The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-31
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DOOR MANS ROUTE
TO THE KLONDIKE.

VANCOUVER, B. c., Oct. N-There
is a poor mans route to the hlondlke
as well as the route which costs an in
definite number of hundreds of dollars.
IT is true it has never before the pub
lication of this article been pointed out
and it is true that thus far only one
man has gone over it bound for the
Klondike Yet it is there-a plain, di-
rect road involving no dangers and mis-
cries of long sea voyage in a crowd
ed steamer, no Chilkoot pass, no bitter
struggle for existence by the way and
no princes ransom prices for transpor-
tation of supplies over the last stage
of the journey.
The Klondike gold fever is not dead
by any means, Notwithstanding the
fact that less is heard of it now than
a few months ago. It is only sleeping
alternating, as it were, and all ready
to break out afresh in the early spring
There is probably not town or village
OF any size in the Northern states al
least that has not from one to dozen
or more young men who are planning
to go to the Klondike at the earliest
moment in the coming year when the
road thither will be open. To thou
sands of these gold seekers the news
that there is another, a better and a
cheaper route to the new Ell Dorado
than has yet been generally known, will
be a piece of information that is. at
least, worth careful investigation.
Put in a nutshell, the route in ques-
tion begins at Ashcroft on the Cana
dian Pacific railroad; follows the Carl
boo stage route to Quenelle; from Que
nellie follows the trail of the old Great
Western overland telegraph line to
Hazleton; from Hazleton to Telegra ph
creek, on the Stickeen river, and from
the Stickeen river to Lake Tes-Lin
Lake Tes-Lin is the very headwaters of
the Yukon river, and from its extreme
upper end, where the travellers will
land, 1t will be an easy matter to trans
port themselves, their horses and their
supplies by fatboats to Dawson City
or to any other point along the Yukon
where they may think there is a better
chance of finding gold.
All this without the aid of map
and without information concerning the
stretch of country to be traversed is
very vague and meaningless. 1t re-
quires, however, only a glance at the
map to grasp the general features of
the route, and as I have just returned
from a journey over part of it, and as
1 have talked with people who have
traversed more of it, | am able to sup
ply information which will be common
enough no doubt year hence, but
which at present is comparatively little
known.
Starting at Ashcroft which Is a lit
tie trading town on the Canadian Pa
cific railroad somewhere between two
hundred and three hundred miles east
of Vancouver. [ went to Soda creek
one hundred and siXty-five miles due
north in the fashioned siX-horse
stage coach which makes the journey
twice each week. The road is in eX-
Cellent condition and there are capital
inns at intervals of thirty miles all
along the route. 1t is over this road
of course, that the kIondike caravans
of the near future will be passing, and
although it runs for miles along the
sides of high mountains it is nowhere
dangerous to a rider or driver of any
ordinary degree of skill or caution
At Soda Creek you have an option OF
two routes. You may continue on the
stage coach or you may take the com
Portable little steamer Charlotte dowr
the Fraser river to Quenelle. The dis
tance is sixty miles.
Now all of this is an old and we'll
known road, and in that section of the
country-a road over which CONNER
ciaI and other travellers think nc
more of going than they do over any
of the beaten tracks of the Eastern
states. But it Is at the end Of this
two hundred and twenty-five-mile
journey that the real trip to the Flon.
dixie begins. Quenelie is in reality
1.-The jumpingoff place"-the last white
settlement until you reach the Skeena
river at HaZleton, three hundred anG
siXty-five miles away.
You cross the Fraser river al
Quenelle by steam ferry boat, anc
then, only few hundred yards from
the rivers brink, you plunge into the
great silent wilderness of lofty pine:
and rugged mountains, which continue:
unbroken for hundreds of miles to the
north. There is an interesting bit o
romance about your road after leaving
Quenelie. 1t follows what is known a:
the "old telegraph trail''-a grea
swath 120 feet wide cut straight through
the forest and intended originally tC
reach to Behring straits opposite the
continent of Asia. 1t is the scar lef
by a great commercial failure, this ole
telegraph trail. 1t is at once a seal
and a memorial to the persistence anC
genius of Cyrus w. Field. People whC
jeered at Mr.. Fields idea that electri;
signals could be transmitted by a wire
laid under the Atlantic ocean set abou
building a telegraphic line to Europe
while Mr.. Field was tinkering witt
what they regarded as his day dreams
So they plunged into the great North
west woods to build a line to Behrine
straits and so to Asia, and so on agalI
to the civilization of Western Europe
But while they were still cutting tim
Der Mr.. Field got to sending telegraphit
messages between New York and Lon
don, so they shouldered their axes anC
came out of the woods, leaving tn,
telegraph poles behind them as
monument of the hundreds of thous
ands of dollars they had sunk in tn,
enterprise.
The great 100 feet wide swath is nov
much overgrown. of course, bu
through the center of it there runs {
wide, smooth path, over which I my
self rode great many miles; and whel