Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1895-09-26
Alaska's Phantom City.


seen as a mirage over the Muir
glacer, in Glacier Bay, Alaska,
90 miles above Juneau. What
processes to be photo-en-
craving Of til, city with affidavit
attached wa published and sold
some years ago, and at least halt
dozen white men profess to have
seen the city, while the natives of
the Alaskan coast cherish the ira
dition of its existence. The mir
age is Usually visible at about this
time of year. One man declares
that he saw it only on July 5th,
1880, and two others, it is declared,
have made affidavit that they saw
it three days before that date. John
NJ. White a Virginian, who after
ten or fifteen years spent in various
parts of the west, has settled down
in Philadelphia, solemnly declares
that he saw it on JUNE FL, some
years ago. Mr.. Whites account of
the phenomenon is circumstantial
in the highest degree, and he joins
it to theory as to what the city is
and where it lies. He declares that
he studied the mirage for nine
hours through powerful glass as
it was spread above the glacier on
the side of Mount Fair Weather.
He afirms that the city is walled,
that its houses are battlemented.
and the chimneys surmounted by
chimney pots: that within the
walls there is q tall monument SUR
mounted by thecscnlptured figure
Of an Indian in full headdress and
feathers. His glass revealed to
him some of the inhabitants, men
in knee breeches- and jackets. The
only beast visable was donkey
like creature, with body as large
as that of a horse. The mirage
appeared at first about 1880 a. m. !,
as mist, and out of this rose the
towers and battlements of the city,
as did those of ancient Troy. By
noon the city was as clearly out
lined as New York is from Jersey
heights.
Mr.. White rejects the various
guesses that the phantom city is
Antwerp, Montreal, or Salt Lake
City. Its architecture is unlike
that of any other city he has seen.
That it is real city he is certain,
from the fact that he has seen three
photographs taken Of the mirage,
one of which shows tower rising
amid the houses, and a later one
the same tower finished. He be.
lieves that it is mirage of a city
at the north pole, on the edge Of
the traditional polar sea. He be.
lieves that when the sun is at its
highest Northern point, as it is on
June 21st, the mirage of the Arc.
tic metropolis is reflected to the
point where it appears over the
Muir glacier. The legends of the
Chilcats of Alaska support this
theory. They say that many gen
erations ago, when Alaska was q
warm and density populated coun'
try, there. came from the north
through the ice barrier, savage
people, fully armed, who laid
waste to the region and put its in
habitants to the sword. These
savage warriors he believes to have
been the ancestors of ttk American
Indians, and he is convinced thai
in coming through the ice barrier
they left behind wa I'm regior
about the pole, where tie remnan
of their people continueto develop
and at length the METROPOLIS see,
on St. Johns day in mitage abov,
Muir glacier. The pictures pur
porting to have been made from
Photographic negatives q the mir
age represen. an ordinary noder'
city, without walls or bat:lements
but with spacious, confortabl
looking houses, surmourred witt
broad chimneys and inursperse'
with trees. In fact they l.ok lik