The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-07
A TRIPTO FORTY-MILE
THE UNIQUE MINING SETTLEMENT
HARD TO GET AT.
a Mountainous Journey, Supplements
Trip OF About $50 Miles.
Letter in Boston Transcript.

| Letter in Boston Transcript.
| Now that the dispute as to whether Forty
Mile is in the United States or British ter
| ritory has apparently been decided, the per-
sonal experiences of one who has made
| the trip may be OF some interest. Ny
friend X. had made up his mind during
the winter CT 's2 to go the following sum-
mer to the Yukon, partly with a view TO
mining. but mostly out of sheer curiosity.
and i, being at the loose end" accepted
his invitation to accompany him.
We were neither of us "tenderfeet' by
any means, both of us having been on
the frontier for some years, and, conse-
| quently. hardened TO rough travel: so that
| when X. said that II was his intention to
/ go to Forty Mile creek by way OF the lakes
| Of the upper Yukon, 1 was not at all dis
| appointed, as that route offered chances
| of seeing more OF the country than by going
| in by the mouth of the Yukon. the usual
| way.
| Our starting point was Chilcat, on the
| Alaska coast. to reach which place we trav-
eled to Victoria, British Columbia, by the
| Canadian Pacific railway; from thence we
| took passage on a tramp steamship TO Chill
cat, going by what is known as the inside
route"-that is, keeping between the main
land and the islands, which are very nu-
| mer0uS on the coast
On the way up We called at Nanaimo, the
| great British Columbia coaling station, and
| passed innumerable islands, capes and bays,
the scenery all the way being a gorgeous
panorama Of mountains, which / shall not
| attempt to describe here.
We passed the mouth Of the Skeena river
| the point at which. in 1856. the Western
| Union Telegraph Company sent construc-
| ton party with view Of connecting Eu-
| rope and America by means CT a cable
| across the Boring straits, but the project
| was abandoned at the successful laying OK
| the Atlantic cable. To tins point, also,
an alternative route for the Canadian Pa
cific railway was roughly surveyed in lS70.
We crossed tho boundary between British
Columbia and Alaska in latitude OF deg.
| A. min. The next point of interest =
| Fort Wrangel, the gateway TO the CussaiT
| gold mines OF norlnern British Columbia
and the scene OF many a conflict between
| the Hudson's Bay Company and one of the
! Governors of Russian America, who gave
| his name to the town.
| Here may be seen the totem poles, the
"coats of arms" so TO speak, OF the ma
| tive aristocracy Of Alaska, that stand before
| the houses, grotesqueiy carved TO represent
strange animals They sometimes serve
| tombstones OF Indian chiefs, whose bones
| rest in boxes on the po-es. They are not,
| as some think, symbols Of worship, but SIM
| ply heraldic trees.
Next we pass Holkham bay, where placer
mining was first begun in Alaska. in 1876.
| At last reach Juneau, the metropolis of
| the North, ard certainly one Is surprised at
| the advanced state of civilization that exists
| in this Alaskan town. There are numerous
shops, two weekly papers. with churches,
| schools and population OF three thousand
| souls. It's surroundings are beautiful in the
extreme. On Douglas island, near by Is the
famous Treadwell mine. with the greatest
| crushing mill in the world and an annual
! output of something like 100000.
| ,BEGINNING TILE INLAND TRIP.
From Juneau we steamed straight to Chill
| cat, which is just LOCO miles from Victoria,
| and the point from which we started on our
| inland trip. Chilcat is quite an important
| place in it's way; it has trading stores, a
| church, etc.
Here we were given to understand that
| after crossing the Katusk mountains we
should have to build boat, first cutting
| down the trees and saving the logs into
| planks on the shore of Lake Gnderman.
| the first Of the Upper Yukon chain. So we
| provided ourselves with pit-saw, axes,
nails, etc, and looked about for some In
dams to act as guides and as beasts OF
| burden (as X. called them for u.s.
to hire for the sum of 81 a day apiece and
| their food four Indians who knew the trail
and who would pilot US over the mountains
| to the head lake chain. Our course lay
across to Chil6oot inlet and across the ka-
tusks to Lake Lnderman.
This climb from the summit OF the mount,
4
| We reached the summit was very hard work;
| there is no road at all and it was a matter
| of stepping from rock to rock like goats, for
the most part. carrying about sixty pounds
! of "swag apiece, for we did our share
with the Indians. These Indian guides Of
| ours were the most miserable specimens of
! the noble red man. | have ever seen, and
| j have lived among Indians a gooi deal
| They did not compare well with any OF the
| Indians of the western plains, being lew
| in stature and very dirty. OF course, ali
| indians are more or less dirty-it is a mat
| ter of dirty. dirtier.. dirtiest!n These were
we made long days during this tramp
! as we had plenty of daylight, night being
| only nominal here in summer. One can see
to read till u o'clock tmidnighp. and it is
| daylight as early as in the morning.
The mosquitoes. and sandfiies in these
| one continual scratch as +. put 1t. One
! OF our Indians. Rlack Fox. could speak lit
tie English, and from him X extracted
| some little information about his tribe.
| We had noticed that the features OF these
| Indians were very like those OF Chinese;
they had almond eyes and high cheek bones.
small lands. with long. thin fingers. and
| their color that dull yellow which seems
more in keeping with the Chinese than the
Indian.
Black Fox told us this much about his
"Many moons past my people. they come
In canoe across the big lake dmeaning the
Straits Of Ber.ng); other tribes he come too
my people kill other tribes. We some Gay
| kill all white men,
| Nice. cneerfQl news 10 near WntH Tramp
ing with the people that are going 10 kill
| all whites two to one on a lonely mountain
| trip.
| 1t is strange that this belief that some day
| q leader will arise and lead the red men
| against the white to the total humiliation
| OF the latter. infests the Indian mind
| throughout the West from Alaska to Mex
| leo.
We noticed that each one OF these Indians
| wore a seals tooth suspended from his neck
| by a small necklace of beads. X. discovered
| that these seals teeth were believed to be
| a charm against sickness, and tried to in
| duce them to sell them to Us. but found
| that neither tobacco nor tea would tempt
| them TO part with so precious possession.
| TIE last mile and a half of our tramp
| to the summit took us nine hours to make.
| part of the distance having TO be done on
| our hands and knees. and our "swag' hav-
| ing to be carried by sections in six trips.
| There was some snow in the mountains.
and far more vegetation than We expected
to
BOAT BUILDING.
| We made the descent to Lake Linder-
man I'm good time, having crossed the
mountains without adventure except de-
mand from guides for extra pay, which
led to our having to show them who was
| master and who was servant.
On arriving at the lake We dismissed the
Indians, though we should have liked TO
keep one of them TO pilot US down the>chain,
| but none OF them would stay unless they all