Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-07-28
STILL UNEXPLORED.
THE LARGEST VOLCANO IN ALASKA
DeFIEs APPROACH.


Reach the Giant, but 1t Lies So Far
North That the Absence of Vegetation
Has Rendered 1t Inaccessible.
The grandest mountain of North
America has not yet been visited by ex-
plorers.
1t is an active volcano called Wran-
CELL, located in the interior of Alaska,
and its frost wreathed dome forms pre-
sumably tho apex of the continent.
Mount Wrangell lies about 200 miles
north of the celebrated Mount st. Elias
and is in the center e region en-
shrouded in mystery. Gigantic noun
tain ranges rise like terraces one upon
the other. guarding in their midst this
snowy monster of the north.
About forty years ago party of Rus
sian explorers on the Copper river, of
Alaska, first sighted the peak away to
the northeast, and being duly impressed
with its majesty conferred upon 1t
the title of their honored governor,
Baron Wrangell. They made no at
tempt, however, to reach the mountain,
IL
tiyes and presenting such apparently
insurmountable obstacles to approach.
Several other companies of Russians
made partial ascents of the Copper river
about the same time and met with dis
aster. One party of seventeen, under
Seberinikof, was massacred by the ma
tives. No new knowledge of the Cop
per river was obtained, and no approach
was made to the volcano.
1t was not until 1884 that another at
tempt was made at exploration in the
Copper river region. Then Lieutenant
Allen, one of the most daring men who
ever entered Alaska, forced his way with
several white companions up the Copper
nearly to its source and circled half way
around the Mount Wrangell district,
viewing the mighty peak from distance
of forty or fifty miles, but finding no op-
portunity to reach and ascend it. In
deed he was on the verge of starvation
at the time and it would have been
suicide to have attempted to scale the
snowclad heights.
The terrible experiences of Allen dis
couraged further explorations by way
of the Copper, and when, in 1890, l en-
tered Alaska for the second time, at
tempted to reach Mount Wrangell by
new avenue of approach, viz, from the
northeast. This route necessitated an
overland march of 800 miles from the
Yukon river, and when provisions be-
came exhausted my party was still fully
@ha ,-o1oopa -,
gled up in a labyrinth of mountain
ranges. Gigantic peaks, snowclad, de-
void of vegetation and animal life,
barred our progress in front, and an at
tempt to scale them, with nothing to eat
and naught in sight, would have been
sheer madness. So circle was made to
the northwest, crossing Aliens trail,
and we forced way to the Yukon, 700
miles distant, barely escaping starvation.
In 1891 Lieutenant Schwatka, famous
as an explorer of the Yukon, tried his
hand at traversing the southern border
of the Mount Wrangell domain. He
proceeded overland from Fort Selkirk,
on the upper Yukon, piercing an un-
known district and emerging on the
Copper river south of Mount Wrangell
He also had close call from starvation
These few explorations constitute the
sr'n total of the discoveries in the vicin-
# Mount Wrangell up to date. Sew
e sketches of the volcano have been
ms as it appears from distance, but
no accurate information concerning it
has yet been obtained.
1t appears to be fully as high as Mount
st. Elias, and may be even higher. The
natives living in the vicinity are super
stitiously afraid of venturing near the
volcano, and this fact adds to the inter
est which surrounds it. ! believe that
Mount Wrangell can be reached by ex-
plorers who will establish depots of sup
plies, projecting one post beyond an
other and arranging for the systematic
forwarding of the provisions to the
terminal. No food can be depended
upon in this region after leaving the
river except that brought in by the ex-
plorer. The scaling of Mount Wrangell
heights would require many days, but
could probably be accomplished.
There is apparently little chance that
Mount Wrangell will ever be reached
from the direction of Mount st. Elias,
that is, from the south. 1t is proper to
state that the region between Mount st.
Elias and Mount Wrangell is the only
glacier field in Alaska. A few isolated
glaciers can be found elsewhere along
the coast, but in four-fifths of the inte-
rior no snow or ice exists during the
summer A dense wilderness of conf
fer@ surrounds the ice region and
blankets the country for hundreds of
miles eastward. The volcano of Mount
Wrangell offers today unique field for
the explorer and the professional noun
tain climber.-Cincinnah Post.