himself. He immediately started down the trail, which had been worn about three feet deep in snow that had not yet melted away. As the rope tightened, John's feet went high in air and his back acted as a sled- runner.
" Here we go!" yelled John.
As he approached our tent he added :
" Here we come ! "
As he crossed a small stream of water and scooted spray on his locomotive in front, he loudly an- nounced :
" We've crossed the creek!" Then he added:
" Head us off !"
Several men ran to where the trails crossed and,
24
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
by waving hats caused the mule to shy at right angles, and John called back :
" We took the other trail !"
When the mule and John were finally stopped, John stood up, wiped some blood off his hands and remarked :
" We've had a h-1 of a time !"
Those soldiers had been detailed to explore the route from Valdez to the Yukon. They were con- spicuous in their efforts, and often returned from ex- ploring trips without food and with very little cloth- ing.
Every out-going steamer was loaded down with the quitters, who, as prospectors, were helpless in- competents. To avoid being ridiculed, they pre- tended to be returning for horses, larger outfits or more assistance from home. One young man, to have an excuse, said he was returning for more ciga- rette papers. One man there thought his outfit com- plete with five sacks of beans and one sack of flour. He was referred to as "the Bostonian," although he said he came from St. Paul.
We began to long for home cooking. One crowd complained to their cook, " Cockney Jim," and de- manded pie.
" Pie!" exclaimed Jim.
When he recovered from the shock, he stuffed dried fruit between two flapjacks and sewed the edges together with a twine string, and the feat was
25
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
accomplished, to the credit of " Cockney Jim " ever after.
When a man was seen whittling, it generally was conceded to be an indication that he was going out on the next boat. Hundreds daily trailed into town, so foot-sore, after traveling over that twenty-eight miles of solid ice, that their crippling walk caused them to be referred to as "The Glacier Striders." Those who came over during the melting of the snow had lost their outfits, either while boating the Klu- tena rapids, or before they had arrived at Klutena Lake.
The snow that covered the crevasses had become too rotten to be safe, and those who crossed told of jumping cracks with spring-poles. If they had slipped they would have been put in cold storage for- ever, hundreds of feet below. The glacier was a succession of sharp ridges, with deeply washed ero- sions on each side, which made them nearly im- passable. Men who crossed over claimed that all of Alaska's gold would not tempt them to do so again. They had felt secure while crossing in win- ter, but had not suspected the dangers that are pre- sented in summer.
Two men, named Eddy and White, of Los An- geles, California, to obviate the necessity of going around a large crevasse, crossed on a bank of snow that was clinging to the opposite side. Often the wind drifts these snow-cappings across a crack in
26
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
such a manner that it is thick on one side and runs to a feather-edge on the other. At this place the snow had melted away until it had left a space of four feet between it and the ice on their side.
" I believe I'll test the strength of that snow by jumping onto it," announced Eddy.
" Well, if it doesn't hold, you can figure out why it failed to hold while you are dropping down through that cold space below," replied White.
" I'm going to jump and leave the figuring to you, so here goes !"
White stood in trembling astonishment while Eddy made the leap. It held! Eddy crossed in safety and called back :
" Have you got it figured out, White ?"
" Yes, but I am going to lighten my load by send- ing my thoughts to heaven before making that leap."
White followed safely. After they had walked but a few steps, they looked back and were amazed to discover that they had jarred the snow bank loose and it had fallen in.
The unusually late snowfall had caused slides to descend the mountains with roars of destruction. Never before or since have I heard such roaring as broke the silence of the mountains during the spring of 1898. We knocked at those mountain barriers for admission to the interior, and they, like the gates
"Little Dog Pete."
27
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
of hell described by Milton, “ grated harsh thun- der " in response.
While some people were camped beside the trail on the glacier, near the foot of the mountain, they heard the approach of an avalanche. 'Most of them escaped, but eight were dug out from beneath that snow-slide and two were dead. One profane old prospector cursed when he heard it coming, but it was too late, and he was buried under it. When he was rescued he cursed again. When I mentioned the glacier to him in Seattle, ten years after this in- cident, he swore some more.
There was a little Llewellyn puppy dug from that snow-slide. He came out with his head and tail up, and has had them up most of the time since. He lived to acknowledge me as his friend and master, for he became my trail companion for years. He is retired now on a life pension in California, and when we meet he acts as if he thought we were the two best dogs that ever ascended the Copper River.
Connecticut furnished a visionary company made up of persons who were distinguished from the others by having brought a steam-sled. All they wanted was to have the right direction pointed out to them, and they would steam over the glacier, ascend the Copper River, and stampede Indians, white men and every other thing encountered. Strangers, after looking at the ponderous affair, re- tired to a safe distance with an expression of mis-
2
28
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
giving. When the machine was steamed up and properly directed, the owners looked at each other disappointedly, for it failed to move. They applied the full limit of steam and it stood still some more, while the joke began to settle on Connecticut. The citizens should preserve that steam sled from van- dalism as an evidence of the rushers of 1898. It had the record of being the first automobile in Alaska and was never guilty of exceeding the speed limit.
Peace and good deportment were the general rules here. Although there was a man hanged for killing two others, the lesson evidently affected all those who traveled that trail. This hanging was performed by the first crowd to land on Valdez Beach.
The man who was hanged claimed that his name was " Doc " Tanner. He had joined a party of eight which had hailed from Massachusetts. One of the number by the name of Thorpe, so it was said, had become so indolent as well as overbearing towards the quiet-mannered Tanner, that the final culmina- tion was a shooting scrape. This party of eight was known as the Lynn party, and as they had “ grub- staked " Tanner, because he had camp-life experi- ence, they insisted that he perform the drudgery.
Thorpe, Call and Lee, members of the party, were in consultation about dismissing Tanner, because of the scarcity of supplies, and turning him out to shift
29
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
for himself. This party and a few others had been the first to land, and to be turned out without any- thing at this time, in mid-winter, meant death. Tanner overheard the conversation, and drawing his gun walked into the tent where they were and began shooting. Call and Lee were instantly killed by being shot through the head, but as the candle was extinguished then, the third shot missed Thorpe, who fell over, and he, the one Tanner most desired to kill, escaped.
Tanner, thinking he had killed all three, surren- dered his revolver to W. S. Amy. There was a meeting of a few who were there, and Tanner was given a fair trial, with a man by the name of King acting as chairman. After Thorpe was sworn and testified, the Judge said :
" Tanner, step forward."
Tanner walked to the front and quietly began rolling a cigarette.
" What is your name ?" inquired King.
" Well, Judge, I guess this-here name of Tanner will answer me for the rest of my days, which, from the looks of this crowd, seem to be very few," an- swered Tanner, looking straight at the Judge.
" Did you hear Thorpe tell his story just now?" " Well, I guess I did."
" What have you to say to it? Did he tell the truth ? "
" Yes, I reckon he did," drawled Tanner.
30
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
" Do you mean to say you killed those men with- out a reason or cause ? "
" Well, Judge," he replied, " that is just accord- ing to the way you look at it. You see, this-here bunch of shoemakers picked me up at Seattle when I was broke, and because they financed me a few dol- lars to enable me to get up to this God-forsaken country, they thought they owned me. They seemed to think that I should do all the dirty work, and I stood for it, but when I overheard their plans to chuck me out, like a dog, and cut me off from camp -me, a white man, with nothing but this cold white world about, and from that herd of maver- icks from Massachusetts, too, why,-then some kind of buzzin' gets into my head and I saw red, and I just swiped out my gun and let 'em have it."
At this statement he quietly began puffing his cigarette.
" Is that all you have to say?" asked the Judge, after a moment's silence. "Have you any folks, or is there anything you wish to tell about your- self ? "
"No, I reckon not," replied Tanner. "I have been kicked from hell to breakfast ever since I can remember, and there are none to sit up nights wor- rying about me; so if you fellows are going to hang me, better go ahead and have it over."
A vote was taken, and it was decided unanimously to hang Tanner. He was led to a leaning cotton-
31
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
wood tree, where he was asked for his last statement. He answered :
" Nothing, except that you are hanging the best pistol shot that ever came to Alaska."
Thorpe attempted to place the rope around Tan- ner's neck, but appeared too weak, and trembled with fright, possibly because he knew that he in a measure had been to blame. He was pushed to one side by a stronger man, and soon Tanner's body was dangling in the air.
His body was buried beneath the tree, not far from where were buried the two bodies of Call and Lee. The true name of Tanner probably never will be known, but like many another man whose iden- tity has been lost in the western swirl, his friends will never learn what became of him.
The almost continuous sunshine of June caused the snow to disappear quickly. Vegetation grew more rapidly than would be expected outside of the tropics. Persons from southern climes cannot realize the rapid growth of the grass during Alaska's summer. The Alaska salmon-berry bushes bloomed, and the magpies and robins made their appearance. The June days increased in length until the nights were not worthy of the name. Even the chickens, that had been brought up there by Mr. and Mrs. Beatty, appeared to me to become bow-legged, while stand- ing around waiting for darkness to indicate their roosting-time. We could read common print at mid-
32
Trailing and Camping in Alaska
night on the 2 1st day of June, and it was as much like a cloudy day as it was like the twilight.
I took a trip down the bay in the company of two soldiers, and we rowed down in a " take-down " tin boat. It was so bolted together that if a nut should come off, or a bolt break, there would be nothing left to hold up the passengers except their hats. This trap managed afterwards to drown two men.
The accompanying photograph shows what an inhospitable looking country this was for persons to pitch camp, yet a month later, at the time when we took this trip, it looked very differently.
This beautiful land-locked Bay of Valdez quietly nestled between high mountains that reflected their outlines in its mirror-like surface. The wild ducks rested here and there with their heads under their wings; away off on one side, near the shore, a flock of sea gulls noisily applauded some wise remark of an old coot; and the voice of the loon could be heard above the others.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.